Diaspore with Margarite, Chloritoid - image 1

Diaspore with Margarite, Chloritoid

Unknown Owner

Classic old New England specimen crystalline and massive diaspore on matrix with margarite and chloritoid. The specimen comes with an antique label as shown at the end of the video and dates to the very early 20th century. The Chester Emery Mines in Chester, Massachusetts began as magnetite iron workings in the mid 1800s, but by 1864 the material was recognized as emery (granular corundum) mixed with iron minerals, shifting the district into an important early US source of abrasive ore. Mining and milling expanded in the late 1800s, then declined as markets and economics changed, leaving the mines as classic historic localities for both emery and collector minerals.