FAIRY & SPIRIT QUARTZ

Spirit quartz often called cactus quartz or fairy quartz depending on the exact habit comes from the north western region of South Africa.

The material is not mined on a commercial level but rather you have hundreds of individuals mining their own small area, often in their back gardens. The most sort after material is dark amethyst, but every other colour is also mined and far more regularly.
Only 1% of the deposits yield amethyst with the balancing producing white, ametrine, or variable habits in a range of colours. Smokey material does occur from time to time but extremely rare. Spirit quartz is one of South Africa's main exports in terms of mineral specimens.