Spectacular lot of 3 HUGE PIECES of Afghan Lapis that will cut some awesome cabs!! Most of this lot is AB-AA+ grade material with the larger portion being a Royal Blue to an almost Purplish Blue! These are the particulars on a per piece basis:

Piece 1 - The longest piece in the picture (to the left of the quarter) looks to be uniform in color with a moderate amount of Pyrite almost totally confined to the surface. There are sprinkles of Pyrite that are intermittently dispersed through the stone; however, it is not excessive and looks to have been done with a salt shaker for the most part. This piece alone is probably worth the price of the lot and will undoubtedly make some spectacular finished gems.

Piece 2 - The larger piece to the right of the quarter has a moderate amount of Pyrite with quite a bit of it confined to the surface on certain sides and a very limited amount of Calcite (The Calcite isn't significant and should easily cut out); however, there are some veils of Pyrite that look as though they extend through the stone. There are nice large workable areas in here that will cut spectacular stones. The Pyrite is not excessive and in a stone this size Pyrite can be expected. Since pieces as large as this are rarely cut into 1 large cab the Pyrite veils may be worked around when dividing this rough up for cutting. This is probably the best piece in the lot with certain areas hinting that the core of this piece is top Blue with little of the Purple overtone.

Piece 3 - This piece has two sides covered with Calcite; however, they are totally on the surface and only a few Millimeters deep. The Calcite should cut out will little effort. This stone is probably the AB quality stone in the lot having Pyrite sprinkles and small clusters that sporadically appear in the stone. It isn't anything that is overbearing and I have seen material of this caliber  selling for 2-4 times the price we have it listed here commonly. This is the smallest piece in the lot and will cut lovely stones as well.

Overall this is a great lot of unusually large stones in very good quality and is considerably better than the pictures above indicate. This is not the best material money can buy and please don't expect that as Lapis gets quite costly in the top quality and ESPECIALLY in this size range. This material is fairly uniform with most pieces lacking the excessive white Calcite inclusions. There is a moderate amount of Pyrite; however, this can usually be worked around or isn't excessive and detracting. If you look around and compare prices you will see this is a bargain not to be missed! We have gotten numerous Lapis requests over the last few months and have added a few lots to our stock. We are working on listing these here so please keep an eye out for them in the coming weeks (Please use US Quarter in photo for size estimate).

1. Afghanistan is the oldest known source of Lapis and is the only country in the world that has produced a consistent supply of high grade lapis for over 1,000 years!

2. We have mine direct links for this rough for those that are interested in purchasing this in bulk in quality.