  Rooisand's recommendation: Namibia - Fascination of Geology, A Travel Handbook by Nicole Grünert, 2003, Klaus Hess Verlag, ISBN 3-933117-13-5
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| Farm Rooisand has several sites where beautiful minerals can be found - quartz, smoky quartz, amethyst and others. |
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Rooisand also boasts some deposits where a very rare type of amethyst
occurs. Its colour - like that of ordinary amethyst - is a grape purple, but
this turns into hues of green and yellow after several days' exposure to
sunlight (see picture on the left). In 1997 this type of Rooisand amethyst was subject of a scientific study carried out by Gerhard Niedermayr of the Department for Mineralogy and Petrography at the National Gemstone Institute in Vienna, Austria. Here is a brief excerpt... "Amethyst of a yellow green from Namibia. Material containing unusual yellow-green amethyst from a deposit at farm Rooisand, Gamsberg, in Namibia was only recently obtained for analysis by the National Gemstone Institute from Kaiser-Mineralien in Vienna …"  Click here to
download
the entire publication in pdf format (250 Kb, German only). |
 Rooisand's recommendation for a day trip:
Visit the Crystal Gallery in Swakopmund and see the world's largest cluster of quartz crystals. |
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Guests with a penchant for minerals are welcome to collect a few
pieces during their stay at Rooisand and take them home, too. Qualified mineralogists who come and visit Rooisand at times usually offer their expertise on guided tours. See our gallery for more pictures of Rooisand minerals. |