Jason Smith, one of our many regular sellers of interesting and obscure minerals or localities, was in discussion with me the other day. He happened to mention that he had acquired a liroconite specimen from Sterling Mine, in Sussex County, New Jersey.
This combination of species and locality is particularly uncommon to come across.
Looking at the broader distribution of liroconite, it is supposed to have been detected at only 20 sites Worldwide, and according to Mindat 9 of these are in Cornwall.
e-Rocks is much poorer as we display 4 localities plus a general a "area" category, with specimens/photos from each.
Overall this is our 99th liroconite specimen on the database, mentioning that Jason has listed 8 of these.
I am sure a statistician would be able to help us with the ratios of 1 in 99 in 400,000 as a measure of the scarcity, 400,000 being the approximate population of our database.
No matter what, seeing liroconite from a non-Cornish locality is literally a once in a "blue moon" opportunity - well worth checking out. The association with alleghanyite is also pretty obscure!
Thanks to Jason for letting us list his specimen.
