The legendary emerald mine in Davdar, Xinjiang was less-known until 2005. Before that, those were thought from Pakistan or Afghanistan probably due to the easier transportation and the gem market in Peshawar.

Emeralds from this region could be intense green with little or no blue hue compare with other localities, and various habits. Preliminary geological work on samples from Davdar in China indicate that emerald occurs in quartz veins hosted within upper greenschist grade Permian metasedimentary rocks including quartzite, marble, phyllite and schist. By my personal view, the genesis of Xinjiang emerald deposit shares a close geology with Swat mine in Pakistan, which the mineralization was thought modified 18O-enriched hydrothermal solutions derived from an S-type granitic magma injected into the metasedimentary country rocks.

These are so called legendary because of the rarity, too few are exist in the market, even for a small crystal.

This is a sample from the locality I purchased several years ago. Unique "pencil-looking" habit with a great representative color.

2.9cm, Daftar, Tashiku‘ergan Co., Kashi Prefecture, Xinjiang, China

Jingnan (Tom) Zhang Photo & Coll