Calcite with Hematite, Dolomite

specimen number:
2063736

location:
Frizington, Cumbria, England, UK

description:
A grouping of non-lustrous scalenohedral calcite crystals measuring 3.0 x 2.0 x 1.2 cm in size set nicely atop a matrix of hematite coated with crystals of dolomite. In good condition with very slight cleaving present. The specimen comes with a previous label from the collection of Ray DeMark. A second label, unnamed, comes with the piece noting that at one time this was purchased from the dealer A. E. Foote in 1918 but this label has since been lost.

Frizington, located in the West Cumberland iron mining district of Cumbria, England, evolved from a small agricultural settlement into a major industrial hub during the nineteenth-century iron ore boom. Geologically, the area is situated on the carboniferous limestone fringe of the Lake District, where circulating iron-rich hydrothermal fluids replaced host rock to form massive high-grade hematite deposits. Mineralogically, the local mines became world-famous for producing exceptional specimens of massive and botryoidal kidney ore hematite, alongside brilliant quartz, baryte, and dolomite associations. Large-scale commercial extraction intensified rapidly from the 1840s onward with the sinking of numerous deep pits, though production dwindled by the early twentieth century as international competition and resource depletion led to the eventual closure of the mines.

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