Jack Eaker Collection

Jack Walter Eaker was the chief chemist at the Foote Lithium Company Mine for close to 30 years. During his time there he amassed a collection of aesthetically pleasing as well as rarities and rare associations from the lithium bearing granitic pegmatites. In 1938 the mine at Kings Mountain consisted of six small prospect pits. It was developed into a large open pit mine with more than 16 twenty foot benches. Today, the mine is long closed and much of the dumps have been reclaimed. There are still areas that provide opportunities for seekers of rare lithium phosphates. A string on Mindat regarding some of the rarities may be found here:

https://www.mindat.org/mesg-14-447979.html)

Jason Smith has been exploring the mine for more than a decade. He is a trained geologist and specializes in micromounts and rarities. He has discovered a new species, Jasonsmithite. An article written about Jason exploring the Foote Mine can be read here:  http://mineralbliss.blogspot.com/2013/11/collecting-at-foote-mine-with-jason.html .

The Eaker collection was made available after Jacks death but the thousand or so specimens were neither trimmed or curated. Jason spent a good part of a year identifying the species. We have the good fortune of being able to curate and trim this once in a lifetime opportunity that consists of some of the finest of species to come from the Foote, and, in many cases, may be the best of species in the world.