Fluorapatite (var: Saamite) (ex Kay Robertson Collection)

Item Description

A rare and interesting example of the so called Saamite (of Volkova & Melentiev), a strontium-bearing variety of Fluorapatite from the famous Lovozero Massif on the Kola Peninsula in Russia. The piece shows the typical greenish-yellow with with a blocky hexagonal form. The luster is good on the front side of the prism faces, and it's slightly translucent when backlit. This is a fairly large and thick example of the material which came out at least 15 years ago. Virtually nothing came out since that time. I'm told the small black area on the crystal is Arfvedsonite. Ex Kay Robertson Collection (#5782). Kay is a prominent California collector, who specialized in European classics (see the article in the March-April, 2007 Mineralogical Record and the 50+ page article in the German Magazine "Mineralien Velt" November-December 2017).