Malachite (very lustrous crystals) (ex Chet Lemanski Collection)

Item Description

A fine quality Malachite specimen from the lesser known Mindingi Mine (Mindigi Mine) in the Congo. This piece is filled with HIGHLY lustrous, sharp, rich emerald green colored, platy/bladed crystals of Malachite measuring up to about 4 mm on host rock matrix. Typically the Malachites from this locality are MUCH more dull and often acicular or fibrous in their crystal form, but to have a piece like this with such "wet" luster and well-defined crystals is amazingly impressive for this mine. Don't pass this up if you collect copper minerals, secondary ore minerals, or minerals from the Congo. From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #21925CL. 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.