Agate

Origin: Sashe River, Zimbabwe
 
Size: 140 mm diamter x 62 mm, 300 grams

The Agate nodules from the Sashe River are renowned for their beautiful colours, characterized by having soft to rich pink-red, blue and cream colours, they are normally solid, rarely with crystalline centres.

The Shashe River is a major left-bank tributary of the Limpopo River in Zimbabwe. It rises northwest of Francistown, Botswana and flows into the Limpopo River where Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa meet.

Agate is a cryptocrystalline variety of Quartz, a name given to varieties of banded Chalcedony. They are formed within cavities of volcanic rocks like basalt and rhyolite, when silica-rich water deposits quartz crystals layer by layer, forming the distinctive banded patterns. The varying colours is the result of trace-elements present in the solution include during crystallisation , they may include minerals like iron, manganese, titanium, chromium and nickel oxides.