Click here to view [url=http://www.mindat.org/msgboard-66.html][b]Best Minerals A[/b][/url] and here for [url=http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?tab=65][b]Best Minerals A to Z[/b][/url] and here for [url=http://www.mindat.org/mesg-63-159134.html][b]Fast Navigation of completed Best Minerals articles[/b].[/url] [color=#FF0000]Can you help make this a better article? What good localities have we missed? Can you supply pictures of better specimens than those we show here? Can you give us more and better information about the specimens from these localities? Can you supply better geological or historical information on these localities? Should the different species be treated in separate articles? [/color] [b][url=http://www.mindat.org/min-406.html]Atacamite[/url][/b] [b]Cu[sub]2[/sub][(OH)[sub]3[/sub]|Cl][/b] Monoclinic [pic id=217861 width=600 float=left]Wallaroo mines, Kadina, South Australia ~5cm wide[/pic] The Copper mines around Moonta and Kadina, South Australia are generally considered to have produced the world’s best of the species, although specimens are hard to come by these days. The Mineralogical Society of South Australia Inc has adopted Atacamite as its official Emblem. Atacamite was found originally in one of the many copper mines in the Atacama Desert, Chile, and named by D. de Gallizen in 1801. It is a copper(II) chloride hydroxide, and is polymorphous with Botallackite and paratacamite. Its colour is various shades of green, usually dark. Atacamite is a comparatively rare mineral, formed from primary copper minerals in the oxidation or weathering zone, in arid climates or in coastal outcrops. Found at many localities mostly as green micro crystals. The great exceptions are the “green sticks” that were found at the New Cornwall mine in South Australia [b]Atacamite[/b] [b]Australia[/b] [b]New South Wales, Yancowinna Co., Broken Hill[/b] [pic id=108613. width=400 float=left]Atacamite 5mm crystals[/pic] [We need more photos and info] # Block 14 Opencut Australian Min. 3:1 (1997) # Kintore Opencut Australian Mineralogist (1997): 3: 1. [b]Atacamite[/b] [b]Australia[/b] [b]Queensland, Mt Isa - Cloncurry area, Mt Isa, Mount Oxide Copper mine[/b] [pic id=63333 width=400 float=left]Atacamite FOV ~12mm[/pic] These old mines were reopened in the l980's and 1990's, producing some excellent specimens of a range of copper minerals, but the atacamite were mostly micros. Refs - Day, B. E. & Beyer, B. D. (1996): Some mines of the Mt Isa district. Part 3 - The Mt Oxide mine. Australian J. of Mineralogy 2 (1), 3-10. Mount Oxide Copper mine, Mt Isa, Mt Isa - Cloncurry area, Queensland, Australia [b]Atacamite[/b] [b]Australia[/b] [b]South Australia, Andamooka Ranges - Lake Torrens area, Stuart Shelf area, Mt Gunson[/b] [pic id=103891 width=400 float=left]Atacamite 4.2cm wide[/pic] [pic id=221689 width=400 float=center]Atacamite ~5cm wide[/pic] [pic id=221672 width=380 float=left]Atacamite ~2cm wide[/pic] [pic id=37728 width=425 float=center]Atacamite 6.1cm wide[/pic] [pic id=31739 width=380 float=left]Atacamite FOV 2.1mm[/pic] Surprisingly little has been written on this mining district, which has produced a lot of very good Atacamite and gypsum.The Cattle Grid mine is of the main workings and was an open cut operation which operated on four orebodies at Mt Gunson, being the Main Open Cut, West Lagoon, East Lagoon and Cattle Grid. The Cattle Grid mine lasted from 1974 to around 1986 [Keith Compton ]. Most of the atacamite occurs in nodules, some holllow, but some show specimens of crystals on matrix also occur. Specimens are typically small and relatively cheap ( http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,132658#msg-132658 Tue, 18 Jun 2013 07:05:16 +0000 Phorum 5.2.15a http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,259552#msg-259552 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,259552#msg-259552
The Atacamite photo #425903 is an old Ward's sample from the E3 bench at Chuquicamata. It may not a World's Best Atacamite but it will fill the hole in the Chuquicamata entry.]]> Richard Gunter Best Minerals A Mon, 30 Apr 2012 18:20:12 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,259545#msg-259545 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,259545#msg-259545
In regard to the Gomersal Mine;

The mine site has been rehabilitated and replaced with a large dam to prevent any access.
All access to this property is now banned.]]> Mark Willoughby Best Minerals A Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:07:43 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,184803#msg-184803 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,184803#msg-184803 Thanks for the correction which I have just made. Thats the beauty of an online deal like this one. You can correct any mistakes, they do not have to be engraved in printed matter forever.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Mon, 31 May 2010 05:49:54 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,184771#msg-184771 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,184771#msg-184771 On the first page of this proto-article thread, at Chile/Atacama region, the link to photo-171931 is captioned 'Atacamite, Olivenite 8.5mm wide.' When you follow the link, the photo caption itself says Atacamite, Libethenite (and to my limited knowledge, that's indeed what it is - I have a similar piece).

Cheers, Gerhard]]> Gerhard Niklasch Best Minerals A Sun, 30 May 2010 22:11:10 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,135843#msg-135843 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,135843#msg-135843 I went and cleaned up the formatting in the atacamite article. Take a look at it and lets discuss any changes you would like to make.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Sat, 25 Apr 2009 23:59:05 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,135322#msg-135322 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,135322#msg-135322 Rock Currier Best Minerals A Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:09:46 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,135244#msg-135244 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,135244#msg-135244 Ralph Bottrill Best Minerals A Tue, 21 Apr 2009 13:53:34 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,135225#msg-135225 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,135225#msg-135225 Rock Currier Best Minerals A Tue, 21 Apr 2009 09:56:23 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,135198#msg-135198 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,135198#msg-135198 Ref. Helga Lichtenegger, Thomas Schöberl, Galen D. Stucky et al., "High Abrasion Resistance with Sparse Mineralization: Copper Biomineral in Worm Jaws", Science 298 (2002) no. 5592 pp 389-392]]> Howard Heitner Best Minerals A Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:20:43 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,135186#msg-135186 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,135186#msg-135186 Rock Currier Best Minerals A Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:27:44 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,135093#msg-135093 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,135093#msg-135093 thanks for the info.
there are a lot of atacamite sites not listed here, I was concentrating on those I knew personally and/or those with good images available - if you can upload some I will add them if they look suitable (please let me know when you do so)
Ralph.]]> Ralph Bottrill Best Minerals A Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:00:43 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,135081#msg-135081 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,135081#msg-135081
The Gold Hill atacamites occur in and on altered cuprite with the associations being conichalcite, olivenite, native copper and sometimes lavendulan. At Gold Hill it also occurs with parnauite, olivenite, pharmacosiderite, and tennantite in a quartz matrix. At the Pole Star mine, the atacamite occurs on quartz with no other obvious associations.]]> Brent Thorne Best Minerals A Mon, 20 Apr 2009 05:42:30 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134388#msg-134388 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134388#msg-134388 Ralph Bottrill Best Minerals A Tue, 14 Apr 2009 10:09:42 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134299#msg-134299 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134299#msg-134299
At end of post:
Edited 9 time(s). Last edit at 04/13/2009 09:10AM by Ralph Bottrill. (view changes)

Click "view changes"]]> David Von Bargen Best Minerals A Mon, 13 Apr 2009 15:27:59 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134294#msg-134294 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134294#msg-134294 I have shuffled this thread about as for quartz - hope its OK? This power could go to my head!
Ralph]]> Ralph Bottrill Best Minerals A Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:22:31 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134293#msg-134293 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134293#msg-134293 Ralph Bottrill Best Minerals A Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:01:49 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134292#msg-134292 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134292#msg-134292 David Von Bargen Best Minerals A Mon, 13 Apr 2009 13:00:48 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134291#msg-134291 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134291#msg-134291 Ralph Bottrill Best Minerals A Mon, 13 Apr 2009 12:40:08 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134290#msg-134290 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134290#msg-134290 www.mindat.org] deleted.]]> Uwe Kolitsch Best Minerals A Sun, 12 Apr 2009 18:26:50 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134289#msg-134289 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134289#msg-134289 I would say put what you have up there even if it is only lists. The more we have up the more people will chip in with good information and offers to help. I think we should put all axinites in the same thread. I have written some stuff about axinite and I should probably put up what I have written, buggy and incomplete as it is. If we wait till we get it just perfect the project will never make much progress. If people don't realize this whole Best Mineral thin is a construction project, they soon will and we all love to watch construction don't we.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Sat, 11 Apr 2009 21:38:32 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134288#msg-134288 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134288#msg-134288 I have been compiling data for dundasite, axinite and stichtite, mostly because I have written on them already, so could cheat a bit. I had wondered whether to include all axinites, and probably will do as you suggest. For starters the Broken Hill axinite-Fe is probably axinite-Mn.
Personally I would like to see all beryls together and probably tourmalines too. I know the tourmalines in some sites can cover several species names, and some people call all black tourmaline schorl, which is often wrong. I would personally prefer them to be called tourmaline unless you know the exact chemistry and know its consistent through the deposit. Collectors do like to guess at specific names though. Apatites & apophyllites etc can also get messy and may be best listed together too. Agardite has set the precedent. I have already included amethyst and smoky quartz with quartz - hoping its OK - as you say we can easily setup a separate article later if desired.

Should I upload what I have for dundasite, axinite and stichtite (basically lists like yours) or wait until I get more data?
Ralph]]> Ralph Bottrill Best Minerals A Sat, 11 Apr 2009 12:14:32 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134287#msg-134287 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134287#msg-134287 The lists can be compiled rather quickly using the mouse to select, copy and paste method. You may have noticed the extensive lists in the quartz and calcite threads. They were all compiled that way. I hope to do the same thing for the fluorite, barite, gypsum and probably tourmaline threads. I am think about making one forum only for Tourmaline. Jesse Fisher says he is thinking about tackling tourmaline and we are talking about putting all the tourmalines under one topic like quartz perhaps which will include amethyst, citrine, agates, opal etc. There is nothing to say we can duplicate some of the data and place it in threads of their own like Rossmanite and Povondraite for those people looking for those minerals and not realizing that we have put it in the tourmaline forum. There are many minerals like this. Apatite, Axinite, Apophyllite etc. I am thinking to group them all together and then in the thread for that mineral break them out like Agardite-(Ce), Agardite-(etc.). How do you feel about this? I am still wondering if we should put all the beryls together or if we should break out in a separate list things like amethyst etc. If we can eventually get this thing into some kind of searchable database, then it would be simple to call up all the amethyst, elbaite etc. Search by locality like Washington, and in a second or two get a Minerals of Washington. One can dream.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Sat, 11 Apr 2009 07:53:04 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134286#msg-134286 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134286#msg-134286 thanks again for your advice - you do need to be quite organised doing this I find, and your idea of compiling it all first in a separate file is a good one. As usual the last 10% of the job takes 90% of the time.
Ralph]]> Ralph Bottrill Best Minerals A Sat, 11 Apr 2009 05:40:06 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134285#msg-134285 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134285#msg-134285 Rock Currier Best Minerals A Sat, 11 Apr 2009 01:20:33 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134284#msg-134284 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134284#msg-134284 Many thanks for your offer to help. I had been meaning to look for your email and ask about Moonta-Wallaroo atacamite as I knew you had been working on the site. Agreed it is difficult to be sure on the locations, as I wrote here. If you have any corrections or additions to the article please let me know, and I would love to see a draft of what you have written.
(Shouldn't you be at the Gemboree?)
Ralph]]> Ralph Bottrill Best Minerals A Sat, 11 Apr 2009 01:04:34 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134283#msg-134283 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134283#msg-134283 You are most welcome to help edit this article (could I stop you? ;) ), as i have been busy of late and found the formatting does take a lot of time. I agree images should have a scale and i was planning on going through them all and doing this. I found it handy to have the location on the photo as with shuffling stuff around I sometimes forgot where things came from. Agreed mineral names are generally uneccessary there although there is some inconsistency in other articles (eg adamite - but I guess its all work in progress). I am not sure we even need the mineral name above the location as its the name of the article and at the top. I shall keep at it with quartz, crocoite etc.
Ralph]]> Ralph Bottrill Best Minerals A Sat, 11 Apr 2009 00:58:49 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134282#msg-134282 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134282#msg-134282 There are obviously varying opinions on the Ravensthorpe specimen (see previous posts) - I will check with the WA Museum and see what they think.
Ralph]]> Ralph Bottrill Best Minerals A Sat, 11 Apr 2009 00:36:23 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134281#msg-134281 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134281#msg-134281 Rock Currier Best Minerals A Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:30:47 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134280#msg-134280 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134280#msg-134280
Rock, it sounds like I need to re-shoot my atacamite from Tiger for the benefit of Tiger mineral collectors like yourself. The shot was taken before image stacking took off and I was rather proud of it at the time. I still don't think its the worst photograph of atacamite in the article. By the way, I do have Chuqui atacamites, and I will try to get a shot of one.

Message sent during lunch-at my day job,
Bob Meyer]]> Robert Meyer Best Minerals A Fri, 10 Apr 2009 19:51:23 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134279#msg-134279 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,132658,134279#msg-134279 Much of what you say I am sure Ralph will want to put in the article. Thanks for the help.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:45:09 +0000