ULTRA RAREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE NEW FIND of awesome Crimson Red to Cherry Red colored Chondrodite/Clinohumite Faceting Rough from Badakshan, Afghanistan. This is a fairly new discovery of what was initially declared to be Chondrodite coming out of Northern Afghanistan; however, recent consensus now indicates this is Clinohumite. Most sellers are still selling this material as Chondrodite in the West and the East and that is why we are putting it under the Chondrodite heading; however, it is actually Clinohumite.

The supply of this material is very sporadic and there isn't much material available that is Facet Grade. We are lucky to be able to offer this extremely rare material to you and hope to acquire some more in the near future. For the moment, we have a limited amount of this material remaining. The lowest price this material was selling for at Tucson was $150 Per Gram and it was as high as several hundred Per Gram depending on the seller for Faceting Rough. Pieces over a gram are known but extremely rare and command very high numbers.

Overall this lot is EXTREMELY clean for the species with several stones in the parcel capable of cutting eye-clean or better stones; however, some stones do have some minor inclusions as can be expected for the species. We are confident that each of these stones will produce a stunning finished gem with a little hard work and some planning. Most of these are nice and chunky crystal sections showing at least partial terminations and for our price this material is a steal!

1. Please note that there is considerable debate going on as to exactly what this material is. It has been well documented as Chondrodite and that is what initial test results confirmed; however, recent test results have ranged from Clinohumite to a combination of Chondrodite and Clinohumite depending on who you talk to. The material is still generally being sold as Chondrodite through most sellers that we know in the US and abroad; however, we don't know what the future will bring.