Fluorapatite on Magnetite (Utah) Bob Reynolds Coll.)

Item Description

Five, gemmy, yellow-green, hexagonal fluorapatite crystals with pyramidal terminations and internal crazing are aesthetically nestled on the large blocky matrix of lustrous, sharp brown to black magnetite octahedrons with apatite crystal sections. The dominating apatite crystal is 2.2 cm tall and these prisms closely resemble those from the famous Cerro de Mercado iron mine in Mexico. Mineral dealer and field collector John Seibel collected these in 1999 from this old extinct iron mining district, that was intermittentily active from 1849 until 1995. The piece comes with his label. Ex Bob Reynolds Collection, a well-known fossil and mineral expert and Curator of the San Bernardino County Museum. He passed away in 2020. Few combination matrix specimens of this size and quality were recovered, due to the hardness of the rock, making this a very fine large example of the species and find.