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PhotosQuartz - Bear Lake diggings, Monmouth Township, Haliburton Co., Ontario, Canada

25th Nov 2014 16:26 UTCMatt Courville

1st I'd like to apologize for the less-than-great photograph (to be fixed soon).

Is anone familiar with hyalite( Opal-AN) that could shed some light on the possibility of this being present in this mineral cluster. I had thought that this was simply quartz at first, since there is no hyalite/opal-an listed at this locality. I'm just hoping for some loose ideas

Thanks,

Matt

25th Nov 2014 20:11 UTCReiner Mielke Expert

If it is opal it should be softer than quartz, check the hardness.

26th Nov 2014 16:03 UTCRaymond McDougall

I've never seen or heard of hyalite from Bear Lake (have collected there since the early 1980s). However, there are certainly many Bear Lake occurrences of minerals exhibiting rounded or "melted" appearances. In particular, most of the crystallized quartz at Bear Lake has this kind of appearance, often pitifully so. (Sharp, distinct quartz crystals are very rare at Bear Lake.) The feldspar crystals, both the orthoclase and also the albite of the later Na phase, can also appear rounded and indistinct. And of course nothing gets more rounded and blob-like than some of the under-developed fluorapatite crystals at the locality. So although it would be hard to give you an ID from this photograph, you might keep any of these possible avenues open as you do your ID work on pale mineralized material with rounded appearance from Bear Lake.

26th Nov 2014 18:58 UTCMatt Courville

Thanks, the input is much appreciated. I will try a hardness test, and possibly purchase a short-wave UV light soon, to see if anything shows-up as well.

I believe it would help newer collectors to identify minerals better if people submitted more variety of photos on the locality sites; rather than 10-20 of the exact same type. I keep reading about fantastic minerals from different particular localites, then find that they have no references online.

Cheers,

Matt

26th Nov 2014 19:37 UTCReiner Mielke Expert

If you come across minerals with no references for Ontario let me know and I will find them for you.

26th Nov 2014 19:52 UTCMatt Courville

Thanks Reiner. A good example of what I was refering to would be:

-An apparent blue-colored corrundum sapphire found in the area of the York river which is supposed to be in the collection of the Canadian Nature Museum.

-Another would be the apparently very large Turner Island locale minerals

-as well as the poorly formed quartz at Bear Lake diggings from earlier in this post (rather than a multitude of Fluorapatites)...which I still enjoy

27th Nov 2014 00:43 UTCReiner Mielke Expert

This is the corundum occurrence http://www.mindat.org/gallery.php?loc=21191&min=1136 but it is now off limits to collecting and

this is the Turner island occurrence http://www.mindat.org/loc-7804.html Is there more you were wanting to know?

27th Nov 2014 17:27 UTCMatt Courville

Thanks for your help

30th Nov 2014 16:17 UTCMatt Courville

I've added better photos in the case that anyone might be interested in taking a look at this strange combination of minerals; especially what seems to be quartz based on its hardness.

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