Friday Update – Worldwide Fluorite

FRIDAY is here, and the weekend is nearly upon us, but before I head off for another couple of days of mineralogical fun with the Russell Society here is the promised Fluorite update. Fluorite, calcium fluoride (CaF₂), is an interesting mineral species. It is one of the few ‘ores’ of non-metals.

Now, before anyone jumps in with “calcium is a metal”, it should be pointed out that the product sought is not calcium, but fluorine – a gas. Fluorine is essential to the industrial production of hydrofluoric acid (HF) required in so many of our modern industries worldwide. In that respect Fluorite is known as fluorspar which was, coincidentally, one of the earliest names for the species prior to the convention of using ‘ite’ to differentiate minerals.

Fluorspar is also used as a flux in metallurgy, in particular steelmaking, and this partly explains its name “Fluor” from the Latin “to flow”. In that instance, it is the overall property of Fluorite, or fluorspar, which is important, rather than its individual chemical constituents.

To mineral collectors these properties are irrelevant, as virtually all collectors are drawn to Fluorite for its variety of beautiful colours and well-defined crystal shapes. Helped, in no small part, by the fact that these crystals are occasionally large enough to make superb display pieces.

In this higher-end update, these features really start of become apparent, with dramatic colours and spectacular colour-zoning, as well as some of the rarer shapes of crystals.

The sharp-eyed amongst you might also have spotted that books are slipping into our updates. You might not be aware that we also hold a significant stock of mineralogical-related books, old and new. Our new website allows us to offer these to you. So, going forward, we will be working our way through our inventory.

I hope that you have great plans for the weekend. Next Tuesday our update is minerals from Czechia, or at least I think it is. Tune in then to Czech!

Please note: Today's featured specimens are situated at both our US and UK showrooms.