So purple!

For this week’s picture here’s an example of one of my favorite minerals: stichtite, a lovely purple-colored chromium and magnesium rich carbonate. I saw this particular sample of stichtite for sale at a rock shop. Stichtite comes in a range of purple shades, from a pale pinkish purple to a rich, bright purple. I really like the lilac shade of this particular sample. The R3500 (about $250 US) cost for this sample was outside of my price range, but I did admire it for a little while before eventually buying a couple of other less expensive items at the shop. Fortunately, I already have some stichtite in my rock collection. I have a couple of samples of stichtite that I collected during some field work in the Middle East. Stichtite is a fairly rare mineral, so I’m lucky to have some in my collection!