Natural Congo Pale Citrine Crystal - 52mm, 44g

Natural Congo Pale Citrine Crystal - 52mm, 44g

Regular price £13.99 Sale

Locality – Lwena, Democratic Republic of Congo
Size – 52 x 28 x 26mm
Weight – 44g

This citrine crystal displays excellent cascading side crystal formation surrounding the main termination point with stunning pale golden colour throughout and a lustrously shiny surface. There is a slight, zoned wispy phantom within along with a few small but vivid rainbow reflective veils (as photographed). All of our citrine crystals are specially selected, genuinely natural, non-treated specimens


About Citrine & Quartz

Citrine is the yellow variety of quartz, coloured so by natural irradiation or inclusions of aluminium or iron. It's name is derived from the Latin 'citrina', meaning 'yellow', in allusion to its typical colour. Some of the finest citrine comes from Lwena, D.R. Congo, showing rich colour and stunning turreted formations of cascading crystals. Natural citrine is extremely rare, and almost all of the citrine available on the market today is faked (please read the fakes section below for more information).

Quartz is the most common mineral found on the surface of the Earth, occurring in virtually every locality. Pure crystals are colourless, transparent and hard, though many are coloured by natural processes such as irradiation or by the presence of certain elements within. These coloured varieties include the popular gemstones amethyst, purple quartz, and citrine, yellow quartz. Some quartz crystals have unique inclusions of minerals that have grown within them, such as golden rutile, tourmaline or chlorite, and others may show silvery reflective internal veils and bright rainbows. Whilst the majority of quartz is created from molten magma that has cooled and crystallized, much quartz also chemically precipitates from hot hydrothermal veins. Well-formed crystals deep within the Earth can reach colossal sizes, with some measuring several meters in length and weighing hundreds of kilograms.


A Note on Fakes, Treatments & Misrepresentations

Unfortunately, almost all of the 'citrine' available on the market today is heat-treated amethyst, being one of the most extensively faked crystals in the world. Virtually all these fakes originate from Brazil where so much amethyst is produced that large quantities of it is baked and sold as citrine in an attempt to market it a different product. These fakes can be easily recognized by their intense golden orange or dark reddish-orange colour and are identical in crystal structure to amethyst, in a geode or 'dog-tooth' formation with a milky white base; natural citrine does not form as geodes. Natural citrine is very rare, if a seller does not explicitly state that their citrine is natural and non-treated, or if it is being sold cheaply in a gift shop, it is almost certainly a fake.