Mount Apatite has many granite pegmatite quarries and prospects that are mineralogically rich and have late-stage lithium mineralization. The Mount Apatite region is geographically bisected by the Hatch Road into Western and Eastern quarry groups, although the maximum distance between quarries is less than 2 km. Without a doubt the most famous of all of the quarries is the Pulsifer Quarry in the western portion of the district, which has produced the finest purple apatites in the world. Fine tourmalines from the various quarries are generally quite small (less than 2 cm). Quarrying efforts in the 1990s at a small prospect now called the Groves Quarry, once called the Hole in the Ground, produced a handful of purple apatite-(CaF) crystals from 1-2 cm. The Pulsifer Pegmatite is over 0.5 km long and is certainly far from exhausted.

The Western Group quarries are currently privately owned, and the Eastern Group are owned by the City of Auburn, with the exception of the Hatch Farm Prospect, which is also in private hands.

Mount Apatite's early history has been associated with the names of Nathaniel Perry, G.C. Hatch, Martin Keith, Thomas Lamb, Loren Merrill, Pitt Pulsifer, John Towne, Hiram Greenlaw, Eli Turner, William Wade, and more recently with Stanley Perham, Ken Grover, Irving "Dudy" Groves, Terrance Szenics, Frank Perham, and Dick Dionne.

Gem exploration began as early as 1862. Feldspar production began in the mid-1890s, but the feldspar was shipped to Topsham for processing. The Maine Feldspar Co. worked at its namesake quarry in 1902, and a mill was built in 1906 at Littlefield Corner near the Danville Junction of the Grand Trunk Railroad, now of the Maine Central Railroad, in Auburn. Feldspar production ended on October 1, 1929. Within a kilometer of the Mount Apatite District, there are mineralogically simple pegmatites that have not been included in the Mount Apatite District.

Localities in this Region

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References