Calcite

specimen number:
8171510

location:
Tonglushan Mine, Daye Co., Huangshi, Hubei, China

description:
Beautiful glassy gem colorless to red crystals of calcite measuring to 2.5 cm in size aesthetic on matrix. In super condition all around. Brightly fluorescent red.

The Tonglushan Mine in Daye, Hubei, China, is a world-renowned archaeological and economic mineral site with an ancient operational history spanning roughly 1,000 years, beginning during the Shang Dynasty (circa 1600 BC) and continuing through the Western Han Dynasty (circa 1st century BC) before falling inactive in antiquity. Modern large-scale industrial mining was later established at the site in the 20th century to extract deep reserves. Geologically, the deposit is a classic contact-metasomatic skarn-type copper-iron-gold deposit. It features Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous quartz monzodiorite intrusions emplaced into Lower Triassic carbonate sequences (primarily limestones and dolomitic marbles of the Daye Formation), where hydrothermal fluids generated rich ore zones containing primary copper-iron sulfides and oxidized secondary minerals like cuprite and malachite.

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