Mimetite var: Campylite (old classic material)

Item Description

The famous Dry Gill Mine in England is renowned for producing some of the most distinctive examples of Mimetite ever found, specifically the phosphate-bearing variety called "Campylite". If you go back in the old textbooks, you'll see for a time that Campylite was actually considered to be a valid species, but it's now a variety of Mimetite. The distinctive rusty orange color and somewhat spherical barrel-shaped crystals are some of the most well known of all English minerals. The piece features several lustrous, rich orange semi spherical aggregates of Campylite on matrix. The largest Campylite group measures 3 mm across. There are some contacted spots, but many of the Campylites are in excellent condition. A very good old-time specimen of this well-known historic material. According to the entry on mindat.org, actual mining at the Dry Gill Mine completely stopped in 1869, but several attempts by field collectors have been made to recover specimens, particularly in the 1970s.
From the collection Dr. Robert ("Rob") Bowell, a geochemist and adjunct professor in Geochemistry and Mineralogy at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Rob has a background in applied geology in tropical and deeply weathered terrains, he also has done mining consulting in the fields of due diligence, financial and technical audits, process chemistry, environmental geochemistry, environmental engineering and mineralogy.