Hydroboracite (RARE locality specimen) (ex Chet Lemanski Collection)

Item Description

This is a very hard to find specimen of what was referred to as "satin spar" years ago. At first, I thought this was a piece of Chrysotile (Asbestos) or some kind of Amphibole species, so I was certainly surprised to see this is actually a fibrous Hydroboracite (according to Chet's mineral collection catalogue) from the famous Inder Lake locality in Kazakhstan, which just happens to be the type locality for the species. The is a large specimen of white to pale greenish-yellow to reddish colored Hydroboracite which grew in elongated, slightly "bent", thin prismatic crystals. From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #14715CL. 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.