Hematite

Item Description

A beautiful crystallized specimen of dark metallic black Hematite from an undisclosed locality in Brazil (likely Itabira or Casa de Pedra, but it's difficult to know for certain), featuring many sharp, very lustrous, modified, striated rhombic crystals measuring up to 1.5 cm, on all sides. The piece is in very good shape, with no serious damage that I can find, and the crystals are beautiful to view up close. Most people think of Hematite as forming in thin blades, but various localities in Minas Gerais have yielded some exceptional blocky crystals, which are among the best of that habit ever found.
From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #0171CL, 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.