Allanite-(Ce)

Black, bladed crystals of allanite, several of them 1-2 cm long but numerous others much smaller, in a coarse-grained matrix of pink rhodonite, bone-white calcite (fl. bright orange-red SW), and a little secondary willemite. This is a rare matrix for local allanite, most of which formed as a minor constituent of the local post-orogenic pegmatites, but here it is present in a calcium-silicate matrix rock from within the Franklin orebody.  The allanite in this specimen, now no. FMM-7999 of the Franklin Mineral Museum, was confirmed by Raman spectroscopy.  It was purchased from Mark Leger in 2018 and previously was specimen F601CL in the collection of Chet Lemanski.

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