What is "scheelite"

Scheelite \Scheel"ite\, n. [From C.W. Scheele, a Swedish chemist.] (Min.) Calcium tungstate, a mineral of a white or pale yellowish color and of the tetragonal system of crystallization.

n. (context mineralogy English) A mineral composed of calcium tungstate, with the chemical formula calciumtungstenoxygen₄; an important tungsten ore.

n. a mineral used as an ore of tungsten

Scheelite is a calcium tungstate mineral with the chemical formula Ca W O. It is an important ore of tungsten. Well-formed crystals are sought by collectors and are occasionally fashioned into gemstones when suitably free of flaws. Scheelite has been synthesized via 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 sulphide, and Thomas Edison invented a fluoroscope with a calcium tungstate-coated screen, making the images six times brighter that those with barium platinocyanide; the latter chemical allowed Röntgen to discover X-rays in early November 1895.