Specifications
Description
Locality: Daye Mine, Huangshi, Hubei Province, China
Calcite is calcium carbonate, CaCO3, with a hardness of 3 and a vitreous lustre. It is naturally colourless or white but takes on many colours from included minerals. Chalcopyrite, a copper iron sulfide (CuFeS2), is brass-yellow with a metallic lustre, and its surface often tarnishes to iridescent colours.
The Daye area, near Huangshi in southeastern Hubei Province, lies in the Edong mining district at the western end of China's Middle-Lower Yangtze River metal belt. Its copper and iron ores are skarn deposits, formed where hot fluids from intruding magma reacted with limestone. At the Tonglüshan deposit, for example, the ore lies along the contact between a quartz diorite body about 140 million years old and the marine limestones of the Lower Triassic Daye Formation.
A 2011 study of the Tonglüshan skarn deposit traced how its minerals formed in stages. Copper sulfides, including chalcopyrite, came out of fluids at about 240 to 350 °C. Carbonate veins formed later still, from cooler, less salty fluids at about 174 to 284 °C, which were probably partly mixed with groundwater.
This one of a kind Mercedes Calcite specimen from Hubei Province, China features a large intergrown group of clear to pale honey-coloured calcite crystals with broad, strongly striated faces. Distinct black mineral bands run in straight, parallel lines across several crystal surfaces, standing out sharply against the translucent calcite. The piece has a thick, blocky form with stepped growth, visible cleavage texture, and a mix of clean reflective faces and naturally rough areas on the back and base.
Mercedes Calcite, also known by collectors as Benz Calcite, is a distinctive variety of calcite named for the dark spoke-like or parallel markings that resemble the Mercedes-Benz emblem. These specimens are strongly associated with Hubei Province, China, particularly the Daye County and Huangshi mining region, where calcite commonly occurs with sulfide minerals such as chalcopyrite. The combination of translucent calcite and dark metallic mineral inclusions gives these specimens their highly collectible patterned appearance.
In crystal traditions, calcite is associated with clarity and cleansing, and chalcopyrite with creativity and insight.
Chemical Composition: Chalcopyrite: CuFeS2, Calcite: CaCO3
Quantity: 1pc
With this product, you will get the actual stone in the photograph.