Rogerley Fluorite, Galena & Druzy Quartz, England

Here is a marvelous Rogereley fluorite with galena and druzy quartz from the famed Rogerley Mine in County Durham, England. Beautiful green cubic fluorite is contrasted nicely by the lead colored octahedral galena that has been partially frosted over with sugary druzy quartz. This particular kind of fluorite is unique in that it will actually fluoresce a beautiful blue color in just natural light alone!

The Rogerley Mine is located in the historic Weardale mining District of Northern England. First discovered in the early 1970s, the Rogerley Mine is the only mine in all of Britain to be worked on a commercial scale in the name of collecting crystallized mineral specimens. Since the summer of 1999, UK Mining Ventures has operated the Rogerley Mine on a seasonal basis, producing many fine, well crystallized specimens of green fluorite. Rogerley material is considered some of the finest fluorite in the world, and much of it has incredible fluorescent properties under both daylight and ultraviolet light.

Fluorite is a halide mineral comprised of calcium and fluorine, CaF2. The word fluorite is from the Latin fluo-, which means "to flow". In 1852 fluorite gave its name to the phenomenon known as fluorescence, or the property of fluorite to glow a different color depending upon the bandwidth of the ultraviolet light it is exposed to. Fluorite occurs commonly in cubic, octahedral, and dodecahedral crystals in many different colors. These colors range from colorless and completely transparent to yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, or black. Purples and greens tend to be the most common colors seen, and colorless, pink, and black are the rarest.

Galena is the natural mineral form of lead sulfide. It is the most important ore of lead and an important source of silver. Galena is also one of the most abundant and widely distributed sulfide minerals. It crystallizes in the cubic system often showing octahedral forms. It is often associated with the minerals sphalerite, calcite and fluorite.

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