DALLAS, TX.- What started as a shared hobby evolved into a lifelong passion that soon will be offered to mineral collectors everywhere.

Shortly after they married in 1987, William and Ruth Loomis realized a shared passion for elite mineral specimens — a discovery that led to a lifetime of traveling, hunting and collecting. Before long, they opened Loomis Minerals in Flagstaff, Arizona, which became the hub of their extraordinary trove. Now, more than 200 specimens from their remarkable collection finally will be made available to the collecting community in Heritage’s The Collection of William and Ruth Loomis Fine Minerals Signature® Auction March 20.

“William and Ruth Loomis dedicated much of their adult lives to building this enticing collection, and their vast knowledge shines through in the lots that will cross the block in this auction,” says Nic Valenzuela, Heritage’s Director of Fine Minerals. “This presents an opportunity to bid on some exceptional minerals from some of the most important mines around the world.”

Among the top attractions in the single-consignor auction is a spectacular Aquamarine with Muscovite from the Nagar District in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. This cabinet-sized specimen of Aquamarine is largely composed of a single massive crystal that has a glassy luster with vibrant sky blue zoning and shiny bladed Muscovite associations. The top comes to countless complex terminations with smaller Muscovite sprinkled throughout, providing a three-dimensional texture in stark contrast to the smoother faces of the sides.

Also in play is a magnificent Native Gold from the Harvard Mine in the Jamestown District in Tuolumne County, California. Like many mining areas throughout the Jamestown District, the site of the Harvard Mine was among the first to be discovered in 1848, at the beginning of the American Gold Rush, although its official production of Gold did not begin until 1891. Despite their rarity, when compared to the Gold found in nuggets or veins, crystallized Gold specimens from many American localities often carry with them a level of history and even aesthetics that go beyond their bullion value. Specimen-grade leaves of crystallized Gold from this classic Californian mining locality are seldom seen nowadays, especially in larger quantities like those present in this particular piece, which measures 3.66 inches (9.3 centimeters) in length. The Gold in this specimen is presented against a white Quartz matrix that brilliantly contrasts the desirable yellow color of the Gold leaves; most of the Gold is consolidated into one sizable leaf that rises above the left side of the matrix, giving the piece an aerial, crescent-shaped arrangement.

Those who collect Gold also will be drawn to another Native Gold that measures 1.34 inches (3.4 centimeters) from the Eagle’s Nest Mine (Mystery Wind Mine) in Sage Hill at the Michigan Bluff Mining District in Placer County, California, or a beautiful Native Gold seemingly emerging from a white Quartz matrix from the Round Mountain Mining District in Nye County, Nevada.

Also from Nevada comes a stunning Opalized Wood from Virgin Valley in Humboldt County. This magnificent specimen measures 12.68 inches (32.2 centimeters). The Opal specimens from Virgin Valley, including this beauty, are arguably some of the best for the species that any collector can add to a collection. Stretching over this elongated limb of Petrified Wood is a breathtaking and extremely colorful field of Opal, with a high degree of opalescence, showing large swatches of violet, blue and green that cover most of the piece and stand out remarkably well against the Petrified Wood matrix.

The auction includes 20 Tourmalines, including a beautiful Tourmaline with Lepidolite and Smoky Quartz from Paprok in the Kamdesh District in Nuristan, Afghanistan. This cabinet-sized specimen, measuring 7.64 inches (19.4 centimeters), boasts an immense Tourmaline crystal joined by dense clusters of Lepidolite and associations of Smoky Quartz. Throughout, the Tourmaline has a gorgeous pink hue that is most intense at its core (fully formed and exposed on the bottom left) that is far more impressive when viewed with backlighting.

Another magnificent offering is an Elbaite (Tourmaline) and Quartz that also comes from Paprok. This magnificent specimen is sure to draw significant attention from collectors because it shows just about every color arrangement one could ask for in Elbaite from this famous Afghani locality. The main focus of the specimen is a single immense, heavily striated, prismatic crystal that rises to a complex termination and is partially wreathed by striking parallel growths. This crystal is polychromatic, showing vibrant layers of deep red and pink that are topped by yellow, grass-green and blue-green zoning. Arranged perpendicularly across the side of the main Elbaite is a smaller cluster of extremely well-formed Tourmalines, each of which is framed by two larger Quartz crystals.

Beryl collectors will want to check out a Schorl with Goshenite from the Erongo Mountains in Namibia. This magnificent example, which measures 4.45 inches (11.3 centimeters) long, features an impressive cluster of well-formed Schorl crystals that intertwine in every direction, acting as a monochromatic backdrop to a single robust crystal that reaches 8.7 centimeters in length. The jet-black, prismatic crystals are lustrous and doubly terminated. Strewn about the specimen are smaller hexagonal crystals of Goshenite — a colorless variety of Beryl — offering a resplendent contrast to the surrounding group of Schorl.

One of the most visually dramatic lots in the auction is a Zincite from Silesian Voivodeship in Poland that measures nearly 12 inches in each direction. Zincite rarely occurs as crystallized examples in nature, apart from at a couple of localities, with most pieces seen on the market since the 1980s — including the one offered in this auction — being formed as a byproduct of zinc smelting operations. Similar to other Zincites found throughout Poland’s various zinc smelting sites, this piece was found lining the interior of the smelter’s smokestack. The crystals are as delicate as they are alluring, with most of the hexagonal crystals arranged in a jackstraw cluster of needle-shaped growths that come to very thin points; however, each of the crystals is glassy, transparent and fully saturated with grading fields of yellow, orange and deep red at the base of the largest crystals. Roughly half of the most substantial crystal, which reaches about 10.8 centimeters in height, is filled with deep shades of crimson red, solidifying its position as the natural focal point of the piece.