Description
Another rare and beautiful Fluorite specimen of this current auction, despite not absolutely perfect. Several light amber coloured cubed Fluorite crystals set on Quartz coated matrix. They are sharp edged as well, highly lustrous and gemmy. The oldest documents describing the operation of the vein "Saint-Pierre Vein" dates from the fifteenth century, but they may have begun well before during the thirteenth century. It was a great mine in the past, one of three most profitable. Before the nineteenth century historians have described a deep mine with 13 shafts below the river level (approx. 400 meters). One of the most important regional pumping machinery was installed into the mine and with a water wheel outside the edge of the first shaft. This mine cannot be visited since closure in 1850. The Fluorite specimens shown in the Mindat Gallery were discovered at a vein outcrop, and described in Conraux & Brunsperger (2012). (mindat)