All About Fluorite – Uses, Properties, Color, and Worth

Fluorite is a mineral consisting of calcium fluoride.  It will commonly crystalize in a cubic format, but is capable of crystalizing in other more complex isometric or equal dimensional forms.  Fluorite, also known as fluorspar, occurs globally and in great volume.

You would not think it but fluorite reserves around the world are vast.  Over 200 million tonnes of the mineral are in stores all around the world including places like South Africa, Mexico, and China where the most of this mineral can be found.

Fluorite is commonly used as the measure of hardness at the range of “4” on the Mohs scale of hardness, which one could say the “hardness of fluorite” when referring to the Mohs scale of hardness.

A rare feature about fluorite is that it is the only common mineral that expresses perfect cleavage, perfect octahedron, in all four directions.

What is Fluorite used for?

Fluorite has many uses in today’s society such as flux for smelting metal ores, some types of glass, enamels for protecting surfaces, manufacturing of hydrofluoric acid, and optical lenses.  One of the more familiar uses of fluorite is to create fluoride products…

Fluoride in toothpaste and mouthwashes are all but common as we seek to take care of our teeth.  Fluoride has been getting added to our drinking water for years in the sole attempt to help the public prevent tooth decay and getting cavities.

Very high quality specimens of fluorite can be cut into gemstones.  Many of the gemstones may not actually be attached to any jewelry though, and will only be kept as a specimen.  This is due the softness of fluorite compared to other gemstones.

Only jewelry that will be kept out of harm’s way of being bumped or scratched would be a good idea for a fluorite gemstone.  Some alternatives to jewelry might be fluorite cabochons, balls, bowls, and crystal wands.

Do you remember the big souring issue with chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s) in the past?  These CFC’s were in aerosol sprays and refrigerants and it was determined to be causing ill effects on our earth’s ozone layer.  Fluorite played a big part in the manufacturing of CFC’s.

What is the color of Fluorite?

Fluorite is a very colorful mineral and can be seen in many different colors.  Just about every shade of color in the rainbow can be found in fluorite.  Due to this variety of color, fluorite is often dubbed the most colorful mineral in the world…

Expect to see a variety of greens, yellows, purples, reds, and blues with the more common colors being colorless, yellow, green, blue, or purple.  Other colors can include white and black.

What is Fluorite worth?

With the abundance of fluorite all over the world, the worth or value of fluorite will be small.  Fluorite’s worth will be due to the many applications we use it for rather than some monetary value.  With the many applications of fluorite, you could say it is invaluable…

If you are looking for fluorite as a specimen, the price will range based on size, shape, color, and if it is in crystal form.  For the most part, fluorite is so cheap in many cases that it can be hard to put a price tag on it.  Many specimens come in under $10 USD.

It seems that in raw uncut forms with lots of good color with many crystals, might be where it could get expensive to obtain a specimen.  Some specimens in this uncut form can range anywhere from $20 to thousands of USD.

If you are interested in picking up some colorful fluorite, I know that it can be easy to do so through Amazon. I have noted a very Popular Bracelet on Amazon for under $10 that looks really nice. Also, this affordable and Popular Pendant on Amazon seems to get quite a bit of attention. You can pick up other forms of fluorite on there as well if you are not into jewelry.

How is Fluorite formed?

Fluorite is formed through the hydrothermal process of low temperature flowing water depositing its elemental contents into veins and cracks in carbonate rocks like limestone’s and dolostone’s.  Fluorite forms as a gangue mineral, or worthless material, next to other more desirable minerals such as lead and silver…

Fluorite will also be an accessory mineral in pegmatite’s and granite’s though this occurrence will be less common.  When fluorite acts as a filler in carbonate type rocks it will typically be with gypsum, sulfur, anhydrite, dolomite, and calcite.   

When we think of fluorite as a hydrothermal vein deposit it can be found with calcite and dolomite as well but additionally in silver, lead, zinc, copper, barite, sphalerite, and galena.

With the abundance of fluorite it is possible to find larger specimens.  The largest documented crystal was a cube at just over 2 meters in size and weighing about 16 tons. 

Where is Fluorite found?

Some notable places where fluorite can be found are South Africa, Mexico, China, Mongolia, Russia, Spain, Namibia, and in newfoundland Canada.  One of the more famous locations where fluorite was found in the past was in Derbyshire, England…

Fluorite can have Fluorescence

Fluorite is one of the minerals that can fluoresce.  Using UV light you can bring out some very interesting florescence colors of white, purple, red, yellow, green, and blue being the most common color exhibited.  This is one of the reasons many like to obtain a nice specimen of fluorite. 

Did you know that a man named George Gabriel Stokes discovered the phenomenon of fluorescence in 1852 through a paper he wrote on the change of wavelength of light?  In his paper he noted that fluorspar and uranium glass while viewed under ultra-violet radiation would emit light that can could become visible.  He coined the term florescence from the mineral fluorspar.

Aside from fluorite being a mineral that can fluoresce, there are also two very popular minerals that are known for fluorescing. Willemite and calcite are additional great examples of fluorescence. I have written articles on both these minerals going into more detail.

“All About Willemite – Uses, Properties, Color, and Worth“

“All About Calcite – Uses, Properties, Color, and Worth”