Museum Quality: Mongolian Andradite Garnet Crystal Cluster

Dimension: 9.3cm x 8cm x 3.7cm
Weight: 452g
Locality: Huanggang Mine, Keshiketeng Co, Chifeng Prefecture, Inner Mongolia, China
 
Aggregate of an attractive, well-crystallized specimen of Andradite Garnet with very well defined stepped growths and faces from the famous Huanggang Mine in Mongolia.  It is one of the best specimens I have seen from this find, better than the fine Melanites that were brought out of Mali by Rock Currier in around 2004.  In perfect condition.
 
Named in 1868 by a famous Brazilian Mineralogist James Dwight Dana in honor of José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva who first described and named what Dana (1868) defined as a sub-variety of Andradite. 
 The color of Andradite Garnet is in a range that extends from a dark golden green (like the topazolite from Stanley Butte, Arizona), through reddish brown to jet black.