Very few villages can boast that they have their very own mineral named after them - but Kilchoan can.Kilchoanite is a calcium silicate, Ca3Si2O7. It's very rare, being found in only a few localities worldwide such as Carlingford, Ireland, Golden Gully, New Zealand, the Ozerskii massif in eastern Siberia, and at Fuka in Japan. In Kilchoan it's found with another rare mineral, Rustamite, Ca10(Si2O7)2(SiO4)Cl2(OH)2, which was also first discovered near Kilchoan. Sadly, Kilchoanite isn't a very impressive mineral to look at. The best picture of it that The Diary could locate on the internet is here.
Nor is it easy to find, even in its home location. The mineral is known to have formed at the point where a limestone was heated when it came into contact with a hot magma, in this case a gabbro which was being intruded during the formation of the great Ardnamurchan volcanoes, and that the particular conditions needed only occurred in only one place - somewhere on the flank of Glas Bheinn. And Glas Bheinn, pictured above, has a lot of flank.
So two men eminently well-qualified for the task set out last autumn to rediscover native kilchoanite. Nick B Winter is Director of WHD Microanalysis Consultants Ltd, a company which specialises in the microscopic structure of materials such as cement, and Rob Gill, who runs GeoSec Slides from his home at Achnaha. A great deal of time was spent finding outcrops on Glas Bheinn and searching for samples of whitish crystals, and - as The Diary understands it - a great deal more time was spent recovering in the pub. However, it seemed that their mission might be successful, as Nick took away some promising specimens which he subjected to rigorous analysis under his company's scanning electron microscope.
Preliminary results are just out and will be published exclusively on A Kilchoan Diary in the near future.
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