Description
Unique and New, Blacknite Quartz is a ferrous goethite/hematite with a natural overgrowth of coveline and goethite with pink/purple, black, blue, and iridescent patinas. This is almost like a black aura quartz, but is a 100% natural occurrence, with iridescent blue, pink, and yellow appearances. The amount and quality of the patina is variable, with some specimens only partially overgrown, revealing a beautiful white optic with almost optical individual small to medium-sized crystals in dense and complex arrangements. A fantastic new material, ideal for collectors. Goethite is an iron-bearing hydroxide mineral. Goethite often forms through the weathering of other iron-rich minerals. But in this mine in Ambositra, Madagascar, this mineral agglomerated not only in the form of super-beautiful crystals and clusters, but also with this stunning iridescent color. If you didn't know better, you'd think this was an unnatural aura quartz, but nothing could be further from the truth. It's a purely natural coating formed by specific circumstances. As far as we know, this combination only occurs in Madagascar and at a specific mine in South Africa. Goethite is a common iron ore, found worldwide through the weathering of other iron-bearing minerals such as magnetite and pyrite. In Europe, it occurs in Alsace-Lorraine (France), Westphalia (Germany), and Bohemia (Czech Republic). It is also used as a clay pigment; goethite has been found as a pigment in the cave paintings of Lascaux in France. Limonite, the imperfectly crystallized form of goethite, is a component of the rock umber. In 2004, the mineral was also identified on Mars by NASA's "Spirit" robot. This may indicate that water was present on Mars in the past, because goethite only forms in the presence of water.
