Chrysoberyl

specimen number:
2063690

location:
Colatina, Espirito Santo, Brazil

description:

Small but very choice glassy twinned grouping of yellow green mostly gemmy chrysoberyl crystals. No matrix and complete all around, this is in very good condition.

Located along the Doce River within the Aracuai Orogen of Espirito Santo, Brazil, the municipality of Colatina is situated in a region world-renowned for its prolific Neoproterozoic granitic pegmatites and alluvial gravel deposits. Mining and collecting history in the area has long focused on gem-quality minerals, where weathering and erosion liberated heavy minerals from pegmatitic parent rocks and concentrated them into river gravels. Among the most notable finds is chrysoberyl, a beryllium aluminum oxide mineral celebrated for its exceptional hardness, vitreous luster, and prized gemstone varieties such as alexandrite and cymophane (cat's eye). The chrysoberyl crystals from Colatina formed under high-temperature metamorphic and pegmatitic conditions, often yielding well-crystallized cyclic twins and sharp tabular specimens that have drawn miners, gem cutters, and mineral collectors to the region for decades.

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