What makes Messina Quartz Exclusive?



Messina became famous for it's quartz. It is by far the most abundant and attractive mineral from a collectors standpoint because of the habits and varieties of size and groups, together with several colourful secondary mineral inclusions. The inclusions of shattuckite, papagoite and ajoite are in particular spectacular. The brecciation of the ore bodies provided the space for crystals, in some cases almost 1 m long. The Messina Mine (No. 5 Shaft) is in well known for its wealth in beautiful quartz crystals ranging from mircoscopic to a metre in size. Coubly terminated crystals over 10 cm in length have often been found. Almost all of the larger crystals are zoned inernally and one can find over a dozen phantom layers in some crystals. These zones consist of minute layers of hematite, kaolinite, edidote and chlorite. Clear euhedral quartz is commonly found as an outer layer over a zoned core which is coated by hematite, epidote, talc, sericite, chlorite, zeolites, malachite or azurite. The presence of flaky specular hematite gives a striking sparkle to the well-formed clear crystals. Hollow kaolinic spherules are also sometimes found inside the core of quartz crystals. A feature of the quartz crystals is that many are doubly terminated also the large crystal in a group is sometimes encirled by a peripheral halo of small crystals.

The quartz also occasionally partially or completely covered with calcite. The colour of the calite ranges from bright yellow or orange to white. Also large groups of calcite have been found in the Messina mines.Messina Quartz is a brand of quartz crystals with inclusions of many types of minerals.

- Source: Bruce Cairncross

The quartz crystals found in Messina always have some sort of inclusion which makes these crystals absolutely special to collectors. Amongst Ajoite and Papagoite inclusion in quartz crystals, a number of other mineral inclusions in clear quartz is also found.

Specularite Hematite in Quartz

Clear Quartz Crystals with inclusions of Black Hematite, Red Hematite, Specularite Hematite and Koalinite are just a few of these mineral values to mention. Amongst the perfect quartz growth in crystal we also found some floaters, clusters and various rare growth crystals and most of these quartz crystals is self healed and even double terminated.




Limonite in Quartz

 We acknowledge the fact that clear quartz is commonly available all over the word and also respects the fact that there are better quality in clear quartz available, but the fact that our quartz crystals all have inclusions in quartz is what makes our quartz crystals unique and rare. 


Ison-Rosen on Quartz

In some cases we found some really ULTRA rare specimens such as eisen-rosen (Very rare Black Hematite Growth) and Limonite in Quartz Crystal. The quartz crystals from Messina, South Africa show unique and distinctive values that can only be described as rarities. 


Below is a list of minerals identified in Messina, South Africa.

Ajoite*	Albite	Almandine	Analcime	Apatite
Azurite*	Barite	Biotite	Bornite*	Calcite*
Chalcocite*	Chalcopyrite*	Chlorite*	Clauthalite	Clinochlore
Clinozoisite*	Copper*	Cordierite	Covellite	Digenite
Epidote*	Goethite	Hematite*	Hematite variety specularite*	Hornblende
Kaolinite*	Magnetite	Malachite*	Molybdenite	Muscovite variety sericite*
Muscovite variety fuchsite	Papagoite*	Pennantite	Piemontite*	Prehnite
Pyrite*	Pyrrhotite	Quartz	Shattuckite*	Sphalerite
Zoisite*

In the near future we will make some of these exquisite minerals available to you on our auction web site at http://www.mineralspecimenauction.com and http://www.messinaquartz.com