Description
This is such a great vug, with three weloganite crystals on quartz crystals from the Francon Quarry. The Francon Quarry in Montreal was the type locality for weloganite, and has been closed for a long time now (being filled as a landfill site, sadly). Francon was the world’s only locality for specimens of weloganite larger than microscopic crystals (or phases within crystals of other minerals).
These weloganite crystals are sharp and well-defined. They exhibit some yellow colour and some translucence (only some weloganites are of this appearance, while many are opaque and many are colourless/white). They are the classic pseudo-hexagonal crystals for this rare mineral, and they are sitting in a vug of sparkling quartz crystals. The main weloganite is 1 cm tall. (I note that the fourth photo is a bird’s-eye-view of the termination of the main weloganite crystal.)
Out of interest, weloganite was named after W.E. Logan, the first director of the Geological Survey of Canada.
From the Steve Szilard collection, Steve personally collected this piece before the quarry closed. The matrix has been sawn to reduce its size (the saw cut is at the base). In excellent condition! This is a very fine specimen with very fine crystals of weloganite.
