CORNETITE, HEMATITE

Manto Ruso Mine, ~85 km north of Copiapo, Atacama Province, Chile

Everybody's got a cornetite from Congo/Zaire, but when's the last time you've seen one from Chile? A large, vuggy matrix, loaded with massive to flaky silvery-black hematite, has countless thousands of tiny transparent blue cornetite crystals scattered all over. They're small, about 0.3mm, but just gorgeous under the scope, and there are so many in one vug that it's lined with a glistening blue 20x10mm crystal carpet. One could easily spend twenty minutes scoping this piece, it's perfect for photomicrography. It would yield countless micromounts, but I'm not about to trim it down. A great piece from a now-defunct mine.

70x60x40mm, WAS $95, REDUCED TO $65