Fluorapatite

specimen number:
9302328

location:
Malmberget, Gallivare, Norrbotten Co., Sweden

description:

Yellowish green thick translucent lustrous crystal of fluorapatite. Neat locality example for the species, this is in good condition. Naturally crystallized all around with no points of attachment.

The Malmberget mine, located in Gallivare, Norrbotten County, Sweden, is a massive Paleoproterozoic apatite-iron ore deposit hosted within highly metamorphosed volcanic and sedimentary rocks. Geologically, the mineralization consists of large, structurally deformed lenses of magnetite and hematite that formed approximately 1.88 billion years ago. While iron ore was discovered at the site in 1741, large-scale industrial mining operations did not commence until the completion of the Malmbanan railway line in 1888. The mining company LKAB has operated the site as a heavily mechanized underground mine since the mid-twentieth century, utilizing sublevel caving extraction methods that continue to produce millions of tons of iron ore annually into the 2020s.

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