Ettringite

Excellent lenticular to substantially blocky terminated crystals of bright acidic lemon-yellow Ettringite are pleasingly scattered over a pale-grey druse of sparkling micro-crystals of Quartz with Hematite inclusions.  This gorgeous specimen is from the world-famous N'Chwaning Mines at Kuruman, in the Kalahari Manganese Field of South Africa.  Three mines work this hydrothermally sediment-enriched orebody, the N'Chwaning I, II and III mines, but specimens can often not be attributed to a specific mine, hence the collective mine name.  The Ettringite crystals can attain around 9 x 8 x 6 mm and are all perfectly euhedral and undamaged, forming as double terminated hexagonal prisms with pointed pyramidal hexagonal terminations.  When the prism is short, the crystals are lenticular and when a little longer, become a stubby barrel-shape and all with a glassy lustre. This is a fine Ettringite specimen from the N'Chwaning Mines, whose crystals contrast wonderfully against the Quartz matrix.