Catalog Search Guide

You can search our catalog using different mineral attributes. For example, you can search by color such as green, yellow or purple, or by chemical elements such as uranium, calcium or iron, or by mineral groups such as phosphate, silicate or carbonate. You can also filter by crystal habit like crystal, geode or crystal on matrix, by specimen size such as thumbnail, small, medium or cabinet, and by features such as radioactive or fluorescent minerals.

Garnet

Garnet is not a single mineral but a group of nesosilicates sharing the general formula X3Y2(SiO4)3, forming two solid-solution series: the pyralspite series (pyrope, almandine, spessartine) and the ugrandite series (uvarovite, grossular, andradite). Crystals typically develop as sharp rhombic dodecahedrons or trapezohedrons, prized by collectors for their crystallography as much as their color.

Classic type localities define the group: dark red pyrope from Bohemia and the Kaapvaal kimberlites, deep red-brown almandine from Gore Mountain in New York, and orange spessartine from pegmatites in Nigeria, Namibia and Brazil's Minas Gerais. Among the calcium garnets, the emerald-green demantoid variety of andradite from the Ural Mountains remains the benchmark for fine specimens, admired for its diagnostic "horsetail" byssolite inclusions, with fine material also known from Iran, Namibia and Madagascar. Vivid green tsavorite (grossular) from Kenya and Tanzania, and the rare emerald-green chromium variety uvarovite from Russian and Finnish chromite deposits, round out the sought-after color spectrum, alongside cinnamon-colored hessonite and the rare mint-green Mali garnet.

Collectors value garnet specimens for the sheer diversity within one crystal family — from lustrous gem-grade crystals on matrix to large sculptural dodecahedra from skarn and pegmatite deposits. Well-formed, gemmy crystals from these type localities are increasingly scarce on the market, making documented, locality-specific pieces especially desirable for both systematic mineral collections and fine mineral display.