Opal Butte Specimen — Oregon Rhyolite, Orange Tones aventurine pyramid entirely natural and neither dyed

entirely natural and neither dyed nor colour-treated

so a rinse and a soft cloth keeps it looking its best

calcite is a much softer carbonate mineral while citrine is a silicate quartz

from natural manganese

Opal Butte Specimen — Oregon Rhyolite, Orange Tones aventurine pyramid entirely natural and neither dyedThis Opal Butte specimen also comes from the Butte Mine in Morrow County, Oregon, showing warm orange and yellow tones set naturally into its rhyolite matrix. At 60 by 52mm, it is a stable, well formed piece from one of the more unusual opal producing sites in North America. So what is Opal Butte's story? The deposit formed inside volcanic rhyolite geodes, and while it has been known to collectors since the 1890s, systematic mining did not begin until