Garnet spessartine from Wushan Spessartine Mine, Fujian: orange to red-orange crystals in miarolitic granite, prized for luster, color, and dramatic crystal ar…
Key facts
The garnet that made the Wushan Spessartine Mine name famous is spessartine: orange to red-orange Mn-rich garnet, usually in small but intensely lustrous trapezohedral crystals, set against cream-white feldspar and smoky quartz. The best pieces have a look collectors recognize instantly: black to tea-brown quartz points rising from pale microcline, with bright mandarin garnets scattered over the lower prism faces or carpeting the matrix like embers on snow.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons / Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com
Mineralogically, this is miarolitic granite material from the Tongbei area near Yunxiao, in coastal Fujian. The specimens come from cavities in granitic rocks, where late-stage fluids deposited feldspar, smoky quartz, spessartine, muscovite, helvine, topaz, opal-AN and other pocket minerals. The locality sits within the broader southeastern China belt of Cretaceous granitic plutons, a geological setting that produced a remarkable run of miarolitic mineral specimens rather than an ordinary metal-ore mine.
The name “Wushan Spessartine Mine” is now fixed in the mineral trade, but it is not a simple mine name in the traditional sense. The best evidence points to numerous small workings, granite quarries, and collecting sites around Tongbei and nearby granitic bodies rather than one neatly bounded specimen mine. That ambiguity is part of the locality’s history: early material was misattributed in the trade before Fujian and Yunxiao became accepted as the correct region.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons / Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com
Collectors pursue Wushan spessartine for the combination, not just the species. A single isolated garnet from the locality may be attractive, but the classic specimen is architectural: garnets selectively peppering smoky quartz, garnets forming sparkling crusts over blocky feldspar, or garnets associated with rarer companions such as helvine, fluorite, topaz, muscovite, opal-AN or beryl. Fine pieces are judged on color, luster, transparency, placement, contrast, and preservation of delicate quartz tips and garnet faces.
Search for specimens: View all garnet specimens from Wushan Spessartine Mine, Fujian, China
The locality is recorded as Wushan Spessartine Mine, Tongbei, Yunxiao County, Zhangzhou, Fujian, China, with coordinates near 23.90611 N, 117.19806 E. In Chinese locality usage the name appears as 乌山锰铝榴石矿, 通北, 云霄县, 漳州市, 福建省, 中国. The collector locality lies around Tongbei and Wushan, near Yunxiao, in a humid subtropical part of southeastern coastal China.
Geologically, the specimens are products of granitic miarolitic cavities rather than a conventional orebody. Wushan belongs to the southeastern China granitic province, where Cretaceous granites were emplaced in a tectonic setting linked to the Paleo-Pacific plate system. The Wushan, Jingangshan and related granitic plutons of coastal Fujian are aluminous A-type granites; the miarolitic pockets in these rocks provided the open spaces in which feldspar, smoky quartz and spessartine could crystallize freely.
The collecting story is complicated because “Wushan Spessartine Mine” became a market name for a group of occurrences. Specimens came from two or three principal areas: Tongbei near Yunxiao, Shuijingping in Yunxiao County, and the Yunling/Shiliu area in Zhangpu County, depending on the source and naming scheme used. The Tongbei-Wushan material is the classic trade reference, and most collectors use “Wushan” as shorthand for these Fujian spessartine-quartz-feldspar combinations.
The earliest Chinese spessartine specimens of this visual type appeared on the mineral market in 1998, at first reportedly labeled as Lechang, Guangdong. By late 2001, dealers began giving Fujian as the true province and Yunxiao as the nearest large place name. The locality quickly became one of the signature Chinese specimen discoveries of the late 1990s and early 2000s, because the pieces were abundant enough to reach the global market yet distinctive enough to be recognized across a room.
Mining and collecting were tied closely to granite extraction. The cavities were exposed in granite workings, and specimen recovery developed around those exposures. Later locality notes report that Wushan is now a protected national park and that collecting from exposed granite there is prohibited. Production from the Tongbei mine area is reported to have ceased in 2016; modern supply is therefore dominated by older stock, recirculated collection pieces, and occasional specimens from dealers rather than regular fresh production.
Notable finds include classic plates of orange spessartine on microcline, garnet-coated smoky quartz crystals, smoky quartz crystals reaching cabinet size, rare spessartine with fluorite, and uncommon helvine-bearing combinations. Tongbei material is especially associated with helvine and topaz, while fluorite is more characteristic of the broader Fujian spessartine field and particularly important when present in fine Wushan-labeled specimens.
Wushan garnet is spessartine, Mn3Al2(SiO4)3, generally orange, reddish orange, cinnamon-orange, mandarin-orange, or dark cherry-red. The classic crystals are small, sharp, glassy, and highly lustrous. The dominant habit is trapezohedral, commonly modified by dodecahedral faces; striated faces are frequent and are part of the locality’s character under magnification.
The most desirable crystals are typically only a few millimeters across. Published descriptions and specimen records repeatedly emphasize crystals around 1 to 5 mm, with fine examples reaching 6 to 7 mm and exceptional larger crystals around 1 cm or slightly more. The smaller garnets are often the liveliest: transparent to translucent, strongly lustrous, and intensely colored. Larger crystals can become darker, cloudier, duller, or more opaque, so size alone is not a reliable quality measure at this locality.
Matrix is central to the identity of the locality. Most classic specimens show spessartine on cream-white to pale microcline, commonly with smoky quartz. Early descriptions sometimes called the feldspar orthoclase, but later locality corrections note that the feldspar associated with the spessartine is microcline. Feldspar crystals may be blocky or tabular, and near-surface pockets can show kaolinization, producing the pale, chalky or clay-altered matrix seen on many specimens.
Smoky quartz is the most important companion mineral. It occurs as lustrous dark brown to nearly black crystals, sometimes in sculptural groups, and records note crystals up to about 30 cm. Garnets may be scattered at the bases of quartz prisms, densely clustered along quartz faces, or peppered across the feldspar between quartz crystals. Pieces with undamaged quartz terminations and well-spaced garnet accents command strong collector attention because the contrast is so dramatic.
Associated minerals include microcline, smoky quartz, quartz, muscovite, albite, helvine, topaz, opal-AN, pyrite, beryl, fluorite, hematite, calcite, schorl, manganite, clinochlore, milarite and molybdenite. Opal-AN occurs as thin whitish crusts on feldspar and spessartine and may fluoresce bright green under short-wave ultraviolet light. Milarite is reported as very small crystals, around 0.5 mm. Helvine, a beryllium manganese silicate, is a prized accessory from the Tongbei suite, especially where it forms distinct tetrahedral crystals with quartz, feldspar and muscovite.
A small gemological footnote adds to the locality’s interest. Faceted Tongbei spessartines studied in 2022 were small stones under just over one carat, with refractive indices around 1.805 to 1.810 and specific gravity about 4.04 to 4.13. Microscopy showed fluid inclusions, rhombic growth structures and anomalous lamellar birefringence. A crystallographic study of Tongbei material also documented OH- and F-rich spessartine with tetragonal symmetry, a subtle but scientifically important deviation from the usual cubic garnet expectation.
Quality depends on balance. The best Wushan specimens show saturated orange to red-orange color, bright luster, undamaged and transparent garnets, strong contrast with feldspar or smoky quartz, and a natural-looking distribution of crystals. Garnets too densely crusted can lose individuality; garnets too sparse may lack visual impact. The most memorable pieces have both geological logic and display drama: garnets where the pocket fluids placed them, but placed with the compositional rhythm of a fine miniature landscape.
The main authenticity issue with Wushan spessartine is locality labeling, not treatment. Early material was sold under incorrect or imprecise localities, and the trade name “Wushan Spessartine Mine” itself covers a more complicated field of workings and nearby occurrences than the name suggests. A precise old label reading Tongbei, Yunxiao, Fujian is useful; a vague “China spessartine” label is less informative but may still describe genuine material of this type. Labels calling the associated feldspar orthoclase should not be automatically rejected, because many older specimen descriptions used that name before microcline was clarified.
No widely documented locality-specific treatment or fake-specimen problem defines this material in the way that treatment controversies define some gem crystals. The practical risks are ordinary specimen risks: repaired quartz points, stabilized matrix, trimmed plates, hidden contact damage, and misleading locality specificity. Because Wushan material is visually distinctive and has been common in the trade, outright fabrication is less of a concern than upgraded descriptions and optimistic condition reporting.
Condition deserves close inspection. Smoky quartz terminations are the most obvious vulnerable points, and small chips on the tips are common enough that sellers often mention them. Garnet crusts can show rubbed high points, bruised faces, missing crystals, or dull patches where pocket clay or later handling affected the surface. Pale feldspar matrix may be friable or altered, especially where kaolinization is present. Thin opal-AN coatings and delicate muscovite books should be treated gently.
When evaluating a specimen, look first at the garnet luster. True top-quality Wushan spessartine flashes sharply under a point light; dull, matte, heavily pitted or muddy crystals drop the piece quickly, even if the association is attractive. Then look at the quartz: a single sharp smoky quartz crystal with bright garnets around its base can be better than a crowded but damaged plate. Finally, evaluate the matrix from all sides. Many pieces are essentially display-front specimens, but the best cabinet examples have depth and finish rather than a flat broken slab.
Rarity is tiered. Small plates of orange spessartine on feldspar are still obtainable. Miniatures and small cabinets with smoky quartz remain a staple of the secondary market, especially from older production. Large, aesthetic, undamaged pieces with tall smoky quartz and rich garnet coverage are much scarcer. Spessartine with notable helvine, fine fluorite, topaz, opal-AN fluorescence, or documented old provenance belongs to a more specialized tier and should be judged against published examples and high-quality photo records.
Market availability has narrowed from the abundant years of the early 2000s. Modern listings still appear regularly, but many are older-stock specimens, collection resales, or pieces from the broader Fujian spessartine suite. Prices vary widely: modest thumbnails and small feldspar plates can remain accessible, while large cabinet combinations with undamaged quartz, saturated garnets and strong display presence move into serious specimen territory.
The first surprise in the Wushan story is that the locality reached collectors before the locality itself had been honestly named. In 1998, Chinese garnet specimens with smoky quartz and feldspar appeared on the market under the locality Lechang, Guangdong. They were not yet the familiar “Tongbei” or “Wushan” classics; they were simply a new and exciting Chinese spessartine association with vivid orange crystals and smoky quartz. Only toward the end of 2001 did Fujian and Yunxiao emerge in the trade as the truer locality information. By then, collectors had already begun to recognize the visual signature.
The second surprise is the mine that was not really a mine. “Wushan Spessartine Mine” sounds like a formal place with a gate, a pit, and a single source. The history is looser and more typically mineralogical: a trade name, a hill name, a village name, and numerous small workings and quarries where granite extraction exposed miarolitic cavities. Berthold Ottens’ locality work and later Mindat locality notes make clear that Wushan became a convenient label for a specimen field rather than a neat mining concession. Serious labels increasingly use Tongbei-Wushan, Yunxiao, Fujian, which preserves the trade name while admitting the village-scale reality.
A particularly vivid field note from the Tongbei area is that the houses in the village were built of granite containing miarolitic pegmatite veins. For a collector, that sentence is almost comic: the same geological environment that produced cabinet specimens was also a local building material. The treasure was not hidden in a remote alpine cleft or a deep shaft; it was part of the fabric of a granitic landscape where pocket minerals could be exposed by quarrying, construction and small workings.
The legal and access story has changed sharply. Later locality notes describe Tongbei as the first place in the area where systematic specimen mining developed, while also emphasizing that such activity was not legally straightforward unless tied to granite building-material extraction. Wushan is now described as a protected national park, and collecting from exposed granite there is prohibited. That matters to collectors because it turns fresh, well-provenanced older pieces into historical specimens, not merely attractive inventory.
Production also has an ending. A Fujian mineral-diversity paper reports that the Tongbei mine ceased production in 2016. That date helps explain the market today: Wushan spessartine is not rare in the absolute sense, because a large number of specimens entered the trade over roughly two decades, but the flow of new classic material has diminished. The collector who buys an excellent piece now is often buying from the great productive interval, not from an active modern pocket.
