Calcite

specimen number:
2063663

location:
Sarbai Deposit, Rudny, Kostanay, Kazakhstan

description:
Attractive golden yellow glassy gem crystal grouping of calcite with little attached matrix. This is in super condition all around. From the early 1990s, the specimen comes with a previous label from the collection of Ray DeMark.

The Sarbai deposit, located near Rudny in the Kostanay Region of northern Kazakhstan, is a world-class iron ore site situated along the Valeryanov tectonic zone within the Turgai depression. Discovered in the mid-twentieth century through regional aeromagnetic surveys, Sarbai quickly developed into a major open-pit mining operation, forming a cornerstone of Kazakhstani industrial mining alongside the neighboring Sokolovskiy deposit. Geologically, Sarbai is a premier example of a skarn-type magnetite deposit, formed during Carboniferous volcanic and intrusive activity where hydrothermal fluids rich in iron replaced host limestone and volcaniclastic rocks. Massive open-pit operations over several decades have yielded tens of millions of tons of high-grade iron ore while exposing spectacular mineral specimens for collectors. Sarbai is especially famous among mineral collectors for producing outstanding, highly sharp octahedra of dark magnetite, vibrant green epidote crystals, deep red garnet group minerals, lustrous pyrites, and complex calcite formations, making it a prominent locality in Asian mineralogy.

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