MQA15 Tourmaline var. Liddicoatite
A nice example of this very distinctive, deeply colored tourmaline from workings around Mahaiza.
I had just closed the doors and the car was about to start moving when a miner ran up to the car and handed me a small plastic bag with several of these wrapped in newspaper. I have come across these of every trip-- they are rarely large, and frequently damaged-- but a couple in this lot had decent composition and were fairly clean. So, after spreading them out on the dashboard, I bought them and am posting my favorite couple here. By the standards of other Malagasy localities, they lack transparency, but the color is certainly unlike tourmaline from anywhere else in the world.