FLUORITE

ABOUT THE SPECIMEN

Golden-yellow fluorite cubes on a large slab of matrix from the capital of Moroccan fluorite, the El Hammam mine. Under strong lighting, the color is truly rich and just simply glows. This is a rich specimen, certainly noted is some bruising along the face. With that being said, it’s still a nice large plate with some nice crystals, and the condition of the piece is reflected in the price tag.

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The Aouli deposit occupies a roughly 20 x 40 km ore province in the Haute Moulaya valley of the High Atlas, where northeast-southwest trending hydrothermal veins up to 40 meters thick and 13 kilometers long cut Paleozoic sedimentary host rocks - the veins were exploited industrially for galena by the Société des Mines d'Aouli from the early twentieth century, with fluorite present as gangue rather than economic ore. Yellow coloration in fluorite is generally attributed to irradiation-induced lattice defects, though rare earth element substitution remains a plausible contributing mechanism at Aouli and has not been formally excluded. Crystals are cubic, predominantly honey to amber yellow with strong vitreous luster, typically 1-3 cm and reaching 10 cm in exceptional cases on iron-stained quartz matrix; a distinctive subset from the Bou Adil vein combines yellow fluorite with pale violet amethyst - one of the more unusual color associations the locality produces. A persistent attribution problem runs through the collector market: material from the related Sidi Ayad and Sidi Said veins roughly 15-20 km distant is routinely labeled simply "Aouli," as all were worked under the same company permits. Active permit holders technically prohibit collecting across the vein systems, yet local artisanal work continues, keeping supply intermittent and locality precision difficult to verify.