Specimen #1951

Name: Fluorite with Sphalerite

Type: Mineral

Locality: Elmwood Mine, Carthage, Smith County, Tennessee, USA

Favorite? N

Fluorescent? N

Size: 21 x 20.5 x 7 cm

Weight: 3124

Acquired: 2010-04-20

Source: Trinity: Giorgio Spiga

Label: N

Comment: A remarkable specimen from the Luciano Floris collection purchased in the 1983 Tucson show. It consists in a black reddish Sphalerite matrix supporting a cluster of transparent cubo-octahedral Fluorite crystals up to 4 cm as edge. We can also observe sharp Sphalerite crystals up to more than 1.5 cm emerging from the fluorite. Apart the very few small cleaved ones by the edges, all the other crystals are in pristine condition. The natural colour is a lavender with purple edges, under long and mid wavelength UV light we can observe a strong blue fluorescence with golden yellow spots, probably due to included hydrocarbons.

Minerals: Fluorite (CaF₂) Sphalerite ((Zn,Fe)S)

There is one picture on file

M01951-01.jpg:

Fluorite with Sphalerite, Elmwood Mine, Carthage, Smith County, Tennessee - 21 x 20.5 x 7 cm