Fluorite on Quartz

Unknown Owner

Chywoon quarry, near Falmouth in Cornwall sprang to the attention of the mineral collecting world in the late 1990s, when a series of pegmatite pockets were encountered in the otherwise very hard granite. These pockets yielded some of the finest Fluorapatite crystals yet known from Britain, but also wonderfully well-defined purple cubo-octahedral Fluorite crystals. This miniature specimen from Malcolm Southwood's collection (no. MS 2008.041) is a really fine example from that find. It features six purple Fluorite crystals, ranging in size from 3 to 8 mm across, sat upon an iron-stained Feldspar matrix with a cluster of Quartz crystals at one end. The largest Fluorite crystal, which stands isolated, is the best, and looks superb all around. A fine Cornish Fluorite from this relatively modern find. For those wanting to know more about this discovery, the article by David Moulding and Jeremy Hooper in UK Journal of Mines and Minerals no. 26 (2005) is a must read.