New Finds from China!

A spectacular fluorite from Mt. Xuebaoding. This locality is best known for its scheelites and aquamarines, and while they are encountered considered to be something of a rarity, good fluorite is occasionally  encountered here as well. This one has a large, very clear cube perfectly positioned on a muscovite matrix. The edges and corners are super sharp, and there is a tabular aquamarine positioned beneath it.  The side crystal has damage,  the main one is nearly perfect, save one small, nearly invisible chip.

I have seen larger, colored fluorites from this locality in the past, but this is the best colorless one that I have personally seen.  Both its size and the degree of transparency (slightly blurred, but you can see to the muscovite beneath) make it stand out among the usually smaller, frosted, broken crystals that usually come from this location. Truly a top specimen from this locality!

A beautiful example of fluorite from Fujian, this one has a pair of sharp dodecahedral crystals aesthetically positioned on the top of a quartz covered matrix.  This is a recent find, as with most Chinese fluorite discoveries, they tend to come out in bulk at the beginning, but finding one without significant damage isn’t always easy—in this case it was even harder because nearly every one I saw from this find as dripping oil! These have wispy blue-purple phantoms inside… I thought this one was particularly nice. 

A beautiful blue fluorite from a recent pocket. This is very similar to the style that was found around 2018-19, though I find the color of this latest pocket to be somewhat more intense.  The larger ones tended to be somewhat jumbled and dark, and often had cleaves in unfortunate places. I purchased a number of them in order to get the relatively few that I am selecting for this update—namely those that are clean, and that don’t need excessive backlighting to appreciate. 

This crystal is mostly etched on the back, the natural thinness makes the internal features and colors more easy to appreciate.

A very large calcite twin from somewhere near Chenzhou.  While you see a lot of Butterly twins, and {1 1 1} twins on the C-axis, you don’t see many {01 2} twins this size from China. Some minor scuffs, but not easily seen due to the color of the crystal.

A nice, cabinet sized example of ram's horn selenite on matrix.  Shipping is a bit higher for this one! 

A beautiful example of calcite on a matrix covered by many small quartz crystals. These come from a recent find, I have seen examples up to a few feet long, though I felt these were more manageable! I have selected a few for this update that are particularly more visually well balanced and cleaner than most, and I also liked that these were a bit more translucent than the average!

A nice cubooctahedral fluorite from Manaoshan, This one is complete all around (etched on the bottom) and sitting on a bit of quartz. Not the most vivid color for these, and a bit frosted on the top-left,  but a good crystal nonetheless.

A large and very sharp group of magnetite crystals from Dongwu Qi, this mine is near the more prolific Huanggang Mine. I first saw this material around 15 years ago, at the time there were just a few isolated crystals, and I automatically assumed that they were from Huanggang-- many specimens were showing up from there on matrixes of small, highly etched magnetite dodecahedrons. It was only later that the actual locality for these large examples was revealed.

A beautiful blue fluorite from a recent pocket. This is very similar to the style that was found around 2018-19, though I find the color of this latest pocket to be somewhat more intense.  The larger ones tended to be somewhat jumbled and dark, and often had cleaves in unfortunate places. I purchased a number of them in order to get the relatively few that I am selecting for this update—namely those that are clean, and that don’t need excessive backlighting to appreciate. 

This one is a large plate, with a group of pleasantly scattered crystals on a white matrix that accentuates their color, surrounded on 3 sides by inky blue crystals. There is damage tot he edge cluster, though the isolated singles are clean.

A large and very sharp group of magnetite crystals with minor pink rhodonite, from Dongwu Qi, this mine is near the more prolific Huanggang Mine. I first saw this material around 15 years ago, at the time there were just a few isolated crystals, and I automatically assumed that they were from Huanggang-- many specimens were showing up from there on matrixes of small, highly etched magnetite dodecahedrons. It was only later that the actual locality for these large examples was revealed.

 Recently more of this material has been discovered, but as they tend to be somewhat tightly packed, it's often hard to get one that is satisfactorily complete, and sharpness is a bit of an issue. I purchased a group of these and picking a few for this update that I thought were better than most, those in turn were selected from many more that I didn't buy... As with all of these, they need a bit of special positioning to be appreciated (again, the sides often directly abutted other crystals) so finding one with a pleasant shape is a bit of a challenge. Still... I think these are quite good. 

Shipping is slightly higher for these

A beautiful blue fluorite from a recent pocket. This is very similar to the style that was found around 2018-19, though I find the color of this latest pocket to be somewhat more intense.  The larger ones tended to be somewhat jumbled and dark, and often had cleaves in unfortunate places. I purchased a number of them in order to get the relatively few that I am selecting for this update—namely those that are clean, and that don’t need excessive backlighting to appreciate. 

This one has a group of saturated crystals pleasantly arranged in a linear fashion on a nicely contrasting white matrix. 

A beautiful blue fluorite from a recent pocket. This is very similar to the style that was found around 2018-19, though I find the color of this latest pocket to be somewhat more intense.  The larger ones tended to be somewhat jumbled and dark, and often had cleaves in unfortunate places. I purchased a number of them in order to get the relatively few that I am selecting for this update—namely those that are clean, and that don’t need excessive backlighting to appreciate. 

This crystal is mostly etched on the back, the natural thinness makes the internal features and colors more easy to appreciate.

A beautiful blue fluorite from a recent pocket. This is very similar to the style that was found around 2018-19, though I find the color of this latest pocket to be somewhat more intense.  The larger ones tended to be somewhat jumbled and dark, and often had cleaves in unfortunate places. I purchased a number of them in order to get the relatively few that I am selecting for this update—namely those that are clean, and that don’t need excessive backlighting to appreciate. 

This one has a group of very glassy crystals on a nicely contrasting white matrix.  The color saturation and transparency really do make this one stand out. There is a bit of crud on the corner of the main crystal (a bit more visible in person) but no damage! Cleaves on the backs of some of the secondary ones, but I'd say that little bit of crud is the only detractor-- this this is so bright and saturate and glassy, it really stands out, even among the rest of these. 

A beautiful blue fluorite from a recent pocket. This is very similar to the style that was found around 2018-19, though I find the color of this latest pocket to be somewhat more intense.  The larger ones tended to be somewhat jumbled and dark, and often had cleaves in unfortunate places. I purchased a number of them in order to get the relatively few that I am selecting for this update—namely those that are clean, and that don’t need excessive backlighting to appreciate. 

A beautiful blue fluorite from a recent pocket. This is very similar to the style that was found around 2018-19, though I find the color of this latest pocket to be somewhat more intense.  The larger ones tended to be somewhat jumbled and dark, and often had cleaves in unfortunate places. I purchased a number of them in order to get the relatively few that I am selecting for this update—namely those that are clean, and that don’t need excessive backlighting to appreciate. 

A beautiful blue fluorite from a recent pocket. This is very similar to the style that was found around 2018-19, though I find the color of this latest pocket to be somewhat more intense.  The larger ones tended to be somewhat jumbled and dark, and often had cleaves in unfortunate places. I purchased a number of them in order to get the relatively few that I am selecting for this update—namely those that are clean, and that don’t need excessive backlighting to appreciate. 

This crystal is mostly etched on the back, the bit of natural thinness makes the internal features and colors more easy to appreciate.

A beautiful blue fluorite from a recent pocket. This is very similar to the style that was found around 2018-19, though I find the color of this latest pocket to be somewhat more intense.  The larger ones tended to be somewhat jumbled and dark, and often had cleaves in unfortunate places. I purchased a number of them in order to get the relatively few that I am selecting for this update—namely those that are clean, and that don’t need excessive backlighting to appreciate. 

This crystal is mostly etched/ complete crystals on the back, the natural thinness makes the internal features and colors more easy to appreciate.

The hilly area in between Gulin and Gongcheng has been known for producing pyromorphites for much of the last 25 years. Along with the green pyromorphite, other lead minerals including plumbogummite and (to a far lesser extent) cerussite have also been found. Most of the cerussite from this location tends form thin, easily broken crystals—there have been a few exceptions in the past (the chunky ~1 cm yellow crystals, the 2-3 cm tightly packed reddish snowflakes, both found many years ago), but generally speaking well crystalized examples are something of a rarity.  This is one of the better reticulated examples I have seen, not perfect (damage on the left) but still quite exceptional for a cerussite from this well known locality.   

A beautiful example of calcite on a matrix covered by many small quartz crystals. These come from a recent find, I have seen examples up to a few feet long, though I felt these were more manageable! I have selected a few for this update that are particularly more visually well balanced and cleaner than most, this one has a sharp and complete crystal positioned nicely in the center of its matrix!

A beautiful example of calcite on a matrix covered by many small quartz crystals. These come from a recent find, I have seen examples up to a few feet long, though I felt these were more manageable! I have selected a few for this update that are particularly more visually well balanced and cleaner than most, and I also liked that these were a bit more translucent than the average!

A nice single calcite from a recent find, there is one small edge chip.

A large and very sharp group of magnetite crystals from Dongwu Qi, this mine is near the more prolific Huanggang Mine. I first saw this material around 15 years ago, at the time there were just a few isolated crystals, and I automatically assumed that they were from Huanggang-- many specimens were showing up from there on matrixes of small, highly etched magnetite dodecahedrons. It was only later that the actual locality for these large examples was revealed.

Recently more of this material has been discovered, but as they tend to be somewhat tightly packed, it's often hard to get one that is satisfactorily complete, and sharpness is a bit of an issue. I purchased a group of these and picking a few for this update that I thought were better than most, those in turn were selected from many more that I didn't buy... As with all of these, they need a bit of special positioning to be appreciated (again, the sides often directly abutted other crystals) so finding one with a pleasant shape is a bit of a challenge. Still... I think these are quite good. 

A large and very sharp group of magnetite crystals with a bit of calcite, from Dongwu Qi, this mine is near the more prolific Huanggang Mine. I first saw this material around 15 years ago, at the time there were just a few isolated crystals, and I automatically assumed that they were from Huanggang-- many specimens were showing up from there on matrixes of small, highly etched magnetite dodecahedrons. It was only later that the actual locality for these large examples was revealed.

Recently more of this material has been discovered, but as they tend to be somewhat tightly packed, it's often hard to get one that is satisfactorily complete, and sharpness is a bit of an issue. I purchased a group of these and picking a few for this update that I thought were better than most, those in turn were selected from many more that I didn't buy... As with all of these, they need a bit of special positioning to be appreciated (again, the sides often directly abutted other crystals) so finding one with a pleasant shape is a bit of a challenge. Still... I think these are quite good.  Shipping is a little higher for this one!

A very odd magnetite from Dongwu Qi.  In the descriptions of other magnetites on this page I noted shape and sharpness issues-- this piece definitely has those to an extent, *but* there is a very cool tradeoff-- it has fluorite growing on it!  99% of what I have seen is just magnetite, occasionally there are bits of quartz, calcite or rhodonite associated, but this is the first time I have seen fluorite. I found just two of these, this was the better piece. It displays well from one side, but (like almost all of these) it grew side by side with other crystals, giving it a somewhat odd/incomplete shape from the sides-- in the interest of full disclosure there are two pictures that give some idea of what I mean.  The others are taken from the good side, with the crystal rotated. Still a really unusual example-- both for the side of the crystal, and the fluorite association! Shipping is a little higher for this one!

A very sharpmagnetite crystal from Dongwu Qi, this mine is near the more prolific Huanggang Mine. I first saw this material around 15 years ago, at the time there were just a few isolated crystals, and I automatically assumed that they were from Huanggang-- many specimens were showing up from there on matrixes of small, highly etched magnetite dodecahedrons. It was only later that the actual locality for these large examples was revealed.

Recently more of this material has been discovered, but as they tend to be somewhat tightly packed, it's often hard to get one that is satisfactorily complete, and sharpness is a bit of an issue. I purchased a group of these and picking a few for this update that I thought were better than most, those in turn were selected from many more that I didn't buy... As with all of these, they need a bit of special positioning to be appreciated (again, the sides often directly abutted other crystals) so finding one with a pleasant shape is a bit of a challenge. Still... I think these are quite good, and this one is exceptionally sharp!

A large plate of magnetite dodecahedrons from recent finds in Dongqu Qi. Not perfect, but a good example for the price, with reasonably sharp, salient crystals and decent overall form. Sawn back/sides

A beautiful blue fluorite from a recent pocket. This is very similar to the style that was found around 2018-19, though I find the color of this latest pocket to be somewhat more intense.  This is a beautiful thumbnail from the find, showing excellent zoning with minimal extra light needed.  The 2.3 cm dimension is a diagonal.

A beautiful blue fluorite from a recent pocket. This is very similar to the style that was found around 2018-19, though I find the color of this latest pocket to be somewhat more intense.  This is a beautiful thumbnail from the find, showing excellent zoning.  The 2.0 cm dimension is a diagonal.

A beautiful blue fluorite from a recent pocket. This is very similar to the style that was found around 2018-19, though I find the color of this latest pocket to be somewhat more intense.  This is a beautiful thumbnail from the find, on a bit of white colored matrix and showing excellent zoning.  As you can see on this piece, a lot of them are a bit thinner-- this one is on matrix but many others show a combination of natural etching, contact with a matrix-- this is what allows the internal colors and features to be better appreciated   The big chunky ones looked like crap unless you put a floodlight right behind them. The 2.3 cm dimension is a diagonal.