FLUORITE with GEOCRONITE and PYRITE

SPECIMEN DESCRIPTION

The aesthetics of this large miniature specimen are remarkable and it is only held back from being a complete world-beater by its rear. Front on, the overall shape of the Fluorite crystal is superb and it displays the richest, ever so slightly blue shade of green that Milpo mine produces. At over 3.5 cm side, this Fluorite crystal is very prominent, but it is missing its rear side and part of its outer edge. The front display faces, have just minimal microscope nibbles along a couple of edges, but it certainly looks the business in terms of intensity of colour and fine cubo-octahedral form. Not only this, but the crystal faces are glassy and the internal translucency of this Fluorite can really be appreciated, especially with directional lighting. The wonderful saturation of colour is offset with gold and silvery-grey shades from the Pyrite and Geocronite matrix. The contrast between green Fluorite and golden metallic Pyrite is always a winner, but the addition here of Geocronite - an extremely rare lead sulphosalt elevates its standing. According to recently documented analyses online, the Geocronite is actually a mid-series between Geocronite and Jordanite, so both end-members are likely to be present. Both sulphosalts usually only occur in microscopic crystals, those to a few millimetres in length being significant. The cluster sat alongside the Fluorite here, features well-formed complex stepped hexagonal pyramidal crystals reaching 5 mm in length.