World’s largest rock to land in North Queensland
A North Queensland crystal museum is poised to receive the world’s largest amethyst geode following a mammoth journey from South America where it was mined on January 30 this year, with the 130 million year old amethyst, valued at around $83,000 and mined in Uruguay, believed to be the largest amethyst ever found.
Standing at 3.26 metres tall and 1.37 metres wide, it will be arriving on Australian shores in October to rest in its new home, The Crystal Caves museum, on the Atherton Tablelands.
The Crystal Caves founder and museum director René Boissevain became aware of the geode through a friend Carlos Sanchis Pereira who helped mine the amethyst.
“He was there when they found it and offered it to me as a joke, he didn’t think I could handle it, but I could not stop thinking about the world’s largest amethyst geode……….despite its large price, I surprised him and agreed to buy it.” Mr Boissevain says.
“Astoundingly the amethyst geode is AAA quality, which is extremely rare in smaller geodes.” “If you were to pull the geode apart, millions of top quality pieces of jewellery could be made from it, not many rings are fitted with that kind of quality.”
“A lot of amethyst gemstones are pale, every last piece of this geode is rich, dark purple, it is real a miracle.”
Due to the amethyst’s size, Mr Boissevain is in the process of building an entirely new room to accommodate the geode and it has already taken several weeks to create a custom made wooden crate just to send it on its journey from South America to Australia, with these extra preparations will cost a further $20,000.
Mr Boissevain says The Crystal Caves were lucky to have the first offer of the amethyst crystal because other museums around the world were jostling to host the rare find.
The amethyst will become a new feature of the 250 square metre long crystal caves which includes an 80 million year old water agate, dinosaur eggs, and a large rose quartz crystal.
A percentage of the admission fee to The Crystal Caves will go toward the Association of Australian Assistance Dogs (NQ) Inc charity based in Mareeba.
For further information call (07) 4091 2365, fax: (07) 4091 3285, email [email protected] or visit www.crystalcaves.com.au
Report by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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