"Smaller Amethyst Flower Crystals" for the discerned collectors of mineral specimens and for making jewellery.
One of Mother Nature’s very rare and beautiful quartz crystal formations.
Amethyst flowers are in fact silica/quartz replica's from calcite formations.
A so called a amethyst pseudo morph.
Quartz with iron infiltration,(Iron makes quartz purple) has formed around a calcite crystal formation.
Over many years calcite has desolved and quartz, combined with some iron, replaced precisely the calcites formation shapes!
The mining of these Amethyst Flowers is one of the most difficult and delicate mining operations in Rio Grande do Sul.
Amethyst Flowers are hidden in small pockets in hard basalt.
The basalt seem ranges between 20 and 30 metres in width and several kilometres in length.
This seem of basalt runs through a valley and is covered with a dense layer of soil and vegetation.
To get to the basalt, bulldozers completely remove this top layer.
Then holes approximately 25 to 30 cm deep are drilled into the basalt which are loaded with explosives.
The explosion that follows destroys about 60% of the flowers!
Only the complete flowers visible in the pockets can be removed.
Miners sell those to companies that deal in mineral specimens.
Museums and private collectors are the end buyers.
Some dealers are selling fragments and incomplete Amethyst Flowers, broken during dynamite explosions.
These fragments should be much cheaper than the complete ones.
Be thorough when purchasing Amethyst Flowers to ensure you know whether you are buying a fragment or a whole specimen.
Due to the environmental impact, the Brazilian government is regulating the mining of Amethyst Flowers and all 4 mines in Brazil are temporarily shut down until new mining guidelines are established.
Some miners have bulldozed tons of dirt over the the open mining activities in the interim.
It may take up to 3 years before new laws are in place and mining can resume.
Future prices are expecting to double or triple.
These Amethyst Flowers have been purchased with this foresight in mind, still at the right price.
Have look at our "Flowers...."
AMETHYST FLOWER CRYSTALS There are 47 products.