Barite

specimen number:
2063735

location:
Dongchuan, Kunming, Yunnan, China

description:
Beautiful golden amber glassy gem quality tabular crystals of barite to 1.5 cm in size across the top of matrix. Some damage present as seen. The specimen comes with a previous label from the collection of Ray DeMark.

The Dongchuan District, situated near Kunming in Yunnan Province, China, is world-famous as a massive sediment-hosted stratiform copper district with a mining history stretching back over two thousand years to the Western Han Dynasty. Geologically, the region features Proterozoic dolostone, slate, and sandstone sequences that underwent extensive hydrothermal activity and later supergene alteration, forming rich copper orebodies alongside associated gangue and secondary minerals. In addition to commercial copper extraction, Dongchuan has gained renown among mineral collectors for producing sharp, lustrous barite specimens. The barite crystals from this locality typically occur in hydrothermal vein settings as gemmy, tabular to bladed forms ranging from honey-yellow and amber to caramel brown, often sitting atop matrix alongside green fluorite or quartz crystals.

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