The owner of the only wollastonite mine in Canada was nice enough to let me take photos of his property after blasting a bunch of material off the rock face. It was an interesting place to explore, offering a good glimpse into the unique geology of the area, which is just a few minuets drive from my house.
In the first photo I'm standing on a large piece of wollastonite that, after blasting, made it a surprising distance from were it formed over a billion years ago. Since this piece is too big to be crushed, it will be sold as dimension stone. The second photo is a time stack made from 256 photos.
Here's some of the info from Wikipedia about wollastonite...
"Wollastonite is a calcium inosilicate mineral (CaSiO3) that may contain small amounts of iron, magnesium, and manganese substituting for calcium. It is usually white. It forms when impure limestone or dolomite is subjected to high temperature and pressure, which sometimes occurs in the presence of silica-bearing fluids as in skarns or in contact with metamorphic rocks.
Some of the properties that make wollastonite so useful are its high brightness and white coloration, low moisture and oil absorption, and low volatile content. Wollastonite is used primarily in ceramics, friction products (brakes and clutches), metalmaking, paint filler, and plastics."
