Magnetite

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Mineral guide

Learn about Magnetite

iconic magnetic iron oxide with crisp octahedral crystals, mirror luster on matrix, and coveted Huanggang (Inner Mongolia) specimens for collectors

Regional guide

Magnetite from Huanggang Mine, China

Huanggang magnetite sits at the intersection of two collector worlds: robust iron-skarn ore and highly aesthetic Chinese display minerals. The best pieces are not merely heavy black iron-ore specimens; they are sharply geometric, metallic to submetallic crystals from a mineral system famous for quartz, calcite, fluorite, ilvaite, arsenopyrite, löllingite, helvine-genthelvite-series minerals, scheelite, and a long list of skarn associates. On fine specimens the magnetite reads as architectural: blocky black faces, cubic-to-octahedral forms, and, in the strongest examples, a single dominant crystal rising from white calcite, clear to milky quartz, and minor fluorite.