Calcite (classic locale) (ex Kay Robertson Collection)

Item Description

Calcite was NOT commonly found at Butte, and despite the large number of specimens that came out, good Calcites were few and far between. This piece is from the Leonard Mine, and features a showy mound of sharp, well-formed, resinous off-white colored, "dogtooth"-shaped scalenohedra with minor associated Bornite and other sulfides on matrix. The largest Calcite measures 2.3 cm long. A few of the crystals are contacted, and reveal an unusual PINK interior (possibly from the presence of manganese?), but it's certainly like nothing I've seen from Butte before. Most likely this piece came from a small isolated find, as I have never encountered one like it in the past. Ex Kay Robertson Collection (#2870). Kay is a prominent California collector, who specialized in European classics (see the article in the March-April, 2007 Mineralogical Record and the 50+ page article in the German Magazine "Mineralien Velt" November-December 2017).