Adamite var: Manganese-bearing Adamite

Item Description

For many years, these specimens were labeled as cobalt-bearing Adamite, but they have since been proven to be manganese-bearing. With that said, they have what many people consider to the best most desirable hue for the species. The Ojuela Mine is famous for its world-class Adamites, and these particular specimens are the rarest and most beautiful examples. This piece is a lovely toenail sized specimen which hosts several, sharp, lustrous, GEMMY, prismatic crystals measuring up to 8 mm showing vivid fuchsia-purple hues on the terminations, which grade into a nearly colorless hue in the lower portions of the prisms. Most of the crystals are undamaged, though there are some rough spots, so the piece is not pristine. The color and quality is still very good for the material, and these older specimens are seldom available on the market these days, so if you collect secondary ore minerals, worldwide Adamites or minerals from the famous Ojuela Mine, this a great representative example.
From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #7770CL. Chet was born 1947 in started collecting minerals circa 1957. He worked briefly as a drill runner at the famous Sterling Mine, in Ogdensburg, New Jersey and from 1987 to 1990 he helped convert the mine into a public access mining museum. He has held the role of treasurer, vice president and president of the Franklin-Ogdensburg Mineralogical Society (FOMS), and has been a board member and vice president of the Franklin Mineral Museum. The rare copper arsenate, Lemanskiite was named in his honor in 1999.