Details
Description
A stunning cluster of well over a dozen perfectly formed, transparent to translucent Fluorite octahedrons (to 3.3 cm, over 1.25 inches!) are set on a dark, contrasting Magnetite matrix. All of the crystals are lustrous, essentially colorless, and very sharply formed. They are well isolated too so that they show off their perfect textbook form, especially on the contrasting charcoal-colored matrix. The majority of the crystals, especially the smaller ones, are transparent all the way through with the larger ones exhibiting a turbid core. Many of the crystals have traces of a diffuse, undetermined, orange-brown mineral for a touch of internal contrast. Not since similar Fluorites from Dalnegorsk were available in the 1980s have we seen such ice-clear Fluorites, and then those were mostly cubes while these are sharp octahedra. Complete all around and extraordinarily well-balanced. From finds in the earlier years here, probably 2008-2012. From the large Chinese collection of Dr. Steve Smale, and he purchased this while residing in Hong Kong at the time that the mine started producing. One repair.
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Origin
