Magnussonite

A specimen split along the vein to reveal an attractive assemblage of glassy, dark brown magnussonite with bright orange-red zincite. The white mineral is calcite, and the micaceous, medium-brown mineral (abundant at lower left) is mcgovernite. The matrix rock, seen at far left, is granular willemite-franklinite-calcite ore. The preserved portion of the vein at its thickest is 2.1 cm. The reverse side of this specimen, especially rich in mcgovernite in crude radial groups of flattened crystals, is shown in photo MGN4b.
The history of this specimen is well known. It was collected by John Kolic and was specimen no. 496 in his collection. In 1996 Mr. Kolic offered it for auction by the Sterling Hill Mining Museum. The winning bidder was Gary Grenier, who assigned it catalogue number GG2831. It later passed to Steven Phillips upon his purchase of the Grenier collection.

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