Dioptase

Item Description

This cabinet sized specimen is simply labeled as coming from "Arizona" in Chet's collection catalogue. It's almost certainly not from Tiger or Morenci, but possibly from the Ray Mine. If any Arizona mineral experts out there can give us some insight as to where it could have originated, please let us know. The piece features a few vugs filled with deep emerald green trigonal crystals of Dioptase along with some massive white Calcite in a reddish-brown host rock matrix. Certainly not your run-of-the-mill Dioptase, at least not from Arizona. The crystals are actually well-formed and look nice under magnification. From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #2506CL. Chet's catalogue mentions that this piece was "A former Fersman Mineralogical Museum, Moscow, specimen (no label) sold at the Munich show by the Curator." 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.