PROVINCE GUIDE
Sichuan Province: Scheelite Orange and Aquamarine Blue
Mount Xuebaoding's orange scheelite, aquamarine and cassiterite made Sichuan famous. A collector's guide to Pingwu, Ganzizhou gold and more.
Xuebaoding: A Perfect Mineral Association
The Pingwu mine in Huya Township, Pingwu County, works high-altitude greisen-type veins where a cooling granite released its final, element-rich fluids. The resulting association is one of the most recognizable in world mineralogy: bright orange scheelite, sea-blue aquamarine and jet-black cassiterite, all resting on beds of silvery muscovite "books."
Scheelite is the star. This calcium tungstate normally forms dull, small crystals; at Xuebaoding it grows glassy, translucent-to-gemmy pseudo-octahedra of vivid orange, occasionally exceeding 10 cm and 400 carats in faceted form. The color — attributed to trace rare-earth elements — is unique, and specimens from the celebrated 2008 "Red Pocket" show exceptional saturation. Under shortwave UV, scheelite's signature blue-white fluorescence makes these pieces doubly displayable.
Aquamarine from the same veins forms flat-terminated hexagonal prisms of glassy perfection — early specimens exported in the mid-1990s (including morganite, the pink beryl variety, on feldspar) were among the first Chinese pegmatite-style minerals seen in the West.
Cassiterite completes the trio: sharp, twinned, brilliantly lustrous black crystals to more than 13 cm that rank with Bolivia's best.
Beyond the Mountain
Ganzizhou native gold (Meigu County). Liangshan Prefecture produces crystallized native gold in dendritic and leaf-like growths to 12 cm — China's finest gold specimens, from a region better known to the outside world for its rugged Yi-minority highlands.
Maoniuping (Mianning County). This rare-earth district yielded striking copper-blue aragonite specimens (long mislabeled "Xichang" on old labels — accurate locality data evolves as knowledge improves).
Jinkouhe (Leshan) and Hongquizhen quarry (Meigu). Sources of prehnite and lustrous black babingtonite — the Hongquizhen association of green prehnite with babingtonite is among the best of its kind worldwide. (Note: often listed under Yunnan or Sichuan in older references; current consensus places it in Sichuan's Liangshan Prefecture.)
Photo: Lodewicus de Honsvels, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Collector's Notes
Xuebaoding mining is seasonal — the workings sit near 4,000 meters, snowbound much of the year, historically worked by local farmers in summer. Production has slowed considerably since the 2000s heyday, and top scheelites have appreciated accordingly. When buying, favor crystals with undamaged edges (scheelite bruises easily) and natural, unrepaired terminations; the muscovite matrix is delicate, so inspect matrix pieces for stabilization and repairs, which are acceptable only when disclosed.
A Xuebaoding scheelite on muscovite is, for many collectors, the single most beautiful object Chinese mineralogy has produced — a piece of alpine granite chemistry frozen at the moment of perfection.
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Recent Developments (as of 2026)
Mount Xuebaoding remains the classic source, and combination scheelite-aquamarine-quartz plates continued to reach the market through 2021–2023 — but the constraints are real. The workings sit above 4,000 meters inside a giant-panda nature preserve, so collecting is seasonal, artisanal and access-restricted, and top orange scheelite has appreciated accordingly. Scientific interest is fresh: a 2023 mineralogical study renewed academic attention on the deposit. The Ganzizhou (Meigu) native gold continues as a slow trickle rather than a major new pocket, and the copper-blue Maoniuping aragonite on the market is now largely older, recirculated material.
Photo: Robert M. Lavinsky, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Sources and further reading
Factual background for this article draws on Liu, G., Lavinsky, R.M., Meieran, E.S., Schmitt, H.H., Moore, T.P. & Wilson, W.E. (2013), Crystalline Treasures: The Mineral Heritage of China, a supplement to The Mineralogical Record vol. 44 no. 1, together with MyMineralBox locality notes and standard mineralogical references. Recent-developments facts are drawn from the dated sources linked in the panel above. All text is original to MyMineralBox.
Domande frequenti
What is Xuebaoding scheelite?
Bright orange scheelite from Mount Xuebaoding near Pingwu, Sichuan — the world's finest for the species, typically on silvery muscovite with blue aquamarine and black cassiterite. It fluoresces blue-white under shortwave UV.
Why is Xuebaoding material expensive?
The mine sits above 4,000 meters inside a giant-panda nature preserve, so collecting is seasonal, artisanal and access-restricted. Top orange scheelite has appreciated strongly as production has slowed.