Hematite var. "Kidney Ore"

Montreal Mine, Montreal, Iron Co., Wisconsin
Large Cabinet, 16.5 x 10.9 x 6.8 cm
Start Time: 05/04/2009 8:20:00 pm (CDT)
End Time: 05/14/2009 8:39:57 pm (CDT)
Auction Closed

Item Description

An OLD-TIME and huge specimen of lustrous, bubbly, banded, rust-brown to gray-black, hematite "kidney ore" with an accenting dusting of light brown goethite from a CLASSIC and famous Wisconsin iron mine - the Montreal Mine in Iron County. These look carved but actually the patterns are quite natural, and formed from lathelike crystals as they shear away from each other naturally in the mine. The good ones, like this, have a rounded, natural botryoidal top on them, too. SELDOM do you see such a LARGE CABINET specimen of this quality and form preserved from this locality. HEFTY at 4.9 pounds or 2.2 kilos. If from England (and it look smuch like the similar english hematites), this would be a $1000-2000 specimen. For me, I think this historic US locale is more desirable and I would bet fewer specimens were saved during its mining, so this specimen should at LEAST fall in the same value range.

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