FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Fiebre Verde]

Another specimen from La Pita.
Emerald is associated with white and translucent calcite crystals on a black shale matrix which is quite common for this locality.
What is less common is to find a full semi-translucent scalenohedral calcite crystal literally perched on the flat emerald crystal termination.
Emerald crystal is 10mm long.
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[Jordi Fabre]

I would like to say that Fiebre Verde has helped to organize all Colombian localities in our data base and that this is not so important than the task he is doing to relate the Colombian localities with their specimens.

Stay tuned to this thread, in our Colombian trip with Fiebre Verde we will visit with him the world's most famous localities for the "Green Charm"

Enjoy it

[Fiebre Verde]

This is a special floater from Coscuez.
In Coscuez, emeralds come frequently in aggregate formations which can take several appearances, cluster, step-like or tabular (most common ones).
Emeralds in aggregates formations are also found in the neighboring La Pita mining district but the tabular crystal habit seems to be exclusive to Coscuez..

[Fiebre Verde]

Thanks Jordi - it was actually a real pleasure to go through that exercise for the Colombian "Green" component of the FMF localities database.
I don't know/think I will ever be able to use more than 20% of this list but hopefully some people will find it useful. Some of these localities are actually historical mines which are no longer in production.

Emeralds are not the easiest minerals to photograph so bear with me if some photos do not look right.

The journey has barely started - stay tuned!

Gérard

[Fiebre Verde]

This is a nice pair of intergrown fully terminated crystals from Muzo.
Main crystal is 13mm long.
Emeralds are associated with a cluster of white calcite.

[Josele]

[Fiebre Verde]

Josele

When all this started in the late 90's I had no idea where the Colombian "Camino Verde" would take me to.

15 years later, now that my eyes are trained to pick up the specific Colombian wavelengths of green light, I am still unsure where I stand.
(For sure it does not help to choose the right lettuce as my significant other keeps saying...)

On a strict accounting level my collection is growing and so are the number of localities my specimens come from. I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.

But I have no doubt there are still many surprises waiting ahead and following the green path has never been more exciting!

Many thanks again for showing interest.

Gérard

[Fiebre Verde]

White and grey calcite are commonly associated in Coscuez.
Also quartz can be found - this specimen has a couple of small translucent quartz crystals, one of them stands right over one of the emerald crystal faces.
Emerald is 29mm long.
Wanted to enjoy the sun today so some of the photos were taken under daylight.

[Fiebre Verde]

This is a typical Muzo specimen where the black shale matrix is covered by 2 distinct layers of crystals
1) A very thin layer of crystallized white albite
2) Lying over the layer of albite, a 1/2 cm thick layer of various crystallized minerals - emeralds, grey calcite and pyrite.
The emerald crystals lying on the matrix are the ones that survived from either a dynamite blast in the mine or from cutting (Or both as all the standing emerald crystals are gone).
Longest emerald is 17mm long.

[Fiebre Verde]

Black shale matrix with iron oxide stains..

[Joseph DOliveira]

Thank you for sharing your collection with us, very nice photography and a remarkable selection of emerald specimens.

[Fiebre Verde]

Thank you for your comments Joseph!

Being almost a single-mineral/single-variety collector, I thought at first it would be pretty boring to start a thread showing specimens with the same colors, the same shapes and the same associations.

But the truth is that there is so much variety in the colors, the crystal habits and the associations that each piece is truly unique.

Thanks again.

Gérard

[Pierre Joubert]

[Fiebre Verde]

Merci Pierre!
To increase even more your interest, I selected a special specimen just for you today.
It's a 20mm long double terminated quartz from the Muzo mining district.
The quartz crystal is literally sandwiched within an emerald crystal which has grown around it.
The color of the quartz crystal in the photos does not not look.. crystal clear!
Being almost surrounded by the emerald, it comes out with a greenish tone in the photos when the crystal is actually colorless (rock crystal).
Pierre, hopefully this will open your appetite for more specimens involving Colombian quartz in the future.
Also note the interesting (as always) crystallization patterns on one side of the emerald crystal.
Moral of the day: Emeralds can be very protective towards quartz

[Pierre Joubert]