Celestine

specimen number:
2292193

location:
Yonghe, Changsha, Hunan, China

description:
Colorless crystallized Celestine embedded up on a dark matrix.

The Yonghe mining area, situated in Liuyang County of Hunan Province, China, is an internationally famous locality for producing a unique ornamental rock known as chrysanthemum stone, which features stark white celestine crystal aggregates embedded within a dark sedimentary matrix. Geologically, these deposits formed during the Permian Period, roughly 250 to 290 million years ago, when celestine crystals nucleated and grew outward in distinct radial, petal-like patterns within organic-rich marine muds that later consolidated into a dense limestone matrix. Organized quarrying and artisanal hand-gathering along the Liuyang River slopes began around 1740 during the Qing Dynasty, when the stone was recognized as a prized imperial material for decorative carvings. Over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, operations transitioned from basic surface collecting to focused underground tunneling and quarrying within specific limestone strata, with localized extraction continuing to supply authentic collector specimens into the 2020s.

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