Chlorastrolite and Large Michigan Greenstones

Michigan Greenstones or Chlorastrolite can be found in the old Delaware mine and sometime very large Chlorastrolites and these are extremely rare. Three to five hundred carat stones have been found there, considering the average size is about 1 carat for most Greenstones or Chlorastrolite that are found in this area around the Keweenaw Peninsula.

Personally, I have only found a handful of these beautiful gems stones of this larger size. The reason why is most of them have ended up broken up due to the process of breaking the basalt rock that carries the greenstone in this matrix.

The larger gem quality stones are the most beautiful of all the stones and if you are lucky enough to find copper inclusions in these Greenstones they are worth five times or more per carat weight. Greenstones are priced between 50 to 200 dollars a carat, so a Greenstone or Chlorastrolite with these inclusions can be worth up to 1000 dollars a carat.

When looking for larger greenstones all you have to really do is find the small one. The reason being that with the small greenstones on that rare occasion is really very large greenstones in the matrix once you open it. You will have to go through thousands of rocks of basalts to find even the small stones. If for some reason you find some Greenstone and break them out of the rock and if you would like, I can polish them for a very reasonable price. I also will give you the stone that you found. I have been cutting greenstones for 10 years and black opals for 20 years. Black opals gave me the experience to cut chlorastrolte because they are very similar.

If you find a large greenstone send it out to be cut up, because this is the only way to really see the beauty of this stone is once it is polished up. Good luck hunting the large greenstones that the Delaware mine can and will give up. Rock hunting is one of the last God given rights that we still have in are lives, so be safe and courteous.