Fluorite with Ferberite (ex Chet Lemanski Collection)

Item Description

A beautiful and rarely seen specimen from the Kara-Oba Mine in Kazakhstan. The color and quality of the Fluorite crystals on this specimen is better than most I've handled from the locality. Typically you'll see purple crystals from this locality, but this piece has a vivid saturated blue-green color, which looks beautiful in sunlight. The crystals are octahedral in habit, measuring up to 2.7 cm across and they are associated with stark black contrasting bladed crystals of Ferberite with minor Pyrite and Quartz. Very little damage. A hard piece to accurately photograph, but it looks great in person. These specimens came out briefly in early 1990s, and never seen again, so don't miss out on this one, as they are extremely limited on the market today. I would value this one somewhere in the $700-$900 range. From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #0511CL. 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.