Beryl

specimen number:
2063050

location:
Gravelotte Emerald Mine, Mopani, Limpopo, South Africa

description:
Green opaque semi lustrous crude crystals of beryl, this the variety known as emerald, measuring to 2.1 cm in length on matrix. The specimen comes with a previous label from the collection of Ray DeMark.

The Gravelotte Emerald Mine is situated along the southern boundary of the Murchison Greenstone Belt in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, representing part of one of the oldest emerald deposits in the world. Geologically, the emerald mineralization is hosted within deformed volcano-sedimentary rock sequences and is closely linked to albitite pegmatites interacting with biotite, talc, and actinolite schists through metasomatic alteration processes. Mining history in the area began after emeralds were discovered around 1927, leading to the establishment of operations at major sites like the Cobra Pit. During the mid-20th century, particularly through the 1960s, Gravelotte operated as one of the largest emerald mines globally, yielding tens of millions of carats and employing hundreds of manual sorters, before experiencing subsequent changes in ownership and modern revival efforts focused on large-scale processing and recovery.

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