Fluorite with Quartz

Unknown Owner

This beautiful cabinet-sized display specimen of Fluorite and Quartz from the famous Okorusu mine in Namibia looks superb, but from the outset it should be pointed out that it is stabilized due to several cracks running through it. Nevertheless, there is no disputing the lovely combination of Fluorite and Quartz on this piece. On a matrix of granular Fluorite and Quartz a layer of wonderful colour-zoned green and purple modified cubic Fluorite crystals reaching up to 1.6 cm on edge has developed. These crystals are intergrown with distinctive white bodied, but colourless-tipped, prismatic Quartz crystals. These crystals are generally 6 to 10 mm in length and appear to grow out from some of the Fluorite crystals. The Fluorite crystals themselves reveal complex zonation from pale green at their core to purple at their corners, which are crystallographically modified so as to not be true corners, but stepped 'octahedral' modifications. These crystals are not glassy, but have a somewhat satiny lustre. Despite the cracks underneath, the upper display surface is in fine condition, with many of the Fluorite crystals completely undamaged.