Celestine

$250.00

$40.00 shipping
Seller offers an extended return window of up to 30 days
Ships from USA

Yate is biggest town in South Gloucestershire but it hasn't always been that way. Back in the 1950s it was a small village with a still active industry in producing strontium for sugar beet processing and for fireworks. The strontium came in the form of Celestine (strontium sulphate) found in near surface nodules beneath the local fields. Most of these fields are now covered in housing estates with the population of Yate now exceeding 20,000 people. This small cabinet specimen shows what the crystallized Celestine from Yate looks like and also demonstrates its noticeable density. The crystal-coated upper surface - which was once the centre of a nodule - displays many small (to 1.2 cm long) but nicely terminated tabular to bladed Celestine crystals. Ex Malcolm Southwood collection, no. MS 1998.068.