Rhodochrosite on Fluorite (Mined: 1977)

Item Description

A lovely association specimen from the famed Sweet Home Mine in Colorado. This specimen was collected by Dave Bergman in 1977 and features little pink rhombs of Rhodochrosite measuring to about 3 mm, sitting atop gemmy, lustrous dodecahedral Fluorite crystals on matrix. Most of the Fluorites are purple in color, but near the edge they transition into more of a blue shade. If you look at the piece under magnification, you can see thin, prismatic, striated, pale green crystals of Fluorapatite, and a few scattered Quartz crystals as well. The Apatite crystals fluoresce a bright yellow color under UV light. This color combination is so eye-catching, and you don't see too many Rhodo and Fluorite combo pieces from this historic locality. This piece comes from the personal collection of Colorado mining legend, Dave Bergman, the maternal grandfather of Brian Kosnar. Dave is now retired from mining, but he worked for decades in various mines underground in Colorado, as a miner, mechanic, engineer, shift boss and foreman. His biggest claim to fame is that he was the foreman and the primary person in charge of mining and specimen recovery at the Sweet Home Mine in Colorado in the 1970s alongside his son-in-law, Rich Kosnar. This project what was the FIRST ever operation for specimen recovery at this historic locality. A full-page photograph of Dave can be seen mining underground at the Sweet Home in on page 58 of Peter Bancroft's book "Gem and Crystal Treasures".