Muscovite with Rutile

specimen number:
2102400

location:
Boiling Springs, Cleveland Co., North Carolina, USA

description:
Classic example from North Carolina with lustrous green sharp crystals of muscovite measuring to 2.5 cm in size forming a matrix less cluster. Red crystals of prismatic rutile are scattered throughout. No points of attachment, this is crystallized completely all around. In good condition.

The Boiling Springs locality, centered around the town of Boiling Springs in Cleveland County, North Carolina, is historically significant for its localized mica mining and small-scale prospecting within the Shelby-Hickory mineral district. Geologically, the area is situated in the Inner Piedmont terrane and features high-grade metamorphic country rocks, such as Paleoproterozoic to early Paleozoic biotite gneisses and sillimanite-mica schists, which were deeply intruded by numerous granitic pegmatite dikes. These pegmatites are rich in kaolinized feldspar, quartz cores, and sheet-bearing muscovite mica zones, while nearby oxidized veins host accessory minerals like siderite, limonite pseudomorphs, and sharp rutile crystals. Commercial interest in the district spiked during the late nineteenth century and surged again during World War II due to strategic federal demands for domestic sheet mica, prompting the development of properties like the nearby Lovelace Heirs mine and the S.A. Green mine. These operations primarily utilized shallow open-cuts and vertical timbered shafts reaching depths of sixteen to twenty-two feet, with the final documented phase of organized extraction spanning from early 1943 until late 1944 before high operational overhead and erratic mineral distribution caused a permanent cessation of activity.

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