Fluorite

specimen number:
8311510

location:
Huanggang Mines, Inner Mongolia, China

description:
A cluster of to interconnecting pink gemmy octahedral fluorite crystals. One face on the backside of the piece is cleaved as pointed out in the video. Perfect from the front.

The Huanggang mine complex, situated on the southern slopes of the Greater Khingan Mountains within the Hexigten Banner of Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China, is a massive underground operation globally recognized for producing distinct mineral specimens, including prase quartz clusters, iron-rich ilvaite, and diverse garnet varieties. Geologically, this deposit is classified as an immense, multi-stage iron-tin-polymetallic skarn system formed during the Mesozoic Yanshanian orogeny, where late Cretaceous-age granitic magmas intruded into Permian-age carbonate and clastic sedimentary host rocks. High-temperature hydrothermal fluids altered the receptive limestones, creating vast, mineralogically complex replacement bodies filled with magnetite, cassiterite, and sphalerite, along with extensive open cavities where well-crystallized borosilicates, silicates, and zinc-lead-copper sulfides developed. Historically, though small-scale regional prospecting occurred earlier, large-scale industrial exploration and development accelerated rapidly in the early 2000s, leading to the formal establishment of a multi-shaft commercial mining operation by the Inner Mongolia Huanggang Mining Company around 2008. The complex comprises several distinct ore blocks (numbered one through seven) that were progressively developed throughout the 2010s, transforming the site into a premier national strategic resource for tin and iron ores while simultaneously unleashing a massive volume of unique specimens onto the international mineral market. Through 2026, the Huanggang mines remain highly active and fully operational, continuing deep underground extraction to feed massive on-site processing mills while serving as a fundamental Asian benchmark for studying complex polymetallic skarn zonation.

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