

Fluorite (Halide)
CaF2Hardness: 4
Specific Gravity: 3.18
Characteristics: Purple, colorless, and a variety of other colors; perfect cleavage; vitreous luster; transparent to translucent; cubic or octahedral cleavage; insoluble in water and HCl; strongly fluorescent in ultraviolet light.
Found in dolostones; limestones; hydrothermal deposits; some felsic volcanics; some granitic and intermediate intrusives.
Fluorite is used as a decorative medium used in the fashioning such items as vases; as a flux in steel, ceramics, and glass; in the production of hydrofluoric acid which has various industrial uses.
(Primary text: Perkins, D. 2002. Mineralogy. Prentice Hall.)