Inesite

specimen number:
2063232

location:
Hale Creek Mine, Trinity Co., California, USA

description:
Classic California specimen with pink attractive semi lustrous crystals of inesite, these blocky and sharply formed, measuring to 0.5 cm in size on matrix. In great condition. The specimen comes with a previous label from the collection of Ray DeMark.

Located in Trinity County, California, the Hale Creek Mine is a historic manganese deposit embedded within the Franciscan Complex, where tabular lenses of manganese-rich ore are enclosed by ancient chert and sandstone formations. Discovered in 1941, the open-cut site was primary mined during the World War II era to supply crucial industrial manganese ores such as hausmannite, bementite, and rhodochrosite. Although commercial operations ceased long ago, the locality remains famous among mineral collectors and rockhounds, who historically searched the surrounding cuts and nearby stream bed debris down slope to find vibrant pink veins of silicate minerals such as inesite alongside other manganese-bearing species.

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