Description
Yellow fluorite cubes up to 1 cm perched on hematite-tinted quartz crystals. I would display this as shown in the first photo. Three of the five fluorites are free of any damage (one of the top pair has a small edge-indentation that has recrystallized), and two of the fluorites lower on the piece are chipped. if you look closely at the second photo, you can see the small greenish-blue colour zone at the top corner of the smaller crystal. Nice yellow fluorite cubes on a cabinet specimen – the top pair of sharp fluorites looks great with the quartz background.
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.
