Ferro-axinite is a calcium iron aluminum borosilicate that is usually found in granitic rocks, granite-associated contact metamorphic rocks and hydrothermal veins. After the tourmaline group minerals, those of the axinite group are the second most abundant borosilicate minerals.
Ferro-axinite from this locality is often associated with byssolite (a fibrous variety of actinolite), chlorite, quartz and calcite. These minerals are found in low-temperature hydrothermal veins, which cut the slate host rock and are formed from fluids derived from intruding gabbroic dikes. This fine specimen is an excellent example, showing the typical habit of the crystals for which the axinite group minerals are named---from the Greek axine, meaning axe.
Although the Western mineral collecting community did not really see any material before the 1990s, the quartz deposits of the Subpolar Ural Mountains have been known since the late 1920s, when a Russian scientific expedition discovered the deposits, which have become known for large quartz crystals; single crystals weighing one to two tons have been and continue to be found. The quartz was mined to be used in electronic devices and other industrial applications. Today, however, a large part of the mining effort is direct towards producing fine collector specimens including ferro-axinite specimens featuring some of the largest and finest crystals for the species.
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Axinite on Quartz
Puiva Mine #32, Polar Ural Mtns., Tyumen Oblast, Russia
