Magnetite (rare locality specimen)

Item Description

A notably hard to find specimen from the lesser-known Calumet Orebody in the Iron Springs District of Utah featuring a few sharp, well-formed octahedral crystals of a dark brown-black hue, measuring up to 1.6 cm, sitting on minor massive Magnetite matrix. It's the only Magnetite specimen that I can remember having to offer from the locality, so if you collect minerals of Utah, oxides or oddball locality pieces, this is a cool one to add to your collection.
This piece comes from the personal collection of Colorado mining legend, Dave Bergman, the maternal grandfather of Brian Kosnar. Dave is now retired from mining, but he worked for decades in various mines underground in Colorado, as a miner, mechanic, engineer, shift boss and foreman. His biggest claim to fame is that he was the foreman and the primary person in charge of mining and specimen recovery at the Sweet Home Mine in Colorado in the 1970s alongside his son-in-law, Rich Kosnar. This project what was the FIRST ever operation for specimen recovery at this historic locality. A full-page photograph of Dave can be seen mining underground at the Sweet Home in on page 58 of Peter Bancroft's book "Gem and Crystal Treasures".