Metazeunerite: Qinglong Mine, Dachang, Qinglong County, Qianxinan, Guizhou, China

Description

Species: Metazeunerite
Locality: Qinglong Mine, Dachang, Qinglong County, Qianxinan, Guizhou, China
Dimensions: 4.6 x .5 x 3.8 cm. 

The Qinglong mine, an antimony-gold deposit located in southeast China’s Guizhou Province, is best known for it’s colorful specimens of cyanotrichite, creedite, and fluorite. Despite this, colorful and high-quality uranium minerals are occasionally found, including this small recent find of well-crystallized tyuyamunite and metazeunerite, probably the best yet for the species at the locality! Tyuyamunite is usually just “crust on a rock” at most localities, whereas these are beautiful aggregates of small (~1 mm.) but sharp brilliant yellow tyuyamunite crystals, associated with emerald-green metazeunerite crystals, some of which are strikingly color-zoned. 

This particular specimen is one of the richer metazeunerite examples from the find and is absolutely stunning under the microscope or loupe… very well-crystallized! This was a small find last month and I obtained what I believe are the best and probably only pieces, which I am happy to be offering here.