Rhodochrosite (rare locality specimen)

Item Description

Rhodochrosite is best known from places like the Sweet Home Mine in Colorado or the Kalahari Manganese Field in South Africa, but there are many localities worldwide where this manganese carbonate has been found, sometimes in very unique and distinctive examples. The pieces from the Poudrette Quarry at Mont Saint-Hilaire, Quebec are certainly iconic, and do not resemble Rhodos from anywhere else I have seen. Not only is the habit and color singular for the species, but the crystals can form in twins, which is also notably rare for Rhodochrosite. This specimen features several sharp, well-formed, unusually flattened/tabular triangular shaped crystals with a dark reddish color measuring up to 2.4 cm across, associated with foliated Polylithionite. The Rhodos are in fairly good shape, but there are some cleaves, so the piece is not 100% undamaged. A classic example of this special Rhodos from this world-class locality. It should be noted that very little is coming out of this quarry now under the new ownership, and the bountiful days of MSH specimens on the market is certainly a thing of the past.
From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #19271CL. The piece was originally from the collection of Dan Serebrakian. 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.