Catalog Search Guide
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Anatase
Anatase is one of the three natural polymorphs of titanium dioxide (TiO₂), alongside rutile and brookite. Named from the Greek for "extension" in reference to its elongated tetragonal dipyramids, it typically forms sharp, lustrous, adamantine crystals ranging from pale yellow and honey-brown to deep indigo-blue and near-black, often with striking metallic iridescence. Crystals commonly grow as simple or twinned bipyramids, sometimes flattened into tabular habits, on quartz or in association with albite, chlorite, and epidote.
The classic type locality material comes from Alpine-cleft fissures in the Bourg d'Oisans and Le Freney-d'Oisans district of the French Alps, where lustrous black and blue-black bipyramids are prized among collectors of European alpine minerals. Fine specimens also come from Binn Valley in Switzerland, Cavradi in Graubünden, and numerous alpine-vein localities across the Swiss, Italian, and Tirolian Alps. Norway contributes notable crystals from Hardangervidda and the Kragerø district, while large, well-formed anatase crystals from Diamantina, Minas Gerais in Brazil rank among the finest and largest ever found, some reaching several centimeters and showing exceptional gemmy transparency.
Collectors seek anatase for its rare crystal habit among oxide minerals, its color-zoning and pleochroism, and its scientific importance as a widespread accessory mineral in metamorphic and hydrothermal veins. Well-terminated, gemmy crystals — particularly the deep blue Brazilian specimens and the classic black French alpine-cleft bipyramids — are considered prime pieces for both systematic and aesthetic mineral collections.
