Another specimen arrived today in the Royal Mailbox from Afghanistan via a Pakistani mineral dealer. It had a somewhat vague location so KT went into Mindat.org, and entered Corundum, Afghanistan and discovered there were only 3 localities listed, one for ruby and two for sapphire. There were pictures of specimens from both the sapphire localities and the matrix on one of the pictures looks identical to this specimen, so His Majesty assumes this specimen is from Ab-i-Panja, Ishkashim District, Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan.
The first picture is in natural light and the sapphire crystals are both bluish and white. KT also spent a bit of time looking to find a name for the white variety of corundum and guess what He found out…...there are two varietal names for corundum, one is ruby, and the other is sapphire. Ruby is red and sapphire may be any other color than red. Sapphire is a trade name for gem blue corundum, but mineralogists are not so picky. Sapphire can be white, blue, tan, yellow, etc., but only ruby can be red!
Anyway, in the first picture the sapphire occurs as elongate bluish and whitish crystals in a micaceous matrix. This specimen was very dirty with cotton lint and KT washed it to remove most of the cotton contamination. The second picture is in 365nm and both bluish and whitish sapphire fluoresce pink. His Majesty did check with SW 254nm and there is a very weak response, also in pink, but not worthwhile to photograph.
Enjoy the pictures!
The first picture is in natural light and the sapphire crystals are both bluish and white. KT also spent a bit of time looking to find a name for the white variety of corundum and guess what He found out…...there are two varietal names for corundum, one is ruby, and the other is sapphire. Ruby is red and sapphire may be any other color than red. Sapphire is a trade name for gem blue corundum, but mineralogists are not so picky. Sapphire can be white, blue, tan, yellow, etc., but only ruby can be red!
Anyway, in the first picture the sapphire occurs as elongate bluish and whitish crystals in a micaceous matrix. This specimen was very dirty with cotton lint and KT washed it to remove most of the cotton contamination. The second picture is in 365nm and both bluish and whitish sapphire fluoresce pink. His Majesty did check with SW 254nm and there is a very weak response, also in pink, but not worthwhile to photograph.
Enjoy the pictures!