Kësterite with Mushistonite on Muscovite

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The tungsten-tin mines on Xuebaoding Mountain have produced some great specimens and unusual species, none more "earthy" and yet valuable than these kësterites, treasured as the world's best of species and literally worth their weight in gold in China when they came out.Superb combinations of the rare species kësterite, a copper-zinc-iron-tin sulfosalt, and the coating of green-yellow mushistonite, a copper-zinc-iron-tin hydroxide were quite the surprise. In the late 1990's, a new species was thought to have been found here, tentatively called pandaite: however, this turned out to be a coating of greenish-yellow mushistonite on sharp textbook crystals of the rare species kësterite that were so much better than anything previously known by orders of magnitude, that they were mistaken as some new species! This went on for years in the late 1990s until it was resolved. A very small group of these large pseudo-octahedral crystals came out in a single find of the early 2000s (perhaps 2003-5); and most of us who were around at the time considered this one pocket to be the best of all in terms of crystal habit and style, as they were isolated on matrix. Only a handful are known including similar examples in my own collection (Rob) and in the collection of the MIM museum, Beirut. This is an excellent miniature that showcases a centrally placed, sharply formed, 2 cm mushistonite on kësterite crystal associated with silvery, 2 to 3 mm blades of muscovite. Pieces like this are still much sought after, although difficult to find. Ex. Paul Stahl collection. While admittedly not the most sexy shiny crystal from this famous locality, it is really quite significant.