Scheelite is a calcium tungstate mineral, the color range includes tones of yellow, orange, gold, red, green, and grey to white. There is a newly discovered form that is combined with Calcite based minerals and is known as Scheelite Lace.
It is an important ore of tungsten (wolfram). Well-formed crystals are sought by collectors and are occasionally fashioned into gemstones when suitably free of flaws.
Scheelite has been synthesized using the Czochralski process; the material produced may be used to imitate diamond, as a scintillator, or as a solid-state lasing medium.
It was also used in radium paint in the same fashion as was zinc sulfide, and Thomas Edison invented a fluoroscope with a calcium tungstate-coated screen, making the images six times brighter than those with barium platinocyanide; the latter chemical allowed Röntgen to discover X-rays in early November 1895.
Scheelite: Meanings, Benefits and Properties
The frequency of Scheelite connects to the sacral, solar plexus, and crown chakras, stimulating these chakras so that one is able to have clarity of thought, be creative and organized, and have a commitment to see that one’s actions come to fruition. It helps one to stay connected to one’s inner thoughts and feelings and to be able to work concisely within set time parameters.
This crystal supports one so that one remains stable and balanced mentally and emotionally, and helps with one’s connection to one’s soul’s impulses to integrate them into one’s daily life. It can aid one during the meditative state, supporting one’s consciousness in altered states of awareness.
Scheelite helps to align and balance the energies within one’s chakric column, and can help to stabilize male and female energies and the male reproductive system.
Associated Chakras
- Sacral
- Solar Plexus
- Crown
Physical Ailment
- Energy Balance
- Hormonal System
Emotional Issue
- Emotional Balance
Spiritual Connection
- Meditation – Spiritual
- Soul Connection
Scheelite Occurrence
Scheelite occurs in contact metamorphic skarns; in high-temperature hydrothermal veins and greisen; less commonly in granite pegmatites. Temperature and pressure of formation is between 200 and 500 °C and from 200 to 1,500 bars.
Typical mineral association includes cassiterite, wolframite, topaz, fluorite, apatite, tourmaline, quartz, grossular-andradite, diopside, vesuvianite and tremolite.
Scheelite usually occurs in tin-bearing veins; and is sometimes found in association with gold. Fine crystals have been obtained from Caldbeck Fells in Cumbria, Zinnwald/Cínovec and Elbogen in Bohemia, Guttannen in Switzerland, the Riesengebirge in Silesia, Dragoon Mountains in Arizona and elsewhere.
At Trumbull in Connecticut and Kimpu-san in Japan large crystals of scheelite completely altered to wolframite have been found: those from Japan have been called “reinite.”
It was mined until 1990 at King Island, Australia, Glenorchy in Central Otago and Macraes Flat in North Otago and also at The Golden Bar mine at Dead Horse Creek during World War 1 in Nelson, New Zealand. There is a high concentration of Scheelite in Northeast of Brazil, mainly in the Currais Novos mine in Rio Grande do Norte State.
Scheelite History
Scheelite was first described in 1751 for an occurrence in Mount Bispbergs klack, Säter, Dalarna, Sweden, and named for Carl Wilhelm Scheele (1742-1786). Owing to its unusual heaviness, it had been given the name tungsten by the Swedes, meaning “heavy stone.” The name was later used to describe the metal, while the ore itself was given the name scheelerz or scheelite.
Synthetic Scheelite
Although it is now uncommon as a diamond imitation (much more convincing products, like cubic zirconia and moissanite have long since superseded it), synthetic scheelite is occasionally offered as natural scheelite, and collectors may thus be fooled into paying high prices for them.
Gemologists distinguish natural scheelite from synthetic material mainly by microscopic examination: Natural material is very seldom without internal growth features and inclusions (imperfections), while synthetic material is usually very clean.
Distinctly artificial curved striae and clouds of minute gas bubbles may also be observed in synthetic scheelite.
