Fluorite, prized for its dazzling range of colours and perfect cubic crystals, is one of the most collectible minerals in the world. Found in diverse geological settings – from hydrothermal veins to limestone cavities – it forms spectacular specimens in shades of purple, green, yellow, blue, red, and pink. Some localities have achieved legendary status among mineral collectors for their unique crystal habits, colour zoning, twinning, and associations with other minerals. Below is a list of twenty of the world’s most famous fluorite-producing locations, each celebrated for its beauty, rarity, and importance to mineralogical history.
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Cave-in-Rock District, Hardin County, Illinois, USA – The area is renowned for its large, vividly coloured purple, blue, and yellow fluorite crystals, often with sharp colour zoning. Prior to the closure of the mines, the area was a major source of specimens.
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Weardale, County Durham, England – Known for rich green and purple fluorite crystals, many of which show twinning. Other specimens are combinations with galena, quartz and calcite. The Rogerley, Frazer's Hush, Boltsburn and Blackdene mines are especially famous for daylight fluorescence.
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Elmwood Mine, Smith County, Tennessee, USA – Noted for huge, gemmy, purple-to-honey-coloured fluorite cubes associated with sphalerite and calcite.
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Okorusu Mine, Otjozondjupa Region, Namibia – Renowned for intensely coloured bottle-green, purple, and multicoloured zoned fluorite, often in sharp octahedra and cubes.
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Huanggang Fe-Sn deposit, Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, China (and other various deposits) – Recently producing striking pink to magenta octahedral fluorite crystals, a rare colour in the species.
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Yaogangxian and Xianghuapu Mines, Chenzhou, Hunan Province, China – Famous for transparent green, purple, and colour-zoned fluorite crystals, often in association with quartz, scheelite, and bournonite. The sheer variety of colour combinations and crystal forms from these mines is astonishing, making specimens highly attractive to collectors.
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Dalnegorsk, Primorsky Krai, Russia – Known for highly transparent, colourless to pale purple fluorite crystals, often associated with galena and sphalerite. For years, Dalnegorsk fluorite crystals have been used in scientific optical instruments.
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Durango, Mexico – Striking plates of pink to purple fluorite, nearly always in octahedral form. The Navidad mine is particularly famous for large specimens, often associated with white matrix, making these particularly aesthetic specimens.
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Alpine deposits, Switzerland & France – Localities such as the Chamonix-Mont-Blanc area produce sharp pink, purple, and octahedral fluorite crystals prized by collectors.
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El Hammam Mine, Khémisset Province, Morocco – Produces excellent yellow, purple, and green cubic crystals, many associated with barite and calcite, highly popular on the collector market.
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Minerva No.1 & Annabel Lee Mines, Hardin County, Illinois, USA – Alongside Cave-in-Rock, this part of the Illinois–Kentucky Fluorspar District yielded some of the largest and most vividly zoned purple and yellow cubes ever found.
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Riemvasmaak, Northern Cape, South Africa – Known for its intensely green, transparent octahedral fluorite crystals perched on matrix, a modern classic find.
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Rosiclare Mine, Hardin County, Illinois, USA – Yet another leading Illinois locality, producing lustrous purple and yellow cubes, sometimes with a distinctive frosted look and zoned interiors. Many specimens are associated with thin crusts of chalcopyrite crystals, making them especially attractive.
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De’an Mine, Wushan, Jiangxi Province, China – Notable for large, transparent green and purple octahedral fluorite, sometimes associated with rare minerals. Particularly striking are crystals with bottle-green interiors surrounded by intensely purple edges.
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Blue John Cavern, castleton, Derbyshire, England – The historic source of the ornamental banded variety, "Blue John", has been used since Roman times for carvings, jewellery, and decorative vases. The zoning is thought to be caused by organic inclusions.
- Asturias, Spain – Particularly the Villabona and Berbes areas, which produce world-famous purple, blue, and yellow fluorite cubes, often transparent, sharply zoned, and associated with white barite. The Berbes district especially is noted for brilliant purple fluorite on snowy white quartz.
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Hilton Mine, Cumbria, England – Renowned for its sharply formed golden-yellow fluorite cubes with gemlike clarity. A classic British locality prized worldwide.
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Le Beix, Puy-de-Dôme, France – Noted for vivid sky-blue and blue-green fluorite crystals from the Massif Central, beautifully zoned and transparent.
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Beihilfe Mine, Halsbrücke, Saxony, Germany – A highly historic locality producing purple and green fluorite cubes, sometimes with baryte or quartz.
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Nashik (Nasik) District, Maharashtra, India – Attractive green specimens found with zeolites in Deccan basalts. Unusually, the mineral forms highly distinctive botryoidal masses and clusters, a habit which is very rare for fluorite.
The Assay House—Mineral Dealers of quality Mineral Specimens
Image Credits - CC Giovanni Dall'Orto