The wide-range of gemstones including sapphires from Kashmir, emeralds from Swat, rubies from the northern areas and pink topazes from Katlang, Mardan, and good quality zircon, different varieties of quartz, aquamarine, tourmaline, sphene, spinel, zoisite apatite, epidote, morganite, garnet, scapolite, clino zoisite, xenotime, bastnaesite, peridot, nephrite, serpentine, red agate, diopside, pargasite, amethyst, scheelite,
pollucite, chrome diopside and kunzite are found in mountainous belt from South Waziristan to Chitral, makes the country significant in the mineral world.
The wide-range of gemstones including sapphires from Kashmir, emeralds from Swat, rubies from the northern areas and pink topazes from Katlang, Mardan, and good quality zircon, different varieties of quartz, aquamarine, tourmaline, sphene, spinel, zoisite apatite, epidote, morganite, garnet, scapolite, clino zoisite, xenotime, bastnaesite, peridot, nephrite, serpentine, agate, diopside, pargasite, amethyst, scheelite,
pollucite, chrome diopside and kunzite are found in mountainous belt from South Waziristan to Chitral, makes the country significant in the mineral world.
Dr William Simmons (Maine Mineral and Gem Museum, Bethel, USA) and co-authors described gem
pollucite from the Mount Mica pegmatite near Oxford, Maine.
At one of them, Herb bought for himself a small packet of gemmy
pollucite from Maine.
Particularly the phases CsAlSi[O.sub.4], CsAl[Si.sub.5][O.sub.12] and CsAl[Si.sub.2][O.sub.6] (
pollucite) have been discussed.
Another rare mineral mined in Manitoba is
pollucite, which contains cesium, and it is being mined by Tantalum Mining Corporation of Canada Ltd.
% Imported Major Foreign Sources 1990 1986-1989 Arsenic 100 France, Sweden, Chile, Mexico Caesium (
pollucite) 100 Canada Columbium 100 Brazil, Canada, Germany (Niobium) Thailand Graphite 100 Mexico, China, Brazil, Madagscar Manganese 100 Rep.
John Bradshaw, Coast-to-Coast Rare Stones International, Nashua, New Hampshire, USA, for 21 bags containing part-cut crystals of: apatite (Canada and Mexico), cassiterite (Namibia), celestine (Kansas, USA), cerrusite (Namibia), crocoite (Tasmania, Australia), diaspore (Turkey), oligoclase (Kenya),
pollucite (Conneticut, USA), scheelite (Pakistan and Arizona, USA), smithsonite (Namibia), sphalerite (Spain), tourmaline (Maine, USA, and Afghanistan), tugtupite (Greenland), willemite/leucophoenicite (New Jersey, USA) and zincite on calcite (New Jersey); and also for 95 faceted mixed-shape tourmalines, mostly pink, green and blue.
In 1926 mineral dealer Wallace Nevel mined
pollucite there and saved specimen material to sell.
Just past Lac Du Bonnet at Bernic Lake is the The Tantalum Mining Corporation of Canada Ltd., owned by the Cabot Corporation of Boston, employs 150 people mining three distinctive products, spodumene, for heat resistance mineral, tantalum also for heat resistant mineral and
pollucite used in lubrication fluids for off-shore drilling rigs.