Ramsdellite (rare Mn oxide) ex Al Ordway Coll.

Item Description

Ramsdellite is a rare manganese oxide. This is a rich, mounded, intergrown plate of equant, splendent, black ramsdellite crystals to 5 mm across. Ramsdellite from this small and defunct mine in a remote corner of Arizona was first found, I am told, in the early 1900s. However, the locality was apparently lost for some time and only rediscovered by the father/son team of Roy Jones and Dick Jones in the 1960s. Some of this material came out then (Roy says about 6 flats). There was an old MR article about the Mistake Mine in one of the Arizona issues, and also this is referenced in Mineralogy of Arizona by Bideaux, et al. Ex Al Ordway Collection # 410 and obtained from Arizona dealer and collector Dave Shannon in 1985. Excellent and rich material.