Amethyst Stalactite locality

Hello to all the amethyst or Uruguay experts,

I would appreciate any help possible on the specific locality in Artigas, Uruguay for this slice of amethyst stalactites. The specimen measures 8.5" x 6".

From the database 2 localities looked like possibilities:
Santino Quarry, Tres Cerros de Santino, Artigas Department, Uruguay
Santa Ana Quarry, Artigas Department, Uruguay

Thank you for you assistance,
Holly

There have been hundreds of places around Artigas where amethyst stalactites have been produced. They even found amethyst when they were making the runway for the local airport. What you have is not an amethyst stalactite, but rather a slab that has been cut from a bump on an amethyst specimen. Amethyst specimens that have these bumps trying to be but not quite making real stalactites are often cut into as many slabs as can be managed. Just call it Artigas and leave it at that. Its a nice specimen.

Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.

Thanks for the explanation on it's formation, Rock I appreciate your assistance! So I see it's not just the stars in Hollywood that have "bumps"!

Best regards,
Holly

Holly,
When I first went down to Uruguay I didn't know anything. I wondered around down town Montevideo and going into jewelry stores if they had any amethyst specimens to sell wholesale. Most of them gave me the fish eye like I was some sort of crazy person. I decided to try one more and the guy, Jeorge Pollari who along with his brother became life long friends said yes they did but it was down in the basement. So down we went and he had perhaps a few hundred pounds of stuff. He asked if I would like to visit Artigas. I asked "What is Artigas". He told me it was a little town in Uruguay on the border with Brazil and that was where they had their factory and where their Amethyst mine was located. So I said yes, I would like to visit, so he got me a plane ticket for about $60 and off I went. His brother met me at the airport and took me to his factory and there they had several thousand pounds of amethyst, agate slabs, amethyst formations, stalactite sections etc. I was pretty much a pure specimen guy back then and wanted to see if they had any amethyst stalactites. They showed me a few, but nothing really good, and hundreds of amethyst stalactite sections. I was scared that they were cutting up fine amethyst stalactites to make their stalactite sections. They told me no, that they always kept those intact and did not cut them up, but only the ones that were broken or where there was something wring with them. They took me into the cutting part of their factory and I saw a guy cutting up amethyst stalactites, but there was something wrong with all of them. They were broken, or heavily damaged, or the color was not good or that they were often just bumps of amethyst and not full fledged stalactites. At any rate I fell in love with the amethyst stalactite sections and bought a big bunch of them and then on each subsequent trip I would buy another bunch and to this day more than 30 years later we still buy them. I would always keep few from each batch for my own collection and today have quite a nice collection of them. Then I went out to the mine, but that's another story.

Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.