This is a sharp, dark green, 2.0 cm fluorapatite crystal with albite from the famous June 2007 pocket at the Sapo Mine. The crystal has a glassy lustre and is internally zoned, with most of the core a dark green and a lighter green outer rim. With magnification, one can see numerous small hexagonal etch pits in the termination face – a neat feature not common for fluorapatite. There is also a small second fluorapatite intergrown at the one side of the large one.

In his article on the Sapo Mine in The Mineralogical Record (July-August 2009, Vol 40:4), Luiz Menezes describes the morphology of the fluorapatites from the pocket – this specimen is what Luiz describes as “Habit 1”, with a large pinacoid, two very narrow pyramidal faces and short prism faces.

In excellent condition from the display side, with a contact or growth interruption on the back/underside, depending on display angle (I flipped it up to show this in the third photo, this is the back of the lower left corner in the other two photos) – a couple of minor edge chips visible with magnification, nothing distracting.

Very nice fluorapatite!