The Weardale Giant - An exceptional Fluorite specimen
Last Updated: 4th Dec 2018By Jolyon Ralph
An exceptional British fluorite specimen - UPDATED.
A world-class specimen of fluorite was unearthed last week from the Rogerley mine in County Durham, Northern England.
LATEST NEWS It was not possible to save the specimen as-is for a British museum for various reasons (lack of money was not the main reason), and other European museums have not yet confirmed intention to purchase, so the specimen will be returned to the US. The good news is that UK Mining Ventures are now planning to try to remove as much of the matrix as possible with a diamond saw so that the top, crystalline plate, can be rescued intact (as long as no hidden fractures disrupt this process). The aim is to exhibit this in Tucson in Feb 2013, where the theme is Fluorite. This of course gives much more time for any institution wanting to acquire the specimen to organize things.
UPDATE In the end the specimen was not saved and was purchased by a US dealer and then split into several smaller pieces for sale. The large central ridge of crystals was saved as a single high-quality specimen.
The Rogerley mine is worked commercially for fluorite specimens, but they have never found anything of this size and quality before. This piece, one that truly deserves the title of museum quality, is without doubt the finest fluorite specimen to have come out of Northern England for generations. It consists of a plate of gemmy green fluorite crystals exhibiting the classical strong daylight purple fluorescence that the Rogerley mine is famous for, with central ridge of larger crystals.
Although photographs do not do this piece justice, and it has to be seen to be believed, I have tried to document this as well as I can. The quality and size of this specimen conspire to make it a difficult challenge for mine operators, UK Mining Ventures, to deal with. By the middle of August the mine will close and the fluorite found this season will be shipped back to the US for preparation for sale.
This specimen is too large (around 300kg) and valuable to leave where it is, and it's also too large to send back to the US in a single piece. And, because of the high quality of the crystals on the specimen, it's highly likely the sum of the value of pieces of the specimen will be worth more than selling the specimen intact. And the proceeds of this specimen will help pay for the costs of operating the mine for the season - a very expensive operation.
Here's how the specimen was discovered and removed (photos courtesy of UK Mining Ventures):
And now, some photos that I took of the specimen.
Firstly, in the mine using camera flash - the classic strong green colour is evident:
And when the specimen was moved into daylight, I took more photos:
Please note that the specimen has not yet been properly cleaned.
The areas that looks like imperfections on some of the crystal faces may be droplets of water - I tried to clean some of the faces on the close-up photos to show the difference, but the specimen was washed down prior to photography.
Finally, Katya took this interesting view with the fish-eye lens of the whole specimen.
Hopefully this specimen will be purchased by or for a museum. Having it on display in a museum would help inspire visitors and show them that great minerals are not just things dug out in the UK's industrial past, but can still be found today. Getting younger people to understand the importance of minerals and mining to our modern world is not always easy, but the natural beauty of fine mineral specimens is a very good way to start.
Jolyon Ralph - www.mindat.org
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