
Fluorite
Virtual Museum ID: 19-EKM10
Specimen Summary
Fluorite, also commonly referred to as fluorspar, is a calcium fluoride species of the Halide Group. Fluorite first was named in 1797 by Carlo Antonio Galeani Napione from the Latin, fluere = "to flow" due to its industrial use within flux. The colour of fluorite varies dramatically with the most common colours being purple, lilac, golden-yellow, green, colourless, blue, and pink, champagne, brown. The most distinguishable feature of fluorite is its ability to fluoresce under UV light. Fluorite is often associated with a variety of ore deposits, including epithermal gold, Intrusion-related gold and porphyry copper deposits. Fluorite is the major source mineral of the element fluorine.
Specimen Data
The information listed below relates to the current holding location or collection that the sample is from, and whether the item is viewable at that location or is part of a private collection. Coordinates are given as guides, and we remind you that collecting specimens from these locations is not allowed. Caution is advised visiting such sites and Below BC assumes no responsibility for any injuries or trespassing charges that may occur as a result of the viewer entering these sites.
Collection Details
Original Collection:
East Kootenay Chamber of Mine (EKM)Sub Collection:
-Collection ID:
EKM_10Virtual Museum ID:
19-EKM10Accessibility:
Date Added to VM:
2019-06-14Location Information
Sample Origin:
Golden Division, B.C.Specific Site:
Rock Canyon Creek DepositUTM Easting:
632300UTM Northing:
5564367Datum:
11 (NAD 83)Coordinate Accuracy:
ApproximateSpecimen Details
VM Category:
MineralPrimary Features:
FluoritePrimary Mineral Formula:
CaF2Primary Category:
halideSecondary Features:
Advanced Geological Information
The following section provides geological data relating to the specimen or the site it was collected from, when available. Information has been obtained from various sources including private and government datasets but may not be up to date. Any geological time periods or ages listed often relate to the primary geology of the area, and may not be the actual date of an event such as mineral formation.
Geological Formation:
Fairholme GroupGeological Period:
DevonianStratigraphic Age:
358.9 to 419.2 Million YearsGeological Belt:
ForelandGeological Terrane:
Ancestral North AmericaMinfile ID:
082JSW018Site Details:
The Rock Canyon Creek (Deep Purple) fluorite occurrence is located on Rock Canyon Creek, approximately 5 kilometres east- south east of its junction with the White River.
The area is underlain by a Cambro-Ordovician to Middle Devonian carbonate-dominated sequence. A west- dipping thrust fault places Cambrian and Ordovician strata over younger rocks. An overturned to upright homoclinal sequence, younging to the east, comprises coral-rich limestones of the Middle Ordovician-Silurian Beaverfoot Formation, unconformably overlain by dolomites, mudstone and solution breccias of the "basal Devonian unit", which are themselves conformably overlain by limestone of the Upper Devonian Fairholme Group.
Fluorspar and rare-earth mineralization is stratabound, hosted mainly by the "basal Devonian unit", and occurs in a northwest trend over 3.5 kilometres. The main type of fluorite mineralization identified consists of disseminations and veinlets of dark purple fluorite in a dolomite matrix. Associated minerals and elements include bastnaesite, pyrite, gorceixite, calcite, limonite, illite, barite, parisite, apatite, niobium, strontium and yttrium. Fluorite content generally varies from 2 per cent to greater than 10 per cent of the rock. Other types of occurring fluorite include: 1) higher grade, massive, fine-grained purple and white fluorite; 2) disseminated purple fluorite in white calcite, locally interbedded with dolomite and forming the matrix of solution breccias; and 3) massive purple fluorite in the matrix of an intraformational conglomerate.
A carbonatite-related origin is suggested for the fluorite and rare-earth mineralization, resulting from metasomatically altered (fenitized) Devonian carbonate rocks, possibly related to a deep-seated alkaline intrusion (Fieldwork 1988).
In 1977, five grab samples yielded up to 32 per cent fluorine and 7.7 per cent barium with lesser amounts of strontium and lead (Property File - C. Graf [1977-11-01]: Graf Lead-Zinc Reconnaissance - Southern Rocky Mountain - Volume I).
In 1986, a sample of brown-altered carbonate with fluorite (R85DP-1A) assayed 1.0 per cent cerium, 0.98 per cent lanthanum, 0.3 per cent neodymium, 0.058 per cent thorium and 0.03 per cent samarium. Approximately 700 metres to the east-southeast, a sample of altered carbonate with fluorite (R85DP-3) assayed 0.075 per cent thorium and a massive dark purple fluorite sample from a vein (R85DP-6) assayed 201 grams per tonne silver and 0.8 gram per tonne gold. Subsequent electron microprobe study identified a new silver telluride. (Assessment Report 14677).
In 1977, Riocanex completed a regional program of geologic mapping, silt sampling and prospecting on the area as the Deep Purple and Candy claims.
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