Bementite with Quartz

specimen number:
2354068

location:
Valgraveglia Mine, Reppia, Geno, Liguria, Italy

description:
Light brown micro crystals of bementite to 0.15 cm in size quite rich across the top of a quartz matrix. The specimen comes with a previous label from the collection of Eric Laskowski. Choice example for the species.

The Valgraveglia mining area near Reppia in the Genoa province of Liguria, Italy, is famous for its unique manganese-bearing ophiolitic sequences formed in an ancient ocean basin. Hydrothermal processes deposited dense beds of manganese ores within radiolarian cherts, creating one of Europe's most mineralogically diverse sites. Extensive underground mining operated throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to extract high-grade manganese, but today the region is renowned among mineral collectors as a world-class locality. Among its notable rare species, bementite occurs as distinct brownish or yellow-tan fine-grained aggregates and fibrous masses filling micro-fractures within the oxidized manganese ores.

Questions about this specimen?
Send an email or call us: 314-341-1811.