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For additional Fluorite and other halogenides, check the More Fluorite and halogenides F-Z page..
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White, pseudo-cubic Cryolite crystals from Ivigtut, Arsukfjord, Grønland, Denmark. Everybody wants Cryolite crystals, but they are hard to come by and most people get fooled by either Thomsenolite/Pachnolite or by Ralstonite. Most specimens of white Cryolite crystals originate from finds in the early 20th Century and have monoclinic pseudo-cubic crystals in parallel growth on massive Cryolite. These were hydrothermally deposited later than the main mass of Cryolite and at lower temperatures. Specimens are occasionally available from old collections. |
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Black, dodecahedral Cryolite crystal from Ivigtut, Arsukfjord, Grønland, Denmark. A much rarer though to most people less appealing kind of Cryolite crystals was found chiefly in the 1980s and 1990s: black, modified dodecahedra, imbedded in fine-grained Muscovite. These are almost invariably damaged due to the adherence of the Muscovite and moderately complete specimens are very rare. |
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This is a pretty piece of standard-issue Cryolite from Ivigtut, Arsukfjord, Grønland, Denmark. The white cryolite contains imbedded phenocrysts of Siderite (brown cleavages), Quartz (not visible on photo) and Sphalerite (black). |
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Large specimen of purple Fluorite cubes with modified dodecahedral Galena and abundant small Pyrite crystals from Blackdene Mine, Weardale, Durham, England, Great Britain. See close-up below. |
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Close-up of specimen above. I happen to be very fond of this piece. |
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Another large specimen of Fluorite cubes, imbedded in a matrix of milky Quartz with a large Galena crystal from Blackdene Mine, Weardale, Durham, England, Great Britain. The back is completely covered by parallel, dark purple Fluorite crystals, partly overgrown by six- sided tabular Calcite crystals. |
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Highly saturated, lustrous, yellow Fluorite crystals from Hilton Mine, Scordale near Appleby, Cumberland, England, Great Britain. This is a specimen from the early 1980s - you will notice it is not 'properly' cleaned and still has some encrusting Limonite, unpleasantly suggesting this is actually a natural specimen! |
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If this look very pink in your screen, you should adjust your screen or I should be less enthusiastic when using Photoshop! This Fluorite is pink, though only slightly - like a very poor Rosequartz - but neatly perched on greyish Quartz crystals and from Honshu, Japan. Sorry, no more data came with it. |
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I like this Fluorite from Okorusu Mine (boundary of farms Marburg 1 and Belvedere 198, Otjiwarongo District, Otjozondjupa Region, Namibia) - it has the green colour and purple phantoms, characteristic for Okorusu, but also shows the combination of cube faces and 'octahedron' but where the 'octahedral' faces are composed of small cubes. |
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Few people realise Okorusu Mine (boundary of farms Marburg 1 and Belvedere 198, Otjiwarongo District, Otjozondjupa Region, Namibia) produces excellent yellow Fluorite. There are not many of them and the zone at the top of the B Pit, where this specimen was collected in 1994, has been removed by quarrying. |
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This was a treat! A cluster of octahedral Fluorite crystals from the 'Orange River' deposits, fanous for their incredible Amethyst and Quartz specimens. This specimen was collected near Witbank in South Africa. |
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This was like hunting a unicorn! Finally at least I saw a specimen - these are in the display of Narodni Museum, Prague, Czech Republic. These 2-3 cm Fluorite crystals are purplish black and show combination of cube and octahedron (left specimen) and cube, octahedraon and dodecahedron (right specimen). They come from Pforte in the Namib Desert, Namibia. I always heard of them, visiting Namibia, speaking to Fluorite collectors, etc., but nobody had a piece! Now I have seen one, regrettably the deposit is off-limits being in a natural reserve. |
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App. 12 cm specimen of Quartz xx coating Fluorite xx from 'Marble Hall', 'Magalisberg', etc. in South Africa. Ex coll. Uli Bahmann, displayed at Mineralientage München 2003. |
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Fluorite combining cube and dodecahedron from Yianghualing, Linwu, Sichuan Province, China. Ex coll. Dr. Liu, displayed at Mineralientage München 2004. |
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Dark purple Fluorite crystals with cube and octahedral faces from Yiwu (Zhejiang, China). Helmut Brückner specimen. |
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