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[Opal Mike]

Sorry..forgot to mention..Ileney’s comments are spot on!

[vitzitziltecpatl]

Talk about authoritative info - straight from the fella' who found it is as good as it gets.

Glenn always has some Tiger Iron specimens at his booth in Quartzsite. Pieces that weight hundreds of pounds each!

[Opal Mike]

Here are some slabs...firstly Marra Mumba in this post. The tiger eye bands can be seen along with the jasper and magnetite bands. I like to cut stones that have a mixture of the three where possible as it highlights the contrasts and evidences that it is Marra Mumba.

The one larger slab of coppery red tiger eye with the Jasper is classic Marra Mumba, but the range of colours in the tiger eye bands has fantastic varieties of colours from blue to green and even the motley orange and red seen in the piece with the wide band.

Also see the distinctive golden Packsaddles material with the wonderful scenes... some pieces are incredibly chatoyant.

[Opal Mike]

Now some tiger iron slabs..

As Ileney hit on, the bands of Igor eye, jasper and hematite are more aligned, sometimes straight and in the better material curved ( makes for more interesting cabs).

This material is also spectacular and takes a great polish.

[Opal Mike]

This one is what I mean by including all elements. The upper RHS exhibits the coppery red tiger eye. Left of that and clearly defined is the section which is what Marra Mumba is all about to me...whereby all three (tiger eye, different colours of Jasper, and whisks of magnetite) are all mixed creating a spectacular speckled mixture of colours and even textures). Then the bottom of the stone are diametrically opposed bands of magnetite and even clear quartz ( if you look closely enough).

The mix is contrasting and especially pleasing to the eye, and in my opinion makes the stones more spectacular and definitely more interesting; and is what is distinctive about the Marra Mumba brand.

Hope the mud is becoming less clouded.

Mike

[Opal Mike]

Post that pic again ...looks all squashed up to me.

[VegasJames]

Really beautiful material and cabs.

[hummingbirdstones]

What a great stash of material you have!  My problem with Marra Mamba has always been that it's such a work of art all by itself, I can't bring myself  to cut it up.  Into the too pretty to cut slab drawer it goes!

[ileney]

Thank you for all that background information Mike, and all the fabulous pictures! I didn’t know the differences in where they were found and when. This is great to know.