Calcite

specimen number:
9273008

location:
Sarbai, Rudny, Kostanay, Kazakhstan

description:

Lustrous gemmy golden crystals of calcite in a cluster with little attached matrix. In great condition. This would have been from the early 1990s.

The Sarbai mine (often spelled Sarbay), situated near the city of Rudny within the Kostanay Region of northwestern Kazakhstan, is a massive, highly productive open-pit mining operation famed for its industrial output of iron ore and for yielding well-formed crystals of magnetite, pyrite, and deep green actinolite variety byssolite. Geologically, this world-class deposit is classified as a classic, large-scale metasomatic iron skarn system, formed during the Carboniferous period when igneous porphyry intrusions interacted with thick sequences of limestone and volcanic tuffs. This intense chemical replacement process generated extensive, high-grade bodies of massive magnetite associated with a complex mineral assemblage that includes chalcopyrite, calcite, epidote, and garnet. Historically, the deposit was discovered in 1949 via aerial magnetic anomalies, leading to the rapid construction of the city of Rudny and the formal establishment of the Sokolov-Sarbai Mining Production Association (SSGPO) to exploit the site. Large-scale, mechanized open-pit quarrying operations officially commenced in 1957, supplying massive quantities of iron ore concentrates to Soviet and later international metallurgical complexes. Through 2026, the Sarbai open pit remains a key operating asset under Eurasian Resources Group (ERG), continuing active extraction and serving as a prominent geological benchmark for the study of massive magnetite skarn mineralization in Central Asia.

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