“FLUORITE MUSCOVITE” with Cleavelandite and Chalcopyrite from China

This mineral was extracted in China. This magnificent blend from Fluoride, Muscovite, Cleavelandite and Chalcopyrite is 6,5cm tall, and 5,0cm weid.

The transparent glass base is 6,0cm x 6,0cm

Fluorite (also called fluorspar) is the mineral form of calcium fluoride, CaF2. It belongs to the halide minerals. It crystallizes in isometric cubic habit, although octahedral and more complex isometric forms are not uncommon.

The Mohs scale of mineral hardness, based on scratch hardness comparison, defines value 4 as fluorite.

Pure fluorite is colourless and transparent, both in visible and ultraviolet light, but impurities usually make it a colorful mineral and the stone has ornamental and lapidary uses. The purest grades of fluorite are a source of fluoride for hydrofluoric acid manufacture, which is the intermediate source of most fluorine-containing fine chemicals.

In 1852, fluorite gave its name to the phenomenon of fluorescence, which is prominent in fluorites from certain locations, due to certain impurities in the crystal. Fluorite also gave the name to its constitutive element fluorine. Currently, the word “fluorspar” is most commonly used for fluorite as an industrial and chemical commodity, while “fluorite” is used mineralogically and in most other senses.

Fluorite crystallizes in a cubic motif. Crystal twinning is common and adds complexity to the observed crystal habits.

It is a common mineral mainly distributed in South Africa, China, Mexico, Mongolia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Tanzania, Rwanda and Argentina.

Fluorite is allochromatic, meaning that it can be tinted with elemental impurities. Fluorite comes in a wide range of colors and has consequently been dubbed “the most colorful mineral in the world”. Every color of the rainbow in various shades is represented by fluorite samples, along with white, black, and clear crystals. The most common colors are purple, blue, green, yellow, or colorless. Less common are pink, red, white, brown, and black. Color zoning or banding is commonly present.

Muscovite is a hydrated phyllosilicate mineral of aluminium and potassium. It has a highly perfect basal cleavage yielding remarkably thin laminae (sheets) which are often highly elastic. Sheets of muscovite 5 meters × 3 meters have been found in Nellore, India.

Muscovite has a Mohs hardness of 2–2.25 and a specific gravity of 2.76–3. It can be colorless or tinted through grays, violet or red, and can be transparent or translucent. It is anisotropic and has high birefringence. Its crystal system is monoclinic.

Muscovite is the most common mica, found in granites, pegmatites, gneisses, and schists, and as a contact metamorphic rock or as a secondary mineral resulting from the alteration of topaz, feldspar, kyanite, etc. It is characteristic of peraluminous rock, in which the content of aluminum is relatively high.In pegmatites, it is often found in immense sheets that are commercially valuable. Muscovite is in demand for the manufacture of fireproofing and insulating materials and to some extent as a lubricant.

The name muscovite comes from Muscovy-glass, a name given to the mineral in Elizabethan England due to its use in medieval Russia (Muscovy) as a cheaper alternative to glass in windows. This usage became widely known in England during the sixteenth century with its first mention appearing in letters by George Turberville, the secretary of England’s ambassador to the Russian tsar Ivan the Terrible, in 1568.

Like all mica minerals, muscovite is a phyllosilicate (sheet silicate) mineral with a TOT-c structure. In other words, a crystal of muscovite consists of layers (TOT) bonded to each other by potassium cations (c).

Each layer is composed of three sheets. In muscovite, alternate layers are slightly offset from each other, so that the structure repeats every two layers. It is also used in various cosmetics for its luster.

Cleavelandite is a variety of the mineral albite, one of the constituent minerals of plagioclase feldspar, thus is found in areas where pegmatites and granites exists in certain localities around the world. As with albite, cleavelandite also exhibits a triclinic crystal habit and has a hardness of 6- 7 on the Moh’s scale of hardness, it is usually found within cavities of other rocks or minerals. It as named in 1823 by Henry J. Brooke in honor of Parker Cleaveland , professor of geology and mineralogy at Bowdoin College in Maine.

Chalcopyrite is a copper iron sulfide mineral and the most abundant copper ore mineral. It has the chemical formula CuFeS2 and crystallizes in the tetragonal system. It has a brassy to golden yellow color and a hardness of 3.5 to 4 on the Mohs scale. Its streak is diagnostic as green-tinged black.

Chalcopyrite is a conductor of electricity.

Copper can be extracted from chalcopyrite ore using various methods. The two predominant methods are pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy, the former being the most commercially viable.

Chalcopyrite is often confused with pyrite and gold since all three of these minerals have a yellowish color and a metallic luster.

Chalcopyrite is present with many ore-bearing environments via a variety of ore forming processes.

Chalcopyrite is present in volcanogenic massive sulfide ore deposits and sedimentary exhalative deposits, formed by deposition of copper during hydrothermal circulation.

Chalcopyrite has been the most important ore of copper since the Bronze Age.