Fluorite

Sold Without Reserve

Fluorite

Xianghualing Mine, Hunan Province, Chenzhou Prefecture, China

Overall size 16.0 x 11.0 x 13.0 cm. The highly transparent pale green modified cubic fluorite crystals, the largest measuring approximately 65 mm wide, with scattered milky white internal zoning, on matrix. With custom lucite base.

Certainly one of the most popular collectible minerals, calcium fluoride (CaF2) occurs in numerous important deposits spanning the globe. The nearly infinite array of available colors, often occurring in multi-color zoned “phantom” growth, have long delighted mineral collectors and lapidaries alike. Valuable as a smelting agent and for use in certain types of glass and optics, it has been mined in great quantities for industrial purposes. Vividly colored specimens with aesthetic crystal growth are best known from classic North American deposits in Illinois and Tennessee, European localities in Spain and England, and more recently from several exciting Chinese discoveries.