Illinois Fluorite: The Illinois-Kentucky Fluorspar District (IKFD)

Fluorite from the Illinois-Kentucky Fluorspar District (IKFD) has captured the hearts of mineral collectors for decades. In recent years it has exponentially gained in popularity as gone are the days of being able to purchase “spar” by the pound. Recently, the U.S. government classified fluorspar as a critical mineral. This classification has led to numerous federally-funded research projects across the district to assess critical minerals. This presentation aims to introduce the geology and discuss the prospect of critical minerals while taking a walk through the history of the IKFD and looking at some exceptional specimens along the way.
Jared T. Freiburg is the Illinois State Geological Survey’s mineral resource geologist. He is also the president of Saga Minerals, Inc. He received his B.S. and M.S from the University of Illinois at Urbana -Champaign and his PhD at the University of Greifswald, Germany. His research interests include sedimentology, diagenesis, Precambrian geology, and Mississippi Valley-Type mineral deposits. He specializes in sedimentary petrography and employs a variety of microscopy and geochemical techniques in his research. His current research involves understanding the evolution of the Illinois Basin which includes events of rifting and magmatism. He is presently working in and around the Illinois-Kentucky Fluorspar District as part of the United States Geological Survey led Earth Mapping
Resources Initiative (Earth MRI), part of a federal strategic plan to improve the nations understanding of domestic
critical mineral resources.

[@3chordwonder857]

I thoroughly enjoyed your excellent presentation scientifically, historically and artistically! Thank you.

[@Tbowie13]

Mentioning Elmwood mine. My best fluorite piece is a cabinet piece from Elmwood. It's classic Elmwood purple fluorite on beautiful jewelry grade Sphalerite.
I went to a Rock shop just outside of Charlotte NC and asked if they had any fluorite. Upon seeing it I was almost positive it was Elmwood as that fluorite is so distinct. Turns out it was and when I ask how much, they said, would you give us $8? 😮 I didn't want to act too excited, but gave her $10 and said we're good, no change.

[@juliuscullum6596]

That's nice. I got some big pieces of spar that came out of the old Rosiclare mines that use to be dads that I found cleaning out that back part of the my old shed.

[@Bponyi]

I recently visited the annabel lee mine and only saw the woods and the metal building. Never knew it was some type of underground mine there. Just some old tailings with small finger size broken fluorite shards /

[@canadiangemstones7636]

Fabulous talk!

[@priscillaross-fox9407]

What a great presentation and those specimens! I can't imagine the worth of those.
I guess my hopes are dashed at visiting Hicks Dome now but that's OK. Most places I wanted to visit I will never be able to due to physical issues now.

[@SeMoArtifactAdventures]

Thanks for the video. Very interesting. Is there places where fluorites are found at the surface? I was just curious where the native Americans were sourcing the fluorite they used for the different adornments they made.

[@sB-wt7jy]

Ive watched this many times. What j would do to be able to go into those old mines

[@JoeyHicks-us6td]

I found some pretty pieces

[@ricardog2165]

I'm here looking for the Tesseract.

[@aung3627]

အကုန်လှနေတာတွေရသည်

[@davidpostma9862]

Too many uh’s

[@aung3627]

လှပတောက်ပနေသောရှာပါသောကျောက်ကလက်များ

[@dawnademarco3482]

I'm log looking for a spot that I can find specimens legally and I'm headed that way the weekend of the 31st.. could you recommend a good hiking place that I would be Able to explore ?