1.3" Colorful Cubic Fluorite Crystal with Phantoms - Yaogangxian Mine

This is a stunning fluorite crystal with a purple outer phantom, a blue-green center phantom, and gorgeous purple core. The underside of this specimen is encrusted in small yellow calcite crystals. It was collected from the Yaogangxian Mine in the Hunan Province of China. A unique characteristic of this fluorite is that under short-wave ultraviolet light, the crystal exhibits a purple fluorescence throughout, with a vibrant fluorescent phantom along the edges just beneath the exterior, and a spot of orange fluorescence that's likely caused by an inclusion.

This specimen has been mounted to an acrylic display base with mineral tack.

The Yaogangxian mine is a tungsten-tin deposit in the Nanling Mountains of Hunan, China. The mine field is about 4 x 2.5 kliometers (2.5 x 1.5 miles) and includes two primary deposits: the Yaogangxian quartz vein-type tungsten-tin deposit, and the Heshangtan skarn-type tungsten-tin deposit.

The Yaogangxian deposit (with minor greisen-style mineralization) has been mined since 1914 and hosts minor copper, tungsten, silver, lead, zinc, and bismuth minerals. The Heshangtan deposit has been mined since the 1960s and hosts a variety of associated silver ores. Both of these deposits are a result of the Mesozoic Yaogangxian pluton, composed of biotite-granite, porphyritic granite and quartz porphyry, which intruded into Cambrian-Devonian sediments and Jurassic limestones.

A variety of high quality mineral specimens are collected from this site. Some of the most popular minerals include arsenopyrite, bismuthinite, manganese-bearing calcite (manganocalcite), chalcopyrite, ferberite, fluorite, hübnerite, molybdenite, pyrite, rhodochrosite, siderite, stibnite, topaz, and tungstite.


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DETAILS
SPECIES
Fluorite & Calcite
LOCATION
Yaogangxian Mine, Yaogangxian W-Sn ore field, Yizhang Co., Hunan, China
SIZE
Entire specimen: 1.3" wide
CATEGORY
SUB CATEGORY
ITEM
#217394