Calcite (Var: Manganoan Calcite) - image 1
Calcite (Var: Manganoan Calcite) - image 2

Calcite (Var: Manganoan Calcite)

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Lest you think the Yaogangxian always turns out the same things - here is a rare manganoan calcite from there that looks more like something from Russian or Eastern Europe! These light pink poker chip crystals, to 3.5 cm across, are beautifully piled up on a matrix of sparkly quartz crystals. Even you Chinese mineral collectors may not have seen one of these!

Product details

SpeciesCalcite
SizeCabinet
Dimensions10.9 x 7.9 x 7.8 cm
Added on10/23/2024
LocalityChina, Hunan, Yaogangxian Mine

Known provenance

DateCollectorAcquisition price
08/2024Unknown OwnerNot disclosed
—The ArkenstoneNot disclosed

Learn more

Calcite
Mineral guide
Learn about Calcite
diverse shapes, colors, and optical quirks; widely available yet scarce elite pieces from Elmwood and Charcas drive collecting value and display.
Calcite
Regional guide
Calcite from Yaogangxian Mine, China
from the Yaogangxian Mine is not merely an accessory carbonate on famous Chinese fluorites; at its best it is one of the visual signatures of the locality. Collectors most often encounter it as crisp white to pale pink “poker-chip” aggregates, bladed rosettes, stacked pagoda-like sprays, steep scalenohedra, or flattened rhombohedral groups perched on fluorite, quartz, ferberite, scheelite, muscovite, pyrite, chalcopyrite, and other Yaogangxian species. The appeal lies in contrast: delicate, pearly calcite set against glassy purple or blue-green fluorite; pink manganese-bearing calcite on sparkling quartz; or a single water-clear calcite twin rising from metallic black ferberite.