Cacoxenite

specimen number:
2133300

location:
Bachman Mine, Northampton Co., Pennsylvania, USA

description:
Yellow micro crystals of cacoxenite on matrix.

The Bachman Mine, located near Hellertown in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, was an open-pit iron mining operation that exploited secondary brown hematite (limonite) deposits. Geologically, these ores formed within the weathered residuum of Cambro-Ordovician sedimentary rocks, where iron-bearing fluids precipitated dense goethite, hematite, and a complex suite of secondary aluminum and iron phosphate minerals over millions of years. Commercial quarrying and mining at the site began in the mid-to-late 19th century to supply raw iron ore to regional blast furnaces, such as the Durham Furnace and the Crane Iron Company, before economic shifts and higher-grade Great Lakes ores brought operations to a permanent close in the early 20th century. Decades after the abandonment of the open pit, the locality gained distinct significance in mineralogy when detailed analytical work on the remaining phosphatic gossan material led to the discovery and definition of entirely new mineral species, serving as the type locality for matulaite in 1980 and afmite in 2012.

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