Inner Mongolian quartz point

Inner Mongolian quartz pointLocale: HuangGangLiang mining district, Inner Mongolia, China Approx point length: 3. 5" Approx weight: 34g These quartz points are from HuangGangLiang, and commonly called Mongolian or Inner Mongolian quartz. This isn't your typically shiny quartz; the point has a matte white crust that glitters like sand. This piece is particularly messy with mineral growth obscuring the form of the quartz, so it has earned the ugly duckling discount for the batch

Locale: HuangGangLiang mining district, Inner Mongolia, China

Approx point length: 3.5"

Approx weight: 34g

These quartz points are from HuangGangLiang, and commonly called Mongolian or Inner Mongolian quartz. This isn't your typically shiny quartz; the point has a matte white crust that glitters like sand. This piece is particularly messy with mineral growth obscuring the form of the quartz, so it has earned the ugly duckling discount for the batch of Mongolian quartz! 

Where the crusty surface is broken, you can see the first generation of growth was an icy clear colorless quartz. A second generation of growth occurred, depositing a white crust of included quartz on the surface. The tip of the point is obscured by this growth, though it does have some interesting cactus-quartz growth on that top portion.

I suspect the black mineral could be poorly-formed specularite hematite. I’ll admit even with magnification my eyes aren’t good enough to tell what going on here—email me if you know about this material, I’d love to learn more!