Red Beryl, Red Emerald, Bixbite, Crystal Wah Wah Mountains, Utah, 4.50 ct For Sale

Beautiful red beryl crystal from the Ruby Violet Claims, Wah Wah Mountains, Utah
10.4x9.9 mm4.5 ct
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The formula for Red beryl is Be3Al2(Si16O18) it has small amounts of manganese that cause it's ruby violet color. The manganese content is usually somewhere around .08%. The more manganese that ends up in the crystal lattice the more saturated the color will be. Red beryl was first discovered by mineralogist Maynard Bixby in 1904 at Maynards Claim in the Thomas Range, Juab County, Utah. It was originally named bixbite after Mr Bixby. This name is less commonly used because of the confusion with the associated mineral bixbyite. It has been mined at several locations in the Thomas range but the vast majority of the crystals have been small and only specimen quality. The Thomas Range does produce some very interesting combinations of red beryl with Topaz, bixbyite, amethyst, holfertite and pseudobrookite. The ruby violet claims produce the largest and finest crystals in the world, gemstones of good quality up to 4.5 cts have been cut from this location. Red beryl crystals were discovered in the Wah Wah mountains by Lamar Hodges, of Fillmore, Utah. Mr. Hodges was prospecting for uranium at the time. He and his family operated the claims as a hobby mine up until 1967 when it was sold to the Harris family from Delta Utah. The Harris family mined the location for decades and produced thousands of carats of fine quality specimens and gems. The Harris family formed a partnership with Red Emearld Inc and GMI to mine the location on a large scale operation with a processing plant that eventually reached a production capacity of 70-tons of ore per day. Many kilos of crystals were produced from the operation but it was quite difficult to be profitable with the low ore grade of 1ct per ton of ore. Red beryl mining on a large scale proved to be rather difficult and the mine was closed and the pits were back filled. The claims are currently idle with no large scale mining going on. There has been some interest in reopening the mine but only time will tell if this aspiration will become a reality. 17 million years ago a topaz rhyolite dome intruded, the rhyolite released gases and vapors that were rich with fluorine andberyllium. These gases and vapors traveled toward the surface through preexisting fractures. hot gases and vapors encountered the remnants of a groundwater table in a Blawn Wash topaz rhyolite flow. The water table was depleted by boiling, but a steam-rich area remained to react with the mineral rich gases and vapors. The red beryl precipitated from the gas and vapor mixture in seams with localized concentrations in areas with favorable conditions for deposition. The miners chased these rich seams through the mountain hoping to find gleaming red beryl crystals.