Analcime with Natrolite (ex Chet Lemanski Collection)

Item Description

A rarely seen specimen of Analcime from (according to the label) the Narre Warren Quarry in the Flinders area of Victoria, Australia. For reference, I could find a listing for this locality on mindat, so if anybody out there can give us some insight as to the origin of this piece, please let us know. This miniature specimen hosts a patch of fine quality, little, sharp, lustrous, GEMMY, colorless trapezohedral crystals of Analcime associated with tiny cream colored crystal "sprays" of Natrolite on basalt matrix. There is a slight blue color on the matrix that shines through the Analcimes, giving them a blue tint, but they are truly colorless. The crystals are best seen with magnification. A good reference specimen of these hard to find Analcimes from Flinders. From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #3003L. 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.