Description

Bumblebee Jasper Hearts

Bumble Bee Jasper is a trade name for colorful fibrous calcite found at Mount Papandayan, West Java, Indonesia, and also in areas of Australia. The material is made of radially grown fibrous calcite with a distinctive yellow, orange, and black banding. The orange and yellow colors are mainly caused by finely dispersed realgar (a soft reddish mineral consisting of arsenic sulfide, formerly used as a pigment and in fireworks). The black stain is caused by pyrite and hematite.

Bumble Bee “Jasper” is actually a misnomer, as this stone contains no quartz at all (while actual jasper is a variety of chalcedony, which itself is more or less a “microcrystalline quartz”). It is actually a carbonate mineral in the Trigonal Crystal System. It’s beautiful coloring is displayed in bands of yellow, orange, black and gray, with translucent white to opaque white areas.