Auction Win: Spessartine Garnet on Iron-stained Smoky Quartz

Locality: Tongbei, Yunxiao Co., Zhangzhou, Fujian, China

Size: Miniature - 3.2 × 3 × 3.2 cm

Fun combo piece from a famous locality. The largest point has a chip on the backside, worth noting. The largest garnet measures 3mm and has good color!

Spessartine is a manganese-aluminum garnet with the formula Mn3Al2(SiO4)3, first described before 1959 and named for its occurrence near Spessart, Germany. This bright orange-red mineral is prized as a gemstone and is often found in granite pegmatites, with the most attractive specimens displaying vivid orange transparent crystals.

Tongbei, located in Yunxiao County, Zhangzhou, Fujian, China, is the site of the renowned Wushan Spessartine Mine, geologically hosted within Mesozoic granitic intrusions approximately 80 million years old. This locality is famous for producing exceptional spessartine garnet, along with notable specimens of pyrite, calcite, smoky quartz with crystals up to 30 cm, opal-AN, beryl, albite, and cream-colored helvite. Tongbei village represents the first place where systematic specimen mining began, making it a historically significant and highly relevant source for collectors seeking these distinctive minerals today. The area continues to be a key locality for rare helvite crystals, some of which were first collected in late 2001 with distinctive dark surface coatings.