Garnet

Garnet

A rare exception, this is not a single mineral. Instead, the name refers to a collection of minerals that are closely related. While there are many different colors of this particular group of minerals, the main shade is dark red. Garnet is derived from ‘granatum’ and in Greek this means pomegranate. The mineral group does closely resemble the red shade of the fruit as well as the structure of the seeds. The garnet group includes almandine, pyrope, spessartine, and uvarovite. Some like uvarovite are rare and can be found in the Ural mountains of Russia.