DAWSONITE with Strontianite

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Dawsonite, a sodium aluminium carbonate hydroxide species found in low-temperature hydrothermal environments is best known from Francon quarry in Montréal, Québec, Canada, where the richest crystallized specimens of the species were found. Interestingly, the Type Locality at McGill University campus is only four miles from Francon quarry, but the specimens collected by Principal John William Dawson - after which it is named - were collected a century earlier, between 1855 and 1874. Francon quarry closed in 1981, and although best remembered by mineral collectors for its world-beating Weloganite crystals also produced the world's finest examples of several less 'showy' species. This quite large specimen of Dawsonite and Strontianite on carbonatite host rock is unusually well-crystallized and in excellent condition. The Dawsonite forms extensive sprays of small colourless to white bladed crystals coating the rock matrix with several cream coloured near-spherical aggregates of Strontianite to 4 mm in diameter. Under magnification the Dawsonite crystals are seen to be really well formed. A classic Francon quarry specimen.