SM21-074
Fluorite
Huanggang Fe-Sn deposit, Hexingten Banner, Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, China
Small Cabinet, 7.8 x 7.2 x 5.2 cm
Ex. Dr. Stephen Smale
$4,500.00 Payment Plan Available
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Truly colorless Fluorite, without even parts-per-million coloring imperfections, isn't all that common worldwide and this specimen from the prolific Huanggang Mines of Inner Mongolia consists of numerous, colorless, glassy, complex cuboctahedral Fluorite crystals that form sort of a dancing row of crystals atop. There is a graduated size range of crystals on this piece from around 3 mm at the base through 1 cm in the central portion to 3.4 cm at the top of the specimen. All of the crystals are intrigingly geometric! They have equally dominant cube and octahedral faces that are so utterly crystal clear, and crystals in the mid-section of piece reveal the cream tint of underlying Calcite that can be observed at the bottom and back of the piece. There is a sparse sprinkling of metallic gray to silvery gray, pseudocubic and platy Hematite crystals on and between some of the Fluorite crystals for added aesthetics. This is a superb cluster of Fluorite and the absolute lack of color is startling. This is from finds of around 2010-2015 when such material was coming out of Huanggang, and much was sold to Dr. Steve Smale when we was living and working in Hong Kong in those years. This was kept back by him, in his world-famous collection of Chinese minerals since then (only recently traded out due to duplication). It is, for this size, a very beautiful and balanced specimen in excellent condition, that has a look a bit different from "all the rest."