Mixed Minerals from China!

An example of fluorite from what has to be my favorite pocket of fluorite from Yindu so far. I am not sure when exactly this was found, but I haven't seen too many examples of this material. Like all pieces from this pocket, it has light blue, cubic crystals containing very sharp octahedral phantoms. Given how sharp the internal octahedrons are, and how clearly you can even see the cubic modifications on the edges, I think it would even be fair to call these fluorite included fluorite.  

A nice example of fluorite on quartz from the Shangbao Mine.  These modified cuboocatehedrons with stepped faces are probably one of the more distinct and sought after of the various Chinese fluorite habits, with the output always having been somewhat low. The crystals on this one are light blue with purple cores, the orange color comes from iron oxide inclusions-- this was after all originally a pyrite mine.  Saw marks on the reverse.

A nice cabinet sized specimen hosting numerous hexagonal, "barrels" of pyromorphite that have mostly pseudomorphed to light blue plumbogummite. There were numerous different habits of this material discovered, the first ones had large crystals (in some cases up to 3 inches) of pseudomorphed pyromorphite, but I find that the bigger the crystals, the more etched they tend to be. Personally, I'm more partial to the smaller sharp ones that more clearly display the original form. 

A particularly vibrant example of this material, this specimen has numerous  "barrels"of pyromorphite that have pseudomorphed to blue plumbogummite to varying extents. The end result is a beautiful contrast of blue with green, on a gossan matrix. I obtained a large lot of this material, this was one of the ones that really stood out to me. 

A very pretty example of a sharp purplish blue fluorite crystal on matrix with quartz, from the prolific Yaogangxian Mine. You can see whisky phantoms and bits of some hairy sulfide (jamesonite? boulangerite?) included in the main fluorite crystal.

An unusual calcite from Yunnan, I've seen these described as "mushroom calcites" for their obvious resemblance to shelf mushrooms that grow on the sides of dead trees and stumps. I'm not sure exactly how these form, but it seems that unlike various stalactitic growths from the area with grow in running water, these grew in a spot where the water level stayed constant for a while, allowing the calcite to crystalize outwardly in concentric circles. I purchased a small lot of these, my two favorites are on this page (this is the largest one.)

Another mushroom-looking calcite, this one looking less like a shelf mushroom and more like the standard fungi you old see sprouting out of the grass. The resemblance is uncanny-- and it is also *not* repaired. Most of the more interesting stalactitic growths I have encountered in the market here tend to have breaks, usually just below the top portions, this one was luckily intact.

A very rich specimen hairy, bright blue cyanotrichite on matrix from the Dachang Polymetalic Orefield. Matted in a couple areas, but stallion better condition than most. Interestingly, if you look closely you will see small lighter colored balls scattered in the main field of blue-- they appear to be a later generation of cyanotrichite growing over the original one. It doesn't really add or detract anything, but I did think that was quite interesting!

A nice elongated example of green fluorite, crystallized over an earlier generation of matte purple fluorite. 

So I usually just ignore these "cave calcite" formations from Yunnan, but I came across a few that I thought were worth posting-- the 3 others on this page resemble mushrooms of one sort or another, this one very distinctly looks like a small pine tree, or (with it's thick trunk) a bonsai.

A nice sample of calcite with stibnite crystals running through them-- it seems there was a loosely packed group of stibnites in this particualar pocket, then at some point the calcites started growing around them, trapping some within while not fully enclosing them.  This is from a find made several years ago. 

A pretty purple fluorite crystal on a flat plate of muscovite crystals that is shared by a small arsenopyrite. The side crystal is cleaved on the bottom, though as you can see this displays well from multiple angles. 

A nice, coiled selenite growth from China, I have left the stand and my fingers in the pictures to try and give some sense of how the piece is oriented. These are typically described a "ram's horns" but this one is somewhat  longer and and more zig-zaggy, so I didn't feel that the term was quite suitable. 

A very crisp example of a tabular calcite sitting nicely on top of its matrix. This fluoresces pink under UV light. 

A nice example of pyromorphite pseudomorphed by plumbogumite, to varying extents. That fact that. both species are still present on the specimen makes for a beautiful contrast between the blu and green, in this case accentuated by the mostly white matrix.  I think the color is closest to the actual in the photo with the black background, but most of the photos use a white background as this shows the outline of the specimen better.

A nice example of calcite from the Leaping Mine, in Hunan Province. While most of the better ones from here a V-shaped twins, this one is more of an X (or "+" depending on how you orient it). There is some chipping present, photographed from the front and back.  The 5.3 cm dimension is the longest diagonal. 

A nice example of purple fluorite on matrix from Yaogangxian. 

A pair of colorless scalenohedral calcite crystals, perched on a. white matrix. A bit different from the usual Chinese calcites, firstly because they are colorless scalenohedrons (the scalenoghedrons almost always seem to have some inclusions or trace elements that cause coloration) and secondly because they are somewhat distinct and not jumbled together.  

A nice example of pyromorphite that's been pseudomorphed by blue plumbogummite. This one a numerous crystals situated in a vug.  

A playfully shaped "rocket" with a central quartz crystal flanked by two calcite crystals, one of the calcites has a contact on the back. 

A beautiful example of spessartine garnet on smoky quartz, from Tongbei.  I remember going to Tucson around 2003-2004 when the discovery first hit the market and seeing Chinese dealers with tables covered with this material, and under the tables were piles of flats filled with more of this material. Alas, like most once abundant minerals, production eventually stops and the specimens disappear into collections. This is a rather nice miniature, with a terminated, transparent quartz crystal  and brightly colored garnets. You still see a fair amount of this material around here in China, but more often than not there is soothing wrong with it-- a chip in the wrong place, no quartz (just feldspar) ugly etching on the quartz, etc....

An unusual (and rather large, for a single) azurite crystal from China.  When I saw this I couldn't quite nail down the locality, and the when I heard the general locality it made sense-- while the bulk of presently available specimens come from Anhui Province (the geodes lined with tiny crystals) and you sometimes see the older ball-shaped clusters from Guangdong, this one comes from Hubei. This is an older piece and comes from somewhere around Daye. If you think about it, it's actually kind of odd that there *isn't* more azurite from here-- this is one of the world's oldest copper mining districts, with mines in the area having been worked for thousands of years and even supplying the raw materials that went into some of the ancient Chinese bronze works, and yet you don't see much of this (otherwise fairly common) copper mineral from here. 

An older calcite from the Leiping Area, while most of what you see today tend to be twins, there were also finds of these pillar-like crystals made many years ago. This is a hard to find example of this old style of Leiping calcite, likely attributable to the 884 Mine. There are some edge chips, including on the termination-- it's a bit more apparent in person than in the pictures (white on white) but I do think this is a good price for one of these old pieces. 

A chunky, curved selenite growth on a bit of matrix, the matrix has a slight purple hue due to the presence of either fluorite or creedite (I'm guessing the former.) This general habit is often described as a "ram's horn" but given the lack of spiraling and the shape/position of the growth, I really do think this one looks like a frozen wave-- even down to the little projections on the tip of the selenite. 

So while buying these ugly things is the sort of questionable business decision I too often make, I really do like mineralogical oddities.  In the past I have seen hedenbergite crystals covered with andradite, I've also seen some that may or may not have been pseudomorphs  I couldn't see the insides to verify)-- but this is the first time I have seen these open epimorphs.  They retain the general prismatic shape of the hedenbergite crystals they one contained, only they are composed entirely of andradite dodecahedrons. 

A very cool mineralogical oddity from Huanggang, there is a lot of andradite from this mine, usually just plates and masses of crystals-- but I thought these stood out.  There is a bit of damage on the front left edge, but I particularly like the boxy-ness on this one-- particularly the way you can see the geometric, step-like form of the (now gone) hedenbergite crystals in back of the cast. 

A very cool mineralogical oddity from Huanggang, there is a lot of andradite from this mine, usually just plates and masses of crystals-- but I thought these stood out.  I particularly like the boxy-ness on this one. 

A very cool mineralogical oddity from Huanggang, there is a lot of andradite from this mine, usually just plates and masses of crystals-- but I thought these stood out. This one is more open, and shows the outline of the original hedenbergite cluster quite well. 

A very cool mineralogical oddity from Huanggang, there is a lot of andradite from this mine, usually just plates and masses of crystals-- but I thought these stood out. This one has some damage on the front left edge, but very clearly shows the original shape of the hedenbergite crystals it once contained. 

A very cool mineralogical oddity from Huanggang, there is a lot of andradite from this mine, usually just plates and masses of crystals-- but I thought these stood out.  This one is larger but a bit fatter-- if you position it sideways a bit you can clearly see the outline of a cluster of boxy hedenbergite crystals that were once contained within. Interestingly there also seem to be a couple stalactitic projections of andradite within the epimorph. 

A very beautiful, thumbnail-sized cluster of fluorite crystals from a pocket hit a couple months ago at the Yindu Mine.  These have deep purple cores surrounded by light green cubes. 

A very beautiful, thumbnail-sized fluorite crystal from a pocket hit a couple months ago at the Yindu Mine.  These have deep purple cores surrounded by light green cubes. 

A very beautiful, thumbnail-sized fluorite crystal from a pocket hit a couple months ago at the Yindu Mine.  These have deep purple cores surrounded by light green cubes. 

A very beautiful, thumbnail-sized pair of fluorite crystals from a pocket hit a couple months ago at the Yindu Mine.  These have deep purple cores surrounded by light green cubes. 

A nice thumbnail-sized example of pyrrhotite from the Yindu Mine.  While I have focused primarily on the (more marketable) fluorites in my past updates, the mine also produces a number of other species, including calcite, chalcopyrite (rounded tetrahedrons up to 3 inches) and pyrrhotite.  I would say the pyrrhotite specimens are perhaps second only to Dal'Negork, though I think the way they usually tend to form clusters or be removed from the matrix with unsightly edges makes them a bit less appreciated.

A nice thumbnail-sized molybdenite from China.  I've seen molybenites from China for the last ~13 years, but until this discovery, they had almost exclusively been larger, flat crystals, usually lying flat against their matrix or projecting outward from an one of it's edges.  This discovery somewhere in Guangxi has more pleasantly chunky ones-- they look almost identical to the old pieces from Tae-Wha or Woㄹak. 

A rich specimen of cuprite from the recent discovery at Chengmenshan.  The one has a display face hosting hundreds of metallic cuprite octahedrons, on a copper/iron rich matrix. With strong lighting you get a bit of redness, but for the most part what you see is metallic. 

A rich specimen of cuprite from the recent discovery at Chengmenshan.  The one has a display face hosting hundreds of metallic cuprite octahedrons, on a copper/iron rich matrix. With strong lighting you get a bit of redness, but for the most part what you see is metallic.