Patrick Gunderson is an Australian mineral collector that, over the years, has found some exquisite specimens. His latest venture is an amethyst deposit in Western Australia.
Above: Screen grab from one of Patrick’s videos taken when they first discovered the opening to the giant chamber that the 21 ton amethyst cluster was found in.
Patrick said on his Facebook page “Quite possibly the find of my lifetime. A few years ago I purchased an old amethyst mine over in Western Australia. I had no idea what to expect or if there was anything left to be found. After two years of work there I finally opened a hollow chamber lined with beautiful Amethyst. It took 3 months of gruelling work and an amazing team to carefully preserve this cluster in one piece. Weighing in at 21 tons and measuring 4.5 meters across, I truly hope this incredible specimen can find a home in an Australian museum for everyone to experience”.
All I can say is wow! Watch the video here.
I have a couple of specimens from the Wyloo area in Western Australia, including the smoky-amethyst crystal shown below. I acquired this one when I was working in Western Australia over 20 years ago.
Below: The same specimen backlit showing smoky and amethyst zoning.
