kastningite from the Emmons Mine, Maine

Hello everyone! Just a note that I am sure I have found the rare mineral kastningite in material from the Emmons Quarry in Maine. I had put away at one time a small chunk of the material that I obtained from a giveaway table at a micromineral conference in 2004. Upon finding it again last night I noticed several small clusters of colorless xls in the pockets in the siderite. I trimmed out 5 small specimens. Being very familiar with this species from the Foote Mine in NC, I immediately recognized what it may be. A small xl was removed and placed into warm light and within 20 seconds the xl began violently dessicating. This is a distinct property for this species. The only associated minerals are childrenite/eosphorite and siderite. Please see the photo I posted in the kastningite gallery. I am quite sure of the indentification but if anyone is interested in confirming it by EDS then let me know. Check your Emmons Quarry secondary phosphate bearing material for sprays of xls that look like gypsum or colorless stewartite (which is what it really is, the aluminum analouge of stewartite). This would be the only locality outside of Germany and North Carolina for the species. Check carefully. The species is easily overlooked. Thanks, Jason.

Figured I would save those interested time and go ahead and post the photo here. Thanks.

Hi Jason,
it really looks like kastningite. Compliments!
Ciao. Marco

Hello Jason,
I am the miner at the Emmons Quarry.This is exciting news if confirmed and kudos on the catch. A sample from probable friends of yours has been given to Al Falter & Skip Simmons from the Univ. of New Orleans, who will test this for us. They and I would like to know more about the matrix and possibly who might have collected it. My opinion from the photo is that the matrix is from an altered lithiophilite phosphate pod, but we want to be sure. We also want to track down where in the pegmatite this came from - it could be important. Could you contact me privately if you know who had these samples. Good work!

Hi Ray. Sorry for the delay in responding to your post in this thread. I wish I could further define who I got the material from. All I know is that I got the material from a giveaway table at the Baltimore Mineral Society's fall micromount symposium in September of 2004. Gene Bearss was there so I suppose it could have come from him but there is not any way of knowing. Those little xls are very inconspicuous and the only reason I recognized them is because I have collected many, many specimens of it on the dumps at the Foote Mine in NC. Al Falster himself was down here in June last year and collected some himself. I think you are correct in your diagnosis of the origin of the material at the Mine. The only associated minerals are eosphorite and siderite. I am sure it is probably quite common there, just overlooked. The mineral will dessicate in sunlight in less than a minute. I would think that any pod with abundant stewartite could have the kastningite in the Fe-poor areas of it. That is, the areas free of heavy staining and the more colorful, Fe dominant species. I think there is a high possibility that the species will show up in many more localities that have somewhat abundant stewartite. Keep me posted. Thanks, Jason.

Jason,
Just noted you response and much appreciated. I was remiss in checking back for a reply from you, as warmer weather meant mining and forgetting things like this. We have hit a dry spell in secondary mineralization in the lithiophilite pods lately, most of them are solid now or altered to rhodochrosite. We haven't recovered any secondaries for a couple of years now. I did check with Gene Bearss and indeed they were his samples on the give-away table. We have encouraged him to pass along his extras this way and I am glad they were appreciated! Al Falster has indeed check the samples given him and the results were well within kastningite parameters. He was going to double check his results and test a second sample to be sure. But as far as he is concerned, your diagnosis is correct. Congrats! I'll let you know if anything changes. Thank you again and hope to meet someday!