PROVINCE GUIDE
Anhui Province: Blue Velvet — The Azurite of Liufengshan
Anhui's Liufengshan mine produced China's finest azurite — deep blue rosettes with malachite. Locality history and buying guide.
The Setting
Anhui's mineral wealth is broader than its collector fame — 140 deposits discovered, 38 of them ranking among China's largest by reserves — with copper mining concentrated in the Chizhou and Lujiang areas along the middle-lower Yangtze metallogenic belt, one of China's great copper corridors.
The Liufengshan copper mine in the Guichi district, Chizhou Prefecture, works a skarn-type copper deposit. In its oxidized zones, descending, carbonate-rich groundwater reacted with copper sulfides to bloom into the two classic secondary copper carbonates: azurite (blue) and malachite (green).
The Specimens
Liufengshan azurite, found mainly in the early 2000s (the finest pieces around 2002), forms rosettes and sheaves of bladed crystals with a velvety, deep royal-blue color, on matrix and in bold clusters approaching 30 cm. Partial alteration to malachite adds green accents — sometimes full pseudomorphs — recording, in a single specimen, the humidity-driven chemistry that converts one copper carbonate into the other. Polished azurite-malachite slices from the mine display concentric blue-green banding that bridges the gap between mineral specimen and lapidary art.
Chinese azurite has deep historical roots: azurite clusters were among the specimens the Beijing Geological Museum showed at Tucson in 1980, and one of those azurites was famously traded for a significant American gold specimen — an early transaction in what became the China mineral boom.
Photo: , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Collector's Notes
Azurite's enemies are light, heat and abrasion: prolonged strong light dulls the velvet luster, and the bladed crystals chip easily. Display away from direct sun and handle by matrix only. Since Liufengshan's main production window has passed, supply is finite; sharp, undamaged rosettes with rich color — especially with contrasting malachite — are the pieces to pursue. Compare against the world standards (Tsumeb, Chessy, Milpillas) and Liufengshan holds its head high; among Chinese localities it remains the benchmark.
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Recent Developments (as of 2026)
Anhui's Liufengshan remains one of the more consistently available classic Chinese copper-carbonate localities. Its sword-shaped azurite rosettes with globular green malachite continue to appear through dealer and auction channels into the 2020s, and the mine is still well documented — but production is incremental rather than a fresh discovery, so there is no new-pocket windfall to wait for. The practical implication is simple: sharp, undamaged, richly colored rosettes — especially with contrasting malachite — are the pieces to prioritize while a steady supply of good material still exists.
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.
Veelgestelde vragen
What is Liufengshan azurite?
Deep royal-blue azurite in bladed rosettes, often with green malachite, from the Liufengshan copper mine in Chizhou, Anhui — China's finest azurite locality.
How should azurite be stored?
Keep azurite out of prolonged strong light, which dulls its velvet luster, and handle it by the matrix, since the bladed crystals chip easily.