Petalite

Outside of Myanmar, typically Petalite occurs in colorless crystals, and most of them are rarely well crystallized. This piece is a great crystallized example of the rich "champagne" color Petalite from a find in Myanmar dating back to 2009. We picked this piece up from a good friend of ours who travels to Mogok regularly. Most of the Petalites from this locality are small, and rather etched, and rarely found in good sized, impressive, crystallized examples like this.

Not only is this crystal over 4 cm in length, it also has remarkably SMOOTH and LUSTROUS faces on several sides. The lower half of the crystal is WATER-CLEAR and would easily yield a tremendous and valuable faceted stone. I honestly don't know how this crystal survived the cutting wheel as almost everything mined in Mogok is evaluated for gem rough value first, and specimen value is second. The crystal is complete on all sides and with sharp blocky prismatic faces, which are a stark contrast to the beautifully etched termination that almost resembles a snow-kissed mountain peak. If you have ever seen Petalites from various localities in Brazil or Afghanistan, you know they can be rough in their form, whitish colored and rarely gemmy let alone GEM QUALITY like this crystal. It should be noted that this crystal does a slight color change in different temperature lighting as it can shift from the golden "champagne" hue to more of a greenish overtone.

Specimen #BURMA22111