Lepidolite - Bennett quarry, Buckfield

Lepidolite

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Loose crystal grouping of purple lepidolite. In good condition. From the late 1980s.The Bennett Quarry, located in Buckfield, Oxford County, Maine, is a historically significant pegmatite deposit with a rich background in commercial feldspar mining and mineral collecting that began actively expanding in the early twentieth century. Geologically, the site is situated within the Oxford County Pegmatite Field, where complex granitic pegmatites intruded into older Paleozoic metamorphic host rocks. These highly evolved pockets formed through fractional crystallization and late-stage hydrothermal fluid activity, concentrating volatile elements such as lithium, fluorine, and boron. The resulting miarolitic cavities and replacement zones produced a wide variety of fine mineral specimens, including purple lepidolite mica masses associated with tourmaline, cleavelandite, and various phosphate minerals.