Chibuku Mine

Chiredzi mining district, Chiredzi District, Masvingo, Zimbabwe

Chibuku Mine is a specimen mine exploiting unusual pockets of quartz and amethyst, often of the ‘sceptre’ type, and often with various iron inclusions.

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Excellent quartz specimens from this area have been known about for decades, and were primarily extracted in small surface workings.

In around 2012, two mines were opened, the Shangani Mine and the Chibuku Mine. Shangani Mine is named after the Shangani peoples of the area, after whom the quartz/amethyst is sometimes named too.

Chibuku is named after a local beer brand – allegedly because the women of the area worked while the men sat around drinking it!

The quartz from the site is a very mixed up material, often being a mix between quartz, smoky quartz and amethyst, all in the same piece. Fluid inclusions are relatively common, as are inclusions of iron minerals like goethite and hematite. Iron staining is common, too.

 

Further reading

 

If you are interested in other classic Zimbabwean locales we may have stock from the following locales.

Zimbabwean locales


 

For the rest of our Zimbabwean stock, see below.

Zimbabwe

Minerals from Zimbabwe