Rhodochrosite with Calcite

Item Description

A beautiful association specimen from the famed Boldut Mine in Cavnic, Romania featuring attractive spherical white groups of Calcite measuring up to 7 mm across, sitting atop a matrix of soft pink curved rhombic crystals of Rhodochrosite. There are several TRANSPARENT, colorless prisms of Quartz measuring up to 9 mm flaring out of the Rhodochrosite, creating a very pleasing effect. No major damage that I can see, though the periphery is contacted where the piece was removed from the pocket wall. Rhodochrosite is found in many localities around the world, but did you know that the Cavnic Mine is actually the TYPE LOCALITY for the species?
From the collection of Armon McPherson, a retired physicist, now living in New Mexico. Armon received his PhD from North Carolina State University in 1985, and worked at the laser laboratory at the University of Illinois at Circle Center. In the summer of 1997, Armon moved to the Argonne National Laboratory where he worked at the Advanced Photon Source, then the world’s largest synchrotron facility dedicated as an x-ray source. In 2001, he was asked to join a team at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque to conduct laser research for DARPA. Finally, staying within Sandia, he transferred to the Z Facility, the world’s most powerful x-ray facility. He retired in the spring of 2017. Armon's introduction to mineral collecting came in the 1980s during graduate school when he attended his first mineral show. He took up the hobby of faceting gems, and focused his early collection on gem crystals, and later transitioned into collecting non-gem species. We are proud to offer specimens from his worldwide mineral collection here for you.