New Brunswick: Rare mineral discovered near Nepisiguit Falls (CBC News New Brunswick – October 20, 2019)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/

Melanterite is rare to New Brunswick and dissolves in water

A Bathurst man who collects minerals as a hobby stumbled across a rare substance that has never been recorded in the New Brunswick Museum’s archives.

Jesse Chamberlain went to a former mining site near Nepisiguit Falls in May to dig for minerals with his girlfriend. After digging about two feet deep into the side of the hill with a small gardening tool, Chamberlain stumbled across a blue-green mineral called melanterite.

“It was the first time I ever seen that colour come out of the ground,” Chamberlain said. “I was very surprised, so I called my girlfriend over to take a look at it. We weren’t sure what it was, so we collected as many samples as we could.”

The couple brought the brittle substance home with them and made a post on a New Brunswick geology Facebook page, asking for leads on what the specimen might be.

Matt Stimson, assistant curator of geology and paleontology at the New Brunswick Museum, responded to Chamberlain’s post and asked the mineral hobbyist if he’d be willing to donate some for analysis.

For the rest of this article: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/rare-mineral-melanterite-discovery-geology-1.5324704