RHABDOPHANE
Specimen rha-3
$ 38.00Dims: 1.1x0.7x0.9" (2.8x1.8x2.3 cm)
Wt: 0.4 oz. (11.3g)
Mt. St. Hilaire, Quebec, Canada
This thumbnail specimen is Rhabdophane-(La), as the rare earth is predominantly Lanthanum. This specimen includes at least 3 other minerals. The accompanying documentation reads "Rhabdophane-(La) and Dalyite", and I suspect that the dalyite is either the base (sprays of acicular colorless needles), or the cluster at one end (colorless parallel crystals that look more cubic than hexagonal to me), or the tiny crystals on top of that cluster (clearly hexagonal colorless transparent crystals). There is also some tiny perfect purple cubes (visible with a loupe) that look like fluorite. The Rhabdophane is several sprays of pale gray-green translucent acicular crystals perched on top of the specimen. These rare-earth specimens from Mount Saint Hilaire are often a hodge-podge of rare minerals.