QUARTZ ps. after FLUORITE

SPECIMEN DESCRIPTION

For a mine, and indeed mining region, where so few specimens are ever seen, this one from the HMG mine in the Iowa Canyon Mining District, Nevada is superb. It comes from Arvid Pasto's renowned Fluorite collection and is a cracker. Cabinet in size and extremely displayable, this piece comprises a thin bed of finely crystallized white Quartz upon which several large (to over 2 cm across) well-formed octahedral Fluorite crystals sit. They are joined as a linear aggregate all of which is coated (epimorphed) in finely crystallized white to cream coloured Quartz. These look upon first impressions to be pseudomorphs but one broken crystal at the edge of the specimen reveals the internal core of residual Fluorite. This is a really high quality epimorph from a little-known American occurrence.