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| Spessartine Garnet Discovery in Madagascar |
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Like a snake swinging among the hills, the Besafotra river which can be very dangerous within the rainy season, carry slowly gold and spessartites from their source. | |||
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| Bargaining spessartites in a hut. The garnets where found the same day. | The second village of Ambohimarangitra lies in a dry savanna, perched up on a high plateau far from anything all. |
| A Huge transparent spessartite crystal that I purchased during my first | |
| trip there. It was found in Ambohimarangitra and weighted 113 grams. > | |
| The deposit of spessartite is lying behind the hill of Ambohimarangitra. | |
| This deposit is exploited in alluvium and is located in the geological system | |
| called "Vohibory", composed mainly of gneiss with amphibole and of green | |
| schists, the precious orange garnets result likely from sodolitic pegmatites. | |
| The first quotations of spessarites in the area were made by the geologist | |
| Henri Besairie in 1946. | |
| The French colonists exploited gold and garnet in the Besafotra river | |
| between Ankaboka and Ambohimarangitra, place located 25 kilometers | |
| from the nearest village. | |
| The spessartite remained forgotten until 1996, date on which it was | |
| extracted from the river and the adjacent grounds to provide the | |
| international market temporarily. | |
| The tanety "grounds bordering the river," are also the object of the orange garnet's | ||
| fever. |
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| Typical rough material coming | |||
| from Ambohimarangitra. | |||
| The road to Ankaboka. Probably the source of spessartites. |
| In 1972 a bulldozer dug a track on 30 kilometers to Ankaboka in order to exploit | ||
| there the spessartites to the edge of the river, at the place said Beakoho, this | ||
| during one year. | ||
| Today, no vehicle can drive on this road, except a powerful motorcycle driven by | ||
| un experienced pilot. |
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| Lot of rough spessartites that | |||
| was found in alluvium. | |||
| The Besafotra river carry out spessartites on several kilometers from their source, doubtless | ||
| a sodolitic pegmatite. A walk of 25 kilometers among the mountains is necessary to reach this | ||
| place. | ||
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| The hamlet of Ambohimarangitra located close to the Besafotra river, visible on Google Earth. | ||
| Spessartite in pegmatite, its bedrock. | ||
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¦ Madagascar Safari ¦ Madagascar Safari 2 ¦ Ilakaka ¦ Pakistan Gem Safari ¦ Garnet Data ¦ Pyrope-Spessartite Discovery ¦ |  |
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© All of the pictures on this website have been shot by gggems.com |  |
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| An article of : |  |
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| Your guide to GGGems | |||
| Text and images : | |||
| ¦ Faceted Spessartite ¦ Spessartite Cabochon ¦ GEM ADVENTURE ( Novel ) | A. Darbellay | ||
