Mindat Mineralogy Messageboard - Best Minerals A http://www.mindat.org/msgboard-66.html Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:42:16 +0000 Phorum 5.2.8-RC1 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,159303,159303#msg-159303 Anatase (2 replies) http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,159303,159303#msg-159303
Anatase
TiO2 Tetragonal, Trimorphic with Rutile & Brookite

Anatase on Albite from Hardangervidda, Norway, Anatase crystals of 0,7 and 1,4 cm© Chinellato Matteo



If you want a specimen of Anatase in your collection you usually want one from the older localities in Switzerland or one from the newer ones from Norway. Which locality has produced better specimens? I prefer the ones from Switzerland, but also want a good one from Norway. There are many localities for Anatase and many localities produce beautiful sharp crystals that micromounters cherish. You could probably put together a collection of Anatase from over fifty localities if you tried. Most of the specimens would look rather nondescript and the Anatase crystals on them would be best appreciated under a microscope. Many micro sized crystals of Anatase are sharp, steeply bipyramidal and a translucent blue or brown in colour. Often they are growing on beautifully contrasting white quartz or Albite and make for striking specimens under the microscope.

Anatase is a commonly found in small quantities in alpine pockets where it can occur with its too other polymorphs. It is also found in many igneous and metamorphic rocks and as a fine-grained alteration product of various titanium bearing minerals. The number of localities that produce fine large crystals is quite limited but the number of localities that produce good micro crystals is much larger.

Anatase
Australia
South Australia, Mt Lofty Ranges, North Mt Lofty Ranges, Gulnare

6mm anatase crystal on quartz crystals.© R. Bottrill


Gulnare Anatase are not commonly seen or collected, but are amongst the best from Australia

Anatase
Austria
Carinthia, Hohe Tauern Mts, Ankogel group, Ankogel area

Anatase, FOV 0,3cm© Chinellato Matteo
Anatase, FOV 0,3cm© Chinellato Matteo


Anatase, FOV 0,3cm© D. Preite
Anatase, FOV 0,22cm© SMS 2007

Area famous for orange to red Anatase crystals, especially Grauleiten mountain hasdelivered some outstanding red Anatase. Brown to almost black Anatase crystals come from the Plattenkogel mountain.
This area includes the mountains located in close vicinity to Ankogel mountain (3246 m), which is the second highest elevation in the Ankogel group and one of the highest elevations in the Eastern Alps. Specimens coming from this area are often simply labelled 'Ankogel'. However, the latter actually refers to Ankogel mountain only.

Anatase
Austria
Salzburg, Hohe Tauern Mts, Gastein valley, Böckstein, Municipal quarry (Dick quarry)

Anatase, FOV 0,4cm© 0
Anatase, FOV 0,35cm© 0

Quarry (long abandoned) with mineralized clefts in a granite-gneiss, disseminated by aplite and pegmatite veins.
Located east of Böckstein.

Anatase
Austria
Salzburg, Hohe Tauern Mts, Habach valley, Gamseck Mt. area, Leffler Brunnen

Anatase, Adularia FOV 0,8cm© Harjo
Anatase, Adularia FOV 0,8cm© Harjo


Anatase, Quartz FOV 0,6cm© Harjo
Anatase, Adularia FOV 0,6cm© Harjo


Anatase FOV 0,6cm© Harjo
Anatase, Adularia FOV 0,8cm© Harjo

In 2005 a very interesting and prolific Anatase locality was discovered near the Leffler source in the lower Habach valley. Several Quartz fissures in black Phylite (Schwarzphylit, a grey to black Schist) were encountered holding hundreds of Anatase accompanied by Brookite, Rutile, Ilmenite, Apatite, Synchysite, Calcite, Aragonite, Adularia and Quartz crystals. Most of the Anatase crystals show a tabular habit and have an almost opaque black colour although blue Anatase crystals showing a double pyramidal habit have also been found in 2007. Two other noteworthy Anatase localities in the lower Habach valley close to the Leffler source are the Windbach and the Schönbach valleys, it is said that in the early 1900s or late 1800s an Anatase crystal has been found in the Schönbach area measuring 4 cm. Nowadays it is still quite easy to find nice blue Anatase in the Schönbach up to 0,5 cm in length. The best locality for Anatase in the upper Habach valley is the Teufelsmüle area, an area most famous for fantastic finds of electric green Sphene.
[Harjo Neutkens 2009]

Anatase
Austria
Salzburg, Hohe Tauern Mts, Obersulzbach valley, Hopffeld area, Hopffeldboden

Anatase FOV 0,2cm© D.Preite
Anatase, FOV 0,2cm© D. Preite

Rocksled material, consisting mainly of aplitic gneisses with small miarolitic cavities hosting some rare minerals. many fine Anatase specimens have been found, most notoriously interestingly twinned Anatase crystals.

Anatase
Austria
Salzburg, Hohe tauern Mts, Rauris valley, Grieswies

Anatase FOV 0,4cm© Stephan Wolfsried
Anatase, Rutile FOV 0,4cm© Volker Betz

Many fine Anatase specimens have been found in the Rauris valley, especially from the Grieswies area, a shallow slope on the eastern side of Grieswies-Schwarzkopf mountain, adjoined by steep cliffs to the west. These rocks contain numerous clefts, some of which reach very large dimensions. The Grieswies itself is composed of rocksled material, dating back to prehistoric times when a large part of the northeast slope of Hocharn mountain slipped off.

Anatase
Belgium
Luxembourg Province, Bertrix, La Haie forest, Houthoofdt-Collette quarry

Anatase FOV 0,8cm© Harjo
Anatase, FOV 0,8cm© Harjo


Anatase FOV 0,7cm© Harjo
Anatase, FOV 0,1cm© J.Dehove

In 2005 very nice orange to red Anatase crystals up to 0,3 cm in length were discovered in a quarry south of the small provincial town of Bertrix. The Anatase crystals sit on Quartz and are accompanied by Brookite, Rutile, Apatite, Albite, Fuchsite and Xenotyme-(Y).
[Harjo Neutkens 2009]

Anatase
Belgium
Brabant Province, Walhain, Nil-St Vincent-St Martin

Anatase FOV 0,2cm© Jose Dehove
Anatase, FOV 0,2cm© Jose Dehove

Old quarry. Many fine Anatase specimens with crystals in excess of 1 cm were found there.

Anatase
Belgium
Brabant Province, Incourt, Opprebais

Anatase FOV 0,4cm© Richard De Nul
Anatase, FOV 0,6cm© Jose Dehove

Old quarry. Many fine Anatase specimens were found there, the Anatase crystals could reach up to 1 cm in length.

Anatase
Brazil
Northeast Region, Bahia, Paramirim

Anatase 1,5cm© Martins da Pedra
Anatase, Rutile FOV 1cm© T. Kennedy 2002

Mineralogical Record, 16 (2), 111-115
Info needed.

Anatase
Brazil
Southeast Region, Minas Gerais

Anatase crystals up to 2cm©
Anatase cluster, 2,8cm©

Minas Gerais, Minas Novas. In 1986 Ed Swoboda came to Tucson with “a superb lot of large, bluish black anatase crystals on matrix from Minas Novas…The largest crystal measures nearly 3 cm; most are 1 cm or so. The habit is typically bipyramidal; the matrix is smoky quartz. About 25 really good specimens and a couple of flats of mediocre material comprised the find.”1 Also, probably found at the same locality “sleek blue-black bipyramids to 2.5 cm long on brown quartz crystal matrixes; a 3.5 x 3.5-cm matrix with 2+ cm anatase crystals sold for $220.”2 The author was talking about some specimens at the Ste. Marie-aux-Mines mineral show in France in 1988. The locality Lavrinha means only little mine in Portuguese and is probably little more than a small pit.
1 Mineralogical Record, Vol.17, 1986 p207. - 2 Mineralogical Record Vol.20 1989 p146.

Anatase
Canada
Ontario, Wilberforce, Cardiff Mine. “Some of the titanite crystals from the Cardiff mine have been replaced by anatase resulting in light brown “leucoxene” pseudomorphs after titanite. Leucoxene is a discredited name, one that was given to a mixture of iron and titanium minerals.”1 George Robinson tells me via email that these pseudomorphs were found loose in the soil or in coarse calcite-syenite matrix. He says that he found crystals up to 7 cm, but the largest crystal was only a partial crystal and the most abundant associated minerals were allanite, pyroxene and microcline.
1 Mineralogical Record, Vol.13, 1982 p80.
Photos needed.

Anatase
Canada
Ontario, Bancroft, Madawaska Mine property.
Photos needed.
Here “Fine crystals of ilmenite weighing more than 30kgs have been found associated with magnetite, biotite, microcline and apatite in a small calcite vein-dike…”1 Some of these crystals are replaced by anatase. These and the pseudomorphs are a little rough for the tastes of most collectors.
1 Mineralogical Record, Vol.13, 1982 p76.

Anatase
Canada
Québec, Mégantic Co., St-Pierre-de-Broughton, Broughton Mine (Luzcan mine; Carrière rang XV)

Anatase, 1 cm crystal© F Schuster


This crystal measures approximately 1 cm long. It was collected by Mr Roseberry of Thetford Mines in an alpine type vein with brookite crystals

Anatase
Czech Republic
Bohemia (Böhmen, Boehmen), Ústí Region, Krušné Hory Mts (Erzgebirge), Krupka (Graupen), Steinknochen (Lux vein) area

Anatase FOV 0,4cm© Petr Fuchs
Anatase, FOV 0,3cm© Petr Fuchs

Info needed.

Anatase
France
Brittany, Morbihan, Grans-Champ, Poulmarc'h Quarry

Anatase FOV 0,3cm© P Le Roc\'h
Anatase FOV 0,3cm© P Le Roc\'h

Quarry in operation, just west of the junction of Pino. Recently analysis proved Röntgenite on some of the Anatase crystals (info Pierre le Roc'h)

Anatase
France
Brittany, Morbihan, Plumelin, La Lande quarry

Anatase FOV 0,2cm© JM. Johannet
Anatase FOV 0,3cm© Vítězslav Snášel

Active quarry.

Anatase
France
Midi-Pyrénées, Hautes-Pyrénées, Arrens-Marsous

Anatase FOV 0,3cm© JM. Johannet
Anatase FOV 0,4cm© JM. Johannet

Info needed.

Anatase
France
Rhône-Alpes, Isère, Bourg d'Oisans, St Christophe-en-Oisans, Plan-du-Lac

Anatase FOV 0,25cm© JM. Johannet
Anatase FOV 0,5cm© Chinellato Matteo


Anatase crystal 2,5x2cm© Denis Mantel
Anatase group 1,9x1,4cm© Denis Mantel

Dumps from a roadcut.
St Christophe-en-Oisans is the type locality for Anatase.

Anatase
France
Rhône-Alpes, Savoie, La Lauzière massif

Anatase crystal 3,1cm© Paul De Bondt
Anatase cluster 1,4cm© Paul De Bondt


Anatase cluster 1,4cm© Paul De Bondt
Anatase FOV 0,2cm© JM. Johannet


Anatase FOV 0,4cm©
Anatase, Rutile FOV 0,85cm© D.Preite

Many fine Anatase specimens have been found in the Lauzière massif, most notably at la Madelaine pass and Entre Deux Roches localities. Some crystal exceeded 4 cm in length. The Anatase found at Madelaine pass often show an elongated habit.

Anatase
Germany
Baden-Württemberg, Black Forest, Haslach, Steinach, Artenberg quarry

Anatase FOV0,3cm© Stephan Wolfsried


Operating gneiss quarry with mineralised calcite and quartz veins, as well as calcsilicate rocks. The quarry is known for nice flat tabular Anatase crystals. Access is strictly prohibited.

Anatase
Germany
Bavaria, Franconia, Franconian Forest, Hof, Feilitzsch

Anatase FOV 0,6cm© Stephan Wolfsried


Diabas Quarry known for some of the best Anatase specimens of Germany. The crystals range in colour from brown to blue and can reach up to 0,5 cm and a great variety of forms are encountered. The Anatase are often accompanied by Rutile, Titanite and nice Brookite crystals that can reach up to 1,5 cm.

Anatase
Germany
Saarland, Merzig, Orscholz, Saarschleife

Anatase FOV 0,8cm© TK
Anatase FOV 0,8cm© TK

Outcrops of Taunus quartzite on the steep slopes above the "Saarschleife", a horseshoe bend of the river Saar.
Located about 1 km ESE of Orscholz (near Mettlach) and about 500 m NW of Dreisbach.
Many fine Anatase specimens with crystals up to 1 cm have been found accompanied by Brookite and Monazite (up to 0,8cm!)

Anatase
Germany
Saxony, Vogtland, Oelsnitz

Anatase FOV 3cm© Chinellato Matteo
Anatase FOV 3cm© Chinellato Matteo

Near the provincial town of Oelsnitz Anatase can be found in an old quarry near the village of Bösenbrunn and on the dumps of a former mine near the village of Schönbrunn. The Anatase are quite small and rarely exceed 0,2 cm but they show atractive colours (yellow, orange, brown, black).

Anatase
Italy
Aosta Valley, Courmayeur, Monte Bianco Massif (Mont Blanc Massif)

Anatase FOV 0,8cm© Chinellato Matteo
Anatase FOV 0,4cm© D. Preite


Anatase crystal, 0,4cm© Marco Barsanti
Anatase FOV 0,4cm© Chinellato Matteo

Anatase crystals occuring in Alpine type fissures. Notable localities for good Anatase crystals are the edges of the Brenva, Miage and Triolet glaciers as well as the Petite Mont Blanc mountain.

Anatase
Italy
Aosta Valley, La Thuile

Anatase FOV 0,4cm© Chinellato Matteo
Anatase crystals up to 0,4cm© Chinellato Matteo

Info needed.

Anatase
Italy
Emilia-Romagna, Bologna Province, Gaggio Montano, Ca' dei Ladri (Silla)

Anatase FOV 0,3cm© Chinellato Matteo
Anatase crystals up to 0,3cm© Chinellato Matteo

Area with cretaceous sedimentary rocks with hydrothermal veins that contain interesting minerals.
Info needed on specimens from this locality.

Anatase
Italy
Liguria, Genova, Monte Bregaceto

Anatase group 0,3cm© Chinellato Matteo
Anatase crystals up to 0,4cm© Chinellato Matteo

Yellow anatase crystals to a few mm associated with platy orange brookite crystals that measure 2 cm in length and 1 cm in length on matrix.
The mineralized rock is represented by an Oligocenic sandstone. It is very much fractured and crossed by quartz and albite veins, which often host interesting minerals.

Anatase
Italy
Piedmont, Torino Province, Susa Valley

Anatase FOV 0,3cm© Germano Fretti
Anatase FOV 0,2cm© D. Preite


Anatase FOV 0,3cm© Chinellato Matteo
Anatase FOV 0,3cm© Chinellato Matteo

Info needed.

Anatase
Italy
Piedmont, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola Province, Formazza Valley

Anatase FOV 0,4cm© Chinellato Matteo
Anatase FOV 0,3cm© D. Preite

Info needed.

Anatase
Italy
Piedmont, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola Province, Ossola Valley

Anatase FOV 0,4cm© Chinellato Matteo
Anatase FOV 0,8cm© Chinellato Matteo


Anatase FOV 0,4cm© Enrico Bonacina
Anatase FOV 0,4cm© D. Preite


Anatase FOV 0,4cm© Chinellato Matteo
Anatase FOV 0,3cm© D. Preite

Info needed.

Anatase
Italy
Trento-Alto Adige, Bolzano Province (South Tyrol), Vizze valley (Pfitsch Valley

Anatase FOV 0,2cm© Chinellato Matteo
Anatase crystal, 0,2cm© Chinellato Matteo


Anatase FOV 0,3cm© Chinellato Matteo
Anatase FOV 0,3cm© D. Preite

Info needed.

Anatase
Madagascar
Antananarivo province, Vakinankaratra Region (Betafo - Antsirabé region), Betafo Department, Mahaiza Commune, Mahaiza

Anatase crystals up to 0,3cm© Antonio Borrelli
Anatase FOV 0,6cm© Chinellato Matteo

Mahaiza is a small town and a market place about 20 km west of the city Antsirabe and 10 km south of the city Betafo in the central highland of Madagascar. The town is easily accessible by car. Many minerals from numerous different localities, mostly south of Mahaiza -many as far away as 30-40km- are been brought here by local people for sale. Among the localities you'll f.ex. find the Tsaramanga (Itongafeno) pegmatite known for its beryl with the Tongafeno blue-colour and large good columbite xls. Or f.ex the Antsongombato gem mine, famous for its large londonite crystals. Minerals bought here in Mahaiza and which finds their way to foreign mineral collections are very often labeled just Mahaiza.

Anatase
Norway
Hordaland, Hardangervidda National Park

Hardangervidda Anatase on Quartz specimen of 40cm, WOW© OT. Ljostad



Anatase, 1,5x1,2cm© 2002 John H. Betts
Anatase FOV 4cm© Chinellato Matteo


Anatase 3x2,5cm© fabreminerals.com
Anatase crystals 1,4 and 0,7cm© Chinellato Matteo


Anatase crystals up to 2cm© Christian Bracke
Anatas in the Kongsberg museum© OT. Ljostad

Hordaland Fylke, Ullensvang Statsallmenning, Matskorhae. This locality has also been know as Hardangervidda (vidda=high plateau). Local collectors informally call it “Grisebingen” which means the pig pen. The name is a derogatory Norwegian term for mineral pigs which would loosely be translated as “rockhound” and to the very dirty working conditions at the locality. Because of the deep snow the deposit can be worked only one or two months a year.1 The specimens show sharp blue-black steep bipyramidal anatase crystals, frequently doubly terminated, usually growing on well formed sharp transparent quartz crystals. Some of these anatase crystals are a deep blue if you hold them to a strong light. Most crystals are in the cm range, but fine crystals as large as 6 cm have been found, some of them on matrix. Many of the specimens from this locality are clusters of prismatic quartz crystals, lustrous and fairly transparent with cm size bipyramidal dark blue anatase crystals growing on them. On larger specimens the quartz crystals tend to be broken and the small anatase crystals tend to get lost against the overall aspect of the specimen. Two spectacular small matrix specimens from this locality with crystals of 2.5 and 6 cm each respectively are pictured in Rocks and Minerals Magazine, Nov/Dec 2002, p400-402. A good one of these will cost you over a thousand dollars and one of the best, perhaps $5000 or more.

Anatase
Norway
Oppland, Valdres

Anatase crystal, 3x2,8cm© Joseph A. Freilich
Anatase crystal, 1,4cm© Rob Lavinsky


Anatase crystal 1,8x1,3cm© fabreminerals.com
Anatase crystal 2,3x1,5cm© Rob Lavinsky

Near Gudbransdalen, “Valdres region.” “At Siegbert Zecha’s stand were a few mostly thumbnail specimens of a remarkable new anatase from Norway, not to be confused with the older “Hardangervidda” or “Matskorhae” anatase – pointed blue-black bipyramids to 1 cm at most. These older ones, scattered on sometimes immense quartz crystal groups…. The new crystals feature, by contrast, flat basil terminations on the bipyramids; the matrix where present is drusy albite; and, though as dark-looking at first glance as the older crystals, these are not really blue but red, with richly glinting rubous highlights. Most often the crystals come as loose singles to 2.5 cm long, but sometimes they form parallel groupings which are extremely bright and handsome. The best matrix-free thumbnails of this sort cost around $200. Apparently the largest crystal yet found, now in the Kongsberg Mining Museum, is r.8 cm long… . The locality is (no surprise) very vague. “Valdres region” appears on some labels, and the big one (mentioned above) displayed by the Kongsberg museum at the recent Tucson show is labeled as coming from “near Gudbransdalen.[Mineralogical Record, Vol. 20, 1989, p 483]

Some of the specimens with Valdres labels are in fact from Dyrfonni. It should be noted though, that this locality has been staked out as a claim , and according to Norwegian mining laws it is considered as a theft to collect at this site without permission from the holder of the claim. Even so, at the end of the 1990s several people collected here illegally more than 200 pieces of anatase specimens and sold it to mineral shows in USA and Germany. Some collectors have thus been legally prosecuted. Specimens of anatase from this locality have been erroneously labelled as coming from "Valdres", probably to avoid prosecution or to keep the locality a secret.

Anatase
Norway
Vestfold, Holmestrand, Solumsåsen quarry

Anatase, FOV 0,2cm© Fred Kruijen
Anatase, FOV 0,3cm© D. Preite

Quarry in operation. Minerals occurs in amygdales and small gas cavities in rhombic porphyry (RP2-lava)

Anatase
Pakistan
Balochistan (Baluchistan), Dalbandin

2.4 x 2.2 cm© H. Obodda


Info needed.

Anatase
Pakistan
Balochistan (Baluchistan), Raskoh Mts., Zard Mts

Anatase crystal, 1cm© Christian Bracke
Anatase crystals up to 0,5cm© Christian Bracke


Anatase crystal, 4,6cm© Enrico Bonacina
Anatase crystal, 1,2x1,2cm© Rob Lavinsky

The Zard mountains are the central area of the Raskoh mountains, west of Kharan. This seems to be the most detailed location name for the new Brookite and Anatase specimen sold under location Kharan.

Anatase
Pakistan
Northern Areas, Gilgit District

Anatase FOV 1cm© Petr Fuchs
Anatase FOV 2cm© Petr Fuchs

Info needed.

Anatase
Russia
Eastern-Siberian Region, Saha Republic (Sakha Republic; Yakutia), Aldan Shield, Chara and Tokko Rivers Confluence, Murunskii Massif, Kedrovyi alkaline Massif

Anatase crystal, 1,9x1,5cm© Pavel M. Kartashov


Loacated 5km from Murun Massif; part of the Murun Alcaline Complex. Massive anatae-brookite-quartz ores with 40-60 mas.% TiO2 form here whole titanium deposit of industrial grade.

Anatase
Russia
Western-Siberian Region, Polar Urals, Tyumenskaya Oblast'

Anatase up to 1,1cm© C. Stefano '09
Anatase, 0,9cm© Chinellato Matteo

Many fine Anatase specimens have come out of the mines of Dodo and Lapcha. The Anatase crystals usually sit on Quartz (mostly smoky) and are accompanied by Brookite and other Ti minerals.

Anatase
Russia
Far-Eastern Region, Khabarovkiy Kray, Aldan Province, Udacha pegmatite field
Anatase 0,9x0,3x0,3cm© Pavel M. Kartashov
Anatase 0,8x0,8x0,4cm© Pavel M. Kartashov

Complex Anatase crystals found in miarolitic pegmatites.

Anatase
Spain
Andalusia, Almería, Adra, Adra-Motril highway

Anatase FOV 0,2cm© Christian Rewitzer
Anatase FOV 0,2cm© Christian Rewitzer

Extensive field of alpine-type veins in schist discovered in roadcuts during construction of the Adra-Motril highway.

Anatase
Spain
Catalonia, Lleida (Lérida), Pallars Sobirà, Espot

Anatase FOV 0,8cm© J. Rosell


Info needed.

Anatase
Spain
Castile and Leon, León, Santiago Millas, Del Moro Quarry

Anatase crystal, 0,2cm© Rafa Muñoz Alvarado
Anatase crystal, 0,3cm© Rafa Muñoz Alvarado

Info needed.

Anatase
Switzerland, Graubünden Canton, Grapsteigberg.
Fine yellow to dark brown anatase crystals are also found at this locality in canton Graubünden. Many of these appeared at the Altdorf show in Switzerland in 1977. One dealer had a number of specimens for sale of this material with many specimens with crystals over 1 cm. One specimen displayed in a club case showed a crystal 2.5 cm in length even with one end of the crystal being broken off.1
1 Mineralogical Record, Vol.9, 1978 p79.
Photos needed.

Anatase
Switzerland
Grischun (Grisons; Graubünden), Vorderrhein Valley, Tujetsch (Tavetsch)

Anatase FOV 0,42cm© 2008 D. Schläfli
Anatase FOV 0,4cm© Chinellato Matteo


Anatase FOV 0,4cm© Chinellato Matteo
Anatase FOV 0,6cm© Stephan Wolfsried


Anatase FOV 0,7cm© Chinellato Matteo
Anatase FOV 0,3cm© Stephan Wolfsried

Many fine Anatase specimens have been found in Tujetsch. One of the first written accounts about Anatase in Tujetsch can be found in Wiser (1841). he wrote about Anatase crystals up to 2,5 cm in length although normally the Anatase from Tujetsch don't exceed 0,5 cm. Among the best localities in Tujetsch for Anatase are Val Nalps, Val Curnera, Cavradi gorge and Druntobel although probably the best Tujetsch Anatase locality remains the area around the Sontga Brigida chapel.
[Harjo Neutkens 2009]

Anatase
Switzerland
Ticina (Tessin), Levantina, Bedretto valley, Valleggia Valley, Valleggia Glacier

Anatase, Quartz FOV 1,2cm© Stephan Wolfsried
Anatase, Quartz FOV 0,2cm© Stephan Wolfsried

Locality famous for orange Anatase crystals sprinkled on slender Rock Crystal.

Anatase
Switzerland
Ticino (Tessin), Levantina, Central St Gotthard Massif

Anatase FOV 0,9cm© Stephan Wolfsried
Anatase FOV 0,6cm© Chinellato Matteo


Anatase FOV 0,4cm© D. Preite
Anatase FOV 0,3cm© Chinellato Matteo


Anatase FOV 0,4cm© Chinellato Matteo
Anatase FOV 0,5cm© Chinellato Matteo

The area around the St Gotthard pass. In a geological sense, the St Gotthard massif encompasses the area from the Nufenen pass (Novena pass) in the west to the southern side valleys of the Tujetsch (Tavetsch) in the east. Hence, many of the localities in the upper Wallis, in northern Ticino (on the north slopes of the Bedretto valley and in the valleys northeast of the upper Leventina), and in western Grischun are actually situated in the St Gotthard massif. Though, this is not explicitly noted, except in some locality descriptions.
Anatase crystals in excess of 2 cm have been found in the St Gotthard massif.

Anatase
Switzerland
Ticino (Tessin), Levantina, Piora Valley, Pizzo Taneda

Anatase FOV 0,4cm© Stephan Wolfsried
Anatase FOV 0,6cm© Stephan Wolfsried

Info needed.

Anatase
Switzerland
Ticino (Tessin), Maggia valley

Anatase FOV 0,4cm© Harjo
Anatase FOV 0,8cm© Chinellato Matteo


Anatase FOV 0,3cm© Stephan Wolfsried
Anatase FOV 0,4cm© D. Preite

Good localities for Anatase can be found in the two upper Maggia valleys; Bavona valley and Lavizzara valley.
Many Anatase crystals can be found on the slopes of Mount Basòdino near Lago del Zött, in the region around Pizzo del Arzo and the Cavagnoli glaciers in the upper Bavona Valley. Colours range from yellow, brown, red to black. The Anatase crystals are accompanied by Rutile (often as Sagenite), Brookite, Apatite, Titanite and Hematite (often as Eisenrose). They can be found in-situ as well as in landslide material.
[Harjo Neutkens 2009]

Anatase
Switzerland
Uri, Urseren, Realp

Anatase FOV 0,3cm© Stephan Wolfsried
Anatase FOV 1cm© Stephan Wolfsried

Info needed.

Anatase
Switzerland
Wallis (Valais), Binn Valley

Anatase FOV 0,3cm© 2007 D. Schläfli
Anatase FOV 0,5cm© Stephan Wolfsried


Anatase FOV 0,3cm© Stephan Wolfsried
Anatase FOV 0,8cm© Stephan Wolfsried


Anatase, scale 1 Inch, rule 1cm©
Anatase, scale 1 Inch, rule 1cm©

Some collectors feel that the best anatase specimens come from the older and more classical Swiss localities like the ones from the Binntal. Here crystals can be found up to about 5 cm that are amber or brown in color. Several different crystal habits are found here. There is a matrix specimen in the Museum of Natural History in Geneva that has rough brownish black crystal on it that measures 1.8 x 4.5 cm. Another somewhat rough brown crystal on matrix in the Smithsonian Institute in the Carl Bosch collection from Alp Lercheltini, Binntal, measures 3.5x5.0 cm, another one measuring over 4 cm is in the Geneva museum. Most collectors would like their crystals to be sharper than these, but these are perhaps the reigning monsters, so far as Anatase is concerned. Lärcheltini is a zone high up in the Binntal that can be subdivided in several localities famous for good Anatas finds: Gorb, Riggi, Kollergraben and Spissen. The last one is known for the very typical "Spissen-habit" Anatase and in the lower Kollergraben very nice long prismatic yellow Anatase have been found in recent years. Other localities for Anatase in the Binn valley are: Tälligletscher, Balmen, Bochtenhorn, Ofenhorn, Mittlenberg, Turbenalp, Fäldbachtal, Blausee area, Cherbadung and Fleschsee. An interesting recent discovery from the Binn valley is the find of Niobian Anatase. To get a great one from the Binntal is like trying to leap a tall building in a single bound but the occasional superman succeeds. I don’t think I have ever seen a great one for sale. It would certainly cost you several thousand dollars. Here are some spellings for this famous locality that have been put on labels over the years. (Binntal also Binn, Binntales, Binnatal, Binnental, Binnenthal).

Anatase
Switzerland
Wallis (Valais), Goms, Furka pass area

Anatase FOV 0,4cm© Chinellato Matteo
Anatase FOV 0,3cm© Stephan Wolfsried

Info needed.

Anatase
United Kingdom
England, Cornwall, Mount's Bay District, Porthleven, Wheal Penrose

Anatase FOV 0,5cm© G.Curtis
Anatase FOV 0,5cm© G.Curtis

Info needed.

Anatase
United Kingdom
Wales, Denbighshire (Clwyd), Glyn Ceiriog, Hendre Quarry

Anatase FOV 0,2cm© Steve Rust
Anatase FOV 0,3cm© Martin Stolworthy

Info needed.

Anatase
United Kingdom
Wales, Gwynedd (Caernarvonshire), Prenteg, Fron Olau, Twll Maen Grisial

Anatase crystals to 0,3cm© Peter Haas
Anatase crystal, 0,5cm© Peter Haas

Locality for some of the best Anatase crystals in the UK.
Brookite from this location was originally referred to as being from "near Snowdon" by Sowerby (1809), but this was later confirmed by Sowerby (1838) to be Prenteg. Also incorrectly called "Fonolen" by Greg and Lettsom (1858) and elsewhere described as "8 miles from Snowdon, between Beddgelert and Tremadoc".

Anatase
USA
Arkansas, Hot Spring Co., Magnet Cove, Jones Mill (Martin Marietta) Quarry (Highway 51 Quarry; Mid-State Quarry)

Anatase FOV 0,21m© SMS 2008
Anatase on Quartz, 4cm©


Anatase FOV 0,6cm© 2008 Peter Cristofono
Anatase on Syenite, 3,5x2,5cm© Bruce T. Mitchell

A huge, active quarry situated on the contact of the Magnet Cove alkaline complex.

Anatase
USA
California, Mono Co., White Mts.

Anatase FOV 0,32cm© Dick Dionne
Anatase crystal, 0,8cm© Knut Eldjarn

Info needed.

Anatase
USA
New Hampshire, Hillsborough Co.,Nashua, Mine Falls Park

Anatase FOV 0,32cm© Scott Whittemore
Anatase FOV 0,13cm© Scott Whittemore

S. Whittemore (1990) Recent Mineral Discoveries at Mine Falls Park, Nashua, Hillsborough County, New Haqmpshire. Rocks & Minerals 65:432-437

Anatase
USA
North Carolina, Cleveland Co., Lattimore, Yates Brooks Farm

Anatase FOV 0,6cm© JBS 2007
Anatase FOV 0,4cm© JBS 2007

Muscovite deposits that outcrop on a small farm.

Anatase
United States, Wisconsin,
At Rib Mountain near the town of Rib Mountain, Marathon County is a zone of pegmatites that produces pockets of quartz etc. including black lustrous anatase crystals to 8 mm. These were produced mostly from one pocket. The average size is generally less than 0.5 mm.
Photos needed.

[Harjo Neutkens 2009]]]> Harjo Neutkens Best Minerals A Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:05:34 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139475,139475#msg-139475 Azoproite (no replies) http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139475,139475#msg-139475
Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Azoproite. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Azoproite. It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Azoproite that will go into the article.



Azoproite
(Mg,Fe2+)2(Fe3+,Ti,Mg)[O2|BO3] Orthorhombic
A 7mm black Azoproite xl in Calcite, Tazheranskii Massif, Lake Baikal area, Russia © Pavel M. Kartashov


*Azoproite Micro and rare species collections.
(Mg,Fe2+)2(Fe3+,Ti,Mg)BO5
Russia
Siberia, West of Lake Baikal, Tazheran Alkalic Massif. The mineral occurs as prismatic crystals 1 to 20 mm. Long and 0.1 to 5 mm. Wide. Color black, luster adamantine, fracture conchoidal. A good cleavage (parting?) is observed on (010)…The mineral occurs in magnesian skarns in the contact aureole of the Tazheran alkalic massif with calcite, spinel, titanoan ludwigite, clinohumite, baddeleyite, tazherainite…perovskite, and geikielite. …Type material is preserved in the Fersman Mineralogical Museum, Moscow. The name is for the International Geological Association for the Study of Deep Zones of the Earth’s Crust (AZOPRO) because it was found during the preparation of a guidebook for the Association’s 12th meeting at Baikal in 1996.1
1 American Mineralogist, Vol. 56, 1971 p. 360.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Wed, 27 May 2009 12:04:44 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139473,139473#msg-139473 Awaruite (no replies) http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139473,139473#msg-139473
Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Awaruite. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Awaruite. It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Awaruite that will go into the article.



Awaruite
Ni3Fe Isometric
Awaruite, Josephine Creek, Josephine Co., Oregon, USA 2.2cm tall© Rob Lavinsky


Awaruite Mostly rare species collections.
Ni2Fe to Ni3Fe
About twenty localities are known for this mineral. “Anhedral to subhedral, rarely up to 4 mm across…silver-white to grayish white…opaque. Metallic.”1 The mineral is poorly defined and needs more work. Some mineralogists feel that this mineral is nothing more than an iron rich vareity of native nickel and that it is only a matter of time before the IMA declares it a variety rather than a separate species.
1 Encyclopedia of Minerals, Roberts, Campbell, Rapp, Second Edition, 1990, p59.
New Zealand
Awarua Bay, George River. Found in gold washings of the George River that empties into Awarua Bay”1
1 Encyclopedia of Minerals, Roberts, Campbell, Rapp, Second Edition, 1990, p59.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Wed, 27 May 2009 11:51:23 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139470,139470#msg-139470 Avogadrite (1 reply) http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139470,139470#msg-139470
Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Avogadrite. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Avogadrite. It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Avogadrite that will go into the article.



Avogadrite
(K,Cs)[BF4 Orthorhombic
Avogadrite, Mt. Vesuvius, Naples, Campania, Italy ~1cm© 2007, JGW


*Avogadrite Micro and rare species collections.
(K,Cs)BF4
Italy
Vesuvius volcano. The mineral occurs as minute tabular to platy and sometimes elongated crystals resembling barite and as dense crusts. It is colorless to white, or yellowish to reddish when impure. “The taste is bitter. …Found admixed with sassolite and other salts as a fumarolic incrustation on Vesuvius.”1 Unless you really know what you are doing you should never taste an unknown substance. It could be poisonous. However there are very few minerals that would harm you if you licked them with your tongue and then spit the taste out. However you should be very sure that you know for sure it is a naturally occurring mineral like this one and not man made crystals of some sodium cyanide. Better yet, just don’t do it.
1 Dana's System of Mineralogy, Palache, Berman, Frondel, Seventh Edition, Vol. II, 1951, p87-8)]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Wed, 27 May 2009 11:48:51 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139468,139468#msg-139468 Avicennite (8 replies) http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139468,139468#msg-139468
Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Avicennite. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Avicennite. It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Avicennite that will go into the article.



Avicennite
Tl2O3 Isometric
Avicennite, Thallium Prospect, Little Valley, Tooele Co., Utah, USA 15mm wide© Bert Hendriksen

It is not plane just were the Avicennite is in the image. We need a better picture of this mineral.


Avicennite
USA
Utah, Tooele Co., Little Vallye, Thallium Prospect

We need for someone to tell us about the Avicennite from this locality.

Avicennite Micro? and rare species collections.
Tl2O3
Tadzhikistan
Bukhara, Mt. Zirabulaksk, Dzhuzumli. “The mineral occurs in crystals less than 1 mm in size, somewhat resembling perovskite. Color grayish-black, luster metallic, streak grayish-black; very brittle, fracture uneven, cleavage indistinct…The mineral occurs near the village of Dzhuzumli...in a hematite-calcite vein cutting banded marmorized and silicified limestones near their contact with granite-gneisses of the Ketmenchinsk intrusive.”1
1 American Mineralogist, Vol.44, p.1325.

Avicennite
United States
Utah, Tooele County, Lookout Pass. “Jim McGlasson had the rare species avicennite and parapierrotite…available at the Tucson snow. These minerals form microscopic, but clearly visible, red and black masses in a siliceous matrix.”1
1 Mineralogical Record, Vol. 20, 1989, p 391.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Fri, 29 May 2009 17:19:15 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139465,139465#msg-139465 Averievite (no replies) http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139465,139465#msg-139465
Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Averievite. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Averievite. It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Averievite that will go into the article.



Averievite
Cu6[O2|Cl2|(VO4)2 Trigonal

There appears to be no picture of Averievite available.

Averievite
Russia
Far-Eastern Region, Kamchatka Oblast', Tolbachik volcano

As opaque black pseudohexagonal crystals to 0.3mm1. We need someone to tell us about Averievite specimens from this locality.

1. Handbook of Mineralogy, Anthony, Bideaux, Bladh & Nichols Vol IV, p.45]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Wed, 27 May 2009 11:22:48 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139461,139461#msg-139461 Autunite (5 replies) http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139461,139461#msg-139461
Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Autunite. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Autunite. It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Autunite that will go into the article.



Autunite
Ca(UO2)2(PO4)2·11H2O Orthorhombic
Autunite, Daybreak Mine, Mount Kit Carson, Spokane Co., Washington, USA ~5cm wide©


Autunite & Meta-autunite Display collections.
Ca(UO2)2(PO4)2·10-12H2O
Autunite has been found at many localities but only a few of them produce good crystals. Many of these are described below. The best specimens have come from The Daybreak mine, Washington. I would strongly recommend that if you buy a good autunite for your collection that you should rarely put it on display and store it in a well sealed box or a sealed glass bottle and keep it in a cool environment. Most of the good Daybreak mine pieces have self destructed as they lost water and became meta-autunite.

Autunite
Australia
South Australia, Flinders Range, Mt. Painter. The specimen in my collection is a 5x8 cm crust of small crystals about 2 cm thick. I got it in trade from Albert Chapman many years ago and I know he did not send me his best one. I would like to learn more about this locality.
Ask one of my Australian friends if there is an article on this locality.

Autunite
Brazil
Minas Gerais, Malacacheta County, Malacacheta. “The mine was opened in a futile search for aquamarine, but several dozen nice specimens of autunite crystals up to 1 inch were uncovered instead.”1 Some of these autunite crystals were on matrix associated with mica crystals. A specimen in the Smithsonian Institute consists of a small cluster of autunite crystals off matrix that has a 3.5 cm crystal.
1 Mineralogical Record, Vol. 13, 1982, p181.

Autunite
France
“Also fine from a number of localities in France as at Margac, Haute Vienne, and Autun, Saône-et Loire.1 Autunite is named after Autun, France, its type locality.
1 Mineralogy for Amateurs, Sinkankas, 1964, p429.

Autunite
Portugal
Beira Alta Province, Cunha Baixa Mine. “To date, only meta-autunite has been found at Cunha Baixa. Crystal sizes range from 4 to 8 mm…In 1980, we had the opportunity to visit the open pit mine at Cunha Baixa…Samples were collected which contained the various uranium minerals representative of the paragenesis…At the Cunha Baixa mine only the oxidation zone of the deposit is mined. Secondary uranium minerals belong to the uranyl phosphate series and are the principal ore minerals. They form from primary pitchblende, either by direct oxidation and hydrothermal alteration in situ, or at various distances from the orebody after migration of the very soluble and mobile uranyl ion…the following secondary minerals have been found: torbernite, metatorbernite, meta-autunite, saleeite and phosphuranylite. This assemblage is not unique to Cunha Baixa, but is also characteristic of most uranium deposits of the region…The occurrence of marcasite pseudomorphs after pyrrhotite is characteristic at Cunha Baixa, and most of the secondary uranium minerals are associated with this iron mineral.”
“The main uranium-bearing region of the Iberian Peninsula is dominated by the northeast-southeast trending Sierra da Estrel mountain range. The range is geographically situated within and towards the western side of the Iberian Meseta, which consists mainly of Hercynian granites with a southeast-southwest orientation (Geffroy and Sarcia, 1954). The most important uranium deposits accordingly are situated in the north-central and southeastern part of Portugal, namely in the provinces of Beira Litoral, Beira Baixa and Beira Alta.”1
1 Secondary Uranium Minerals of the Cunha Baixa mine, R. Vochten and M. Van Doorselaer, Mineralogical Record, Vol. 15, 1984, p293-6.

Autunite
Guarda, Sabugal. This specimen in the British Museum of Natural History shows square flat crystals up to about a cm. The locality has certainly produced better. It is an old locality and certainly most of the specimens have been lost because they are so fragile and not unstable.

Autunite
Sao Vicente. Shown here are three small square flat yellow green crystals of about 15 mm each. Sao Vicente may be the same locality that is called Vizeu in Dana’s Text, 7th edition.

Autunite
United States
Washington, Spokane County, Mt. Spokane, Daybreak Mine A & B & C & D & E & F & G.
“Within the last decade, magnificent specimens, completely eclipsing any found before, were discovered in seams in granitic rock associated with pale brown kaolinite at the Daybreak mine…thick masses and crusts which reached dimensions of 12” broad and several inches thick! Before it was recognized that prompt preservation steps were required, many early specimens lost water and disintegrated ruinously. Dealers now promptly clean and dry specimens and soak them in thin plastic lacquer solutions to preserve them, this being more satisfactory than spraying. On larger masses, individual crystals form divergent aggregates or “cockscombs” of at least 1½” broad, although the usual run is from ½” to 1” broad. The coloration of the Spokane crystals is distinctive, being vivid light yellow-green on edges, but deeper green to almost blackish-green near the centers.”1
1 Mineralogy for Amateurs, Sinkankas, 1964, p428-9.

Autunite
Washington, Pend Orielle County. “Chris Wright (Wright’s Rock Shop) purchased before the show an entire pocket of autunite, nearly 50 flats, found at a new locality in Washington given only as Pend Orielle County. The crystals are generally less than a half an inch, but form attractive crusts which are yellow in color and fluoresce and intense yellow green in sunlight.”1
1 Mineralogical Record, Vol. 13, 1982, p181.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:15:38 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139458,139458#msg-139458 Austinite (9 replies) http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139458,139458#msg-139458
Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Austinite. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Austinite. It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Austinite that will go into the article.



Austinite
CaZn[OH|AsO4] Orthorhombic
Austinite, Ojuela Mine, Mapimí, Mun. de Mapimí, Durango, Mexico 9.1cm wide© Rob Lavinsky


Austinite Display collections?
CaZn(AsO4)(OH)
Austinite is a rare secondary mineral that is found in the oxidized portions of some arsenic rich base metal deposits. Found at about ten localities.

Australia
Beltana Mine (E.Z. Mine; Beltana deposit; Beltana-Aroona deposit; Puttapa mine), Puttapa, North Flinders Ranges, Flinders Ranges, South Australia, Australia
Austinite on adamite FOV ~25mm© R. Bottrill

Drusy yellow austinite on grey-white adamite, in cavities in botryoidal white to pink willemite with fine red to black hematite. FOV ~25mm.

Austinite
Greece
Kamariza Mines, Agios Konstantinos [St Constantine] (Kamariza), Lavrion District Mines, Lavrion (Laurion; Laurium) District, Attikí (Attica; Attika) Prefecture, Greece
[www.mindat.org]
Green crystal aggregates of cuproaustinite to 5mm, with pale blue cuprian adamite.

Attica, Laurium, Kamaréza Mine. The “…cuprian variety occurs in the Kamaréza mine as colloform aggregates of dark green intergrown drusy micro crystals in small cavities in limonite. Crystals are sharp and smooth-faced but most faces are obscured because of penetration into each other.”1
1 Mineralogical Record, Vol. 7, 1976, p123.

Mexico
Durango, Mapimi, Ojuela Mine. In the Romero collection at the University of Arizona in Tucson is a small hand specimen of small green micro crystals on limonite labeled barthite. Barthite is the variety of austinite that is copper rich. At one time specimens with bright green drusy crystals encrusting rock were fairly abundant. Austinite is saved from being adamite because of some calcium in its structure along with zinc, or perhaps it is the other way around?

Austinite
Namibia
Tsumeb. “Austinite has been frequently found in the second oxidation zone, but was not recognized. A few specimens of corroded tennantite contain lustrous, yellow-brown crystals up to 3 mm crystals, which appear to be the finest of the species.”1
1 Tsumeb, Georg Gebhard, 1999, p289.

Austinite
United States
Utah, Tooele County, Gold Hill, Western U.S. Mine. Austinite is mostly in the domain of micromounters because of the small size of the crystals found so far. The best and most abundant locality in the USA is Gold Hill. They actually produce specimens that you can see without a microscope and with enough coverage to make attractive hand specimens. Even then, not many collectors have or would want them in their collections. All the austinite crystals I have seen have been smaller than 5 mm. Specimens of austinite at Gold Hill are fairly abundant. Most of the austinite from Gold Hill has white micro crystals rather than the green, copper-rich variety.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Thu, 04 Jun 2009 07:01:10 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139457,139457#msg-139457 Aurostibite (15 replies) http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139457,139457#msg-139457
Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Aurostibite. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Aurostibite. It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Aurostibite that will go into the article.



Aurostibite
AuSb2 Isometric
~3mm Aurostibite inclusions in Quartz?, Krásná Hora nad Vltavou, Bohemia, Czech Republic © Frank Keutsch

We need a better picture and a better caption. I am not sure what we are looking at in this picture.


Aurostibite Rare species collections.
AuSb2
This mineral has been found at about 10 localities and most of it is very nondescript. However “sparse elongate grains up to 3.5 cm” from an unspecified locality are cited in the Handbook of Mineralogy, Volume I, Anthony, Bideaux, Bladh, Nichols, p37.

Canada
North West Territories, Giant Yellowknife and Chesterville Mines. “The mineral…AuSb2 was first observed…in rich gold ore specimens from the Giant Yellowknife mine…anhedral grains less than 200 microns in diameter showing a bornite-like tarnish on one hand specimen adjacent to hackly masses of native gold…Since insufficient pure material was available for quantitative analysis, even spectrographically, the investigation was pursued on the basis or the x-ray data alone…Search of the available specimens from both the Giant Yellowknife and Chesterville mines located minute amounts of aurostibite in their polished sections and in one hand specimen from the former locality (the Giant Yellowknife mine) and in one polished section and two hand specimens from the latter (Chesterville mine, Larder Lake, Ontario). The type specimen from Giant Yellowknife is a two-inch fragment of grayish-white impure vein quartz, somewhat fractured, and containing partly absorbed inclusions of chloritized and silicified wall-rock heavily mineralized with fine euhedral arsenopyrite. The walls of narrow vugs in the vein of quartz are coated with minute imperfect rhombohedral crystals of dolomitic carbonate and thin flakes of sericite mica less than ¼ mm across. Among the carbonate crystals in these vugs scattered grains of hackly gold varying in size from about 20 microns up to 1 or 2 mm occur accompanied by rounded iridescently tarnished separate grains of aurostibite up to about 350 microns in greatest dimension.”1
1 American Mineralogist, Vol.37, p461-3.

Aurostibite
Czech Republic
Krasna Hora. “Silvery gray metallic grains sparsely scattered in matrix. Rarely offered, we have several of these unusual AuSb2 specimens from 2 cm to 4 cm…”1 Prices range from $15 to $65 each.
1 Excalibur Mineral Company price list 2002.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Fri, 29 May 2009 04:57:04 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139456,139456#msg-139456 Aurorite (no replies) http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139456,139456#msg-139456
Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Aurorite. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Aurorite. It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Aurorite that will go into the article.



Aurorite
(Mn2+,Ag,Ca)Mn4+3O7· 3H2O Trigonal
Aurorite, Aurora mine, Sacramento District, White Pine Co., Nevada, USA FOV 3.2mm© 2008 Jesse Crawford


I'm not sure what we are seeing in the above image. We need a better image and a better caption.


Aurorite
USA
Nevada, White Pine Co., Sacramento District, Aurora mine

We need for someone to tell us about the Aurorite from this locality.



Aurorite Rare species collections.
(Mn2+,Ag,Ca)Mn34+O7·3H2O
A hydrous manganese, silver, calcium manganate.
United States
Nevada, White Pine County, Hamilton, Aurora Mine. “The mineral occurs as small irregular masses and platy or scaly grains in veinlets distributed through black calcite from the Aurora mine (Treasure Hill)…The largest grains are less than 8 microns…strongly birefringent and anisotropic, showing color changes from cream white to medium gray…Associated minerals are todorokite (argentian), cryptomelane, pyrolusite, quartz and manganoan calcite.”1
1 American Mineralogist, Vol.52, p1581.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Wed, 27 May 2009 10:36:18 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139455,139455#msg-139455 Auricupride (1 reply) http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139455,139455#msg-139455
Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Auricupride. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Auricupride. It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Auricupride that will go into the article.



Auricupride/url]
Cu3Au Orthorhombic
Auricupride, Zolotaya Gora Au deposit, Karabash, Chelyabinsk Oblast', Urals Region, Russia FOV 3mm© Knut Eldjarn


Auricupride
Russia
Urals Region, Southern Urals, Chelyabinsk Oblast', Karabash (Karabasch), Soimon Valley, Zolotaya Gora (Zlataya Gora; Zlatoya Gora) Au deposit
We need someone to tell us about the Auricupride specimens from this locality.


Auricupride Rare species collections.
Cu3Au
Russia
Siberia, Noril’sk Region, Talnakh, Oktybr Deposit. It is yellow with a pink tint and is massive and found in grains, patches and platy aggregates up to about 100 μm. Positively identified specimens of this material tend to be probe mounts. Found associated with gold alloys, gold, zvyagintsevite, polarite, Pt-Fe, galena, sphalerite and rarely sperrylite in the sulfide ores of the Talnakh deposit.”1 “Copper and gold form a continuous solid solution series in the synthetic system, but only above 410 C. Below that temperature solid state reactions occur resulting in miscibility gaps between phases centered around the compositions Cu3Au, CuAu, and CuAu3.(Hansen and Anderko, 1958). This is reflected in nature. …The phase with the Cu3Au composition has been named auricupride.”2
1 Encyclopedia of Minerals, Roberts, Campbell, Rapp, Second Edition, 1990, p56 - 2 Mineralogical Record, Vol. 13, 1982, p392.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Wed, 27 May 2009 21:23:13 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139454,139454#msg-139454 Aurichalcite (7 replies) http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139454,139454#msg-139454
Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Aurichalcite. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Aurichalcite. It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Aurichalcite that will go into the article.



Aurichalcite
(Zn,Cu)5[(OH)3|CO3] Monoclinic

Aurichalcite, Bisbee, Warren District, Mule Mts, Cochise Co., Arizona, USA 6.4cm wide© Dan & Diana Weinrich Minerals


Aurichalcite Display collections.
(Zn,Cu2+)5(CO3)2(OH)6

Aurichalcite is a secondary copper mineral usually found in the oxidized portions of copper/zinc deposits. The mineral is found at many localities and grows in slender light blue crystals that are rarely if ever over one cm and most are much smaller. Good specimens are not common except if you are a micromounter and in that case they are plentiful. Radiating tufts and clusters of these small blue crystals often make for beautiful if very delicate specimens. If you have a good aurichalcite specimen you will be advised to keep it in a box where it can be protected from the normal dust that accumulates on ordinary household items. They should not be placed even in a display cabinet for long periods of time, as they are difficult to impossible to clean. Though it has been found at a fair number of localities it seems that each generation must find its own because they become dirty and are eventually thrown out. Aurichalcite and rosasite are dimorphs and they must be analyzed for copper and zinc to determine which is which. Aurichalcite tends to be a lighter blue color than rosasite.
Aurichalcite
Australia
New South Wales, Broken Hill, ABH Consols Mine. “Beautiful specimens forming stalactitic masses, the centers of which contained dyscrasite, iodyrite and limonite, were found in a single vug in the ABH Consols mine.”1
1 The Minerals of Broken Hill, W.D. Birch et. al. 1982, p.81.

Aurichalcite
England
Derbyshire, Matlock Bath, Rutland Cavern. “…is one of the earliest known localities for aurichalcite or “cupreous calamine”1, and is the classical British locality. It forms pale green, felted or pearly crusts or tufts of blades up to 5 mm long, often associated with rosasite and hemimorphite and scattered on fluorite and calcite. Although attractive and having micromount potential, the specimens tend to be sparsely covered and do not compare with those from Mexico, Arizona or Iran.”2 Better specimens are said to come from Stafford, Ecton Hill in the same district.
1 Tooke, 1837; Adam, 1845; Connel, 1848; Greg and Lettsom, 1858; Braithwaite and Ryback, 1963a. – 2 Mineralogical Record, Vol. 14, 1983, p20.

Aurichalcite
Germany
North Rhine-Westphalia, Niederberg area, Wülfrath, Rohdenhaus, Rohdenhaus Quarry

Aurichalcite, FOV 0,8cm© Harjo
Aurichalcite, FOV 0,8cm© Harjo


Aurichalcite, FOV 0,8cm© Harjo
Aurichalcite, FOV 0,8cm© Harjo


A quarry in upper devonian limestones, disseminated by lead, zinc and copper bearing veins, located 1.5 km NNE of Rohdenhaus, NW of Wülfrath. Aurichalcite is quite a common mineral in the quarry and very good specimens have been found over the years. Typically the Aurichalcite roses get up to about 0,5 cm in diameter and occasionally cabinet specimens have been found covered all over with Aurichalcite aggregates. Aurichalcite is usually accompanied by very nice Rosasite, Smithsonite and weathered Sphalerite.
Following a fatal accident involving a mineral collector in 2008 the quarry management does not allow any mineral collecting in the quarry at least for the year 2009. In the future the management will review its point of view.

Aurichalcite
Mexico
Durango, Mapimi, Ojuela Mine. Mapimi has produced some beautiful specimens but because the mineral is so delicate most of the specimens collected never reached collectors in an undamaged condition. The specimen shown below is in the Romero collection and somehow managed to survive. Mapimi produced at least one pocket of beautiful sky blue thin bladed calcite whose color was caused by included aurichalcite.1
1 Mineralogical Record, Vol. 18, 1987, p406.

Aurichalcite
Namibia
Tsumeb. In the upper levels of the Tsumeb mine “aurichalcite crystals up to 1 cm on a white background of hydrozincite. Both are richly covered by small, transparent hemimorphite crystals.”1
1 Georg Gebhard, Tsumeb, 1999, p284.

Aurichalcite
United States
Arizona, Cochise County, Warren Mining District, Bisbee. “Common as large, fine specimens. The most significant locations are: Cole shaft- 1200 level, 26J stope, as radiating, banded, reniform masses to 2½ inches thick with hemimorphite. Copper Queen mine, in beautiful tubes lining cavities (Kunz 1885). Shattuck shaft, fibrous crystals up to 2 inches with dioptase. Southwest mine- 5th level, as acicular crystals in growths over a yard across with lace-like calcite that it frequently colors.”1
1 Dick Graeme, Mineralogical Record, Vol. 12, 1981, p292.
“Two new finds of aurichalcite surfaced at the Tucson show. The first of these was made by local collectors at the Southwest mine in Bisbee…The Bisbee material consists mostly of rich masses of acicular blue crystals on matrix, forming large, cabinet-sized specimens over 25 cm across. Some very good calcite and aragonite (“flos ferri” habit) were also recovered.”1
1 Mineralogical Record, Vol. 19, 1988, p331.

Aurichalcite
Arizona, Gila County, Banner District, Hayden. 79 Mine A & B & C & D & E. Perhaps the best specimens found to date are from the 79 mine near Hayden, Arizona. It is a common mineral in the mine but as usual the best specimens were collected from a pocket in 1971 which produced about ten flats of material of which about one flat was of truly superior quality. This material consists of crusts of sparkling turquoise green needle like crystals a little over a cm long and well terminated if you look closely. I hope their owners will keep them well packed away from household dust and dirt. What would be the price of these specimens today? For the better ones certainly more than $2000. How many of them have survived intact the twenty or so years since their discovery would be interesting to know. See Wendell Wilson’s good article in the Mineralogical Record.1
1 Mineralogical Record, Vol. 18, 1987, p 299.

Aurichalcite
Arizona, Pinal County, Tiger. The copper mine at Tiger also produced some specimens, but nothing worth writing home about. See the picture in the image bank. These kinds of very delicate specimens need to be sealed away in good air tight containers to protect them from dust, dirty air and brushing up against other specimens or even the box they are kept in.

Aurichalcite
Arizona, Pima County, Helvetia, Isle Royale Mine. “Bob Lane…an active Arizona field collector, was set up at the La Quinta with some very attractive rosasite and aurichalcite from the Isle Royale mine…It was a big strike, literally hundreds of flats, with many cabinet pieces recovered.”1
1 Mineralogical Record, Vol. 19, 1988, p210.

Aurichalcite
Arizona, Pima County, Silver Bell Mine. “Bill Haws…uncovered some very good botryoidal blue aurichalcite-rosasite on black tenorite from the Silver bell mine.”1
1 Mineralogical Record, Vol. 18, 1987, p359.

Aurichalcite
California, Inyo County, Darwin. “A very common mineral found in many of the mines (at Darwin) having a large amount of secondary zinc ore. Custer mine group: as excellent blue-green crystals from a small prospect tunnel opposite the Custer headframe. Defiance mine; found through the upper workings, mostly above the 400 level. Zinc Hill mine: collected from the upper workings as micro-crystals associated with hemimorphite.”1
1 Mineralogical Record, Vol. 15, 1984, p13.

Aurichalcite
Missouri, Granby. Would you believe that an old lead mine near Granby produced this specimen of aurichalcite crystals growing on calcite crystals?

Aurichalcite
New Mexico, Socorro County, Magdalena District, Kelly Mine A & B. Aurichalcite has been found throughout the district, mostly as micro acicular crystals on matrix and fine-bladed aggregates, often with a silky appearance. It is sometimes found as layers between botryoidal and crustiform smithsonite, as drusy cavity linings and as small tufts on smithsonite and other minerals. “The peculiar feathery habit of crystallization makes the mineral troublesome to handle…The noteworthy feature of the occurrence is that the delicate plumose clusters of crystals are preserved by clear crystals of calcite…The single occurrence known in the Graphic mine is of indescribable beauty. A crystal grotto a dozen feet in diameter is entirely lined with exquisite and delicately tinted aurichalcite , which is again covered by a thin layer of calcite a quarter to half an inch in thickness, made up of perfectly and brightly faceted crystals closely grown together. Some of the showiest specimens obtained were four to five times the size of a man’s head.”1
1 Keyes, C.R., Zinc Carbonate Ores of the Magdalena Mountains, Mineralogical Magazine, Vol. 12, p109-114.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Fri, 29 May 2009 21:18:42 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139451,139451#msg-139451 Augite (3 replies) http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139451,139451#msg-139451
Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Augite. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Augite. It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Augite that will go into the article.



Augite
(Ca,Na)(Mg,Fe2+,Al,Fe3+,Ti)[(Si,Al)2O6] Monoclinic
Augite xl on orange Calcite, Yates Mine, Otter Lake, Québec, Canada 28mm wide© 2001 John H. Betts


Quote
Augite is just a dirty diopside, so it will eventually suffer the same fate as andesine and labradorite and be demoted to varietal status.
Alfredo Petrov 2009



Augite Display collections?
(Ca,Na)(Mg,Fe,Al,Ti)(Si,Al)2O6
When localities are described in mineralogical literature it is common to see an alphabetical list of minerals found at the locality. Many times the lists will contain only the general name pyroxene. Which of the more than 20 various pyroxene group minerals might be found at the locality is up to the imagination of the reader or the subject for further study by researchers. Augite is a common mineral in the pyroxene group. Sometimes augite will be described but only as part of the diopside-augite series which also includes hedenbergite. Augite is fairly common but good specimens are rare though not expensive when encountered in dealers stocks. That is because they are black and not very attractive. Most of the ones you do see are not very shiny, dull black and not well formed. Augites are commonly are found in eruptive rocks. I have also wondered over the years just how accurate the identifications were of the specimens that were labeled augite. An accurate chemical analysis must be done as it is impossible to sight identify the species. Recently mineralogists have been screwing around with the nomenclature of pyroxenes and amphiboles and I think that most museum curators and collectors don’t have a clue what their augites and related minerals really are.
I don’t think I have ever known of or heard about a collector who collected augites and you hardly ever see them in display cases. At any rate, below are a few images of some augite specimens I have encountered over the years.

Augite
Antarctic
South Victoria Land, Ross Island. Little black one inch crystals from a place you would definitely not want to live.

Augite
Australia
Victoria, Cape Grant, Portland Harbor Trust Quarry. The augites from this locality are up to 6.5 cm long and are associated with andesine crystals up to 3 cm long and ilmenites to about 1.5cm in diameter. Typically the augite and andesine are around the 1 cm size. “The augites are generally sharp, prismatic and very glossy black. Some have hollow terminations. The ilmenite forms lustrous black plates. Specimens generally consist of a mixture of the three main minerals with andesine the most abundant. The largest specimen I have seen is around 60 cm across…part of a thin vein…atop a slab of the fine-grained basalt. Some of the minerals are coated in clay which can be removed with a quick and careful dip in hydrofluoric acid. …The minerals occurred in fissures and vugs in the basalt. Basically the rock is like a pegmatoidal basalt with an assemblage of high temperature minerals, diopsidic augite, andesine and ilmenite with a lower temperature suite consisting of chabazite, phillipsite and calcite.(growing on the andesine and augite) …The chabazite is 3-4 mm across and is phacolitic. The phillipsites are about the 2 mm size. The calcite is typically golden brown, scalenohedral, up to 1 cm with some spherical aggregates up to 1.5 cm across. The majority of the material was collected in the late 1970s and early 1980s and the quarry no longer operates. …the rock is like a pegmatoidal basalt with an assemblage of high temperature minerals, ”1
1 Personal communication 2002, Dermot Henry, Senior Collection Manager, Geosciences, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Augite
Brazil
Sao Paulo, Iguape River Valley, Jacupiranga Mine. This phosphate mine is about 230 km southwest of São Paulo. “Augite is the most common constituent of the vugs, occurring as sharp, dark green crystals measuring up to 3 cm, commonly associated with fluorapatite and phlogopite crystals.1 I have never seen a good one and the author of the article in the Mineralogical Record did not choose to include a picture of one in his article.
1 Mineralogical Record, Vol. 15, 1984, p267.

Augite
Canada
Ontario, Lake Clear-Kuehl Lake. “Pyroxene is a common mineral at calcite dike contacts. EDS analysis indicated that pyroxene is a sodium-bearing augite (less than 1 weight percent Na). Crystals are generally short prisms and dark green to black in color with a rather dull luster probably due to surface alteration to amphibole. Individual crystals, while seldom exceeding 15 cm in length, can form large groups weighing up to 50 kg. This is particularly true at the Smart mine where augite is associated with large microcline-perthite crystals.1 These are pretty ugly creatures and not of much interest to collectors or even to museums for display purposes. Sometimes these kinds of specimens will be included for educational purposes. They will certainly not attract a big crowd of spectators the way a room full of gem stones will.
1 Mineralogical Record, Vol. 13, 1982, p212-3.

Augite
Ontario, Grenville Province. The Grenville Province is a rock formation that is part of the greater Canadian Shield formation and is composed mostly of metamorphic and igneous rocks. Over the years it has produced many interesting mineral specimens. “Like the amphiboles, clinopyroxenes occur abundantly in the Grenville. Also, like the amphiboles, chemical variation is the determining factor in the proper nomenclature. All too often anything that is green becomes labeled “diopside,” and anything black, “augite.” Although this method may work some of the time, it precludes a positive identification. Because of widespread occurrence, only the more important localities can be considered here.”1 It is difficult to find an attractive augite specimen from this region.
1 Mineralogical Record, Vol. 13, 1982, p78.

Augite
Czech Republic
Bohemia, Paskapole. Augite specimens “…sharp, dull black to blackish green, perfect crystals…a few of these were still in the matrix of fine-grained volcanic rock in which they occur as phenocrysts, but most were floaters, both singles and twins, in textbook monoclinic forms, ranging up to 5 cm long. Three or four dealers had these; some specimens were dated 1989, and none cost more than about $8.”1 The above were specimen described at the Prague gem and mineral show in 1991.
1 Mineralogical Record, Vol. 22, 1991, p459.

Augite
Italy
Mt. Vesuvius. “Sharp lustrous black augite crystals, usually doubly-terminated and commonly to 1” in size, occur on Mount Vesuvius, near Naples…”1
1 Mineralogy for Amateurs, Sinkankas, p493.

Augite
Mexico
Oaxaca, Ayoquesca, La Panchita. The augite specimen shown here is in the Romero collection at the University of Arizona at Tucson. It looks nice, but quantities of these specimens would be difficult to sell.

Augite
United States
New Mexico, Winston, Willow Creek. “The host rock is a porphyritic rhyolite…Augite is not abundant but appears as very fine, transparent, burnt-orange prisms, some of which are almost hairlike. Titanite having the same burnt-orange color as the augite is quite common; the wedge-shaped crystal habit allows easy identification.”1
1 Mineralogical Record, Vol. 20, 1989, p60.

Augite
New York, Diana A & B. The A specimen from New York is the best looking of the two with its shiny black crystals. The other is ugly as sin but was kept, I suppose, because it is from a venerable old collection.

Augite
Pennsylvania, Chester County, St. Peters, French Creek Mine. “Dark green augite generally is massive. Eyerman (1889) reported perfect crystals to 4.2 cm. Chamberlin (1887) described deep olive-green drusy crystals grouped into stalactitic forms. Augite is associated with hornblende and is a common accessory in the diabase.”1
1 Mineralogical Record, Vol. 25, 1994, p113.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Wed, 27 May 2009 19:44:24 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139446,139446#msg-139446 Augelite (4 replies) http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139446,139446#msg-139446
Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Augelite. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Augelite. It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Augelite that will go into the article.



Augelite
Al2[(OH)3|PO4] Monoclinic
Augelite, Ancash Department, Peru 1.8cm tall© Dan & Diana Weinrich Minerals


Augelite Display collections?
Al2(PO4)(OH)3
There are about six localities in the world that produce augelite and probably the best two of are the Canadian and California occurrences. The Canadian locality produced a much larger number of specimens and the crystals are generally much sharper.
Bolivia
Oruro, Socavon Mine. “It occurs here in colorless tabular crystals up to 5 mm and is occasionally associated with alunite.”1 I have never seen a good one.
1 Mineralogical Record, Vol. 6, 1975, p136-7.

Augelite
Canada
Yukon, Rapid Creek A & B. These greenish yellow crystals up to 2 cm are sometimes associated with deep blue lazulite crystals and other minerals which make for attractive specimens. Specimens will probably keep coming out of this locality for many years as long as young men have a sense of adventure, are willing to work like dogs all the while being eaten alive by hungry flies and mosquitoes. Of course when you dig into the canyon walls alongside the creek, you soon encounter ice and have to wait for the ice to melt or just hack it out with the vein material and then wait till the ice melts to see if your specimens are any good. Erosion will continually expose more of this material. Price? You can probably get a good one for less than $1000. Has one been sold for more? Probably.1
1 Mineralogical Record, Vol. 23, 1992.

Augelite
United States
California, Mono County, Laws, Champion Mine A & B. Being a long time California resident I naturally prefer the transparent white crystals from the Champion mine. At this long abandoned sillimanite mine, crystals of augelite were found in pyrophyllite up to about 3 cm. The crystals pictured below were in the collection of C.D. Woodhouse who was manager of the mine while it was running. Most of these transparent crystals did not survive because they were cut into faceted stones. Back in the middle of the 20th century collectors would not pay enough to keep them out of the hands of the cutters. “In the phosphate rock the augelite is anhedral and is recognized by its white color and prominent basal cleavage. Some of these crystals reach 10 cm, and commonly include smaller grains of rutile, trolleite, and topaz.”1 Value? I am sure that if the little clear crystal pictured here were available that someone would pay $2000 for it. Woodhouseite was named after C. D. Woodhouse. When I knew him, he lived in the exclusive Hope Ranch section of Santa Barbara and his fine collection was jammed up in a little glass display case on an enclosed porch at the back of the house. His wife would not tolerate specimens in the house. His collection was given to the University of California at Santa Barbara.
1 Mineralogical Record, Vol. 8, 1977, p480.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Wed, 27 May 2009 21:02:29 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139445,139445#msg-139445 Aubertite (no replies) http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139445,139445#msg-139445
Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Aubertite. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Aubertite. It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Aubertite that will go into the article.



Aubertite
CuAl[Cl|(SO4)2] · 14H2O Triclinic
Aubertite, Chuquicamata Mine, Calama, Antofagasta Region, Chile FOV 3mm© JEFS


*Aubertite Rare species collections.
(Ca,Sr)Mn2+(Al,Fe3+)4[(Si,P)O4]H(PO4)3(OH)4
Chile
Antofagasta Province, Quetena. “The mineral occurs as tufts and bundles of crystals up to 2 mm long. The mineral occurs as azure-blue crusts of corroded grains. …The mineral was collected in 1961 at Quetena …in the zone of oxidation, associated with copiapite, amarantite, parabutlerite, and hohmannite. The mineral is named for J. Aubert, assistant director, Inst. Natl. Geophysics, France, who collected the mineral. The type material is at the Univ. Pierre and Marie Curie and the Ecole Natl. Superieure des Mines, both in Paris.”1 The mineral is heavily hydrated and if you have a specimen of it you should keep it in a tightly sealed glass bottle.
1 American Mineralogist, Vol. 65, 1980 p. 205.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Wed, 27 May 2009 08:35:17 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139444,139444#msg-139444 Attakolite (no replies) http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139444,139444#msg-139444
Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Attakolite. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Attakolite. It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Attakolite that will go into the article.



Attakolite
(Ca,Sr)Mn(Al,Fe)4[(OH)4|(SiO4,PO4)|(HPO4,PO4)3] Monoclinic
Attakolite, Mt. Tamara Mine, Nuxis, Sardinia, Italy FOV ~3mm© luigi chiappino


Attakolite
Italy
Sardinia, Carbonia-Iglesias Province, Nuxis, Mt. Tamara Mine
We need someone to tell us about the Attakolite specimens from this mine



Attakolite Rare species collections.
(Ca,Sr)Mn2+(Al,Fe3+)4[(Si,P)O4]H(PO4)3(OH)4
Sweden
Västanå Mine. This mine is in the southernmost part of Sweden. The mineral is a pale red color and is massive and indistinctly crystalline. “”The abundant type material from Västanå …has been reexamined and the validity of the species fully confirmed. …Attakolite was named by C.W. Blomstrand in 1868.1 Attakolite has been found only at this one locality and is associated with berlinite, lazulite, apatite, svanbergite, pyrophyllite, hematite, calcite and quartz. The mineral is named from the Greek word for salmon because of its pale red color.
1 American Mineralogist, Vol. 51, 534 p.1966.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Wed, 27 May 2009 08:28:17 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139439,139439#msg-139439 Atokite (no replies) http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139439,139439#msg-139439
Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Atokite. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Atokite. It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Atokite that will go into the article.



Atokite
(Pd,Pt)3Sn Isometric
Atokite, Taimyr Cu-Ni deposit, Noril'sk, Eastern-Siberian Region, Russia©


*Atokite Rare species collections.
(Pd,Pt)3Sn
South Africa, Republic of
Bushveld Igneous Complex, Atok Platinum Mine. “Two small (~100 microns in diameter) grains from platinum mineral concentrates have been found to be two new minerals. One is rustenburgite and the other atokite. Because both minerals have such similar properties, they are discussed together in this abstract. …Zvyagintsevite…is the lead analog of atokite.1
1. American Mineralogist, Vol. 61, 1976 p. 340.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Wed, 27 May 2009 08:14:44 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139438,139438#msg-139438 Atlasovite (no replies) http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139438,139438#msg-139438
Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Atlasovite. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Atlasovite. It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Atlasovite that will go into the article.



Atlasovite
K(BiO)Cu6Fe3+[Cl|O3|(SO4)5] Tetragonal

There appear to be no pictures of Atlasovite available.

*!Atlasovite Rare species collections.
Cu62+Fe3+BiO4(SO4)5·KCl
Russia
Kamchatka, Great Clefted Talbachik Eruption. “Atlasovite occurs as tabular crystals showing the forms {001}, {110}, {012}, and {014}; the crystals may consist predominately of atlasovite, or atlasovite may occur as zones within nabokoite. Atlasovite is dark brown, transparent, with a vitreous luster and light brown streak. …The mineral is a sublimate from the Great Clefted Talbachik eruption. …A sample (as zones in nabokoite) is preserved in the Fersman Mineralogical Museum of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow.”1
1 American Mineralogist, Vol. 73, 1988 p. 924.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Wed, 27 May 2009 08:06:13 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139433,139433#msg-139433 Atheneite (no replies) http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139433,139433#msg-139433
Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Atheneite. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Atheneite. It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Atheneite that will go into the article.



Atheneite
(Pd,Hg)3As Hexagonal
Atheneite, Itabira, Minas Gerais, Brazil ~1.5mm© 2007, JGW


*Atheneite Rare species collection.
(Pd,Hg)3As
Brazil
Minas Gerais, Itabira. “The mineral was found as a few grains in residual concentrates from gold washings as Itabira, Brazil. Intergrowths with arsenopalladinite occur, and hematite inclusions are present. …Electron probe analysis of two grains…In reflected light white, with a yellowish creamy hue…The type material is in the British Museum.”1
1. American Mineralogist, Vol. 59, p. 1330, 1974.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Wed, 27 May 2009 07:53:56 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139431,139431#msg-139431 Athabascaite (no replies) http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139431,139431#msg-139431
Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Athabascaite. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Athabascaite. It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Athabascaite that will go into the article.



Athabascaite
Cu5Se4 Orthorhombic
Athabascaite (small white patches) in pink Umangite in a polished section. Sierra de Umango, La Rioja, Argentina. FOV probably less than a cm© 2008, JGW


*Athabascaite Rare species collections.
Cu5Se4
Besides the type locality in Canada, the mineral is also found in the Czech Republic, France and Sweden 1. I don’t know if the crystal size from these other three localities is an improvement on the grain size of the Canadian material. Probably not and even if the grain size was twice as large, to most people it would make scant difference.
1. Handbook of Mineralogy, Volume I, Anthony, Bideaux, Bladh, Nichols, p33

Canada
Saskatchewan, Martin Lake. “…Occurs as inclusions and replacements of umangite and as stringers in carbonate vein material. The mineral is found as lath-shaped grains up to 100μ by 40μ. The mineral was named after Lake Athabasca in northern Saskatchewan and Alberta…The type material is deposited in the National Mineral Collection, Ottawa, and the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto.”1
1. American Mineralogist, Vol. 56, p. 632, 1971.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Wed, 27 May 2009 07:40:45 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139424,139424#msg-139424 Atelestite (8 replies) http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139424,139424#msg-139424
Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Atelestite. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Atelestite. It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Atelestite that will go into the article.




Atelestite
Bi8[O5(OH)5|(AsO4)3] Monoclinic

Atelestite, Schneeberg District, Erzgebirge, Saxony, Germany ~3cm tall©


Atelestite has been found at a number of localities world wide, almost always as micro crystals. I don't think any crystals have been found that exceed a cm. Mindat lists 35 localities (2009), many of them in Germany and most crystals do not exceed a mm or two.


Atelestite
Germany
Baden-Württemberg, Black Forest, Freudenstadt, Dorothea Mine

Atelestite, FOV 5mm© Stephan Wolfsried



Atelestite
Germany
Baden-Württemberg, Black Forest, Schenkenzell, Wittichen, Gnade Gottes Mine

Atelestite, FOV 4mm© Stephan Wolfsried
Atelestite on Mixite, FOV1mm© Stephan Wolfsried

The Ganade Gotten Mine at Wittichen has also produced nice micromounts of rhagite (Atelestite). These are balls or sprays of needle-shaped xls. The color is a waxy greenish yellow to yellow. Typically the specimens have been collected from the dump near the Schmiedestollen Adit of the Gnade Gottes Mine. The associated minerals are usually quartz, mixite, bismuth and rarely walpurgite.
[Sebastian Möller 2009]


Atelestite
Germany
Saxony, Erzgebirge, Schneeberg District, Schneeberg

Atelestite ~3cm tall©


The specimen above is in the British Museum, but undoubtedly there are better ones in Germany. It is however the best one I have seen. It is from Schneeberg. You can even see the little yellow tufts of prismatic crystals growing on what may be bismuth. About 2 mm is about as good as it gets. What is it worth? I have never seen a good one for sale and I would pay several hundred dollars for it, but I am a cheapskate and some other younger collector with fire in his belly would certainly a lot more for it. However It is not likely that the British Museum of Natural History would be interested in letting it go. Upon reflection however, perhaps the curator might like a night or two on the town with a couple of gorgeous young ladies and no one would ever notice the absence of this specimen. What do you think? The type material is fro the Neuhilfe Mine, Schneeberg (Breithaupt (1832)). Atelestite usually forms green or yellow waxy balls (in Germany formerly called Rhagite) or small (under one mm) sharp xls, usually colorless or light green/yellow.
[Rock Currier & Sebastian Möller 2009]



Atelestite
Greece
Attikí (Attica; Attika) Prefecture, Lavrion District Mines, Lavrion (Laurion; Laurium) District, Agios Konstantinos [St Constantine] (Kamariza), Kamariza Mines, Hilarion Mine (Hilarion adit; Kamariza Mine No. 50)

Atelestite (tiny pale yellow xls on Mixite, FOV 2.5mm© Elmar Lackner


Good Atelestite xls, by worldwide standards, have also been found in the Lavrion distr., Attica, Greece. In the lower level of the Hilarion Mine, a Bi-association was discovered in the late 90's, where Atelestite occurs as nice lemon-yellow (sometimes light greenish-yellow) free-standing thin prismatic or spear-shaped xls to about 2mm, often in parallel groups, in a very beautiful direct association with blue-green Mixite tufts (which also represent some of the best of the species wordwide) and small xls of emerald-green transparent Cuproadamite. Matrix is typically a friable earthy vuggy yellow-brown limonite with milky crudely crystalline to granular Quartz.
[Lefteris Rantos 2009]


Atelestite
United States
Utah, Tooele County, Deep Creek Mts, Gold Hill District (Clifton District), Gold Hill, Gold Hill Mine (Western Utah Mine)

Atelestite FOV 1mm© Brent Thorne


The mine has produced micro crystals of Atelestite.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:53:22 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139421,139421#msg-139421 Astrophyllite (no replies) http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139421,139421#msg-139421
Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Astrophyllite. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Astrophyllite. It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Astrophyllite that will go into the article.



Astrophyllite
(K,Na)3(Fe,Mn)7Ti2Si8O24(O,OH)7 Triclinic
A 1.8cm xl. of Astrophyllite on Albite, Poudrette quarry, Mont Saint-Hilaire, Québec, Canada


Astrophyllite Display collections?
(K,Na)3(Fe2+,Mn)7Ti2Si8O24(O,OH)7
There are a number of localities for this mineral and some produce lustrous brown crystal sprays in rock, often stellate, up to about 15 cm. There are many localities but few with free standing crystals. The free standing crystals are almost always rather rough. Found mainly in nepheline syenites, alkali granites, and their pegmatites but other occurrences as well.

Astrophyllite
Canada
Quebec, St. Hilaire A & B & C. The best crystals are probably found at St. Hilaire up to at least five cm in length. The crystals are somewhat prismatic lath-like or acicular and usually not very sharp or lustrous. They will be most appreciated by those collectors who have a thing for good crystals of minerals that rarely occur in good crystals. Fairly well formed crystals grow to be at least 5 cm long. These are not common. “Astrophyllite… is one of the more common and conspicuous minerals found at Mont St-Hilaire. It is found as well-formed, sharp, tabular to bladed crystals to several centimeters in length, as well as bladed and acicular microcrystals in pegmatite veins and pipes. It is also found very widely disseminated as flakes and bladed crystals or radiating crystalline masses embedded in nepheline syenite, in close proximity to various pegmatitic structures, and rarely in hornfels, marble xenoliths and miarolitic cavities. The color of astrophyllite is medium to dark brown, reddish bronze or brownish red. Some very small crystals are transparent to translucent while the large crystals and the embedded crystalline masses are opaque. The mineral is micaceous, with a greasy to pearly luster. Astrophyllite is practically identical in color and habit to kupletskite, with which it may be intimately associated; consequently, visual identification is unreliable.”1
1 Mineralogical Record, Vol. 21, 1990, p297-8.

Astrophyllite
Norway
Langesundfjord. I have also thrown in one picture of a specimen from Norway for a little perspective. The specimen pictured here is in the British Museum of Natural History and the brown crystal is about 3 cm in diameter. Certainly the museum in Copenhagen, Denmark has better ones. I don’t think they get as good as the ones from St. Hilaire.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Wed, 27 May 2009 06:58:03 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139420,139420#msg-139420 Astrocyanite-(Ce) (9 replies) http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139420,139420#msg-139420
Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Astrocyanite-(Ce). This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Astrocyanite-(Ce). It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Astrocyanite-(Ce)that will go into the article.


Astrocyanite-(Ce)
Cu2(Ce,Nd,La)2(UO2)[(OH)2|(CO3)5] · 1.5H2O Hexagonal
Astrocyanite-(Ce), Kamoto East, Kolwezi, Katanga, DR Congo FOV 42mm© Paul De Bondt


Astrocyanite-(Ce) Micro and rare species collections.
Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaïre)
Katanga Copper Crescent, Katanga (Shaba), Western area, Kolwezi, Kamoto, Kamoto East Open cut
The specimen shown above is thought to be the best know specimen “Occurs as pale blue, bright blue, and blue-green delicate millimetric rosettes or tablets, platy {001}, translucent to opaque with an earthy luster, also as isolated, vitreous, tabular blue crystals. …The mineral was found as an oxidation product of uraninite in the East Kamoto Cu-Co deposit, southern Shaba, Zaire. Associated minerals are uranophane, kamotoite-(Y), françoisite-(Nd), shabaite-(Nd), schuilingite, and masuyite. The type material is in the Institut Royal des Sciences Naturales de Belgique, Brussels, Belgium.”1 On a more practical note “Pale blue radiating xls to 3 mm or so sparsely scattered on massive black uraninite, occasionally associated with kamotoite-(Y), shabaite, etc.. We’ve had a few specimens in the past several years, the best about 6x4 cm @ $275-. Only stuff on hand at the moment are small (6x8 mm reference samples @ $50-).2
1. American Mineralogist, Vol. 76, p. 665, 1991 – 2. Price list of Excalibur mineral company. Founded and run by the fabulous Tony Nickishire, paragon of virtue, the moral character and wisdom of Solomon and able to service 28 harlots in a single evening.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:56:34 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139414,139414#msg-139414 Asselbornite (no replies) http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139414,139414#msg-139414
Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Asselbornite. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Asselbornite. It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Asselbornite that will go into the article.



Asselbornite
Pb(UO2)4(BiO)3(AsO4)2(OH)7·4H2O Isometric
Asselbornite & Trögerite, Weißer Hirsch Mine, Neustädtel, Erzgebirge, Saxony, Germany FOV 3mm© Stephan Wolfsried


*Asselbornite Micro? or rare species collections
(Pb,Ba)(UO2)6(BiO)4(AsO4)2(OH)12·3H2O
Germany
Saxony, Schneeberg, Weisser Hirsch Mine, Walpurgis Vein. “It occurs as translucent brown to lemon yellow idiomorphic cubic crystals up to -.3 mm in size. …The mineral is found in association with metauranospinite, uranophane and uranosphaerite in quartz gangue from Schneeberg. The type material is preserved in the Department of Mineralogy of the Natural History Museum of Geneva.”1
1 American Mineralogist, Vol. 69, p. 565, 1984.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Wed, 27 May 2009 04:52:54 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139413,139413#msg-139413 Aspidolite (no replies) http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139413,139413#msg-139413
Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Aspidolite. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Aspidolite. It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Aspidolite that will go into the article.



Aspidolite
NaMg3[(OH)2|AlSi3O10] Monoclinic, Mica group

There apprea to be no images of Aspidolite available.

*!Aspidolite
NaMg3AlSi3O10(OH)2 Mica group
An old mineral. Described in Dana’s System, 5th edition from the Zillerthal. Aparently first described by Kobell in 1869.1 The mica subcommittee voted to resurrect aspidolite as a valid name in 1969 to describe this sodium phlogopite. The name is taken from the Greek “aspisidos” (like a schield) which refers to the shape of the crystals. There is very little information out there about just what this mineral looks like or how big the crystals get or what the best specimens of this mineral look like.
1 Kogell-Oebbeke. Franz von Kobell’s Tafeln zur Bestimmung der Mienralien, etc. 13 etition, Munich 1893
Austria
Tyrol, Zillerthal
As olive-green mica, brownish yellow in thin leaves with pearly, submetalic luster. Occurs in aggregates of prismatic crystals. Original description.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Wed, 27 May 2009 04:42:29 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139412,139412#msg-139412 Asisite (no replies) http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139412,139412#msg-139412
Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Asisite. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Asisite. It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Asisite that will go into the article.



Asisite
Pb7[O4|SiO4|Cl2] Tetragonal
Asisite, Kombat Mine, Kombat, Grootfontein District, Namibia 1.8cm wide© Arliguie M


Asisite Micro? and rare species collections.
Pb7SiO8Cl2
Namibia
Kombat Mine. “As part of our continuing investigation of the rare minerals found at the Kombat mine, we have studied a specimen composed predominantly of hematophanite, with numerous lead oxychlorides as associated minerals. One of these, a light greenish-yellow to yellow platy mineral was found to be a new species. Asisite forms yellow to greenish-yellow, 0.5-mm platy crystals having a light yellow to white streak, an adamantine luster, and a perfect {001} cleavage…In polished sections, asisite is seen to occur as euhedral to subhedral lathlike grains in colorless barite in the interstices of coarsely crystalline hematophanite…Less perfect grains are intergrown with other minerals and partially fill fractures and cavities in the hematophanite. Other minerals present in the barite matrix are jacobsite (containing inclusions of hematite and native copper), blades of molybdophyllite, and serrated laths of chlorite.”1
1 American Mineralogist, Vol.73, p.643-4]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Wed, 27 May 2009 04:35:07 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139410,139410#msg-139410 Ashoverite (no replies) http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139410,139410#msg-139410
Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Ashoverite. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Ashoverite. It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Ashoverite that will go into the article.



Ashoverite
Zn(OH)2 Tetragonal
~.7mm Ashoverite xls., Milltown Quarry, Milltown, Ashover, Derbyshire, England, UK © Steve Rust


*!Ashoverite Micro? and rare species collections.
Zn(OH)2
United Kingdom
Derbyshire, Milltown. “Specimens sent to the British Museum (Natural History), London, from the oxidized vein that contains sweetite [tetragonal Zn(OH)2] were examined further and were found to contain three additional polymorphs of Zn (OH)2, one of which constitutes the second occurrence of wülfingite. As well γ Zn(OH)2 is present as a white radiating acicular material…The last polymorph (ashoverite) occurs on colorless fluorite as groups of square plates about 0.5 mm across. The mineral is colorless and translucent, progressing to milky grain centers, dull to vitreous luster, white streak, fluoresces bluish white in short-wave ultraviolet light.”1
1 American Mineralogist, Vol. 75, p. 431, 1990.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Wed, 27 May 2009 04:23:46 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139371,139371#msg-139371 Ashcroftine-(Y) (no replies) http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139371,139371#msg-139371
Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Ashcroftine-(Y). This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Ashcroftine-(Y). It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Ashcroftine-(Y)that will go into the article.



Ashcroftine-(Y)
K5Na5(Y,Ca)12Si28O70(OH)2(CO3)8·8H2O Tetragonal
Ashcroftine-(Y), Poudrette quarry, Mont Saint-Hilaire, Rouville Co., Québec, Canada 4cm tall© Jonathan Z. Levinger


Aschroftine-(Y) Micro and rare species collections.
K5Na5(Y,Ca)12Si28O70(OH)2(CO3)8·8H2O
Canada
Quebec, Mt. St-Hilaire. “occurs as very fine, divergent sprays, tufts and small masses of randomly oriented capillary to fibrous crystals in a very small number of cavities in the breccia zones and in some miarolitic cavities in nepheline syenite. Individual crystals are very thin (0.01 mm across), 2-20 mm long, flexible, soft and commonly bent. The luster is silky and the color is very pale violet, pale pink and white. Associated minerals are microcline, albite, aegirine, quartz, bastnäsite, lorenzenite, brookite, elpidite, leucosphenite, cordylite and narsarsukite. The fine, acicular lorenzenite occurring in the breccia cavities bears a very close resemblance to aschroftine-(Y) and the two species are sometimes intimately intergrown, making reliable sight identification nearly impossible. Lorenzenite, however, is far more common than aschroftine-(Y) and fluoresces pale yellow under short wave ultraviolet radiation. Aschroftine is not fluorescent.”1
1 Mineralogical Record, Vol. 21, 1990, p296-7.

Aschroftine
Greenland
Narsarsuk. When Sam Gordon collected at Narsarsuk in 1923 he reported discovering specimens of kalithomsonite which was later found not to be a variety of thomsonite but rather a new mineral and it was given the name aschroftine. “The mineral is vinaceous-pink in color; probably due to the 0.85% MnO present. It occurred as a more or less incoherent mass of acicular crystals, rarely measuring more than 4 mm in length, and 0.25 mm in thickness, although usually much smaller.”1 At Narsarsuk it is associated with calcite, elpidite, albite, graphite etc.
1 Mineralogical Record, Vol. 5, 122, p122.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Tue, 26 May 2009 20:15:09 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139366,139366#msg-139366 Ashburtonite (no replies) http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139366,139366#msg-139366
Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Ashburtonite. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Ashburtonite. It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Ashburtonite that will go into the article.



Ashburtonite
Pb4Cu4[(OH)3|Cl|(HCO3)4|Si4O12] · H2O Tetragonal
Ashburtonite, Ashburton Downs, Pilbara Region, Australia ~4cm wide© Paul Bongaerts


*Ashburtonite Micro and rare species collections.
Pb4Cu42+Si4HO12(HCO3)4(OH)9Cl
Australia
Western Australia, Capricorn Range, Ashburton Downs, Anticline Prospect, Mineral Claim 84. The claim is located 11.2 kilometers west-southwest of the Ashburton Downs homestead. “It occurs as clusters of clear blue, prismatic crystals up to 0.4 mm long. Associated minerals include diaboleite, duftite, beudantite, caledonite, plattnerite, cerussite, malachite and brochantite. The mineral has a vitreous luster and light blue streak. …Ashburtonite occurs as very small crystals, distinctly blue with no greenish tint, up to 400 μm long and 30 μm wide clustered in aggregates up to 20 mm in diameter…The specimens used in the present description were collected by Blair Gartrell. …Gartrell had noted several rare species and a number of unusual minerals that he could not identify. His astute observations have now resulted in the description of two new mineral species: gartrellite… named in his honor, and ashburtonite, described in the present paper. …The Anticline prospect…has an assemblage of secondary minerals…probably derived from a primary sulfide assemblage.”1
1. American Mineralogist, Vol. 76, p. 1701-2]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Tue, 26 May 2009 19:48:56 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139362,139362#msg-139362 Aschamalmite (2 replies) http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,139362,139362#msg-139362
Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Aschamalmite. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Aschamalmite. It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Aschamalmite that will go into the article.



Aschamalmite
Pb6Bi2S9 Monoclinic
Aschamalmite on Quartz, Rio del Castello, Santa Maria Maggiore, Piedmont, Italy ~8mm© D: Preite



Aschamalmite
Italy
Piedmont, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola Province, Ossola Valley, Vigezzo Valley, Santa Maria Maggiore, Cedo Alp, Basso Valley, Rio del Castello


Aschamalmite Display collections?
Pb6Bi2S9
By far the largest crystals are from Austria but aschamalmite also is found at Granite Gap, Hidalgo County, New Mexico, USA.
Austria
Salzburg, Untersulzbach Valley, Ascham Alm. “The mineral occurs as lead-gray, lath-like crystals to 5 cm in length or thick, slightly bent plates up to 1 cm2. Most crystals are heavily altered to a mixture of bismutite and other as yet unidentified phases. Exsolution lamellae of galena and cosalite are commonly present. Luster metallic, cleavage (001) perfect… Aschamalmite is found in mineralized, alpine-cleft veins cutting through gneiss near Ascham Alm in the Untersulzbach Valley associated with quartz, albite, adularia, calcite, chlorite and galena.”1
1 American Mineralogist, Vol.69, p.810.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Wed, 27 May 2009 11:39:50 +0000