Purpurite with Heterosite (rare locality)

Item Description

Purpurite and Heterosite are well-known secondary manganese phosphate species, which form from the alteration of their parent primary phosphate species, Lithiophilite and Triphylite respectively. Essentially, the lithium in Lithiophilite and Triphylite is leached away, leaving the manganese (and sometimes iron), forming these beautiful purple minerals. This piece is a very hard to find example from the Crystal Mountain Pegmatite District in northern Colorado and features attractive muted purple to almost purplish-brown Purpurite and Heterosite on Muscovite matrix. If you collect phosphates, rare locality specimens or minerals from Colorado, this is certainly something that you rarely see offered for sale, so don't miss out. From the collection of Gary Weaver (1944-2019), an electrical engineer who worked for Hughes Aircraft in California. After retiring to Prescott, Arizona in the early 2000s, Gary rekindled his childhood love of minerals, amassing a collection of roughly 2000 specimens, focusing on localities in which he and his wife had lived or visited (Mexico, Peru and the western / southwestern United States). You can read Gary's obituary here https://www.dcourier.com/news/2019/apr/27/obituary-gary-richard-weaver/