History
Creedite borrows its name from a place on the map. It was named for the Creede district of Mineral County, Colorado, the rugged silver-mining country where it was first found.
The find came in 1916. Two chemists, working a fluorite-barite vein near Wagon Wheel Gap, picked apart its rare alteration minerals and described a new species among them. That vein, at the Colorado Fluorspar Company Mine, is the type locality — the place a mineral is first formally identified. The first known creedite there sat embedded in halloysite, a soft clay mineral.
The mineral is a secondary one, meaning it does not crystallise from fresh magma or hot fluid. Instead it grows later, as a fluorite ore body weathers. The slow chemical attack of air and water on buried ore breaks the older minerals down. That intense oxidation rebuilds their calcium, aluminium and fluorine into creedite.
For decades it stayed a mineralogical curiosity. That changed with Mexico. Orange crystals reached collectors from the Santa Eulalia district of Chihuahua in the 1980s. Then, in the early 2000s, the Navidad Mine in Durango yielded its now-famous specimens: vivid orange sprays of fine needle-like prisms, clustered like a hedgehog. Violet crystals turn up at the same Mexican localities, far rarer than the orange.
Industrial & practical applications
No industrial use is recorded for creedite. It is too rare, and forms in quantities too small, to be mined for any commercial purpose.
Its value is to collectors. The mineral forms radiating sprays of fine needle-like prisms, and the best of these are prized display pieces. The vivid orange clusters from the Navidad Mine in Durango, Mexico are the most sought after; violet examples are scarcer still. Museums and study collections keep it for the same reason: as a representative example of a rare calcium-aluminium fluoride species.
Where it forms, where it's found
- Geological setting
Upper portions of a fluorite-baryte vein.
- Type locality
- Colorado Fluorspar Company Mine
- Wagon Wheel Gap
- Mineral County
- Colorado
- USA
37.7461°, -106.8265°
Physical
Optical
- Optical type
- Biaxial (-)
- Refractive index
- 1.461 – 1.485
- Principal indices
- nα 1.461 · nβ 1.478 · nγ 1.485
- Dispersion
- r > v strong
Crystallography
- Space group
- C2/c
- Cell parameters
- a = 13.936(1) Å · b = 8.606(1) Å · c = 9.985(1) Å
- Cell angles
- β = 94.39(1) °
- Ratio a:b:c
- 1 : 0.618 : 0.716
- Z
- 4
- Morphology
Crystals short prismatic to acicular [001]; commonly with (111) and (11) or (111) alone as the dominant terminal forms. Crystals may measure up to 8 cm. Radiated aggregates; drusy, masses; embedded grains and crystals.
Chemical composition
Synonyms
- Belijankit
- Belyankit
- Belyankita
- Belyankite
In other languages
- French
- Creedite
- German
- Creedit
- Spanish
- Creedita
- Italian
- Creedite
- Japanese
- クリード石
- Chinese
- 氟铝石膏
- Russian
- Кридит
Classification
3.CG.15
- 3HalidesClass
- 3.CComplex halidesDivision
- 3.CGAluminofluorides with CO3, SO4, PO4Group
- 3.CG.15CreediteSpecies
12.01.04.01
- 12Compound HalidesClass
- 12.01MiscellaneousType
- 12.01.04— unnamed intermediate level —Group
- 12.01.04.01CreediteSpecies
26.18
- 26Sulphates with HalideClass
- 26.18— unnamed intermediate level —Group
- 26.18CreediteSpecies
Literature, links & citation
- 1916Larsen, E.S., Wells, R.C. (1916) Some minerals from the fluorite-barite vein near Wagon Wheel Gap, Colorado. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: 2: 360-365.
- 1916Gordon, S.G. (1916) New species. American Mineralogist: 1: 86-88.
- 1922Foshag, W.F. (1922) The crystallography and chemical composition of creedite. Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum: 59: 419-424.
- 1932American Mineralogist (1932): 17: 75.
- 1951Palache, Charles; Berman, Harry; Frondel, Clifford (1951) The System of Mineralogy (7th ed.) Vol. 2 - Halides, Nitrates, Borates, Carbonates, Sulfates, Phosphates, Arsenates, Tungstates, Molybdates, Etc. John Wiley and Sons.
@misc{mineral2026,
author = {Mineral Index editorial board},
title = {Creedite — Mineral Index},
year = {2026},
url = {https://mineralindex.org/minerals/creedite-1151},
note = {Accessed 2026-05-11}
}