Soledade is not a mineral locality, but it should be. Is the main city in Rio Grande do Sul where most of the agate and amethyst is processed and if not processed, then gathered for distribution and sale to the rest of the world. There are a number of large companies there which, by gem and mineral standards, are perhaps the largest inventories and showrooms in the world.

The Brazilian labor laws are draconian compared to other countries and although many of these companies have production facilities, much of their inventory is bought or brought in from small suppliers who can more easily work around the labor laws. Each year, for example, several megatons (mega=thousand) tons of amethyst geodes, "cathedrals", plates of amethyst crystals (amethyst druse as it is locally referred to) are processed and sold around the world. This does not include the many tons of cut and polished agate items like thin slabs, thick slabs, soap dishes (ashtrays is now a somewhat denigrated term), geodes, etc.

Since Soledade is such a huge sales and distribution center for agate and amethyst, a lot of amethyst from Uruguay and other places eventually makes its way there for sale and processing. Not only that, but many container loads of lapidary rough items, like rose quartz, sodalite, aventurine, petrified wood, and quartz crystals from places far away in Brazil find their way to Soledade each year for processing before sale to the rest of the world. Imagine how many thousands of items from here have retained the label Soledade because they were bought there and sent elsewhere in the world. To the best of my knowledge, Soledade is not a known locality for any mineral specimens.

[Rock Currier 2011]

Select Mineral List Type

Standard Detailed Gallery Strunz Chemical Elements

Mineral List

ⓘ Quartz

ⓘ var. Agate

ⓘ var. Amethyst

1 valid mineral.

Detailed Mineral List:

ⓘ Quartz

Formula: SiO₂

Reference: Sauer, J.R. (1982) Brazil, Paradise of Gemstones. Gemological Institute of America, 135 pp. (p. 82).

ⓘ Quartz var. Agate

Colour: brownish

Reference: Sauer, J.R. (1982) Brazil, Paradise of Gemstones. Gemological Institute of America, 135 pp. (p. 104). Richter-Feig, Julia, Robert Möckel, Jens Götze, and Gerhard Heide. (2018) "Investigation of Fluids in Macrocrystalline and Microcrystalline Quartz in Agate Using Thermogravimetry-Mass-Spectrometry" Minerals 8, no. 2: 72. https://doi.org/10.3390/min8020072

ⓘ Quartz var. Amethyst

Formula: SiO₂

Reference: Sauer, J.R. (1982) Brazil, Paradise of Gemstones. Gemological Institute of America, 135 pp. (p. 82).

Gallery:

List of minerals arranged by Strunz 10th Edition classification

Group 4 - Oxides and Hydroxides
ⓘ	Quartz	4.DA.05	SiO₂
ⓘ	var. Agate	4.DA.05	SiO₂
ⓘ	var. Amethyst	4.DA.05	SiO₂

List of minerals for each chemical element

O	Oxygen
O	ⓘ Quartz var. Amethyst	SiO₂
O	ⓘ Quartz	SiO₂
Si	Silicon
Si	ⓘ Quartz var. Amethyst	SiO₂
Si	ⓘ Quartz	SiO₂

Fossils

This region is too big to display the fossil list, try looking at smaller subregions.

References

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Personal experience over a period of 25 years of buying large quantities of amethyst, agate and other items in Soledade and other parts of Rio Grande do Sul [Rock Currier 2011]

Sauer, J.R. (1982) Brazil, Paradise of Gemstones. Gemological Institute of America, 135 pp. (pp. 82, 104).

Other Databases

Wikipedia:	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soledade
Wikidata ID:	Q1785706
GeoNames ID:	3447423

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Soledade, Rio Grande do Sul, BraziliRegional Level TypesSoledadeMunicipality Rio Grande do SulState BrazilCountry function showexplain() { $("#locexplain").toggle(); if (typeof movemap === "function") movemap(); }