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Which mineral was the main industrial source of fluorine before the 1960s?

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A color-coded periodic table of the elements displays each element's symbol and atomic number, with categories such as alkali metals, noble gases, halogens, transition metals, and actinoid elements distinguished by different background colors. — halogen Modern version of the periodic table of the elements.

Before the 1960s, the primary industrial source of fluorine was the mineral fluorspar, also known as fluorite (CaF $_{2}$ ).12

While fluorine is relatively abundant in the Earth's crust, it is typically dispersed in small quantities within various rocks, making it much scarcer than chlorine in a form accessible to industrial chemists. Consequently, fluorspar—which had been used for centuries as a flux in metallurgical operations—served as the essential source for the element until the mid-20th century.12