A Gemstone That Still Gives Us the Blues After Centuries ...

Summary

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Although known by various names, the blue banded fluorspar of Derbyshire is not found anywhere else in the world, and as such, has been mined for centuries. Being so rare, however, only a handful of the stone is mined to be used in jewellery now, though visitors are welcome to the Blue John mine at Tre Cliff all summer, and taken underground by miners who know better than most, how the semi- precious mineral is worked and used today.

It is the only semi-precious stone still worked in Britain, which is believed to have been named after the man who found it, a miner called John Kirk. However there is another explanation for the name of this unusual stone, apparently, as some say it gets its name from the French 'bleu et jaune' or blue and yellow, colours that appear in this stone, along with brown and a striking shade of purple.

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Extract

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A Gemstone That Still Gives Us the Blues After Centuries ...

One of the best known locations of fluorite is at Castleton in Derbyshire where this stone is mined as Derbyshire...

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