Linarite

The mines around Bere Alston, about 6 km north of Plymouth, have produced a wonderful suite of quite distinct minerals and the area is probably best known amongst collectors from its wonderfully coloured Fluorite. A point to note is the often referenced locality of ‘Bere Ferrers’ which appears on both the labels accompanying this specimen, one of which is a Richard Barstow white label. There is no specific mine named ‘Bere Ferrers’ and specimens labelled thus are from several mines in the vicinity of the village of Bere Alston, about 3 km NW of Bere Ferrers. Why have a simple locality name when you can complicate it?! A mineral very rarely encountered in these mines is the copper sulphate Linarite. On this specimen, micro-crystallised patches of light azure blue Linarite form over the surfaces of a granite matrix together with minor Fluorite, Quartz, Chalcopyrite and Cerussite. It was collected by Dick Barstow in March 1980. A rare if not unique location piece.