1.5" Black Andradite (Melanite) Garnet Cluster - Kazakhstan

This is a beautiful andradite garnet cluster of the melanite variety. This melanite cluster was collected from the Sokolovskoe Iron Mines of Kostanay Province, Kazakhstan. The garnets are all deep black in color and display superb luster. There is a very small association of pyrite along one side of this specimen.

Andradite is a species of the Garnet group, and although not as well-known as some other types of Garnets such as Almandine or Pyrope, it is the most lustrous. It tends to be opaque, so most andradite does not make for good gemstones. It occurs in skarns developed in contact metamorphosed impure limestones or calcic igneous rocks; in chlorite schists and serpentinites and in alkalic igneous rocks (typically titaniferous).

Garnets are nesosilicates having the general formula X3Y2(Si O4)3. There are many species of garnet which are pyrope, almandine, spessartine, uvarovite, andradite and grossular (varieties of which are hessonite or cinnamon-stone and tsavorite).