Mackinawite (rare) et al.

Item Description

A very rare specimen of Mackinawite labeled as coming from Marathon, a small town in Ontario, along the northeast shore of Lake Superior (Thunder Bay District). This is the only specimen of this material that we've ever seen, and it comes with a label from Continental Minerals, whose slogan was, "Home of fine massive and crystallized mineral specimens". With that said, the piece features bronzy metallic Mackinawite, which is chemically iron sulfide, but was only recently changed from iron nickel sulfide in 2023. Interestingly, the entry on mindat.org states that Mackinawite is, "One of six minerals proposed to be essential for the emergence of life. Actually, one of two minerals, aside from fougèrite, to be vital in this matter due to 'comprising precipitate membranes' ". With that said, this piece also features other iron sulfide species, including Cubanite, Pentlandite, Chalcopyrite and Pyrrhotite, intermixed with smoky colored Quartz. A really cool and interesting rare specimen, both in terms of the locality and the minerals in general.
From the worldwide mineral collection of Albert Lewis Kidwell (January 1, 1919 - August 16, 2008). Al was a well-known mineral collector and research geologist with Carter Oil Company and later Exxon Oil Company in Houston, Texas. The phosphate species Kidwellite was named in his honor in 1974 ( https://www.mindat.org/photo-326405.html ).