| Malawi agates |
 This website has been established by a consultant and gemcutter, once a prospector and miner of sapphire, ruby and other coloured gemstones in central, east and southern Africa. Now based in The Wilderness on the Southern Cape coast, he trades as Mike Weston Gems.
As a sideline, a quantity of agate was obtained in Malawi while prospecting, and some later mined in Rhodesia before it became Zimbabwe. This has remained in storage for many years and some nodules of Malawi origin have now been sawn and cabochoned. Samples of these are shown below.  Nodules of this agate vary between about 8 and 12 cm in diameter, although few are actually round as can be seen from the photos here of four half-nodules (which are not for sale at present). These were once mined in the Chikwawa district of Malawi near the Lower Shire River during the mid 1950's. During the early sixties, a quantity of the nodules was obtained from a trading store in Chikwawa. These had been left as security for the supply of food and tools and abandoned shortly thereafter when the miner disappeared, the source having been exhausted. 
A characteristic of most agates from this seemingly limited occurrence is the transparency or strong translucency surrounding a 'flame' - a red-to-orange pattern sometimes encircled with pale blue.
In general terms, the agate may have been discredited by overproduction of the poor-to-average forms of cryptocrystalline silica. Nevertheless, in its exceptional forms, it is still as rare as most other desirable gemstones.
As the Malawi 'flame agate' is unique in origin, limited in quantity and likely to be limited in production, it will presumably remain the rarest of, at least, the African agates. No pieces displayed on this website have been or will be dyed, heated or otherwise colour-enhanced. |
A ) | B ) | ||
| Size: 42 x 28 mm Price: US$97.50 Enquire further | Size: 50 x 38 mm Price: US$128.75 Enquire further | ||
C ) | D ) | ||
| Size: 45 x 31 mm Price: US$85.00 Enquire further | Size: 32 x 19 mm Price: US$60.00 Enquire further | ||
E ) | F ) | ||
| Size: 30 x 30 mm Price: US$128.75 Enquire further | Size: 31 x 28 mm Price: US$116.25 Enquire further | ||
G ) | H ) | ||
| Size: 33 x 24 mm Price: US$78.75 Enquire further | Size: 28 x 22 mm Price: US$78.75 Enquire further | ||
I ) | J ) | ||
| Size: 38 x 30 mm Price: US$110.00 Enquire further | Size: 39 x 31 mm Price: US$66.25 Enquire further | ||
K ) | L ) | ||
| Size: 25 x 26 mm Price: US$103.75 Enquire further | Size: 35 x 27 mm Price: US$85.00 Enquire further | ||