Fluorapatite (classic material)

Item Description

The important historic Fluorapatite specimens from the Nuestra Señora del Carmen Mines in Jumilla, Spain are seldom available on the market today, but they have been known since the 1700s. The actual rocks at this locality are Lamproites (altered volcanic), but they were literally referred to as "Jumilitas" after the town of Jumilla (mindat). This piece is a lovely full cabinet sized specimen featuring several GEM QUALITY, sharp, lustrous, soft yellow colored, prismatic crystals of Fluorapatite measuring up to 9 mm, associated with semi-spherical white Calcite on the aforementioned Lamproite matrix. They remind me of the classic yellow Fluorapatites from Cerro de Mercado, Mexico. I can see some small black crystals of what I believe could be either Hematite or Ilmenite on the piece as well. A great piece of this classic and seldom available material.
From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#6 S), a well-known German collector all over Europe with worldwide contacts to dealers and collectors. He started collecting seriously at the age of 14 and his great and varied worldwide collection reached over 6000 pieces. He was very active mineralogically until shortly before his passing in 2020 at the age of 82. Considering his collection had a large number of pieces, it still had an unusually high standard of quality from most worldwide localities. He particularly specialized in all classics as well as minerals of the Black Forest, where he spent much time collecting. His Black Forest and German subcollections went to his good friend Wolfgang Wendel. We at The Arkenstone have the privilege of offering the remainder of this great worldwide collection over the next two to three years through our various platforms.