Fluorite (crystals and ''casts'') (RARE locality specimen)

Item Description

An incredibly hard to find cabinet sized display specimen from the a niobium deposit in remote Vishnevye Mountains of Russia (about 100 km south of Yekaterinburg) featuring very pale green, lustrous, gemmy cubic Fluorite crystals which are sitting on a matrix composed of grey-green "Chlorite" which has formed ''casts" (sometimes called epimorphs or perimorphs) showing hollow cubic outlines where Fluorite once existed and was later dissovled away. Accenting areas of white Calcite can be seen as well for a nice touch. The remaining Fluorite crystals on the specimen are partially etched in areas, but they luckily did not get completely dissolved, so you can see the "before and after" effect from the skeletal ''casts'' and the still existing Fluorites. This is the ONLY speicmen of Fluorite we've ever had to offer from this locality, and the fact that it's a full sized cabinet, makes it all the more desirable and impressive. From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #14409CL, 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.