Fluorapatite with Quartz

specimen number:
1052789

location:
Luxulyan, Cornwall, England, UK

description:
Lustrous bluish green translucent crystals of fluorapatite to 1.2 cm in size on matrix with crystallized quartz. This is in good condition, while not sharp on the backside of the specimen, the fluorapatite crystals are natural all around. The specimen comes with an antique label as shown at the end of the video. This label gives an original acquisition date in 1910.

The Luxulyan area, located within the St. Austell district of Cornwall, England, is famous for its intensive granite quarrying and historic metal mining. Geologically, the region sits directly on the eastern margin of the early Permian St. Austell granite pluton, an igneous intrusion that heavily altered the surrounding Devonian sedimentary rocks through kaolinization and pneumatolytic activity. This intense geochemical environment produced highly specialized rock types, most notably luxullianite, a rare tourmaline-bearing porphyritic granite, alongside localized hydrothermal veins rich in tin, copper, and iron minerals. While small-scale tin streaming occurred for centuries, industrial quarrying and underground mining expanded dramatically in the early nineteenth century under the direction of industrialist Joseph Treffry, who constructed the nearby Treffry Viaduct in the 1840s to haul granite and ore. Large-scale quarrying operations at sites like Luxulyan Quarry and Carclaze flourished from the 1830s through the early twentieth century, slowly declining after World War I as global demand shifted, though localized aggregate and china clay extraction continued intermittently into the late twentieth century.

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