CINNABAR with DOLOMITE

SPECIMEN DESCRIPTION

A super specimen of highly lustrous, blood-red Cinnabar crystals aesthetically arranged on creamy, buttermilk saddle-shaped Dolomite crystals. The Cinnabar crystals measure to 1 cm and display a pseudo-hexagonal habit. The exact locality is not known, but it is thought likely to be from the Chatian mine (aka Tsa Tien mine) in Fenghuang County, Xiangxi, Hunan, China. This mine lies in the Chatian ore district of the Chatian mercury-zinc (Hg-Zn) ore field. Cinnabar, mercury sulphide, is one of the oldest known minerals and was used in ancient history for both it use as a pigment and source of mercury. Because of mercury's low melting point (-38.8 deg C / -37.9 deg F), it naturally forms from Cinnabar when the ambient temperature rises sufficiently (i.e. 30 deg C).