Description
Detailed Description
A slender group of kermesite crystals on a small matrix, with a few smaller kermesite crystals in association. The kermesite crystals are dark metallic red, visible under strong light. In excellent condition overall. The terminations at the wider end of the large group are indistinct and hollow, and at the tapered end there is a bit of chipping. On the backside, the surfaces are cleaved. A sweet, uncommon matrix kermesite from the Caiwa Mine.
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About These Kermesites
These kermesite specimens are from the find of the best kermesite crystals known to date. The discovery was made in 2002, and the specimens were collected at that time. Unfortunately no specimens have been collected since, so it seems to have been a one-time find.
Kermesite specimens from the Caiwa Mine are now hard to obtain. They were selected from a small lot from 2002 that was made available this year.
The location for these kermesites has been controversial and has often been misrepresented. It is questionable whether some localities given over the years may have been deliberately misleading. The controversy has taken more than one turn. By 2008, the Caiwa Mine was the location agreed by two highly respected experts on Chinese minerals, Guanghua Liu and Bert Ottens, superseding information from 2007 and earlier. Tom Moore confirms this in his Compendium of Mineral Discoveries.
