One of the rarest specimens

Jun 5, 2007 10:49 GMT  ·  By

A gem and mineral dealer from Denver stumbled upon an extremely rare specimen of triplite gem, while exploring the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show. The interesting thing is that he didn't find it in a private collection as a prized exhibit, instead it was used as a paper weight by a dealer, who wasn't ever aware of the precious stone.

Initially, Morgan Sonsthagen, who found the rare gem, wrongly thought it was a rhodochrosite, a relative of the triplite, but was intrigued by the rock anyway, so he approached the dealer and asked for the price. The answer was stunning, as the man said it wouldn't sell the rock because it was holding down all of his papers.

Sonsthagen went looking for a replacement and after finding it, he negotiated a real bargain. After getting home with the specimen and rigorously examining it, he made the remarkable discovery. The 150 gram rock that had fooled both mineral dealers was in fact an extremely rare triplite gem, found sparingly at a few localities throughout the world.

Apparently, the only other gem quality pieces come from Pakistan near Dassu and most of those are somewhat brownish in color. Very few if any other triplites are available in the bright orange color of Morgan's material and nearly every other triplite deposit only produces grainy granular opaque material.

Triplite is a rare fluoro-hydroxide phosphate mineral that forms in phosphate-rich granitic, pegmatites typically as irregular brown opaque masses. It's quite rare and difficult to face due to its brittleness and cleavage.

It comes in colors like brown, salmon and red, has a prismatic or massive to granular crystal habit and features uneven flat surfaces. First described in 1813 for an occurrence in Chanteloube, Limousin, France, the name is derived from the Greek triplos for triple, in reference to the three cleavage directions.