Creedita
Creedita is a mineral with formula Ca₃Al₂(SO₄)(F,OH)(SO₄)₃·2H₂O, in the Sulfatos group. This specimen comes from Mina Navidad, Mapimí, Durango, México and joined the Terrium collection in 2025.
Description
Complete spherical floater. Built from a radial burst of prismatic creedite crystals of intense orange colour, variably translucent to "gemmy", with very bright, lustrous faces. No points of attachment or basal breaks—pure symmetry.
About Creedita
Complex hydrated calcium–aluminium fluorosulphate. It forms in oxidised zones, almost like a "vampire" mineral, at the expense of fluorite. Acid fluids dissolve pre-existing fluorite to supply the needed fluorine, which recrystallises as these complex forms. These spheres grow "suspended" within clay pockets, allowing perfect terminations to develop in all directions without contacting anything hard.
About the locality
Mina Navidad (Rodeo, Durango) redefined the species worldwide. Although the mineral was discovered in the USA (Creede, Colorado), Mexican specimens found in the late 1970s eclipsed all earlier material for size and colour. It is an industrial fluorite mine, but it has also been worked intermittently by "gambusinos" (artisanal miners) who excavate dangerous galleries in search of these clay pockets. Production is now practically halted, making large, intact spheres very difficult to obtain.
Technical data
- Catalogue No.
- 0133
- Composition
- Ca₃Al₂(SO₄)(F,OH)(SO₄)₃·2H₂O
- Name
- Creedita
- Group
- Sulfatos
- Category
- Asteris Explosio
- Matrix
- Floater
- Mine
- Mina Navidad
- District / Municipality
- Mapimí
- Region
- Durango
- Country
- México
- Size (cm)
- 5 x 5 x 5
- Weight
- 97 g
- Acquired
- 2025
- Etymology
- Named in 1916 by Larsen and Wells for the type locality: the Creede quadrangle, Mineral County, Colorado, USA.
- Quality
- Top
- Value trend
- Al alza