Locality: Palermo Mine, N. Groton, NH
Specimen Size: 6 cm massive chunk of montebrasite
Field Collected: Marge Holland between 1940 and 1950
Catalog No.:
Notes: Purchased as "ambligonite" at 2009 Gilsum Rock Swap. EDS analyzed and determined to be montebrasite. Many old Palermo species lists include ambligonite, but a confirmed ambligonite specimen is unknown to the author (Tom Mortimer).
Locality: Chickering Mine, Walpole, NH
Specimen Size: 3.5 cm massive chunk of montebrasite
Field Collected: Tom Mortimer
Catalog No.:
Notes: Montebrasite can be quite difficult to distinguish from feldspar on a mine dump.
Locality: Palermo Mine, N. Groton, NH
Specimen Size: 0.7 mm montebrasite crystal impaling a quartz crystal
Field Collected: Bob Janules
Catalog No.: u163
Notes: * Montebrasite crystal has red oxide coating.
Locality: Palermo Mine, N. Groton, NH
Specimen Size: 1 mm montebrasite crystal
Field Collected: From crate of Palermo rocks given by Bob Whitmore
Catalog No.:
Notes: Montebrasite crystal has red oxide coating. Specimen has been cleaned for 10 minutes in ultrasonic with Iron-Out.
Locality: Palermo Mine, N. Groton, NH
Specimen Size: 8 cm specimen of quartz-apatite with micro montebtasite crystals indicated by green arrows.
Field Collected: From crate of Palermo rocks given by Bob Whitmore
Catalog No.:
Notes: The above micro montebrasite crystal was trimmed from this specimen. This photo is included to illustrate the host matrix for these small, rare-at-Palermo, crystals. Micro montrabrasite crystals are just visible beyond the tip of the green arrow with the red dot.
Locality: Palermo Mine, N. Groton, NH
Specimen Size: 3 mm field of view. 0.5 mm red oxide coated, rhombic-tabular, montebrasite crystals on quartz crystal.
Field Collected: Dana Jewell
Catalog No.: TBC
Notes: From a flat of Palermo rocks donated by Dana Jewel at the November, 2014 Micromounters of New England meeting. Dana collected these underground.
Locality: Palermo Mine, N. Groton, NH
Specimen Size: 0.3 mm clear prismatic rhombic montebastite perched on yellowish mass
Field Collected: Walter Lane material from MMNE
Catalog No.: A Bob Wilken specimen
Notes: [bw] It's amazing that such a small thing when sharp and clearly defined will come out. Other things this size come out as blobs.
Locality: Turner Mine, Marlow, NH
Specimen Size: 11.3 x 11.3 cm specimen, two views
Field Collected: A Friend
Catalog No.:
Notes: ID by collector
Locality: Turner Mine, Marlow, NH
Specimen Size: 11.2 cm specimen
Field Collected: A Friend
Catalog No.:
Notes: ID by collector
Locality: Palermo Mine, N. Groton, NH
Specimen Size: 5 cm specimen with pearly white montebrasite cleavages
Field Collected: From a crate of Palermo phosphate rocks gifted by Bob Whitmore
Catalog No.: 2007
Notes: This brittle mineral is fusible (third photo), a distinguishing characteristic of lepidolite, which was my initial guess as to what the species was.
Lepidolite is not listed for the Palermo Mine in Whitmore & Lawrence's book, The Pegmatite Mines Known as Palermo.
Other typical Palermo species are present on this specimen including triphylite, ferrisicklerite, siderite, strunzite and quartz.
Palermo is a lithium pegmatite, so lepidolite did not seem unreasonable.... and this piece is somewhat un-remarkable.... so perhaps this species had been overlooked. Speaking with Bob Whitmore, June 2016, he stated lepidolite had never been reported from Palermo, and doubted my ID. A polished grain EDS analysis, BC80, indicates a aluminum phosphate, (the small silicon peak is believed to be a contaminant). Montebrasite is an aluminum phosphate with good cleavage. Members of the lepidolite series require both potassium and fluorine, neither of which were detected in this analysis.