Hematite (old rare locality specimen)

Item Description

Fine crystallized Hematite specimens are exceedingly rare from the mines and quarries of Tooele County, Utah. This sculptural, and impactful cabinet sized display specimen is capped by a striking cluster of sharp, unusually formed, platy / skeletal Hematite crystals. Interestingly, some crystal faces are lustrous, while others have a matte finish. The tiered matrix of banded, massive Hematite is covered with splendent brighter silvery-grey Hematite botryoids giving the piece a surreal look under bright light. Old-time, exotic looking material for the species! Originally from the Dennis Mullane Collection. MUCH BETTER IN PERSON! It feels fairly unique for its form and style, and you might not see another like for quite some time.
From the collection of Armon McPherson, a retired physicist, now living in New Mexico. Armon received his PhD from North Carolina State University in 1985, and worked at the laser laboratory at the University of Illinois at Circle Center. In the summer of 1997, Armon moved to the Argonne National Laboratory where he worked at the Advanced Photon Source, then the world’s largest synchrotron facility dedicated as an x-ray source. In 2001, he was asked to join a team at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque to conduct laser research for DARPA. Finally, staying within Sandia, he transferred to the Z Facility, the world’s most powerful x-ray facility. He retired in the spring of 2017. Armon's introduction to mineral collecting came in the 1980s during graduate school when he attended his first mineral show. He took up the hobby of faceting gems, and focused his early collection on gem crystals, and later transitioned into collecting non-gem species. We are proud to offer specimens from his worldwide mineral collection here for you.