Cavansite
description: LOCALITY: Wagholi, Maharastra, India
5 1/2" tall
This piece was bought from Stuart Wilensky in mid 2009.
It consist of a "string" of cavansite balls perched in the center of a contrasting white matrix encrusted with bright-white microcrystals of stilbite. Of the 5000 or so Wagholi cavansite specimens that appear on the worldwide mineral specimen market annually, few of them possess the esthetics and general quality of this elite piece.
In the long term, the rarity of cavansite can only increase since eye visible cavansite specimens will probably never be found far from the vanadium rich Wagholi basalts. Vanadium is a rare metal and it is uncommon for basalt to be rich in it.