Chrysotile (rare locality specimen)

Item Description

A very hard to find specimen from the Royal Green Marble Quarry (Warnes Quarry / Rock Products Company Quarry) in Phillipsburg, New Jersey featuring a coverage of off-white, fibrous Chrysotile crystals on host rock matrix. The listing for this locality on mindat.org states that the quarry operated from 1880-1941, so this piece is certainly over 80 years old. I've never seen one of these before, nor have I see any specimens from this locality, so if you collect East Coast minerals, species from the Serpentine Group, or specifically minerals of New Jersey, don't miss out on this one. From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #17722CL. 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.