Scheelite

Scheelite is a mineral made of calcium, tungsten and oxygen (CaWO₄). It occurs in many colours, from colourless and white to yellow and brown, shines like glass or diamond and is very heavy. Its best-known feature is a bright blue glow under short-wave ultraviolet (UV) light. According to MTA, about two thirds of the world’s tungsten resources are scheelite and one third wolframite.

Tungsten production: Together with wolframite, scheelite is one of the two ores that supply industrial tungsten. Tungsten is the metal with the highest known melting point (3,422 °C). According to the USGS, about 60% of the tungsten used in the United States goes into cemented carbide parts for cutting and wear-resistant uses (mining, drilling, metalworking, construction); the rest goes into alloys and special steels and into electrical and lighting parts.

It has a hardness of 4.5–5 on the Mohs scale. A fingernail cannot scratch it, but a steel knife can. Its specific gravity is 5.9–6.1 g/cm³.

Its best-known localities: Bispbergs klack, Säter, Dalarna, Sweden; Mittersill (Felbertal), Salzburg, Austria; Uludağ, Bursa, Türkiye; Altenberg, Saxony, Germany; Xuebaoding, Pingwu, Sichuan, China.

Known localities in Türkiye: Uludağ, Bursa, Türkiye.

It feels surprisingly heavy: its specific gravity is about 6, more than twice that of a piece of quartz of the same size. Its hardness is 4.5–5: a steel knife scratches it, and it cannot scratch glass. The streak (powder colour) is white; the lustre ranges from glassy to diamond-like. Under short-wave UV light it glows bright blue or bluish white; specimens containing molybdenum glow white or yellow. Wear eye protection when using a UV lamp. It can be confused with similar-looking minerals: the dark, heavy tungsten mineral that often shares the same vein is wolframite, while the pale tungsten mineral that glows blue under UV is scheelite. Calcite and quartz are pale too, but far lighter than scheelite.

On the “street to diamond” value ladder it sits on step 4 of nine: Fine dimension stone and ore. Scheelite is an ore, and its value depends on the proportion of tungsten oxide (WO₃) in the ore, the size of the deposit and the cost of processing (scheelite is usually concentrated by gravity separation and flotation). Because supply is concentrated in a few countries, trade restrictions matter too: according to the USGS, China supplied 67,000 tonnes of the roughly 85,000 tonnes mined worldwide in 2025. For collectors, large, undamaged crystals with transparent terminations and famous localities such as Xuebaoding count. Cut scheelite stones are collector’s items rather than jewellery because of their low hardness and cleavage, and since they may be synthetic, a laboratory report matters.

Crystal-therapy websites claim that scheelite increases mental clarity and insight and balances the body’s “chakras”. No study shows that scheelite clarifies thinking or balances the body’s “energy centres”, and “chakra” claims cannot be measured. The real, visible property of scheelite is its blue glow under UV light, which comes from the chemistry of the mineral. Because raw scheelite specimens can occur with arsenic-bearing minerals, the stone should not be put in “stone water” and that water should not be drunk. This section reports beliefs; it is not health information. There is no scientific evidence for these claims and no stone replaces medical treatment.

Scheelite is harmless to handle. In some deposits the ore occurs with arsenic-bearing minerals such as arsenopyrite, so do not break or crush raw specimens, do not breathe the dust, do not put them in water to drink and wash your hands after handling. Short-wave UV lamps emit the wavelengths that cause sunburn and eye injury; wear eye protection when using one.