Fluorapatite with Dolomite Quartz and Cassiterite

Unknown Owner

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This unusual and distinctive crystallized Czech Fluorapatite specimen comes labelled (Dr. Bartnik Collection, no. 1660) as from Graupen, Martini-Stolln, CSSR. This is Starý Martin adit from where, in the 1970s, small numbers of well-crystallized Fluorapatite specimens were collected and this one was recorded by Dr. Bartnik as having been acquired in 1989. The Fluorapatite crystals, which reach up to 1 cm in length, are pale bluish-grey in colour, but look more silvery due to their unusual silky lustre along their prism sides, but with glassy flat terminations. These hexagonal prisms sit upon a pale orange-pink crystallized bed of what is labelled as Dolomite, but which is probably Orthoclase and a several poorly formed prismatic crystals of white Quartz sit upon this too. Minor Cassiterite is present as a small fractured crystallized area a few mm in extent, but it is the Fluorapatite for which this specimen excels. There is some minor chipping to the Fluorapatite crystals but specimens from this occurrence are rare and these crystals are a good size and present quite nicely.