• A long straight quartz point, covered in an irregular opaque bumpy crust of white minerals
  • Detail of the tip of the crystal which does not form a point but is rounded and covered in small stubby white quartz tips. There is a crack through the white crust, but the crust is fused to the colorless quartz.
  • A closer view of the quartz point, with a sandy white crust and irregular white crystals all over it. There are also small black minerals sprinkled on the surface.
  • Another angle of the piece, showing one face is largely covered in an irregular opaque black mineral.
  • The piece tilted so the side showing is entirely covered in the black mineral, with small white quartz crystals poking through but broken off, appearing as flat tops.
  • Detial view near the base of the crystal, showing a flat formation lifts off the surface of the quartz on one face, and has a hollow underneath.
  • Detail of the rough black mineral side of the piece, with several small quartz crystals growing through it but broken off, showing clear inside a white crust ring.
  • Detail of the side of the piece, on the right a face covered in the glittery white crust. On the left face it is coated in rough black mineral.
  • Scale image of the point on a measuring mat, showing it is over 3 and a half inches long, inclusive of angled broken base
1 9

Inner Mongolian quartz point

Inner Mongolian quartz point

$18.00 USD
$22.00 USD $18.00 USD
Sale Sold out
Shipping calculated at checkout.

Locale: HuangGangLiang mining district, Inner Mongolia, China

Approx point length: 3.5"

Approx weight: 34g

 

These quartz points are from HuangGangLiang, and commonly called Mongolian or Inner Mongolian quartz. This isn't your typically shiny quartz; the point has a matte white crust that glitters like sand. This piece is particularly messy with mineral growth obscuring the form of the quartz, so it has earned the ugly duckling discount for the batch of Mongolian quartz! 

Where the crusty surface is broken, you can see the first generation of growth was an icy clear colorless quartz. A second generation of growth occurred, depositing a white crust of included quartz on the surface. The tip of the point is obscured by this growth, though it does have some interesting cactus-quartz growth on that top portion.

I suspect the black mineral could be poorly-formed specularite hematite. I’ll admit even with magnification my eyes aren’t good enough to tell what going on here—email me if you know about this material, I’d love to learn more!

View full details