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PhotosMacquartite - Mammoth-Saint Anthony Mine, St. Anthony deposit, Tiger, Mammoth District, Pinal Co., Arizona, USA

19th Feb 2016 05:22 UTCStephan Wolfsried Expert

Macquartite, Quartz

Mammoth-Saint Anthony Mine, St. Anthony deposit, Tiger, Mammoth Mining District, Pinal County, Arizona, USA

Photo quality is terrific, and I cannot see any Macquartite.

Stephan

19th Feb 2016 13:34 UTCReiner Mielke Expert

I think I see quartz, maybe it was found in the parking lot of MacDonalds? :-D

19th Feb 2016 14:04 UTCRolf Luetcke Expert

I will try this again, seems my first attempt to answer here was blipped.

Reiner, not a parking lot find!

The piece was purchased from a prominent Arizona Tiger collector, Patrick Hendrick. The ID was made by Joe Ruiz to make sure it was macquartite.

The back of the piece I took photos of and posted which show the more typical broken quartz and macquartite inclusions. This is the front side of the specimen with the elongated macquartite inside of the quartz. The depth of the crystals make the image hard to get clearly but at the lower left are the more normal broken quartz showing the crystals.

The piece also has the "negative crystals" Joe Ruiz has talked to me about but since size is so small they are very hard to get with my 40 power potential.

I hope this satisfies the questions.

Rolf Luetcke

19th Feb 2016 15:14 UTCReiner Mielke Expert

Just joking Rolf. However you must admit it is difficult to see the macquartite and there are much better photos of the same thing already in the database http://www.mindat.org/photo-436580.html

But having said that I am sure not all specimens are as nice as that, so maybe we do need a more typical example like yours. I'm happy with it.

19th Feb 2016 15:50 UTCJeff Weissman Expert

Rolf - I can sort of see the macquartite as you describe - you may need to use backlight, highly diffuse light, side illumination, and/or a polarizer to get rid of the reflections from the quartz crystals.

19th Feb 2016 16:53 UTCRolf Luetcke Expert

Jeff,

I agree some backlighting would be nice but the only pocket with actual quartz crystals is in a hole and I did try about anything to get a better photo because it is hard to find the macquartite crystals actually inside a quartz crystal instead of in the massive quartz. Joe told me that if you see the specimens with the dioptase, and orange wulfenite to always turn the piece over and there is where the macquartite will be. Sure enough, a thumb size piece showed exactly that and it is the piece I took to show him. He also saw the "negative crystals" he had found but then he has 120 power and they were easily seen. My photo set up is not as nice as Joe's so I did what I could.

Reiner,

Knew you were pulling my leg and didn't bother me a bit. Pieces always look so much nicer when you view them under the microscope and then when you try and get a photo, never turns out as nice as you see it. The quartz inside the pocket make it even harder. Color is also a bit subdued because of the crystals being deep under the quartz.

Appreciate all the comments though.

Stephan,

Hope you are satisfied with the provenance of the piece, it does have a decent pedigree.

Rolf

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