Cactus or Spirit Quartz - Boekenhout-Mpumalanga, South Africa

This page features specimens from recent finds of quartz near Boekenhout-Mpumalanga in South Africa.  Some refer to this type of quartz as "cactus" or "spirit" quartz.  If you have any special requests or quantity ordering, contact us and we will try to accommodate you to the best of our abilities.  Please note:  The vast majority of these types of specimens (especially those that are clusters versus single crystals) all contain some degree of matrix to the base.  This is not easy to trim off due to the nature of the specimens and in fact in many specimens the massive looking base is simply the bottom of the crystals so trimming can effectively ruin some specimens.  Due to redundancy, we will not say in every description for each specimen that there is "typical contact to edges and base" since such a large percentage of specimens that come out of this area have this.  Granted, a few near-matrixless or matrixless specimens are available, but these are definitely the exception, rather than the rule.  We feel that the pictures show any areas below the main portion of the specimens so you can see the contact areas well.

LOCATION NOTE:  There has been some discrepancy as to the location that these specimens come from.  After correspondence with several suppliers in South Africa and readings in Mineralogical Record, the location attributed to these specimens should be "Boekenhout-Mpumalanga", not the Magaliesberg Mountains.  Natives of South Africa have also confirmed this with us through correspondence.  These mountains are actually a considerable distance away from the deposits.  All labels and descriptions have been corrected, if you purchased a specimen from us in the past couple years and would like an updated label, send us an e-mail and we will send one out free of charge right away. 

Smaller Specimens (Small Cabinet to Cabinet Size) (see bottom of page for larger specimens)

Click on Images In The Table for Complete Description and Additional Pictures

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Larger Specimens (Cabinet and Large Cabinet Size)

#CQ-19 - Quartz - Boekenhout-Mpumalanga, South Africa

20.5 x 9.5 x 5 cm (8 x 3.75 x 2 inches) - $70.00

A long piece of quartz with several individual crystals mostly in the range of 2-3 cm (around 1 inch) in length.  Most of this specimen is damage free, but as the photos show there is a missing crystal point at far right and a very slight ding or nick towards the middle of the specimen.  Obviously the missing point is a detraction but could be carefully trimmed away to make a better specimen.  The nick towards the middle of the specimen barely shows in the photographs, it can best be seen in the farthest right photograph towards the left center (white area).  This really detracts little but I wanted to make sure you knew it was there before receiving the piece. 

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 #CQ-41 - Quartz - Boekenhout-Mpumalanga, South Africa

24 x 11 x 13 cm (9.4 x 4.3 x 5.1 inches) - $160.00

Very nice large cabinet specimen of this variety of quartz.  This particular specimen came from a pocket that obviously had a little more "clearance" (open space) in it versus other pockets because the quartz points are longer than usual for this variety of specimen.  The points that go bottom to top are up to 11cm (4.3 inches) long, while one slightly flattened point that is "laying down" on the top/back of the specimen is a full 12 cm (4.7 inches)! long.  There are some missing or chipped points - the photos really convey the specimen quite nicely and show the damaged areas quite well - of note is one point on the front of the specimen (left photo) at the left center of the photo - this one detracts more than the others but if the specimen is displayed at a slight angle this one is minimized at least a little bit (as shown at far right).  While many specimens with larger points such as this are not uncommon from this area, they don't always show up in clusters such as this (many of the points are broken away from the matrix and sold that way).  A nice large cabinet showy display specimen.

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#CQ-38 - Quartz - Boekenhout-Mpumalanga, South Africa

33 x 20 x 5 cm (12.7 x 7.8 x 2 inches) - $200.00

A very nice large decorator plate of this variety of quartz (over a foot across).  Obviously the photographs show that one point tends to dominate the specimen - it is located in the back center of the specimen and that single point is approximately 7cm (2.7 inches) in length from base of the plate to the crystal tip.  Immediately behind and slightly to the left of this point is where another point was broken off - this shows some as the photos show but when displayed at a slight angle as shown here, this is not very noticeable.  Other than that, just a few typical contacts along the edge but for such a large plate it is in great shape.  A fine decorator specimen with good color.

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#CQ-42 - Quartz - Boekenhout-Mpumalanga, South Africa

29 x 16 x 6 cm (11.3 x 6.2 x 2.3 inches) - $200.00

Very nice large cabinet display specimen of this variety of quartz.  The points do not have great relief or length, but are of fairly good uniform size throughout the piece.  A slightly elevated cluster of quartz is at the left side - this is seen best in the far left photograph at the top left of the specimen.  Just typical contact along the edges and a few points may be possibly rubbed but this is expected with such a large specimen but this one is of much better than average quality for a specimen of this size.

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