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Opalized Fluorite One of the most scarce, beautiful and unusual stones in the world, this stone only comes from one very small area in the Utah west desert; the Brush Wellman beryllium mines, where they mine (the 4th lightest element) beryllium for use in missile nose cones and many other high-tech metallurgical uses. It is not open to the public for collecting and very little of this material sees anything other than the ore crusher to extract the about 1% to 2% beryllium contained in the opal tuff. Try to find this exquisite gemstone and you'll see that it's not only very rare, it is very scarce. It is a soft to hard opalized stone that forms in very small to 100+ pound "nodules", composed of predominantly opalized fluorite (blues, purples and whites), often with many other minerals such as quartz, dolomite, rhodonite, manganese oxide, beryllium and other surprises. It often has a "crackled" appearance and is sometimes called "Tiffany Stone", "Bertrandite" "Purple Opal" or "Ice Cream Opalite". I call it Opal-Fluorite. UPDATE: I am now out of the lower grade bulk material and there is no more of this available where I dig it so the price has gone up on the per pound price but you will now also receive much higher quality pieces. The photo below is of the lower grade material. |
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Fluorite / Beryllium Nodule / Tiffany Stone Rough: Pictured wet, on black background in bright light. 
Opal Fluorite rough 1 pound 448 gram Picture is an example - you will receive one pound random material similar to the above lot.  Please note: the $6.00 priority shipping option is required for this item - click the "SHIPPING" link above to add - |
