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THE  CORUNDUMINIUM
     
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KENYA  ( and  UGANDA ? )

 
 
 
 JOHN  SAUL  MINE    
      Probably the most important corundum locality in Kenya is the John Saul Ruby Mine. 
     It is also the one place on Earth I am aware of where secondary deposits included rubies in silicified clay containing fossils (opalized land snails) - see left images, specimen ex coll. John Saul via Cal Graeber.   On the right are a fine cluster in silicified clay, and another with bright green fuchsite mica

     These two specimens allegedly came from a pit at the John Saul locality called the "New Mine".  As with all John Saul rubies, they fluoresce a deep cherry red under long wave ultraviolet light.  The smaller crystal is embedded in green apatite which fluoresces banana yellow in long wave.  It was obtained through the efforts of Cal Graeber.  The larger (two views, far right) is ex coll. Richard Hauck via Rob Lavinsky.

    Late in 2010, I received an email from John Saul, who had seen our Mineralogical Record article and wanted to know if we would be interested in some of his old specimens.  After the excited “Do bears go in the woods?” reply, we got down to business; and now there are several more great specimens from his collection in ours.   Because of this provenance, this suite, containing specimens fron several different localities, will be kept together. 
     This one is a fake!  John had this plastic model made of the finest crystal to come out of his mine.   Unfortunately, the real one was "lapidated"; but with this very accurate replica we can still admire it!  It was acquired from John in 2011.
 
 
 UGANDAN  ROAD  KILL  PIGEON 

Two specimens from the Pokote tribal region along the border between Kenya and Uganda.  The one on the right is known as The Ugandan Road-KIll Pigeon"  it weighs about 1,100 carats!

 
   The Joyce Mwangi Mine in Kenya produced these ruby "samples", sent to John Saul in 2007.    We do not know if there has been any subsequent development of this little-known locality.