Fluorite with Barite, Sphalerite

specimen number:
2063655

location:
20-78 #7, Elmwood Mine, Smith Co., Tennessee, USA

description:
A beautiful large partly gemmy purple cubic crystal of fluorite, this hosting several crystal groupings of barite to 4.0 x 2.0 cm in size. Minor sphalerite is attached. This is in very good condition and naturally crystallized even on the base. Collected by Mark Kielbaso in the late 1990s. The specimen comes with a previous label from the collection of Ray DeMark.

The Elmwood complex, comprising primarily of the Elmwood, Gordonsville, and Cumberland Mines, in Smith County, Tennessee, is situated within Paleozoic carbonate rock formations where mineralizing hydrothermal brines circulated through ancient, open solution cavities, faults, and breccia zones. Originally developed for industrial underground mining starting in the 1970s, the facility gained global renown among mineral collectors because miners recovered world-class crystal specimens from vugs and cavities intersected during operations. While the complex has experienced intermittent commercial closures and changes in corporate ownership over the decades, it remains a legendary locality celebrated for producing some of the finest aesthetic mineral crystals ever discovered.

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