An aid to labeling display quality barite specimens
For best results maximize browser window; AOL clients use IE; use refresh button for updates
Click picture to enlarge. Unless noted all specimens are from Bill & Diana Dameron’s barite suite
ASIA & SOUTH PACIFIC
AUSTRALIA |
|
New South Wales, Broken Hill |
 |
Mostly micros, but some crystals from non-oxidized zones reach 2.5 cm. |
|
Queensland, Mt. Isa mine |
|
Golden with chalcopyrite inclusions to 5 cm. Scarce. |
|
| South Australia, South Flinders Ranges, Oraparinna mine |
 |
| Parallel group of golden, blocky crystals to 2 cm, gemmy tips. 2x5 cm. Somewhat scarce. |
|
South Australia, Roxby Downs |
 |
Dark golden brown barely translucent tabular crystals to 4.5 cm, thick chisels, doubly terminated, with pyrite. UKJMM #17& Rob Sielecki display at TGMS 07 (this photo, through glass). |
|
Tasmania |
|
Clear tabular blades with tiny hematite crystals. Scarce. |
|
NEW ZEALAND |
|
North Island, Waikato, Mt. Te Aroha, Tui mine |
|
| Flat blades, clear or white, sometimes clear with white rims, to 3 cm. With quartz and ore minerals. MR 6/1. |
|
| CHINA | |
Guangxi, Nandan |
 |
| Chisel crystals, pale yellow, very much in habit like most German Pöhla mine barite. Some very clear on matrix. This group, 4x6 cm, with greenish tinge in the center, phantoms. |
|
Guangxi, Wuzhou, near Liubao, Wudong mine |
|
Clear to milky chisel blades to several cm on pink rhodochrosite. |
|
Guizhou, Qinglong, Quinlong ore field, Dachang mine |
 |
| Cream colored blades in small groups, to 1.5 cm, on light purple fluorite modified cubes to 1 cm. |
|
| Henan, Lushi, Dahegou Antimony mine |  |
| Glassy, blocky crystals, sometimes with very light beige/grey phantoms, to 5 cm. Often with stibnite crystals. Better specimens available. | |
| Hubei, Daye area |  |
| Very, very pale greenish blades to 1.5x1 cm packed in tight group, some white on tips. Solid barite plate, 6x7 cm. Dealer says she has been to the locality, but Daye area has many mines. | |
| Hunan, Chenzhou |  |
| White cockscomb groups to 2x1.3 cm on top of dark gold/brownish fluorite cubes, largest 2.5 cm square, dull surface. Tiny decomposed pyrites on and in the fluorites, 6x7 cm. Locality from Chinese dealer at Munich show. | |
| Hunan, Fenghuang, Chatian mine |  |
| Clear glossy flat tabular crystal 3.6 cm x 1.8 cm thick, 0.8 cm cinnabar crystal on top and very small cinnabar inclusions. | |
| Hunan, ? | |
| Gold, elongated tabular crystals to 3 cm in groups on thin white quartz matrix. Labeled simply "Hunan." Very similar one from established dealer labeled Baru, Guangxi | |
| Hunan, Leiyang? |  |
| Very good frosted pyramidal crystals, yellowish gray, to 10 cm with quartz. Stuart Wilensky had at Denver 04. No barite localities reported in Leiyang area of Hunan, so doubtful locality. | |
| Hunan, Leiyang, Shangbao mine? |  |
| Thin very gemmy pointed tabular crystal, doubly terminated, <2 cm, perched on very white tiny dolomite crystals with tiny clear quartz crystals. This has Shangbao dolomite, but no other barite has ever been reported from Shangbao. Another locality? | |
| Hunan, Linxiang, Taolin mine |   |
| Blocky 3x4.5 cm clearish, white crystals coated by tiny clear-to-milky fluorites, some purple tinge to larger fluorites. 7x7.5 cm. Milky-clear thin blades to 4.5x5 cm on light green fluorite (crystal tops). 8x9 cm | |
| Hunan, Yaogangxian | |
| Clear 2 cm blades, some yellow, with black calcite. | |
| Hunan, Lengshuijiang, Xikuangshan mine |      |
Sometimes with stibnite crystals. Left to right:
| |
| Jiangxi, Ganzhou (Hunan, Changsha, Chengzhou also see notes) |   |
| Clear, lustrous "rounded" chisel crystals, marked striations. To <2 cm in groups. VERY slight gray/greenish tinge. First appeared at Munich 05. Many of these around. Tan Li Minerals had batch of identical specimens at Tucson 2010 (second specimen) and claimed they were from near village of Chengzhou, near Changsha in Hunan. These virtually undamaged crystals to 3.5 cm (4.5 cm overall). | |
| Jiangxi, Ruijing, Xiefang mine |    |
| Gemmy thick gold tabular crystal, much like Eagle mine CO, scattered on tiny quartz, over green (some purple) fluorite. Also scattered on pyrite druse; reverse shows all of this is on tiny quartz druse after 1.5 cm fluorite (?) crystals. Also on larger blue/grey fluorite cubes to 2 cm. | |
| Sichuan, near Danba |  |
| Bluish fairly thin small bladed crystals in groups. Dr. Guanghua Liu specimen. | |
| Sichuan, Jinkouhe quarries, Jinkouhe (near Ebian) |       |
Quartz veins produce a variety of barite habits, tabular or chisel shaped, very clear to quite frosted crystals to 6 cm (or larger), usually with very clear thin quartz crystals and in large groups.
|
|
Sichuan, (near Xichan?) |
 |
| Light yellow, somewhat thick tabular crystals, glossy, 1.75 x 0.7 cm, on quartz druse on black, tough (quartzite?), tiny pyrite veins. Dealer said near Xichan, but needs confirmation. | |
| Yunnan, Kunming, Dongchuan copper mines |    |
| Pale yellowish gray to deeper amber crystals to 3x6 cm in this 5x7 cm group. Gemmy with phantoms. Many, not all, resemble Villamassargia, Sardinia material. Also clear, glassy gold to 2 cm in group, w/gray phantoms. More unusual are these deep caramel gemmy crystals with black-appearing band of parallel, brass colored, metallic filiform (wire) inclusions near the edges. They are still smooth and brassy under 40x, not individual crystals. Some of the the wires make sharp (nearly 90 degree?) angle turns like classical pyrite growths and screw dislocations. There are occasional much larger (but still tiny, micro) pyrite micro crystals. Some have speculated chalcopyrite but geochemists and other experts confirm they are almost certainly pyrite. The barite crystals are up to 2.3 cm in this 4x5.5 cm group. (Original dealers called these pyrites "copper," perhaps because of the copper mine locality). The first two types are very common and mislabeled. With Bert Ottens we discussed this and drew maps with a trusted acquaintance who has been to the mine, which is not far from Qiaojia but not in that political subdivision. Dongchuan became a district of Kunming in 1998. See also Chris Schroeder's site http://www.rare-x.com/recherche.php?menua=barite&row=Main_Mineral. | |
| (Yunnan, He Kou?) or (Xikuangshan, Hunan?) or (Muli County Sichuan?) |   |
| Thick golden sawtooth blades ~3.5x4.5 cm, 0.7 cm thick with a little quartz. Sold as from He Kou (right on border with Viet Nam AND reportedly the same locality as razor thin transparent gold crystals to 4 cm on matrix available for 1st time at Tucson 2008. Collectors Edge had the best of these latter (thin), one specimen, bought in China as being from Xikuangshan, Hunan). Yet another fairly Chinese dealer insists they are from Muli, Sichuan! SO it will be awhile before the locality is known. Second specimen bought in Denver 2008 is similar to Collectors Edge Tucson specimen mentioned above. Locality given as "Da Ton, Shai Xi." Very clear, thin 2.5 cm long light gold blades on 4.5x6 cm matrix. Doubtful. Many are now (2009) beings sold as from Muli, Sizchuan (an county in Liangshan Autonomous Region, but there is also the antimony deposit in Yunnan - go figure). | |
| CHINA : TAIWAN | |
| Chinkuashih |  |
| Clear thin blades to 0.5 cm mixed with enargite blades to 1 cm; 2.5 cm specimen. | |
| INDIA | |
| Maharashtra, Aurangabad |  |
| Evidently NOT from Jalna, but exact locality still not pinned down. Dr. Hemant Merchant (Mineral Decor) had this specimen, light gold/grey tabular barite groups, longest about 12 cm long, on typical blue Indian chalcedony at Tucson in 2008. | |
| Maharashtra, Aurangabad, Jalna |     |
| Thin, long blue, transparent diamond-cross section crystals with "scabs" of white barite & white barite peaked cap, to 10 cm. New about 2004. Also strange crystals, usually two distinct crystals: this one 4.5 cm yellowish-gray bottom, both terminations complete, frosted, and glossier thin crystal on top (8.5 cm) tapering to very thin; often a blue band in middle similar to specimen #1 and available faceted. Also 8 cm nicer blue, transparent, thick cystal, somewhat "pebbled." The translucent clear (no gloss) tabular crystal on tiny sparkling apophyllite crystals is 2.5 cm long; specimen is 5x8 cm. | |
| JAPAN | |
| Hokkaido, Hiyama, Katsuyama Mine | |
| Clear tabular crystals, small but to at least 1 cm. | |
| Akita, Kosaka mine |  |
| Thick blocky clear crystals to 5+ cm (Wakabayashi Collection, U. of Tokyo ) | |
PAKISTAN |
|
Northern Areas, Baltistan, Shigar Valley, Alchuri |
 |
Small transparent barites occasionally to 6 cm (Dudley Blauwet has had a few). |
BARITE SPECIMEN LOCALITIES
*© ALL CONTENTS ARE COPYRIGHT MATERIAL FOR REFERENCE ONLY; NOT FOR SALE OR OTHER USE