Calcite with Fluorite

specimen number:
1655517

location:
Heights Quarry, Westgate, Co. Durham, England, UK

description:
Colorless crystals of calcite covering one side of matrix with minor fluorite.

Heights Quarry, located near Westgate in Weardale, County Durham, England, is a major commercial limestone quarry that intersects parts of the historic Heights Mine, an old working originally operated for iron ore and lead between 1850 and 1868. Geologically, the site is situated within the Northern Pennine Orefield, where Carboniferous limestone cyclothems are cut by mineralized hydrothermal veins driven by regional granite-heat systems. Mineralogically, the quarry and its associated vein remnants are world-famous among collectors for producing exceptional specimens of green fluorite, often featuring intricate cubic habit and twinning, alongside quartz and other accessory phases. While commercial extraction focuses on aggregate limestone, the active quarrying operations have periodically exposed old underground mineral pockets, making it a legendary locality for British mineralogy.

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