Featured Mineral
Luna's Mandala is excited to introduce a new section of the website. The Featured Mineral page will provide detailed information and a series of pictoral examples that will be periodically updated every three months.
These beautiful examples are available at the shop for purchase. Or email luna@lunasmandala.com if you are interested in anything.
Our first Featured Mineral is
Our featured mineral is fluorite, a beautiful crystal with an incredible array of colors, from clear to black and nearly everything in between. Variations in color are attributed to the type and amount of exposure to natural rediation the crystal experienced during its formative stages.
Structure: Fluorite is part of the Halides group and forms in hydrothermal veins. It is a cubic crystal system with octohedral cleavage, meaning that when the stone is cleaved, the resulting form has a perfect octohedral shape.
Fluorite is a calcium fluoride with a hardness of 4. It is most often found in China, United States and Mexico, but also comes from England, Canada, Australia, Germany, Norway, Peru, and Brazil. That being said, Luna has only seen the ones from the first 4 places, and believes that the Fluorite from China is the prettiest - personal opinion, of course!
Octohedral fluorite is thought to form at high temperatures.
Origin of word: the use of Fluorite as a flux in steel and aluminum processing. The brown color is thought to be caused by petroleum.
Trivia:
What fun artisic hobby is fluorite commonly used in...
(email us the correct answer and receive 20% off one item)
Metaphysical info:
Zodiac Sign: Capricorn & Pisces
Planet: Mercury
Number: 9
Chakra: heart
Great for: balance (in one's life); sheilds against computer and electromagnetic stress Healing: infections, cold, flu, arthritis, teeth, pain relief. Green Fluorite is great for grounding any extra energy; it also lessons emotional trauma Purple or Multi-Colored (banded) Fluorite is great for attracting wealth and abundance and helping relationships.
Many samples of fluorite fluoresce under ultra-violet light, a property that takes its name from fluorite. In fluorite, the visible light emitted is most commonly blue, but red, purple, yellow, green and white also occur.
The fluorescence of fluorite may be due to impurities such as yttrium or organic matter in the crystal lattice. It is not surprising, therefore, that the color of visible light emitted when a sample of fluorite is fluorescing appears dependent on where the original specimen was collected.
For example, among British fluorites, those from Northumberland , County Durham , and Eastern Cumbria are the most consistently fluorescent, whereas fluorite from Yorkshire , Derbyshire , and Cornwall , if they fluoresce at all, are generally only feebly fluorescent.
Fluorite also exhibits the property of thermoluminescence.
Uses: There are three principal types of industrial use for fluorite, corresponding to different grades of purity.
Metallurgical grade fluorite, the lowest of the three grades, has traditionally been used as a flux to lower the melting point of raw materials in steel production and later in the production of aluminium.
Ceramic (intermediate) grade fluorite is used in the manufacture of opalescent glass, enamels and cooking utensils.
The highest grade, acid grade fluorite, is used to make hydrofluoric acid by decomposing the fluorite with sulfuric acid. Hydrofluoric acid is the primary ingredient in various chemicals and is also used to etch glass.in some high performance telescopes and camera lens elements.
Fluorite also has ornamental and lapidary uses. :)
To view past FEATURES, click below:
Fluorite (Archive 1)
Selenite (Archive 2)
Animal Carvings (Archive 3)
Fossils (Archive 4)
Mandala (Archive 5)
Calcite (Archive 6)
Obsidian (Archive 7)
Going Green (Archive 8)
Quartz (Archive 9)
Kyanite (Archive 10)
Our New Space (Archive 11)
