Here's a lovely and brightly colorful specimen of pink raspberry garnet crystals that have grown in a contrasting white matrix. The dodecahedral crystals are sharply crystallized, with good luster and sparkle. The crystals, which are dotted over a good portion of the matrix, have a nice raspberry pink color that stands out very nicely against the whitish matrix. As with almost all the material from this locality, one of the garnets is broken, revealing the black core that is the norm here.

Here's a very attractive specimen of colorful pinkish-red GROSSULAR GARNET. This piece comes from a site in Sierra De Cruces in Coahuila, Mexico. I picked this piece out from my friend Benny Fenn's display at the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show this year.

Here's the story behind these wonderful raspberry garnet specimens: In 1994 Benny Fenn picked up Miguel Romero (the great Mexican collector, now deceased) in Chihuahua City and drove him to Lake Jaco, Coahuila, where Miguel showed Benny the skarn deposit with the well-known grossulars and vesuvianites. Benny credits this tutorial from Miguel for the discovery of the raspberry garnet deposit. Sometime after Miguel's visit, Benny and Benny Jr. began cruising the area, looking for more skarns. About a year after Miguel's visit they encountered a rancher who had found some raspberry garnet, and they persuaded him to take them to the location. Benny decided the showings were promising, so he contracted with the rancher and his family to locate a claim (as in the United States, in Mexico surface ownership does not imply subsurface title) and to mine the deposit for Benny. Benny supplied the equipment and taught them how to use the Cobra drill, feather wedges, and other tools. There were about 400 kilos in the first batch, 100 kilos of which were of good quality. Current production is about 400 kilos per month, and demand exceeds supply. Of course, these unique garnets ge&