Weloganite with Quartz

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This is a superb, world class "toenail" or large thumbnail of weloganite from the Francon quarry in Quebec, Canada, the type locality! This remarkable piece is composed of a rotund, translucent, 2.6cm long, doubly terminated weloganite augmented by a multiple side-car duo of terminated crystals. The crystals exhibit a nice straw yellow color and good luster with a local thin highlight of off-white dresserite near the base. The large crystal is also accented by more than a dozen 1.5mm single or doubly terminated, slightly milky quartz crystals. Probably one of the best weloganite specimens to originate from this now defunct locality. Not only does weloganite have an intriguing crystal habit, its chemistry is interesting as well; it's a sodium strontium zirconium carbonate hydrate! Most weloganite specimens were recovered in the late 1960s and 1970s by Don Doell, and this is one of the finest for its size but also, in terms of outright quality, hard to beat.