Welcome to the 2001 Sainte-Marie aux Mines Show!
 
 

 

Chinese Minerals

In the past two years there has been a large swell of very good quality material coming out China.  More care is being taken in the collection and handling of material resulting in many more attractive specimens reaching markets points at the major shows around the world.  While at Sainte-Marie I scrounged up the following specimens from various dealers at the show.

CF-01  $35.00 
Fluorite
6 x 3.5 x 3 cm
Xinjiang Mine
Hunan Province
China
 
 

Fine magenta colored cubic crystals of fluorite with dodecahedral modifications.

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John@TrinityMinerals.com

Magenta tinged crystals of fluorite with dodecahedral and cubic faces about equal in terms of habit.

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John@TrinityMinerals.com

Fine magenta colored cubic crystals of fluorite with dodecahedral modifications.

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John@TrinityMinerals.com

At first look this appears to be a run of the mill fluorite specimen from China.  Upon closer inspection a lot of characteristics come to light.  First, is a fine violet colored cubo-octahedral phantom.  Second, is a couple of wolframite crystals perched on the side and growing into the fluorite crystal.  Third, there are inclusions of scheelite which are evident under SW UV light.  Lastly, this specimen has 8 corners.  There is no damage to this crystal - just a cast of a quartz crystal that grew on the side of the fluorite crystal.   This crystal is perched on a partial quartz crystal.

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John@TrinityMinerals.com

This crystal also has fine phantom development as well as several included crystals of quartz and liquid and gas inclusions.  The habit is cubic with dodecahedral modifications.   Only one small on a corner.

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John@TrinityMinerals.com

Attractive cluster of aqua colored fluorite with violet color bands near the surface of teh crystals.  The quartz crystals are fully terminated without damage and light "frosted" with white dolomite crystals.  There is also a phantom in the quartz crystals of either dolomite or cookeite.  I can not tell which but you can clearly see it in the photo in the upper left hand corner.

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John@TrinityMinerals.com

2 cm crystal of violet tinged fluorite is attached to a partial crystal of quartz.   There is also a smaller fluorite crystal attached that is 0.7 cm across.

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John@TrinityMinerals.com

Disk shaped specimen without any contact point that I can find.  This specimen consists of violet colored, cubic crystals of fluorite to 1 cm across that are sprinkled with scheelite crystals to 2 mm on one side only. Sometimes you have to stop and wonder how things like this happen in nature!

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John@TrinityMinerals.com

I saw well over 500 specimens of the spessartines from China from this locality but found only this one and the one below with true orange crystals!  This is a very rare color comparatively from this locality.  The largest crystal is 0.6 cm across.  There are also about a dozen or so fully terminated crystals of dark smoky quartz.

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John@TrinityMinerals.com

I saw well over 500 specimens of the spessartines from China from this locality but found only this one and the one above with true orange crystals!  This is a very rare color comparatively from this locality.  The largest crystal is 3-4 mm across.  There are also about a half dozen or so fully terminated crystals of smoky quartz.

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John@TrinityMinerals.com

5.5 cm crystal of orange scheelite hosts two adjoined crystals of tabular aquamarine to 2.1 cm across.  No damage to the aquas.  The surface of the scheelite has been very lightly etched to produce the "sparkly" surface.

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John@TrinityMinerals.com

Aesthetic combination specimen of a 1.6 cm tabular beryl crystal wedged in between a 2.9 cm orange scheelite crystal and a 2 cm albite crystal.  No damage to this interesting specimen!

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John@TrinityMinerals.com

This interesting combination specimen has a lot going on!  Two fully terminated crystals of scheelite to 3 cm,  a 2.5 cm crystal of tabular aquamarine and wedged in between is a 1 cm cubic crystal of fluorite.   Lastly, there is a sprinkling of 1-2 mm quartz crystals which are only found on the beryl and scheelite.  No damage to any of the crystals on this very interesting rock!

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John@TrinityMinerals.com

I am not quite sure what to call this type of quartz as it looks like 4 crystals that grew end to end.  "Scepter wanna be" is probably the best I can come up with.  Anyway, it was too odd to leave on the table in one of the tents at the show.

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John@TrinityMinerals.com

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