A large and lustrous barite specimen from recent finds at the Xiefang Mine, I'd say quite impressive as contemporary finds of this abundant species go.
Virtually none are perfect and these are no exception, with that said I tried to pick pieces that were in better shape-- the main thing on this one is a broken crystal on the lower center. Still, given the size it's in much better shape than most-- typically these are heavily oiled to hide any issues, but I purchased these right after they had been brought back from the mine and cleaned. With the last major find from Xiefang (<1.5 cm barites on green fluorite), I stubbornly waited to find a "perfect" one and only ended up getting a single miniature, despite inspecting many hundreds. So this time I'm being more realistic. And it's also worth noting-- these was purchased as part of a rather large lot, I picked a small number that I felt were a bit nicer for this update. And in this size range, you would have a very hard time finding better.
And with that said, these are really good barites-- a comparison to the classic Miekle Mine, Nevada pieces would not be out of order, though I feel these exchange a bit of transparency for better color. And of course, there is the association with the underlying botryoidal barite (which is more visible on some than others) though under all the barites. This is large and heavy, shipping will be a bit higher for this one