STILBITE



Stilbite is the most abundant of the zeolites at Franklin and Sterling Hill, yet it is a rare mineral. It was initially described by Palache (1928a) as epistilbite and was later shown by him (Palache, 1935) to be stilbite.
Stilbite occurs in fine crystals, both as single euhedra and as twinned crystals as illustrated by Palache (1935); crystals can be up to 1 cm in length. The habit is commonly radial, and fascicles from here resemble those from classic stilbite occurrences. Stilbite is colorless to light yellow, has perfect to imperfect cleavage, and a vitreous luster. There is no discernible fluorescence in ultraviolet.
Stilbite was reported by Palache (1935) to occur at Franklin in altered pegmatite with epidote, actinolite, and calcite. Palache also reported several occurrences at Sterling Hill, one of which is on the 900 level, where it is associated with tennantite, epidote, actinolite, and titanite. Stilbite is the last mineral to form, coating tennantite crystals, which in turn postdate the other silicates. Stilbite was also found with heulandite and epidote on the 1300 level at Sterling Hill. Such material may have resulted from alteration of the core gneiss. (Dunn, 1995)

 Location Found: Ogdensburg
     
 Mineral Note: This name now refers to the minerals Stilbite-Ca and Stilbite-Na.
     
 Formula: (Na9,NaCa4)(Si27Al9)O72 · 28H2O
 Essential Elements: Aluminum, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Silicon, Sodium
 All Elements in Formula: Aluminum, Calcium, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Silicon, Sodium
     
 IMA Status:
     
     
 To find out more about this mineral at minDat's website, follow this link   Stilbite

     
 References:
Dunn, Pete J. (1995). Franklin and Sterling Hill New Jersey: the world's most magnificent mineral deposits. Franklin, NJ.: The Franklin-Ogdensburg Mineralogical Society. p.514

Frondel, Clifford (1972). The minerals of Franklin and Sterling Hill, a checklist. NY.: John Willey & Sons. p.78
The Picking Table References
 PT Issue and PageDescription / Comment
View IssueV. 30, No. 1 - Spring 1989, pg. 9The Epidote-Pyroxene-Fluorapophyllite Assemblage in the Franklin Mine at Franklin, New Jersey, Philip P. Betancourt, Stilbite (small description)
View IssueV. 11, No. 2 - August 1970, pg. 3Mineral Information - Heulandite and Stilbite From Franklin N.J. by William C. Casperson
     
Images
     
Stilbite crystal sprays on calcite matrix from Sterling Hill Mine, NJ.
Stilbite crystal sprays on calcite matrix from Sterling Hill Mine, NJ. From the collection of, and photo by JVF.

Stilbite crystals on calcite matrix from Sterling Hill Mine, NJ
Stilbite crystals (light beige) on calcite matrix from Sterling Hill Mine, NJ. 1 3/4" x 1 1/2". From the collection of, and photo by Robert A. Boymistruk.

Stilbite crystals and epidote from the Sterling Hill Mine, Ogdensburg, NJ
Stilbite crystals (white to light yellow) and epidote (green) from the Sterling Hill Mine, Ogdensburg, NJ. Field of view 1 3/8". From the collection of JVF, photo by WP.






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