Fluorite

Greenlaws mine is situated about 1 km south of St John’s Chapel and adjacent Daddry Shield, both hamlets or small villages on the A689 road which runs long the full length of the Weardale Valley. This mine has always produced very fine specimens of Fluorite and this is a lovely and rare example of rich lemon yellow with crystals varying from slightly gemmy through transparent to translucent. The intergrown cubic crystals cover a matrix of massive, opaque off-white Fluorite with occasional embedded Galena crystals. Greenlaws’ Fluorite is not one of Weardale’s highly fluorescent Fluorite localities, yet this does generate a reasonably moderate lavender-blue emission under LWUV. It’s a great example of one of Greenlaws mine’s much rarer colours of Fluorite.