MINERAL RESOURCES OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 'JJ 



FLUORITE 



There is no active mining of fluorite at present anywhere in the 

 State, although it occurs in one or two places in considerable and 

 possibly economic quantity. The mineral, the fluoride of calcium 

 (CaF2), has several important uses. The main purpose it subserves 

 is as a flux, being much more active chemically than the other cal- 

 cium compounds. Perhaps the largest single constmier is the open- 

 hearth steel industry, but it is also employed to some extent in the 

 shaft furnace and in the refining of certain base metals. The reduc- 

 tion of aluminimi from the oxide is carried out in an electric furnace 

 in a bath of fluorides, of which fluorite supplies the essential element. 

 The manufacture of opalescent glass, enameled ware and hydro-fluoric 

 acid calls for further quantities. A very limited but important use 

 is in optics which requires clear transparent crystals of the mineral. 



Fluorite occurs in association with certain magnetite deposits of 

 the Adirondacks. It was found by the writer some years since in 

 the examination of the Pakner Hill deposits as a component of the 

 wall rock in contact with the ore and to some extent as a gangue of 

 the latter. The main body of fluorite rock is to be seen in the hang- 

 ing wall of the Big pit where it is traceable for 150 feet or more and 

 contains from a few per cent up to 50 per cent of the mineral. The 

 rock resembles the ordinary country rock in appearance, having a 

 fine, even-grained texture, not pegmatitic, and the fluorite would 

 readily be confused with quartz at first sight. The grains, of a 

 fraction of an inch in diameter, are intermixed with pink feldspar 

 and magnetite, with varying amounts of quartz. By increase of 

 magnetite the wall rock grades into the commercial magnetites. 

 If mining is resiuned at Pakner hill, as seems not unlikely in view 

 of the resources still in existence there, the recovery of fluorite as a 

 by-product in concentration of the magnetite would appear feasible. 



In the Barton hill section of the Mineville district fluorite occurs 

 as a minor ingredient of the magnetite ores in restricted areas. It 

 can be seen in the roof and walls of the present tunnel in the vicinity 

 of the old workings called the Lovers hole. Wherever it occurs the 

 magnetite appears as brilliant lustrous grains and crystals, which 

 readily separate under slight pressure. The presence of the fluorite 

 seems to have aided the segregation and crystallization of the mag- 

 netite. No mention was made of the fluorite in the early accounts 

 of mining on Barton hill and its presence seems to have been ignored ; 

 the ore, however, is said to have behaved peculiarly at times in the 

 furnace, for which the powerful fluxing qualities of this ingredient 

 may have been responsible. 



