POR101. Pollucite rough rock..
Extremely rare mineral specimen or suitable for cutting.
Dimensions at widest points approx. 70 mm x 55 mm x 45 mm thick.
Weighs 269 grams.
From near Norseman, Western Australia.
Pollucite only occurs in extremely differentiated lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatites.
Economic caesium deposits are extremely rare, with only two mining operations worldwide having produced commercial quantities of pollucite. In 2018 a third deposit was mined in Western Australia.
This pegmatite consists of an outerwall zone that is coarse grained, and dominated
by plagioclase feldspar, muscovite and quartz with other accessory minerals; and an inner core zone composed of quartz, albite (cleavelandite), lepidolite, pollucite, petalite,zinnwaldite, eucryptite, beryl and amblygonite. The corezone is ‘capped’ by a thick potassium feldspar zone.
