Wollastonite is fun!

After the lecture by Phil Terrie on Friday I was interested in the geology and uses of wollastonite, because I had never before heard of this elusive mineral. Wollastonite is formed by two processes, first through the heating of silica and limestone through regional metamorphism at ~400 C or by being baked because of their proximity to an igneous intrusion. The second way wollastonite is formed is through direct crystallization of molten rock that has a high carbon content, the rocks that are formed through this process are called carbonatites and are scattered throughout the U.S. New York is the only place in the U.S. where wollastonite deposits are exploited for commercial use. That is partially because these two deposits in New York State have slightly different basic mineralogy than the other deposits in the country, in the Adirondacks they were formed by the recrystallization of Precambrian carbonate rocks.
Wollastonite is mined for many different reasons, it has several useful physical properties for an industrial mineral. It is generally inert, and does not react with other components of most manufacturing processes. Wollastonite breaks when crushed into needle-shaped particles due to its interesting cleavage. Wollastonite is also incredibly bright and white colored which is used in different industrial applications.

Reference: http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs-0002-01/fs-0002-01textonly.pdf