Black Phantom Lemurian Mineral Testing

Black Phantom Lemurians

Black phantom Lemurians have become increasingly more popular, but no easier to find over the years.  They have moments of abundance, then we might not see them again for more than a year or two!  The inclusions within this crystal have been confidently, and seemingly wildly inaccurately, labeled a variety of things including (but not limited to): carbon, clay, sand, manganese, anthraxolite, chlorite, and black lodolite.  Quite frankly, we assumed the test results would just confirm the information that was already available on this inclusion, and we would carry on.   Much to our surprise, the test results were exciting, unexpected, and totally unrelated to any of the information available on the web from other shops.

Using an AMRAY 1830 SEM microscope, operated at 25 kV acceleration potential, 24 mm working distance, 0 degrees sample tilt, coated with 250 Å carbon, and using the attached XRF unit operated at 30 kV (don’t worry, all of that is way over my head too), it was determined that the inclusion is Elbaite-Schorl Tourmaline!  Often simply called black tourmaline, this inclusion ID came as a huge surprise to us.  Not only had we never heard of a tourmaline phantom, but in my humble opinion this discovery was much more appealing than any of the previously suggested possibilities.  Additionally, some of these pieces have beautiful titanium rutile in the tips as well as muscovite giving it that little bit extra flare.

Stay tuned for the results of the “grey lithium phantom quartz” we sent for testing as well as the Blue smoke Lemurians.  The results are in and you won’t want to miss it!