Mongolia / World Of Crystals

Green fluorite crystals from the “real” Mongolia

Animated by the recent spectacular new finds of crystals in the area of Inner Mongolia in China, we decided to have a closer look on the “real” Mongolia, located north and we started a mineralogical exploration trip.

The endless landscape of Mongolia.

With the following article, I would like to present one of the deposits we were visiting, the former mine of Bujiger. Especially in the 80ies and 90ies, there was an intense fluorite mining going on in this area. Aside of the central part of the mine, we could discover a new vein with fantastic deeply green coloured fluorite crystals. The crystals are formed as cubes and they stick out with their wonderful colour. Some of them have a strong zonal colouring which leads at some of the specimens to interesting phantoms. The cubes were found up to a size of 8cm. An interesting fact is the existence of bigger and smaller crystals of the same generation next to each other. The surface of the fluorites is usually of a good quality. In a small are we could find very gemmy crystals up to 2,5cm. A lot of crystals show a strong levelling.

The main pit of the Bujiger mine.

Most of the pockets had a very thin cover of microcrystalline quartz. This is covering most of the fluorites and the rock. Especially fluorites that loose this cover while cleaning have a very lustrous surface. These are definitely the best specimens. Unfortunately the quartz cover is so strongly joined with the fluorites that even with strong mechanical cleaning there is no chance to dismantle it.
At this point I would like to thank Togi from Ulaanbataar and the Munich Mineral Club for its support. Further detailed information will be soon published in the Lapis Mineral magazine.