Pink Fluorite

Item Description

Fluorite is one of the most colorful minerals in the world, found in virtually any hue you can think of. With that said, most people will tell you the most desirable color is a strong pink (rarely red) hue, but there only a few places in the world where this particular color of Fluorite is found. Most notably the finest pink / red Fluorites ever found are those from the Swiss and French Alps in Europe. In August 2019, there was a discovery of some of the most significant Fluorite specimens at the Huanggang Fe-Sn deposit, in Inner Mongolia, China showing an intense pink/red hue. These specimens are genuinely some of the most important Fluorites found from any locality in China. It's important to remember the many tens if not hundreds of thousands of specimens of Fluorite that have been found in the last few decades, and these specimens from Huanggang certainly stand in the upper ranks. These specimens are certainly comparable to their Alpine counterparts, especially because they have the same habit and color, but in the case of the Chinese material, some of the crystals were incredibly GEMMY and actually facet-grade. This beautiful small cabinet specimen is a superb example of this material. It features a predominant, very sharp, well-formed, gemmy, beautiful deep rose color octahedral crystal with several smaller crystals scattered around. There's even a small group of metallic soft golden Pyrite crystals on the lower portion of the specimen, rare for the find. Overall the piece is in good condition, there is a separation mark on the side where a previous Fluorite crystal once existed, but the piece is complete all the way around with no major damage. It's close to being a complete "floater". If you look closely, you'll see very thin acicular inclusions of a green mineral (either Hedenbergite or an Amphibole species) frozen inside virtually every Fluorite crystal, and they are concentrated at the base of the piece, creating a lovely two-tone effect. This combination of green and pink together is very appealing! The color looks good in incandescent light, but even better in sunlight. A wonderful specimen of this now hard to find material, as these pink Fluorite crystals from Huanggang seem to have been mined out, as it's possible we may never see them again. Valued $3,000.