Vanadium Diopside with Minor Graphite - Display Specimen - Terminated Crystal - 2.07 grams

Gem:  Vanadium diopside with minor graphite Weight:  2.07 grams Dimensions:  20.4 x 11 x 7.8 mm Clarity:  N/A - Excellent clarity for a specimen of this gem type Origin:  Merelani Hills, Tanzania Treatments:  none Comments: Diopside is an electric green mineral that is uncommon to find throughout the world in this size and quality.  Crystals such as this are known associate minerals of the tanzanite mining in the Merelani Hills of Arusha, Tanzania. This thumbnailspecimen is great looking all around, showing parallel, prismatic faces on the front and sides, and an interesting, almost curved type of crystallization on the back. There is some fracturing going on inside the crystal, but the outside is completely undamaged.   The bottom of the specimen includes several sections of crystallized and massive graphite, which would have been at the attachment point of the crystal to its matrix. This material can be hard to find, and is usually not cheap!  This is a great, and affordable example