Londonite (very rare)

Item Description

Starting in the late 90s, there were some impressive discoveries of rare minerals coming out of Madagascar in fine crystallized examples. Without questions is one of the more impressive rare species found in Madagascar in terms of crystal form, color and size is Londonite. If you look at the entry for Londonite on mindat.org, you'll see that it has only been found in Madagascar and Russia. Londonite is not only a rare mineral (it's actually a beryllium borate species), but it's a rare GEM mineral that is highly sought after by gem and mineral collectors alike. It forms a series with Rhodizite and was named after Dr. David London of the University of Oklahoma due to his work regarding granitic pegmatites This is a great Londonite specimen featuring a 8 mm sharp, lustrous, gemmy, bright yellow color crystal on matrix. It's rare to find well-formed, glassy gemmy crystals like this, as many don't have this kind of transparency or luster. Nothing new has been found in recent years, so these are becoming very difficult to find on the market.
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.