The new agates from China are not that "new" anymore. About 7 years ago the agates were introduced to the western market for the first time, and shortly afterwards I traveled to China for the first time, with my sister Milena as an interpreter. She was teaching at a Chinese university at the time and was able to take a few days off to help me on my journey so I wouldn't get lost.
The find region is quite large, with probably hundreds of individual find spots throughout the region. However, a distinction is mainly made between the find regions of the Middle Class Mine, the Traditional Mine and the High Class Mine. There are very beautiful pieces from each site, but they can also be distinguished from one another.
While the agates from the Middle Class Mine usually appear very opaque and sometimes have a similarity to the Argentine agates, the color red dominates in the agates from the Traditional Mine.
The agates from the High Class Mine come from the hardest source rock in the region, with a high degree of blistering and often some of the source rock is still attached to the agate. Beautiful yellow shades with finer banding and, in rare cases, layered banding are characteristic of this find region.
Most of the sites have been conditionally closed by the government for 3 years. Large nets and tarpaulins were stretched over the quarries, and trees were planted in the quarries. I think it is very unlikely that the quarries will open again in the foreseeable future.
At its peak, several thousand people worked in the agate industry around the city of Xuanhua in north-west Beijing. This includes both the promotion and the processing of the stones, which at that time were mainly sold on the Chinese jewelry market.
Due to the forced closure, the prices for very high-quality agates rose sharply shortly afterwards, because obviously only old stocks can now be processed.
The agates that I offer in the shop are from the times when the quarries were open, and many of the pieces I have never offered before. Today it would probably not be possible for me to collect such a good quality of agates.
A direct link to all the Chinese agates I have is here:
https://agatebay.de/collections/all-products/china
