3.3" Cubic Fluorite Crystals with Barite and Sphalerite - Elmwood Mine

The Elmwood Mine

The Elmwood Mine in central Tennessee is one of the world’s premier localities for fluorite, barite, and sphalerite, producing specimens renowned for their size, color, and exceptional crystal quality. Forming within Mississippi Valley–Type (MVT) deposits, Elmwood fluorite is famous for its rich grape-purple cubes—often water-clear and stepped—with barite perched elegantly on top in creamy clusters or golden blades. The mine’s sphalerite is equally celebrated, yielding lustrous, gemmy crystals ranging from fiery orange to deep red-black. Together, these species make Elmwood one of the most iconic and collectible mineral localities on the planet, known for generating museum-grade combinations unmatched in aesthetics and mineralogical significance.

Commercial mining at Elmwood began in the late 1960s, when the site was developed as part of the larger Central Tennessee zinc district. For decades, the mine operated primarily as a major source of high-grade zinc ore for industrial use, with fluorite, barite, and collector-quality sphalerite crystals forming as spectacular but incidental byproducts of the ore-extraction process. Periodic closures and reopenings—driven by fluctuating zinc prices and ownership changes—have made fine Elmwood specimens increasingly coveted over time. Although the mine’s primary purpose was always zinc production, its unexpected yield of world-class mineral specimens has cemented Elmwood’s place as one of the most important and beloved mineral localities in North America.

About Sphalerite

Sphalerite is the most important ore of zinc and a striking mineral prized for its brilliant luster and wide range of colors. Composed of zinc sulfide (ZnS), it commonly forms in cubic or tetrahedral crystals and is found in hydrothermal veins, sedimentary deposits, and metamorphic environments around the world.

Although often brown to black, sphalerite can also occur in shades of honey-yellow, red, orange, and even green. Lighter-colored varieties are sometimes transparent to translucent and can display exceptional dispersion—meaning they separate light into spectral colors more intensely than diamond—giving well-cut specimens a fiery, eye-catching sparkle. Darker specimens are typically opaque with a resinous to submetallic luster.

About Fluorite

Fluorite is a halide mineral comprised of calcium and fluorine, CaF2. The word fluorite is from the Latin fluo-, which means "to flow". In 1852 fluorite gave its name to the phenomenon known as fluorescence, or the property of fluorite to glow a different color depending upon the bandwidth of the ultraviolet light it is exposed to. Fluorite occurs commonly in cubic, octahedral, and dodecahedral crystals in many different colors. These colors range from colorless and completely transparent to yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, or black. Purples and greens tend to be the most common colors seen, and colorless, pink, and black are the rarest.