Heklaite - well-crystalized, post mining
stock #22.1-326
Polk County Mine, Polk County
Florida,
United States
5.7 x 5.9 x 3.1 CM (cabinet)
price: $160
Post Tucson 2022
A sharp cluster of pure Heklaite with ice-clear crystals from the one time find at the Polk County Mine (Florida, USA). Heklaite is a Sodium, Potassium Fluoride specie that was discovered and described as a new mineral in 2008 . Known only as small grains in vents on the Hekla Volcano in Iceland the discovery of these huge crystals in Florida was big news. Waste areas at this Phosphate mine had ponded water that allowed these crystals to grow. Although these do form from natural materials by a happy accident, those materials are contacted during the mining operations so we do not consider them fully natural. These crystals would not exist without the intervention of humans. This find produced a small number of very fine specimens like this with sizable textbook perfect crystals of this rare mineral. Due to the human involvement in the formation we consider this an oddity and not really fully natural. Despite this these are impressive and rare specimens of a specie that in nature is never impressive .
