Bonus Minerals - "Pegratite" Green Spiderweb Jasper With Opal

Pegratite, Green Spiderweb Jasper

Since my wife, Hive account@tokyowomanslife is visiting from Tokyo we have been traversing all over California and Arizona collecting and purchasing new minerals. We came across some cool, old material called "Pegratite" trade name "Green Spiderweb Jasper" from Idaho. What drew us to it was the opal inside of it. We've been on an opal binge lately so when we saw these and some other opals we bought several pounds of them.

The material originates on the Idaho/Oregon border. Idaho is known for various types of opals. While the jasper contains mostly common opal, there is some fire here and there. Common opal refers to opal that doesn't have the play of color, fire, that precious opal has.

Pegratite was discovered/named in the 1960's by a man whose last name was Pegra hence the name Pegratite, not to be confused with pegmatite. From researching the material it seems to have been formed in two phases. First, the jasper spiderweb patterns formed with gas bubble pockets. Then it was fractured during some other even which left cracks and vugs, pockets. Those vugs were then filled in with silica-rich​ fluids which produced the opal.

There are other "Spiderweb Jaspers" out there, but this appears to be the rarer and more sought​ after material.

I will be carefully slicing some of the material up into slabs for cabbing and leaving some of it as is. I should have some up on our Etsy​ shop and Japan shop in a week or two. http://Etsy.com/shop/rt395minerals and https://www.rt395mineralsjp.com

Thanks for reading!