Albite with Aegirine, Arfvedsonite

specimen number:
9302308

location:
Poudrette Quarry, Mt. St Hilaire, Quebec, Canada

description:

Platy crystals of white albite aesthetically placed across a cluster of lustrous black prismatic aegirine crystals with arfvedsonite. Complete all around and in great condition.

The Poudrette quarry, located on the northern slope of Mont Saint-Hilaire in La Vallee-du-Richelieu Regional County Municipality, Quebec, Canada, is an internationally celebrated mineral locality famous for its hyper-alkaline mineral diversity. Geologically, the deposit is situated within an alkaline intrusive complex that forms one of the Cretaceous-aged Monteregian Hills, consisting of complex, multi-phase plutonic rocks including syenites, nepheline syenites, and extensive body zones of sodalite xenoliths and pegmatites. The interaction of highly evolved, volatile-rich magmas with surrounding sedimentary host rocks created thousands of mineralized miarolitic cavities, breccia zones, and altered pockets containing rare species such as serandite, catapleiite, and rhodochrosite. Commercial quarrying operations at the site began around 1959 under the management of the De-Mix company to extract crushed stone and aggregate for regional construction projects. The Poudrette family assumed operational control of the quarry in the 1990s, allowing controlled access for mineralogical research and specimen recovery alongside active industrial quarrying until production ceased and the site was acquired for ecological preservation in 2007.

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