Cassiterite and Arsenopyrite on Quartz - image 1

Cassiterite and Arsenopyrite on Quartz

Unknown Owner
Many a specimen from the Yaogangxian mine in Yizhang County, Hunan Province, China, passes though our hands and they are always interesting and aesthetic. Adhering to principally two adjacent faces of an 8.5 cm long terminated Quartz crystal are numerous well crystallised black Cassiterite crystals plus at least five nicely developed gunmetal grey Arsenopyrite crystals. The Cassiterite crystals range between about 2 and 7 mm while the Arsenopyrite crystal is 1.1 cm. The Quartz is semi-transparent with a Dauphiné habit and has two highly distorted Quartz crystals attached towards the termination.

Product details

Species
Quartz, Cassiterite, ArsenopyriteAbout Quartz →
SizeSmall Cabinet
Dimensions8.6 x 3.2 x 4.5 cm
Added on12/02/2024
Locality
China, Hunan, Yaogangxian MineRegional guide →

Known provenance

DateCollectorAcquisition price
06/2026Unknown Owner$300.00
—Crystal ClassicsNot disclosed

Learn more

Quartz
Mineral guide
Learn about Quartz
a versatile mineral with clear, milky, and colored varieties; crystal forms, formation clues, and tips for identifying amethyst and citrine.
Quartz
Regional guide
Quartz from Yaogangxian Mine, China
from the Yaogangxian Mine is rarely collected as an isolated species in the way one might pursue Alpine gwindels or Arkansas plates. Its power is as the luminous architecture of a complex tungsten-tin hydrothermal system: glassy points spearing through metallic bournonite, milky to water-clear groups carrying purple fluorite cubes, quartz prisms dusted with pyrite or arsenopyrite, and sharp crystals acting as the pale stage on which scheelite, muscovite, dolomite, calcite, stibnite, stannite, rhodochrosite, and chlorite play out one of China’s great specimen assemblages.