3.1" Colorful Cubic Fluorite Crystals with Phantoms - Yaogangxian Mine

Colorful Cubic Fluorite Crystals with Phantoms - Yaogangxian Mine #217406

This is a stunning cluster of cubic fluorite crystals with purple outer phantoms, underlying blue-green phantoms, and gorgeous purple cores. 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 crystals exhibits a purple fluorescence throughout, with vibrant fluorescent phantoms along the edges just beneath the exterior, and spots of red-orange fluorescence that are likely caused by inclusions or impurities.

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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