Opalized Fluorite
One of the most scarce, beautiful and unusual stones in the world, this stone only comes from one very small area of beryllium mines in the Utah west desert 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, 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 with not allot of the higher grades as well. There is no more of this available where I used to dig it so the price has gone up and soon there will be no more available.
click to enlarge - Pictured wet, on black background in bright light.
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Opal Fluorite rough 7/27 04 - This is one of only two very large pieces of this material I have. This is the classic brecciated (crackled) Tiffany Stone that is so hard to find in large pieces. This piece shows super cutting potential and superb colors with the most exotic colors and amazing patterns I have seen. Much of what is in this huge beauty is yet to be revealed, but I guarantee it will yield around 20 top grade $100.00 slabs and who knows how many cabs or several large spheres. This is by far the biggest high quality piece I have found. I only have a bathroom scale to weigh big stuff so the weight is estimated. This is truly a rare offering of the rare of the rare. GOOD LUCK!
size is about 35 x 24 x 23 inches ~WoW~ nodule weighs about 43 pounds
 $1500.00 SALE $950.00 - SOLD