Aurichalcite (rare locality)

Item Description

This piece is labeled as coming from the Heavy Weight Mine in the Helvetia District of Arizona, and is the only specimen we've seen from the locality. For reference, the piece was acquired in 2007 from B&B Minerals. The specimen features coatings of botryoidal to finely crystallized, green Aurichalcite on gossan matrix. A really cool specimen for any fan of secondary ore minerals, or specimens from Arizona. From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #21902CL, and the catalogue entry for the piece states that it was exported from China and imported into the United States by The Rocksmiths, and was purchased by Chet on February 8, 2001 (TGMS Show). 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.