BARITE SPECIMEN LOCALITIES

An aid to labeling display quality barite specimens

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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, Flinders Ranges, Flinders
	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.
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
	Left to right: Unusual milky chisel crystals to 2.5 cm coated with red hematite stain or dull milky coating on opaque white knobby quartz stalactites, to 12 cm; Thick tabular crystals to 4 cm+, milky-grey, with thin stibnite inclusions; exterior stibnites turning to beige cervantite with stibnite cores; Grungy thick blades, zoned, on quartz, with "crust" over barite over crystals; Glassy, blocky crystals, very light beige/gray phantoms; Complex thick tabular crystal, gold/grey, clear rim, 10 cm.
Jiangxi, Ganzhou
	Clear, lustrous "rounded" chisel crystals, marked striations. To <2 cm in groups. VERY slight gray/greenish tinge. Appeared at Munich 05.
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. Six cm crystal, coating on modified edges with very clear quartz needles; Nicely perched 1.5 cm crystal on quartz; Very clear crystals, some with a with "faden" stripe, & quartz, 10 cm specimen; Thick, clear/gray tabular blades to 4.5 cm, opaque narrow white pyramid faces, sawtooth edges; White rimmed 2.5 cm crystals, 10 cm specimen; Tiny calcites with this 4.5 cm crystal on quartz.
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 (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 as 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, one specimen, bought in China as being from Xikuangshan, Hunan (see above). Yet another fairly reliable Chinese dealer says they are from Sichuan! SO it will be awhile before the locality is known.
	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).

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