GROSSULAR

ABOUT THE SPECIMEN Numerous trapezohedral grossulars to 1.1cm strewn across matrix with minor diopside, clinochlore, and calcite also present. The smaller grossulars show a brilliant red with direct lighting, while the larger ones show deep red hues with backlighting. Good quality garnets from Akhmatovskaya Kop' are few and far between. Great aesthetics and quality, and a great addition to any cabinet of garnets or Russian minerals. From the collection of famed mineral collector Kurt Hefendehl.   VIDEO   MORE INFO Opened in 1811 by P.E. Akhmatov, manager of the Kusinskii ironworks, the Akhmatovskaya Kop' is a calcareous skarn formed at the contact between Paleozoic intrusive rocks of the Kusa-Kopan complex and Riphean carbonate wall rocks - Stativko et al.'s 2023 Lithosphere geochemical study confirmed garnet compositions across the Southern Ural skarn deposits trend along a grossular-andradite-Ti-andradite series, with hessonite representing the calcium-aluminum dominant end of that continuum. Iron and manganese trace substitution in the aluminum site drives the characteristic cinnamon to deep reddish-brown color. Crystals occur as rhombic dodecahedra and trapezohedra, typically 0.5–1.5 cm, on calcite matrix with diopside, vesuvianite, magnetite, and occasional perovskite - one of the more mineralogically complex skarn assemblages in the Ural region. The locality is historically significant as one of the Ural Mountains' most celebrated nineteenth-century specimen sources, with material in major European museum collections predating systematic mineralogical study of the region. Despite that long history, quality specimens remain genuinely uncommon - the deposit produced inconsistently throughout the Soviet era and sees only minimal artisanal activity today, meaning old-stock pieces with sharp crystals and well-preserved matrix associations are the dominant material in current circulation.