Fluorite (odd locality) (ex Chet Lemanski Collection)

Item Description

Please note: This specimen is listed as coming from "Los Lamentos, Chihuahua, Mexico", but there is no entry on mindat.org for Fluorite from anywhere in the area, so we're at a bit of a loss in terms of the actual origin of this specimen. The two major localities in the state of Chihuahua for Fluorite are the Santa Eulalia District and Naica, but this piece does not resemble anything I've seen from either of those locales, so either the piece came from a tiny, unreported discovery in the Los Lamentos Mountains or it's from another mine/locality in Chihuahua, and was sold erroneously as coming from Los Lamentos. If anybody out there has some insight as to where this piece could have originated, please reach out and let us know. With that said, the specimen hosts dozens of small, gemmy cubic purplish-blue crystals measuring up to 6 mm on Quartz matrix. There is what appears to be a small cubic Galena crystal on the back of the specimen, which could be an indicator of its origin. A cool specimen to add to any suite of Mexican or worldwide Fluorites. From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #4902CL. 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.