Mixed Chinese Minerals!
A selection of mixed minerals, all but a couple from China. There are a few very interesting things in this update from 10-15 years ago, most notably a spectacular Chinese silver and a small group of minerals from Piaotang, including a few Chinese euclase specimens from a one-time find.
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A spectacular silver from China. At nearly 6 inches, on matrix (!) and with numerous calcites clinging to the wires, it’s the best one I’ve had the opportunity to see in person. I saw this in a shop and had to have the thing—and if no one buys it, this is one I will happily keep. This piece comes from a find made between 10 and 15 years ago; what sets it apart (size aside) is the sprinkling of calcites and the arrangement of the wires—the wires seemingly run through scores of little calcite crystals, making for a very delicate and unusual display. The main, focal wire rises high above the rest of the piece.
It wouldn’t have made sense to buy it at the asking price,
but we got a little lucky—the seller was a friend of my wife’s grandfather (who
was also a mineral dealer) so he gave it to us for something more reasonable than
what he had asked the big dealers who inquired (we saw the messages).
I tried to write a good description, but perhaps my verbosity
was beaten by a comment on Instagram: “A brillo pad on acid”
To get a better sense of the piece, a video can be seen here:
A vivid pink cobaltoan calcite from Congo, something of a
fluke too. In recent years there has been an influx of wholesale material with
smaller crystals, but the bigger ones haven’t been encountered since the 80’s.
I’m sure there is some good geological reason for the scarcity, but the bottom
line is, the big ones don’t come out.
This piece was one of two crystals (the other is peach colored) that
miraculously turned up with a big lot of decorative malachite—its considerably
more transparent than the ones from the 80’s, with much better luster… and of
course it has that vivid pink color that only a Congolese cobaltoan calcite
could have.
A large “pagoda” calcite from Daye. This one has very
interesting zoning, with half being reddish and half being colorless. This is
such an iconic habit from Daye, I’ve been wanting to find one for a long time but
it’s so hard to find pieces where there isn’t a big piece missing front and
center. Given the violence of blasting and extraction, risks during transport, and
combined with the general cleavability of calcite and the knife-thin edges of
these in particular, its not easy to find a good one!
A rare chinese euclase specimen from a one-time find made in
2010. I came across a guy who lives near Piaotang, he actually still had a few.
A video can be seen here:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCk0vFvySuO/
A rich, large cabinet specimen of very gemmy analcime
crystals on matrix, from an older find at the Daye Mine. From most locations,
analcime tends to be white—gemmy crystals are somewhat rare.
With the transparency of the crystals, it is a bit hard to get a good sense of the specimen. A video can be seen here-- you can really see how sparkly the thing is:
A very beautiful calcite from Daye, showcasing the successive
generations of calcite growths that make specimens from this mine so
distinctive.
This one has two main crystals on a matrix covered with smaller ones, the initial growths are reddish, and are partially enclosed by a later generation of colorless calcite in such a way that leaves a “window” open to see the earlier, red calcite beneath it.
A rich, large cabinet specimen of very gemmy analcime
crystals on matrix, from an older find at the Daye Mine. From most locations,
analcime tends to be white—gemmy crystals are somewhat rare.
With the transparency of the crystals, it is admittedly a bit difficult to get a sense of the piece form the pictures, this video does a better job:
A beautiful, very gemmy sphalerite on matrix covered with small quartz crystals. The gemminess is hard to capture in the photographs, but if you click on the video link below, you can see how it looks when it catches the light correctly—in the video I wasn’t even holding it up to the sunlight, and it was already late evening
Minor scuffs, as is usually the case, but overall in good
condition and sits very well on its matrix.
Video here: (you will see, it's much better than the pictures can show)
A very cute calcite from Daye, showcasing the successive generations
of calcite growths that make specimens from this mine so distinctive.
For all the vast quantities of material that China has produced
over the last three decades, one otherwise common mineral that it has not
produced in appreciable quantities is galena. This piece comes from a recent
find in Jiangxi Province, and has bright cubes and chalcopyrite tetrahedrons
scattered on a quartz matrix. We saw one lot of this material and picked up a
few, but this was my favorite.
A rare chinese euclase specimen from a one-time find made in
2010. Exceptionally rich for the species, even the matrix seems to be largely enclose. I came across a guy who lives near Piaotang, he actually still had a few.
A video gives a better sense of the piece:
A rare chinese euclase specimen from a one-time find made in 2010. I came across a guy who lives near Piaotang, he actually still had a few.
This is a miniature sized cluster of crystals, with a couple
particularly gemmy ones on either side that catch the light and pop out more.
To get a better sense of the piece, see the video here:
A very pretty formation of grayish quartz crystals, backed
on one side by numerous white calcites that also visually frame them when viewed
from the front. If you look closely, there is a thin layer of pyrite between
the quartz and the calcite.
A very unusual specimen from Qinlong. While the QR code
fluorite, creedite and gypsum from here get most of the attention, the mine does also produce a
number of rare minerals and mineralogical oddities. This one seems to be a
pseudomorph of fluorite after barite—there’s no barite left but you can very
clearly see the rhombus-shaped outlines where the barite crystals used to be… only now
they’re purple and made up of many smaller, rounded fluorites. Not perfect but really cool, and I felt too
unusual to pass up.
As you can see, it looks very different in each of the pictures--a video can be seen here:
I love posting weird Yindu fluorites, this one (despite some nicks) made the cut. The core is a pink octahedron—you cannot see the pink from the front but from the contact behind you can see the color. This got overgrown by some white material (quartz maybe?) and dark purple fluorite crystalized over the (now white) octahedron, leaving some of it still visible as a white phantom within the cube. The final bit of growth on the outermost part of the cube is colorless.
I really do not consider these to be “phantoms”— some of these
specimens from Yindu contain completely formed fluorite crystals included in later
growths of fluorite. Few illustrate that
better than this one—while others contain internal features that are equally
sharp, this one has an internal crystal *with that white powdery coating* who's presence clearly shows that the pink fluorite first finished growing, sat there long
enough for some other mineral to come and completely cover it, then more fluorite
crystalized over it. This is in contrast to “phantoms” that typically result from
varying levels of color-causing impurities in the fluids *during* growth (which
is why they usually look like concentric bands.)
A video can be seen here:
An old thumbnail sized specimen of fluorite from the Piaotang Mine, in Jiangxi Province. These specimens are around 15 years old, the mine produced a bit before 2010 but there has been almost nothing from there since.
This one is a group of very transparent crystals, on matrix.
An old thumbnail sized specimen of fluorite from the Piaotang
Mine, in Jiangxi Province. These specimens are around 15 years old, the mine
produced a bit before 2010 but there has been almost nothing from there since.
This one has nicely arranged, sharp cubes with purple phantoms and a slight frosty overgrowth, on a quartz matrix.
An interesting specimen from a recent find—in my last update
I posted examples of dolomite with chalcopyrite, but the same location recently
produced these dolomite/malachite combinations. The dolomite crystals are quite
large for the species, we purchased a small batch but felt that this was the
best one—not as flashy as the dolomite/chalcopyrites but quite an unusual
combination.
A very aesthetically arranged specimen, consisting of a cluster
of dark green fluorite crystals, backed by flattened, hexagonal calcites that
also frame the upper and side edges of the fluorite cluster. Some damage on the lower area, put this
in a custom base and not only would that be hidden, but it would look like a 4
figure specimen. Kind of reminds me of a sunflower.
An interesting calcite from Daye, showcasing the successive generations
of calcite growths that make specimens from this mine so distinctive.
This one is a twined scalenohedron with a matte overgrowth, with a later generation of lustrous calcite growing around the edges.
A great miniature sized specimen specimen of very gemmy analcime
crystals on matrix, from an older find at the Daye Mine. From most locations,
analcime tends to be white—gemmy crystals are somewhat rare.
Due to the transparency, it might be a bit hard to see in the pictures-- a video can be seen here:
I consider Daye to be the capital of Chinese calcite—few locations
either in China or abroad produce as much of it, though for all that vast
output, this style of twin remains somewhat rare. I usually only see a few on every
trip, this time I came across a few more-- this one has a twin with an unusually sharp termination, backed by a cluster of white/reddish-brown scalenohedrons.
A richt specimen of very gemmy analcime crystals on matrix, from an older find at the Daye Mine. From most locations, analcime tends to be white—gemmy crystals are somewhat rare.
Due to the transparency, it is a bit difficult to get a sense of the specimen from the pictures-- in many places you just see clear through the analcime to the underlying matrix. A video can be seen here:
If you follow this website, you may know I like unusual
specimens. I thought this was kind of special—a *crystalized* chalcocite from Daye. This is not the first
time Chalcocite has been encountered there, about 10 years ago there was a
discovery that many of you may recall of stalactitic chalcocite, coated with iridescent (usually bluish) djurleite. But this is the first time I have seen actual crystals—they’re not
big, but I thought it was significant for the location. I mean, 2600 years+ of
producing copper and iron ore and I haven’t seen any saved elsewhere….
On a semi-unrelated note, it is quite awing to visit a place where the have been people working the same industry for that long—I’ve visited a couple 500 year old mines in Latin America, but when you stop and think about just how long this has been going on—and consider that there are still quite refined artifacts lingering from those earlier times (produced from the products of those ores) it is quite humbling.
A video can be seen here:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCk1fSYSMZc/
A reference sample of *crystalized* chalcocite from Daye. I thought this was kind of special—although this is not the first
time Chalcocite has been encountered there (about 10 years ago there was a
discovery stalactitic chalcocite), this is the first time I have seen actual crystals. They’re not
big, but I thought it was significant for the location. I mean, 2600 years+ of
producing copper and iron ore and I haven’t seen any saved elsewhere….
A rare chinese euclase specimen from a one-time find made in 2010. I came across a guy who lives near Piaotang, he actually still had a few. This is a nice reference sample from the find, composed mostly of euclase with one particularly well formed crystal off to the right.
A video can be seen here:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCk1Zn1SUyk/
