SCORZALITE
Specimen scz-1

Dims: 1.9 x 1.1 x 0.4" (4.8 x 2.7 x 1.1 cm)

Wt: 11 g

Victory Pegmatite, Custer County, South Dakota, U.S.A.

Several broken pieces of crystalline Scorzalite are embedded in the pegmatite base of this small hand specimen. These pieces are heavily damaged, and only one appears to show the outline of a monoclinic crystal. All have the standard deep, azure-blue coloration and a dull pearly or waxy luster, and are essentially opaque. A large muscovite blade accompanies the Scorzalite.

Dims: 1.06x0.86x0.57" (2.70x2.18x1.45cm)

Wt: 0.22oz (6.15g)

Halsjoberg, Sweden

This pretty little thumbnail displays deep blue scorzalite crystals and a brown mineral in a matrix of the rare mineral trolleite. The scorzalite crystals are deep blue, visible on two sides of the specimen, and are largely obscured by a coating of trolleite. The scorzalite crystals show no indications of crystal form. The host trolleite is a mass of tiny crystals which are individually vitreous, transparent, and looking very much like aquamarine in color. There is also quite a bit of the brown mineral present. It has an adamantine luster, brown color color with orange-yellow highlights, and is at least translucent and possibly transparent in thin sections. It looks very much like spessartine garnet to me, although I have seen other specimens from this local where the brown patches were described as rutile. This certainly does not look like any rutile I have seen.