Quartz with Fluorapatite

specimen number:
9507086

location:
Panasqueira Mines, Sao Jorge da Beira, Covilha, Castelo Branco, Portugal

description:
Unusual specimen from this famous locality. A colorless glassy gemmy terminated crystal of quartz, this naturally healed on the base, hosting green tabular crystals of fluorapatite, these almost entirely as inclusions floating within the crystal of quartz. Complete all around, just slight and tiny minimal micro-damage present. Overall I think this in really good condition.

The Panasqueira Mines in Beira Baixa, Portugal, opened in 1898 and, aside from a brief temporary closure in 2003, remain actively in operation today. Geologically, the deposit is hosted within a sequence of late Precambrian to Cambrian metasedimentary rocks, primarily consisting of greenschist-facies shales, slates, and greywackes of the Beira schist formation. The mineralization occurs as a sub-horizontal system of quartz veins rich in tungsten, tin, and copper, which are genetically related to an underlying hidden Hercynian granitic pluton emplaced during the Late Carboniferous period.

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