$2,500.00 €2,111 £1,820.00 approx. This specimen is priced in US dollars, all other prices are approximate.
An 8.5 x 14.0 cm bed of light lemon-yellow Fluorite, grading to transparent colourless, then translucent crystals to 1.6 cm surrounded by a coating of snowy-white Calcite from The Bull Vein at Lady Annabella mine, close to the village of Eastgate in Weardale. The Fluorite forms cubic and elongated-cubic crystals, most of which occur as interpenetrant twins and are seen to grade from completely colourless to lemon within individual crystals, with many crystals tending towards gemmy. In LWUV the Fluorite fluoresces bright mottled purple and creamy-white.
The Lady Annabella mine began specimen recovery operations in July 2020 within the former Eastgate Quarry, previously known as the Blue Circle Cement Quarry. This quarry began in the early 1960s, working an exposure of the Great Limestone, a major formation of Carboniferous age (Pendleian Substage), found across much of Northern England. Following uplift and fracturing, subsequent Fluorite mineralisation pervaded this area of County Durham, in the form of sub-vertical veins and near-horizontal metasomatic flats. Metasomatism is the chemical alteration of rock by hydrothermal fluids. Over the past 55 years, Fluorite from this quarry has become famous amongst collectors for its wide range of colours, colour variations and zonation. In just its first five months of operation, the Lady Annabella mine has produced a magnificent range of Fluorite specimens, many of which are colour variants and mixtures never before seen at this locality, nor even in the other famous mines throughout the Weardale Valley.