Note: Whereas chrysotile (asbestos) has been known since ancient times from many localities, specimens from the Bell mine, one of the oldest mines in the Thetford Mines area (in operation since 1877), have been the subjects of most of the early structural studies, from which the chrysotile nomenclature was defined. These investigations identified clinochrysotile (Whittaker 1956a), orthochrysotile (Whittaker 1956b) and parachrysotile (Whittaker 1956c) from the Bell mine, which is the type locality for all of them. These were recognized as independent mineral species by the IMA for more than five decades. The three species were demoted to “polytypes or crystallographic variants of chrysotile” (Burke 2006), which is the valid replacement for the three.
Bell mine, Thetford Mines, Les Appalaches RCM, Chaudière-Appalaches, Québec, Canada