Description
Several yellow fluorite cubes (to 1.2 cm), perched on quartz crystals and accompanied by aggregates of pink barite crystals. The fluorite cubes are a nice yellow, with tiny zones of bluish-green (they seem irregular – you can see them with magification) lending minor greenish tinting in places. In excellent condition – no damage to the fluorites, and the acommpanying barite shows no distracting damage. A beautiful cabinet piece.
Browse More Fluorites and other minerals from this Morocco Update (click here)
About These Fluorites
Although Moroccan yellow fluorite is often attributed to “Aouli”, an abandoned historical mining complex which is not producing specimens, contemporary specimens are in fact from an area near Sidi Ayed. Although it is road-accessible, it is relatively remote in a barren, windswept area which sees sandstorms in the dry weather and roads washed out in the rain. These fluorites nice for Sidi Ayed specimens, for a few reasons – they are isolated on quartz crystals, rather than massed together with missing or cleaved crystals (which is more typical), some of the quartz has some nice red colouring from hematite, and a few of the fluorite crystals show tiny irregular zones of greenish blue colour.
If you are curious about this area, there are a few photographs in Morocco: The Northern Sahara and the Atlas Mountains (Part 2)(click here), after the section on Mibladen.
