Phosphosiderite on Lithiophilite

Item Description

A beautiful specimen of Phosphosiderite from the famous Stewart Lithia Mine in San Diego County featuring a central vug of vibrant bluish-purple colored crystalline groups sitting in massive Lithiophilite matrix. Phosphosiderite is a hydrated iron phosphate, and specimens are rare from the well-known Stewart Mine, which is famous for its strong pink colored Tourmaline specimens. A beautiful and fine quality example of this rather rare material mined in the 1960s.
From the collection of Norman Kennedy ("Kenny") Gay (1953-2023), a geologist, geoscience educator and mineral collector from North Carolina. (#M594 E.1). The back of the label states the piece was originally in the collection of Scott Maylen. Kenny worked for North Carolina Geological Survey starting 1995, and he was a member of the adjunct faculty at Wesleyan College, and a professor of geology since 2001. He assembled a large collection of worldwide minerals specimens, though he focused mainly on minerals of North Carolina. Kenny did substantial work documenting all of the significant mineral occurrences and mining/mineral collecting in North Carolina. He might be best associated with the Redmond Mine, where the rare extremely rare lead sulfate Kennygayite was discovered and named in his honor in 2022. Kenny was the first person to collect specimens at this locality, which lead Jason Smith to take an interest in this assemblage, and later name a mineral in Kenny's honor.