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A pale yellow rhodizite-londonite crystal on matrix
A specimen of dark blue clinoclase crystals on matrix. No longer being found at this location.
A lustrous and terminated quartz crystals, from the early finds at the Huanggang Mine.
The main crystal shows the compound lateral faces that give Huanggang quartz its distinct, shimmering appearance, though the faces near the termination are smooth.
$265 $88
A cabinet specimen richly covered in bright green pyromorphite from the classic Caldbeck Fells area. Judging from the partial label glued to the reverse, I would guess it is quite old, too. The crystals appear to have formed in a fissure, meaning that many lack terminations.
$200 $110
A beautiful Daye calcite, featuring a terminated crystal with lustrous faces situated in the middle of its matrix. My show label has a $200 price tag on it... this is pretty cheap for what it is.
There is a bit of chipping on the right side of the crystal, though overall is exactly as shown.
I had two of these that I am putting on the clearance pages, one sold on the previous page, and this is the second one.
A rather unusual fluorite specimen from the Illinois fluorspar district, the color is lighter and it is far more etched than the typical specimen.
This piece is from one of the less well known fluorite occurrences in the area. At this location (actually more or a quarry) the fluorite was found at a much shallower depth than in the other mines.
Looks better in person.
The only specimens you can actually find these days are either from this locality, England (aggregates of micro crystals), or Germany (never on matrix.)
I recently found a flat of specimens from my trip to Bolivia 6 years ago.... this is one of those pieces.
| A cabinet specimen, consisting of a quartz-coated matrix that also hosts a number of red sphalerites. |
An old plate of malachite from the Rumb Jungle area, better known for its pyromorphites.
An old German pyromorphite from an unusual locality. The crystals are small, but given the nuber of pyromorphite collectors I have run into, I figure there should be some interest in this.
The mine closed in 1923.
A small ball of orpiment from Japan. Not large, but a cool locality piece.
A terminated prism of schorl tourmaline. The white bit on the termination is attached matrix.
A number of stilbite crystals on matrix, from Oregon.
(I'm guessing a lot of people will just see pictures, think "Oh, another Indian stilbite" and quickly scroll past.... but the piece is actually a bit interesting than that!)
A cabinet specimen of yellow fluorite from Spain. There are some rough calcites on the back. This is a slightly older piece, not from the last several years of production.
The appearance has a bit more depth (or perhaps three dimensionality?) than the usual thin plates.
A cabinet specimen, featuring two orbs, one of acicular okenite, and the other of gyrolite. This quarry is located on the outskirts of Mumbai, and along with many of the other quarries in the area, has been purchased by developers seeking to feed the never ending demand for housing in India's largest, and quickly growing city.
A cubic purple fluorite crystal, on a dolomite matrix. When most people think of specimens from Shangbao, what comes to mind are the step faced cubo-octahedrons, but this is a plain cube.
There is a bit of edge chipping, as visible in the pictures.
A rich specimen of malachite on matrix, from Chile. Although the the copper mines of the Atacama Desert rank among the world's foremost producers of copper, specimens are not often seen from the area, beyond the wholesale atacamite, of course.
A group of quartz crystals, colored a yellowish gray-green by hedenbergite inclusions and possible radiation damage. I purchased this piece separate from another large lot of the same material, so I"m posting it at cost.
There is a bit of damage, but still a very unique arrangement and very good for the price.
A thumbnail of classic Bunker Hill arsenian pyromorphite. There is a bit of damage, particularly on the left side of the specimen.
A thumbnail consisting of a cluster of hexagonal uvite crystals from brazil.
A group of stilbite bowties with pinkish heulandite on matrix.
A rare example of botryoidal anorpiment. They are always scuffed up, and this piece is no exception, though it is actually a bit better than most.
Anorpiment was officially recognized in 2011.
This locality and was featured in the March-April 2008 issue of the Mineralogical Record.
An ore matrix coated with hundreds of bright arsenopyrite crystals, from peru.
An odd, spray-like cluster of quartz from recent finds in Peru.
A terminated specimen of bicolred tourmaline. These days, many of these pastel colored specimens are being irradiated to make the colors more vivid.
So this is not the prettiest specimen, but it is a rather unusual example of Congolese azurite, consisting of a thumbnail sized nodule of the mineral.
For all the tons of malachite for the country—all the specimens, stalactites, carvings and boxes—one almost never sees azurite.
A cluster of cavansite crystals on matrix. There is a fair amount of cavansite, but given its position and a bit of edge damage, I would classify this as a reference piece. Still, it's pretty good for the price.
As an interesting side note, the quarry where cavansite is found is located in a huge complex containing several very large quarries. Cavansite and pentagonite have only been found in any appreciable quantity in part of one of those quarries, even though all are located within approximately 2 square kilometers of land.
A group of beta quartz scepters, with frosty, etched surfaces. There is a colorless fluorite crystal attached to the base.
Ilvaite: 3.7x 2.1x 2.1 cm
Arsenopyrite: 3.8x 2.8x 2.6 cm
Green Quartz: 4.1x 1.9x 2.1 cm
A group of 3 miniature specimens from recent finds at the Huanggang Mine- a green crystal of quartz included by hedenbergite, a cluster of arsenopyrite crystals, and a very lustrous thumbnail of ilvaite.
A cluster of large barite crystals from recent finds at the Linwood Mine. There is some edge wear, not all of it easily visible in the pictures.
The Linwood Mine has produced some of the country's finest (and certainly largest) barite crystals, though it had not received the same attention as Elk Creek (South Dakota), the various Colorado localities, or the Meikle Mine (Nevada).
A cabinet specimen with a coating of green overgrown by hundreds of small (and very bright) azurite crystals.
A cabinet sized group of amethyst crystals from North Carolina. The external sufaces and edges are mostly clean, but there are a fair amount of internal fractures. For the price though, I think it's a pretty good piece.
A colorless pair of intergrown fluorite crystals, with a bit of matrix.
A cluster of greenish hedenbergite crystals. The hedenbergite from this mine ranks along with the examples from Serifos, Dal"negorsk, Idaho, or any of the other major scarns.
These are actually reasonably common at the mine, but given that they are not the prettist things, they are not recovered as often as the fluorite or quartz (that is the same reason you see so little datolite available for sale from this location)
A thumbnail specimen of andorite from finds several years ago at the San Jose Mine. Andorite is a rare lead, silver, antimony sulfosalt.
A brown apatite crystal attached to a calcite cleavage rhomb.
A reference example of microcline from Argentina.
A siderite rhomb from Mt. Sant Hillaire. There is a natural crack through the middle, and it's a bit rougher but it's a decent reference.
An almost stalactitic cluster of galena from the lead mining districts of Missouri.
A few cuprites on a chrysocolla coated matrix. Please note that the crystals are a dark metallic brown, NOT RED. The red color in the pictures results from the intense lighting used during photography.
A cluster of smithsonite crystals from Tsumeb. The color is somewhere between tan and colorless.
A nice, lustrous cluster of colorless fluorite crystals, from recent finds at the Huanggang Mine.
A cluster of lustrous arsenopyrite from the early days of production at Huanggang. These aresenopyries are no longer being found. This is a decent miniature example.
A specimen of veeery light pink kurnohorite from the Kalahari manganese fields.
A couple clusters of barite crystals on a quartz matrix, from Germany. Older material.
A cluster of arsenopyrite crystals on matrix, from the Yaogangxian mine. Several years ago, these were everywhere, but now they are a bit harder to find.
A lustrous and terminated rutile crystal on matrix. There is a crack running vertically through the crystal.
A group of etched quartz crystals with some arsenopyrites clinging to their sides. This was one of the first types of material to be recovered from the now-prolific Huanggang Mines.
A rare Chinese adamite specimen, with an exposed vug lined with very pale yellow adamite crystals. This is from the one-time find made several years ago. It looks just like Mina Ojuela, except the color is lighter-- and I had it shipped to me from China.
Very rare material, and I would imagine of interest to collectors if Chinese minerals.
This is a very interesting specimen, consisting of a crystalline galena matrix hosting a l ball of siderite and a couple small pseudomorphs of pyrite after pyrrhotite, directly above it. Damage free.
A thumbnail specimen of crystalline bismuth from China. Most of the bismuth I see for sale comes from Bolivia (rounded nuggets like the previous specimens), Australia, Canada, or classic pieces from Germany.
The Chinese specimens are not seen quite as often.
An cluster of aragonite crystals that have pseudomorphed to copper. The area has been leased by a Korean mining firm, so fewer of these are being found.
A specimen of elongated wulfenite with small amounts of dark green mimetite, from Mina Ojuela.
An older cluster of sharp barite crystals from Georgia, in the Southern USA. Due to subsurface inclusions on one side of the specimen, it looks brownish on one side, and grayish blue on the other.
A group of hedenbergite included quartz crystals on matrix. There is some damage.
A cluster of lustrous, terminated quartz crystals.
A group of bournonite-coated tetrahedrite crystals
Operations at this mine were once much larger in scale, though key parts of the site were blown up by Shining Path guerillas in the early 1990's. The site was then abandoned until the specimen recovery project in 2008
