Regional Report: Mt. Apatite District, Auburn, Androscoggin Co., Maine, USA

Mt Apatite has many granite pegmatite quarries and prospects which are mineralogically rich and have late-stage lithium mineralization. The Mt. Apatite region is geographically bisected by the Hatch Road into Western and Eastern quarry groups, although the maximum distance between quarries is less than 2 km. Without a doubt the most famous of all of the quarries is the Pulsifer Quarry in the western portion of the district which has produced the finest purple apatites in the world. Fine tourmalines from the various quarries are generally quite small (less than 2 cm). Quarrying efforts in the 1990's at a small prospect now called the Groves Quarry, once called the Hole in the Ground, produced a handful of purple apatite-(CaF) crystals from 1-2 cm. The Pulsifer Pegmatite is over 0.5 km long and is certainly far from exhausted. The Western Group quarries are currently privately owned and the Eastern Group are owned by the City of Auburn with the exception of the Hatch Farm Prospect which is also in private hands. Mount Apatite's early history has been associated with the names of Nathaniel Perry, G.C. Hatch, Martin Keith, Thomas Lamb, Loren Merrill, Pitt Pulsifer, John Towne, Hiram Greenlaw, Eli Turner, William Wade and more recently with Stanley Perham, Ken Grover, Irving "Dudy" Groves, Terrance Szenics, Frank Perham and Dick Dionne. Gem exploration began as early as 1862. Feldspar production began in the mid-1890's, but the feldspar was shipped to Topsham for processing. The Maine Feldspar Co. worked at it’s namesake quarry in 1902 and a mill was built in 1906 at Littlefield Corner near the Danville Junction of the Grand Trunk Railroad, now of the Maine Central Railroad, in Auburn. Feldspar production ended on October 1, 1929. Within a kilometer of the Mount Apatite District, there are mineralogically simple pegmatites which have not been included in the Mount Apatite District. Refs: Perham, Jane C., 1985, Maine’s Treasure Chest. King, V. and Foord,E., 1994, Mineralogy of Maine, v. 1. Descriptive Mineralogy. King, Vandall T., 2000, Mineralogy of Maine, Vol. 2: Mining History, Gems and Geology. King, V. and Szenics, T., 2008, Pulsifer Quarry, Androscoggin County, Maine, American Mineral Treasures, p. 324-327. King, V. T., 2009, Maine Feldspar, Families, and Feuds. City of Auburn Parks and Recreation: Mt. Apatite Park Trail Map and Park Rules.

For full locality listing click here. Alternatively: Click here for heirarchical list of localities in Mt. Apatite District, Auburn, Androscoggin Co., Maine, USA