Ajoite included quartz
description: <p style="text-align: justify;">LOCALITY: Messina Mine, Transvaal Province, South Africa <br /><br />8" tall <br /><br />This piece was acquired from Stuart Wilensky in mid 2009.  It was traded out to Professor Stephen Smale during a visit to Hong Kong in late 2013.  It is now part of the collection of James and Gail Spann of Dallas, Texas.  <br /><br />This piece is a high quality one that is distinguished by the following desirable traits: <br /><br />(a) All of the tips, edges and vertices of the quartz crystals are in pristine condition. Most other specimens from this locality display considerable damage. <br /><br />(b) All of the faces of the quartz crystals are as lustrous as polished glass. <br /><br />(c) The quartz crystals are translucent to transparent but tending towards transparent. Many other specimens from this locality consist of quartz that is opaque. <br /><br />(c) The specimen is relatively large. Thousands of much smaller pieces were removed from this locality. Some larger ones were removed. The largest weighed hundreds of kilograms. <br /><br />(d) The quartz crystals on this piece present as a large, impressive and nicely composed cluster instead of only being loose crystals. <br /><br />(e) The form of the ajoite is appealing. The ajoite crystals are small, wisp-like acicular crystals instead of being the more commonly observed "pin heads" that were pictured in "The Mineralogical Record" in a review of this locality in the early 1990's. <br /><br />All of the above distinguish this specimen as being an upper level specimen of ajoite included quartz from South Africa.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"> </p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Photo by Matthew Webb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia  </p>