Good pyrhottite is very rare from China, until now the best known locality was Yaogangxian and pieces were few and far between.

This is a specimen from a new occurrence, it"s the only one I"ve seen from the mine, though I am told there were other (very crude) pieces found as well that didn"t quite make the cut for shipment to Tucson.

The piece consists of stacked books of pyrrhotite arranged on either side of a dark sphalerite backbone, atop which sits a cluster of intertwined fluorite cubes, richly included by boulangerite.

Apart from being a great specimen, pieces like this are exciting because they come from a location that had previously not produced specimens.  The bulk of the currently available Inner Mongolian pieces come from only 3 or 4 mine clusters ( mainly Huanggang, Rongguan and Chaobuleng)-- over 200 such mines and mine clusters have been opened over the past several years.  That pieces like this make it to the market means that there is a chance that a greater portion of those 200+ locations will eventually start to produce collectible specimens.