Elbaite Tourmaline (Rubellite)

  • Updated
    07/12/22
  • Read time
    2 minutes
Elbaite tourmaline (rubellite) D.44289 Click to enlarge image
Tourmaline Queen Mine Pala, San Diego County California USA Image: Stuart Humphreys
© Australian Museum

This particularly large and colourful columnar crystal of rubellite tourmaline has an attached milky quartz crystal. The famous Tourmaline Queen Mine, where this specimen was found, had been worked earlier but was reopened in 1971 to search for further tourmaline-bearing zones. Rubellite is the name given to the pink variety of elbaite tourmaline. It has a complex chemical formula – sodium, lithium, aluminium, boro-silicate.

This fine specimen was purchased from a visiting American mineral collector Elvis ‘Buzz’ Gray, a former co-owner of the Benitoite Gem Mine Lease, California.

Specimen details

  • Origin

    Tourmaline Queen Mine Pala, San Diego County California USA

  • Size

    20 x 18 x 16 cm

  • Date

    Registered 1976

  • Collection number

    D.44289

Elbaite tourmaline (rubellite), quartz

Mesa Grande, California, USA. 5 x 3 x 2.9 cm. D.50250. Albert Chapman Collection.

Elbaite tourmaline (rubellite), quartz D.50250
Elbaite tourmaline (rubellite), quartz. Mesa Grande, California, USA. 5 x 3 x 2.9 cm. D.50250. Albert Chapman Collection. Image: Carl Bento
© Australian Museum

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