Fluorapatite with Calcite

specimen number:
2063547

location:
Slyudyanka, Irkutsk Oblast, Russia

description:

A beautiful lustrous almost gem blue prismatic terminated crystal of fluorapatite 4.0 x 1.6 x 0.8 cm in size standing straight up off a matrix of orange massive calcite. Freestanding and in great condition all around. The specimen comes with a previous label from the collection of Ray DeMark and dates to the 1990s.

Situated near the southern tip of Lake Baikal in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, the Slyudyanka district is a world-renowned geological complex composed of Precambrian metamorphic rocks, including marbles, phlogopite bearing skarns, and pegmatites. Mining began in the eighteenth century to extract mica, which gives the town its name, and expanded in the twentieth century for phlogopite, lapis lazuli, diopside, and decorative marble. Metamorphic and hydrothermal processes created an extraordinary variety of well-formed minerals, making the area a famous locality for collectors and scientific study. Among the most celebrated specimens from Slyudyanka is fluorapatite, which occurs in exceptional hexagonal prismatic crystals that often showcase brilliant blue, green, or yellow-green hues embedded in white calcite or skarn matrix.

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