Detailed information
Dimensions
90 x 70 x 50
mm
Locality
Le Beix Mine Puy-de-Dôme, Auvergne France
Condition
No recorded repairs
Le Beix mine at Puy-de-Dôme, Auvergne, in central France produced industrial grade fluorspar from 1906 until 1977, when, upon encountering an underground spring the mine flooded, never to be reopened. By then it was already renowned amongst mineral collectors for its striking electric-blue Fluorite crystals which are now rarely seen available for sale. This particularly attractive group of aqua-blue translucent, glassy, cubic crystals with well defined stepped growth, measuring up to 4 cm on edge, comes from the J.M. Schmidlin Collection. The Fluorite crystals rest on a thin (3 to 4 mm) layer of drusy milky Quartz which in part has a coating of iron staining giving the Quartz a yellowish-brown tinge on the back of the specimen. One crystal has a small cleaved corner, but overall this is extremely high quality for this mine, and is a rarely seen treasure from this famous French deposit.