Found somethin' preciouusss in the tailins of the abandoned Green Leaf Mine outside Deming, New Mexico, USA.
Was it gold? Silver? ... Nope. A pastel-green flourite crystal!
Maybe you ain't excited, but Vanholio's jumpin' up and down like a teenager at his first strip club.
Oh, don't believe it's flourite? Compare ta this photo of green flourite from just south a here in Chihuahua state, Mexico.
Not convinced? Not close enough? Then look at the 2nd from bottom of these samples and these other samples from the Green Leaf Mine. Dead on, right!?
See, the Green Leaf Mine was a flourite (aka flourspar) mine operatin' in the 1920s ta 1950s. And it probably wadn't mined for toothpaste, neither!
Seems flourite is used in a bunch a metallurgy. The "flour" part is Latin for "flow," so called 'cause a little flourite in the ore helps the iron flow easy. Plus it's used for a bunch a other stuff, too. Real important is flourite.
That's the high level. If you're the kind ta dig deeper, download and read The Fluorite Ridge Fluorspar Mines, Luna County, New Mexico by the Museum of New Mexico Office of Archaeological Studies. All kindsa info 'bout this mine and others in the Flourite Ridge. Even mine cross-section maps!
Oh, and check out this cool grave on the mine tailins I posted up before.
@vanholio