Fluorite, Calcium Flouride, CaF2

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Fluorite, Calcium Flouride, CaF2
Jamison Brizendine, GEOS 350, Mineralogy
Fluorite has many industrial and practicable
uses. Fluorite is used as a component in iron and
aluminum smelting, special fluxes in welding
rods, toothpastes, ceramics. and optics.
Fluorite comes in a variety of colors including
green, purple, blue, orange, red, yellow and
clear. Fluorite has a vitreous luster and is
isometric. Its point group is 4/m 3bar 2/m.
Fluorite has four perfect cleavages forming cubes
and it has a clear streak when it is scratched.
When Fluorite twins it typically forms cubes.
Fluorite has a hardness of four and can scratch
soft minerals like Calcite and Gypsum, but can be
scratched by harder minerals like Feldspar,
Quartz and Apatite. Fluorite was used on Mohr's
scale of Hardness to test minerals. The term
Fluorescence, was named after the mineral,
because of its properties. The element Fluorine
also gets its name from the mineral.
About ninety percent of the Flourite that the
United States uses is imported from Mexico, China
and Brazil. The Flourite that was extracted from
the United States primarily came from Illinois,
which became the states mineral because of its
economic values.
Fluorite typically forms in hydrothermal veins
when a competent limestone layer is below a
sandstone formation to allow fluid flow. Two
Fluorine cations replaces the Carbonate cation
(CO3) in Calcite, which then creates Fluorite. It
can also form during normal faulting and fluid
fills the cracks. Fluorine is often found with
Pyrite, Sphalerite, Calcite, Quartz, Dolomite,
Chalcopyrite, Galena and Barite.
Fluorite is also used to extract the Fluorine to
produce Hydrofluoric acid (HF). HF is used in
refining mineral such as aluminum and uranium and
is a component of rocket fuel.
http//mineral.galleries.com/minerals/halides/fluo
rite/fluorite.htm http//www.isgs.uiuc.edu/servs/p
ubs/geobits-pub/geobit4/geobit4.htm. http//www.mi
nerals-n-more.com/Fluorite_Info.html
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluorspar
http//www.mii.org/Minerals/photofluor.html
  http//dnr.state.il.us/mines/education/indus2.ht
m  http//www.mineralminers.com/html/fluminfo.htm
   http//geoinfo.nmt.edu/publications/memoirs/34
/home.html  http//www.museums.udel.edu/mineral/mi
neral_site/displaycollection/Halides/100125_D3631.
html Chesterman, Charles. National Audubon
Society of Minerals, 1979, Chanticleer Press.
Johnson, Ole. Minerals of the World, 2004,
Narayana Press, Denmark. All pictures are
courtesy of mineralauctions.com.
The name Fluorite comes from the latin word,
fluere, which means, to flow. Fluorine is a
common and widespread mineral. Good specimens
occur in China, Mexico, Germany, Namibia, Quebec,
The Alps, England and the United States.