FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[GneissWare]

Carles,
Very nice specimen!!
Bob

[Les Presmyk]

I wondered how long it would take before the single pocket from an obscure mine, and especially owned by one collector, would surface as someone's recommendation for one of the top five fluorite localities in the world. For me, one of the tests of a top locality is quality and quantity of quality specimens, especially for a common mineral like fluorite. How can anyone judge whether this locality should be considered when the people who have seen the specimens are as scarce as the actual specimens? Apparently, the only way I can see one of theise specimens is to go Tucson or somewhere in Europe.

[jimB]

[chris]

A small contribution to the thread. A picture of my favourite fluorite I got from Jesse. From the Dodgy Bugger Area if I remember well. Jesse, remind me if I'm right or wrong.

Christophe

[Jesse Fisher]

Jim,
A six-foot case of thumbnails? What's this supposed to be, a vision test for all us old farts? Fluorite sounds much more fun. Go talk to Peter, he says he's always looking for more good displays.

[Jesse Fisher]

[Duncan Miller]

Perhaps everyone is saturated with the Riemvasmaak fluorites in the recent Mineralogical Record, but here goes with a recent acquisition. The inclusions are pyrite and the nibbled-looking points are not dinged, but have multiple crystal points. All the Riemvasmaak fluorites are treated with hydrofluoric acid to remove a drusy quartz coating. The trick is to coat the wanted quartz matrix with wax to protect it from the acid and then dissolve the wax off later. This photograph was taken with natural back lighting to show the transparency and colour.

[Carles Millan]

Not saturated with Riemvasmaak (yet).

80 mm x 56 mm x 35 mm. Largest fluorite crystal: 20 mm on edge.

More info at https://www.mineral-forum.com/message-board/viewtopic.php?p=5786#5786

[Turbo]

I don't have any fluorite in my collection yet, but I've always been blown away by the purple/green octahedrals from De'An Mine, China. I really want one of these. Are they hard to get?

Carles has got one here:
https://www.mineral-forum.com/message-board/viewtopic.php?p=6556#6556

[Carles Millan]

[Les Presmyk]

There are a number of fluorites that are etched out of quartz. Pine Canyon, New Mexico and the other Chinese occurrence with the pure white quartz and individual deep purple crystals come to mind, in addition to some of the localities already posted on this thread. Badly treated fluorites are not fun to look at but properly etched and treated afterwards, they can be quite good.

[Carles Millan]

[Carles Millan]

[Jesse Fisher]

Fluorine has not been referred to as the "tiger of chemistry" without reason. HF is an exceedingly dangerous chemical and should not be used by anyone who does not have training in laboratory safety and access to professional-level laboratory equipment. There is a fairly extensive discussion of HF and it's hazards on the Mindat message board.

The Chinese do seem rather fond of using the stuff to remove quartz from a lot of their fluorites, which often leaves the specimens with a somewhat burnt or melted appearance if overdone. I shudder to think of how many people may have been injured or even killed by careless handling of the stuff.

[Pete Modreski]

Because of the way the discussion has been hopping around between various fluorite localities, and the comments & responses aren't always in sequential order, it's sometimes being hard (for this poor reader, at least) to interpret which comments refer to which localities. I'm still not sure what Les was referring to...

[quote="Les Presmyk"]I wondered how long it would take before the single pocket from an obscure mine, and especially owned by one collector, would surface as someone's recommendation for one of the top five fluorite localities in the world.

Hmmm... I'm not sure I can even guess; perhaps I just am not familiar enough with all the localities that have been mentioned. And likewise, the Dodgy Bugger area, and West Cross Cut--those are Elmwood, I presume?? And I probably need to read carefully through all the posts to figure out where La Collada is... that's in the Berbes area, I presume? [Please don't misunderstand, not complaining, just... not picking up the meaning of all that's been said.]

Again, I've enjoyed getting a virtual tour and discussion of a lot of these "popular" fluorite localities. Thinking some more about "which are the favourites", irrespective of different folks' different criteria (some have a high regard for beautifully xllzd micro and TN specimens; some would only rate a locality "first class" if many of the specimens are just... bigger), I've been thinking that the "world's favourite" localities would simply be those that have that special "pizzazz" (if that's in everyone's international vocabulary?) that makes the fluorites from there, really outstanding, really special, "no fluorite exhibit would be complete without them". Does a locality only recently producing spectacular specimens (Riemvasmaak) rank in the same class with those that have been "classic" for a century or more? (probably, it does) And even if the fluorite has to be exhumed via hydrofluoric acid? (still probably, yes). So as I think about "favorite" localities, what do I absolutely feel belongs in that category? Anticipating the "organization" of what's been posted on this topic, I would list for a start fluorite from:

Weardale
Swiss Alps
Riemvasmaak

and just stop there, everything else being "negotiable" (oh, I think Asturias would make the top list too... perhaps). Oh, and I just checked back to the earliest posts on this topic, of course, I do see that La Collada is in Asturias.
Cheers, all,
Pete