.7" Gemmy Spessartine Garnets on Smoky Quartz - China

The Wushan Spessartine Mine is located in the Fujian Province of China and is known for the dazzling spessartine garnet and smoky quartz associations it produces. The garnets are often vibrant orange to deep red in color, and can sometimes be found completely encrusting smoky quartz crystals. Often these specimens are found on microcline feldspar matrices littered in biotite aggregations. In some cases, fluorite, topaz, and helvite can be found with these specimens, depending on the locality they were collected from.

The two main collecting sites include Tongbei, a small village southwest of Yunxiao, and Yunling, in Zhangpu County. Both sites are located about 19 miles apart from each other: Tongbei is the only site where topaz and helvine are found associated with the garnets and smoky quartz. Specimens with fluorite are from the Yunling site.

These mineral associations occurred as a result of intrusive granitic rocks at the site of subduction of the Paleo-Pacific Plate, under the Eastern Block of the North China Block.