Fluorite with Quartz

specimen number:
9273038

location:
Nikolaevskiy Mine, Dal'negorsk, Primorskiy Kray, Russia

description:

An absolutely gorgeous and unique specimen, this consists of a cluster of glassy gem quality colorless fluorite crystals. In the center is an inclusion of a sharp thin quartz crystal that is terminated. In super condition. From the 1990s, we sold this specimen once before.

The Nikolaevskiy mine, situated near Dalnegorsk within the Primorsky Krai region of the Russian Far East, is a major underground lead-zinc-silver operation renowned among collectors for producing highly lustrous galena, complex chalcopyrite, and exceptional, water-clear fluorite crystals. Geologically, this deposit is a classic skarn-hosted polymetallic system localized within a heavily faulted sequence of Triassic limestone blocks embedded inside a Cretaceous-to-Paleogene volcano-sedimentary olistostrome matrix. Mineralization occurred during Late Cretaceous to Paleogene magmatism, when intense hydrothermal fluids interacted with the carbonate units, producing extensive, coarse-grained silicates like ilvaite, hedenbergite, and garnet, followed by the deposition of rich lead and zinc sulfides within massive skarn bodies and vast open pockets. Historically, prospecting in the Dalnegorsk district began in the late nineteenth century, but systematic development of the specific Nikolaevskiy ore body accelerated in the mid-twentieth century under Soviet state planning, leading to full-scale underground production by the early 1980s. The mine operated continuously through the collapse of the Soviet Union, transitioning through privatization under various corporate entities, including JSC Bor and the Dalpolimetal Mining Company. Through 2026, while industrial output fluctuates due to localized economic factors and the processing of deeper, lower-grade refractory ores, the Nikolaevskiy mine remains active and serves as a premier global geological benchmark for studying skarn zoning, borosilicate mineralization, and open-space sulfide crystallization.

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