Calcite Photos & Images

Calcite is common and abundant throughout the world. The material has little intrinsic value since it is not scarce. However, calcite is one of the most difficult of all minerals to be cut because of perfect cleavage in 3 directions. The cost of faceted stone is therefore mostly in the labor of cutting. Normally, a faceted stone breaks during cutting, and the finished gem is much smaller than the originally intended size. Therefore, a cut calcite over 50 carats is extremely rare. Faceted stones cut from material from many localities might turn up, but the lack of scarcity value is not encouraging to potential calcite cutters.