Magnetite (ex Chet Lemanski Collection)

Item Description

For years, we were told that these specimens were coming out of Pakistan (typically labeled as either Tormiq or Alchuri), but now we know they were indeed found across the border in the Nangarhar Province in Afghanistan. These specimens are coming out of a skarn deposit, and not the well-known pegmatites in Nangarhar. Once you've seen this material, you can instantly tell where they're from, as nothing really resembles the pieces from Marki Khel. This piece hosts a few sharp, lustrous, striated, octahedral crystals of Magnetite measuring up to 8 mm associated with small gemmy, lustrous yellow-green colored crystals of Epidote plus blue-grey foliated groups of Clinochlore matrix. Magnetite isn't a rare species, but it's not easy to find such well-formed crystals like this from a lot of localities around the world. An attractive little association specimen from this interesting occurrence in Afghanistan. From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #7732CL. 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.