Copper (CU-0011)

specimen number:
9273225

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

description:

Beautifully crystallized cluster of native copper. The crystals are twinned and dendritic. In great condition.

The Fengjiashan mine, located in Daye County within the Huangshi Prefecture of Hubei Province, China, is a major skarn-type deposit widely recognized for producing exceptional mineral specimens of inesite, hubeite, apophyllite, and quartz. Geologically, the deposit formed along the contact zone where the Early Cretaceous magma of the Daye iron-copper metallogenic belt intruded into Triassic sedimentary limestone and dolostone formations. This intense hydrothermal alteration created a complex calc-silicate skarn assemblage, with late-stage, low-temperature hydrothermal fluids precipitating delicate sprays of pinkish-red inesite, dark aggregate clusters of hubeite (the type locality for this species), and clear to white crystals of apophyllite and quartz inside open vugs and dissolution cavities. Commercial underground mining operations at the site began in the late twentieth century, primarily focused on extracting copper, iron, and wollastonite ores. While heavy industrial mining has fluctuated over the decades depending on local economic demand, focused specimen recovery by local miners peaked between the late 1990s and the 2010s, with intermittent mechanized and artisanal extraction continuing to supply the global mineral market into the 2020s.

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