Emerald Specimen From Aga Khan Mine, Poona W.A.

Hi all,

Here's another piece from our mineral collection. This is a great little Emerald (Beryl Variety) specimen still in the Mica Schist host rock from the Aga Khan Mine in Poona (Cue Shire), Western Australia. The mine has a vast history and makes for some interesting reading.

My father and uncle obtained this piece from a roadside slate stall just on the Lane Cove turnoff in Sydney back in the mid 60's, along with a few other very good quality specimens at the time. The owner was a mineral collector herself and knew my family also collected rocks and minerals so she used to sell us the better pieces she had hidden away.

Instead of quoting all the information on the mine and it's varied history, I'll just put a link to one of the various sources of info on the web: http://www.mindat.org/loc-18834.html

This piece is of decent quality. Though it has a few inclusions and weaker coloured areas, there are some nice clean and well coloued areas that would cut. However, it's definitely nicer as a complete specimen from that mine.





A few details on Emerald:
Category: Beryl variety.
Formula: Be3Al2(SiO3)6
Crystal symmetry: (6/m 2/m 2/m) Dihexagonal Dipyramidal.

Color: Green shades to colorless.
Crystal system: Hexagonal.
Cleavage: Imperfect on the [0001]
Fracture: Conchoidal.
Mohs Hardness Scale: 7.58
Luster: Vitreous.
Streak: White.
Specific gravity: 2.76
Optical properties: Uniaxial
Refractive index: 1.5641.595
Ultraviolet fluorescence: None (some fracture filling materials used to improve emerald's clarity do fluoresce, but the stone itself does not)

Kindest regards,
Shauno.

Farout Shauno amazing, I live about 20 mins from Lane Cove turn off, just 45 years too late. Top piece, I love Emeralds.

Cheers Heatho!

Couldn't agree more! Not much better than a beautifully cut Emerald, particularly if it's been surrounded by gold in a well designed piece of jewelry. There's definitely been some spectacular pieces made over the years. Some of the Emerald pieces that came from the Florida Keys recovered off of the (Spanish) Atocha shipwreck were pretty stunning to say the least.

Kindest regards,
Shauno.

Apparently there is Beryl bearing Mica Schist host rock in a few spots around Canberra. I haven't seen any but keen to have a sticky when I get the time

C&L

Hi C&L,

That would be a great little find if you could manage to track it down! There's nothing like finding a specimen yourself!

Cheers,
Shauno.

Colin&Lee said:

Apparently there is Beryl bearing Mica Schist host rock in a few spots around Canberra. I haven't seen any but keen to have a sticky when I get the time

C&L

Click to expand...

Didn't know that I know there is garnet bearing rock around the cotter.

Apparently Mt Tennent which is a no go National Park and somewhere on Lanyon hill??. Read about it on the net and can't find it again

The link below doesn't mention the ACT occurrence I'll keep digging. Cooma might be worth a bit more research.

http://www.resources.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/237801/Beryl.pdf

C&L

Found it


http://archive.org/stream/mineralsnewsout00livegoog/mineralsnewsout00livegoog_djvu.txt

No idea where to start looking though


C&L

I'd like to take a look . When you get to ten posts PM me