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Fluorite: The Collector's Stone 
Purple Fluorite Gemstone
Fluorite is the second-most popular mineral in the world among mineral collectors next to quartz. Famed for its enormous range of colors, it is often referred to as "the most colorful mineral in the world." But fluorite is not just another pretty stone; it has a number of fascinating properties and some very useful industrial applications. Fluorite is interesting to mineral collectors because it has several different crystal habits that result in well-formed clean crystals. The cube is by far the most recognized habit of fluorite, followed by the octahedron, which is believed to form at higher temperatures than the cube. Fluorite has perfect octahedral cleavage. This means that it has four identical directions of cleavage, which can produce a perfect octahedral or diamond shape when cleaved correctly. These cleaved octahedrons are popular in rock shops all over the world. However, the natural (e.g. uncleaved) octahedrons are much harder to find.
Fluorite is used instead of glass in some high performance telescopes and camera lens elements. Fluorite has a very low level of dispersion so it diffracts light far less than ordinary glass, so when used in telescopes it allows crisp images of astronomical objects even at high power.
Purple or violet is the classic fluorite color, often rivaling amethyst for richness. Blue fluorite is fairly rare and much sought after by collectors. The brilliant yellow is also quite rare. The rarest fluorite colors are pink, black and colorless. Black fluorite is formed from exposure to radiation during the growth of the crystals. Colorless fluorite, though not particularly attractive, is prized by collectors simply for its rarity. |
- First Published: December-19-2007
- Last Updated: October-24-2017
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