Fluorite

specimen number:
2292422

location:
El Tule Mine, Coahuila, Mexico

description:
A loose cluster of attractive mostly gemmy deep purple cubic fluorite crystals. Minimal cleaving present, I feel that this is in good condition all around.

The El Tule Mine, located in the Melchor Muzquiz Municipality of Coahuila, Mexico, is situated within a major Mississippi Valley-type (MVT) mineral province. The regional geology is characterized by Cretaceous marine carbonate platforms, such as the Cupido and Georgetown formations, which were deposited in the Mesozoic Sabinas Basin and subsequently folded during the Laramide Orogeny. Mineralization occurred when low-temperature, highly saline basinal brines migrated through these sedimentary sequences, reacting with the limestone host rock to deposit secondary minerals in paleokarstic cavities, fractures, and stratabound layers. Historically, El Tule has operated as an important source of industrial fluorite, but it is renowned among mineralogists as a transitional geological link between the southern celestite-rich deposits and northern fluorite-rich deposits of the Coahuila mineral belt. The mine is particularly famous for producing distinct, pale-purple cubic fluorite crystals with characteristic stepped-growth faces, which frequently form as floaters or grow perched on elongated, blade-like white to light-blue celestite crystals.

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