Baryte (rare locality specimen)

Item Description

This piece hails from the Xikuangshan Sb deposit, which is the largest antimony mine in the world. While people are probably most familiar with the wonderful Stibnites found at this mine, the lesser-known and seldom seen Baryte specimens are quite lovely. This piece is a wonderful, glossy, thick, stepped crystal group, free of matrix with a soft smoky golden hue. The underside features minor yellow Stibiconite. I've seen a few of these over the years with tiny Valentinite crystals, but I can't find any on this piece. If you look near the center of the specimen, you'll see small "openings", where a previous generation of chalky white Baryte can be seen, so this is actually an overgrowth of Baryte over Baryte. Minor roughness along the edges keep the piece from being completely perfect, but it's still a great example of this older material (dating back nearly 20 years at this point).