Quartz (sceptered)

Holy cow! The Shangbao Mine was initially explored as an iron pyrite mine in the mid 1990s. Soon the encountered fluorites and carbonate were ever present. The prevailing treatment of all specimens was to use hydrochloric acid for cleaning. This process revealed that many of the quartz crystals were sceptered. This particular piece was not over-cooked, and its integrity is solid. There are three distinct clusters with individual stems. There are so many viewing angles I needed 7 photographs to show them.

Locality: Shangbao Mine, Hunan Province, China

Composition: silicon dioxide