Denver Symposium and Field Trip
Last month I was fortunate enough to be invited to talk at a symposium in Denver about Russian Mineralogy. Here is a quick photo-report from the symposium and the fieldtrip that the invited speakers went on afterwards.
The Symposium was held by the Colorado Chapter of Friends of Mineralogy, the Colorado School of Mines Museum and the Denver Gem and Mineral Show. It was held in the Colorado School of Mines on a beautiful September Saturday.
The School of Mines
Some of the attendees
Igor Pekov from Moscow, Russia gave two talks, one was on the unusual iodide mineralization at the Rubtsovskoe deposit in Russia.
Igor giving his presentation.
Peter Modreski gave a talk entitled "A Comparison of Kola Peninsula Mineral Localities to those of North America"
Peter Modreski's presentation
John Watson talked about Anatoly Skrigitil, a Russian mineral collector and dealer who went missing (presumed dead) in suspicious circumstances in 1999
John Watson presenting
I gave two presentations.
Mineral Museums of Moscow
Russian Mineral Classification Systems
After the conference we went on four days of field trip.
Driving away from Denver
First stop, Turkey Creek Canyon, Jefferson County.
Where we collected Sillimanite
Driving into the mountains
We took a group photo, left to right: Igor Pekov, Anna Turchkova, Claudia Watson, Pete Modreski, John Watson and myself
Group photo with the collegiate peaks in the background.
11,312 feet (3.4km) up
First collecting stop was the Powerhorn carbonatite, near Gunnison.
A hill made of carbonatite
Perovskite crystals to 1cm were found in this roadcut
Igor makes a new friend
Igor's friend
The next day we head east to the Pike's Peak batholith, where we have permission to visit the Smoky Hawk amazonite claim.
Digging on the claim
Amazonite
After a successful day in the Lake George area, we head off towards Cripple Creek.
As dusk arises, the scenery is even more beautiful
There's a pot of gold (tellurides) at the end of the rainbow
Next day, we arrive in the town of Victor ready for our tour of the Cripple Creek gold mine.
Mostly not much happens in Victor.
Telluride specimen in the company office display.
Before we were allowed in the gold mine, we were given a safety briefing and a brief geological guide to the deposit.
Map of the underground workings at Cripple Creek
Ally, company geologist and our guide for the day.
The mine workings are huge
We didn't find any tellurides, but the visit was great
One of the many abandoned underground gold mines in the area, now right at the edge of the open pit.
For the final day, four of us (Pete Modreski, Igor, Anna and myself) went to South Platte, a famous pegmatite region.
"... but it had positive reviews in Tripadvisor"
Sense of achievement after clibming up a hill
Walking towards the White Cloud pegmatite workings
The quarry was worked for feldspar and quartz, but is especially rich in REE minerals
We sit on a pile of slightly radioactive rocks drinking vodka from a Mindat.org flask.
Lots of REE rich rocks. These specimens are rich in Synchysite and possibly Gadolinite
Straight after collecting, we drove back to Colorado to attend the annual open-night at the Colorado School of Mines museum.
The Museum entrance
Museum director Bruce Geller thanks people for attending
On loan to the museum, this incredible Rhodochrosite from China
Kerith Graeber with her display of Minerals from Mexico at the museum
Live music
Visitors enjoy the displays
Colorado minerals
Super rhodochrosite
From slightly farther afield, a caledonite from Arizona
From slightly farther afield still, a piece of moon rock on loan from NASA
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James Pool
2nd Oct 2011 1:35pm