Who's Going Rockhounding This Weekend ?

Yes, the feldspar does have a deep red fluorescense. I think there is/are some uncommon mineral(s) in the Pikes peak area that have a blue fluorescense, but I don't remember their name(s). Dean probably knows.

James Pool,
Sorry I didn't see your post until now. I am glad you had your UV lamps along. What do you think about the gnats in the Eureka Tunnel?

My best guess for the material embedded in quartz is fluorite. It gets mixed in with the microcline. Plus there is a lot of yellowish-green sericite mica in the tunnel. Check your specimens for deep orange patches, as these may be weberite.

This is an extremely fluorine-rich environment. On your previous trip, you were within 300 Meters of the cryolite mine.

After a hard day of digging, that skree slope is a bugger! I hope that you also got a look at the hillside made of fluorite which is 1/2 mile down the side road near the parking lot. This fluorite is thermoluminescent.
Regards,
Dean Allum

Hi Dean,

Oddly enough there were really no gnats to speak of inside the tunnel just some dripping water from the ceiling close to the entrance. I did see the fluorite in the tunnel but that was purple in regular light while my blue SW UV light specimen I can't see any purple under the surface. I will split the specimen with my Zuber to see if anything shows up. I did find some whitish clay material on some of the specimens when I washed them when I got home. I'm guessing it is some sort of soluble halide that turned into a soggy mess when it got dunked into the water.

I found one interesting unknown that I will post to the ID forum once I get a decent shot of it. On the surface it looks like white quartz but on closer inspection it seems to show the crystal form of garnet with dull faces. It is associated with zircon on a small patch of dark matrix. It might just be an oddly rehealed quartz crystal as the back face does show some evidence of rehealing but not quite like any quartz rehealing I've seen.

On our prior trip we did go down the side road where the fluorite hillside is and walked a short distance past that to another very short tunnel just beyond where the road suddenly stops in a big washout. We walked down the slope from that tunnel and found the forementioned caved in mine shaft with only the timbers showing and a possible mine dump below that. Do you know anything about that shaft?

For some reason when I try to link my mine shaft photos using the image url link it comes up with a resizing error even though I am using the mindat url. So I'll just attach the photos instead. The mindat photos can be found under location photos for St Peters Dome district. For some reason they are not listed on the Eureka Tunnel page even though it was posted with that location.

I'll be haunting Shepard's localities in Amity and Warwick, New York. Have a place to stay on Friday and Saturday nights, but my ride isn't going back my way until Wednesday morning.

Best Wishes, Van King

Well this was my score this weekend; nothing too spectacular but at least I didn't get TOTALLY skunked either. This is a nice little terminated schorl crystal, but it is neither the biggest nor the best one of these I have found up there (it is in the mountains between Ola and High Valley, Idaho, about 60 miles north of Boise.)

I've been up here about 3 or 4 times and I am always hoping to uncover one of those elusive sceptered quartz crystals or greenish blue aquamarine that supposably have been found up in this area, but as I understand it, finding either of those up here would is a needle-in-haystack, hit the jackpot type of experience. Maybe next time.

This little crystal would make a nice necklace for someone special; or maybe I can advertise it as "Terebinthian Ultraviolet Wyvern Quartz" (even though it's not really quartz, dont suppose that really matters?) and sell it for big bucks somewhere.

Went silver pick collecting this weekend. Among other things, scored a collection of over 100 Bisbee specimens.

Some more pics from the 1st trip of the year ....

More Serpentine from the Cornwalls area ....

White unknown from the Cornwalls Furnace area

Close up of Chrysocola ?????? from Cornwalls

Chrysocola ?????? from Cornwalls



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/15/2012 06:38PM by Tom Bennett.

I would go out this weekend, but I doubt the Houston Museum of Natural Science would appreciate me mining their cabinets for minerals.....

Being retired, I can pretty much go Indiana geode hunting anytime the weather is good or I have nothing else that is more pressing (rarely anything REALLY more pressing!!!!) than geode hunting. So off I went to a favorite location. Didn't find anything to keep; just several ordinary quartz geodes for the kids tables or to wholesale. But, as I had to walk thru some wooded and overgrown areas, many ticks found me. THIS IS TICK SEASON IN MIDWEST USA SO USE BUG SPRAY AND CHECK YOURSELVES CAREFULLY UPON RETURN AND FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS. Also leave all clothes outside the house and wash them in hot water asap. A word to the wise should suffice. CHEERS...........BOB

Going to a fossil/ Quartz location in Portmouth, RI, USA.
Site has numerous fossils ferns as well as calamites fossils located in shale along the shoreline. This location requires that the tide is down due to the fact that the ledge is right against the bay. The quartz occurs as both loose double terminated and parrallel twined crystals as well as massive with small pockets containing multiple crystals. The larget I have personally collected here was 2x3.5 (inches) and water clear. The Quartz occurs as intrusion veins into the shale and when it widens out pockets occur. Some are filled with clay or Chlorite clay and contain free floating crytals of unusual habits. I have seen some that looked like they were small fish in crystal. Most are small 1 inch or less.
The fossisl tend to be located in a very greasy shale and as a result you look like you were working on your old car by the time you are done. On the up-side you also find clams as you dig down toward the water. Note that they are not fossilized so bring some lemons, hot sauce and a knife to propeerly prepare them.
Want to go contact the RI Mineral Hunters on there website, we are having a membership drive and would love to have you as a guest!

Tom,
Just love Cornwall materials, a facinating deposit, mine and history!
I like the serpentine sample you found, most folks don't make much note of this deposits serpentinized zones, but I find them kinda fascinating.

I wouldn't hazard a guess on the white coating, but for the copper secondary, start off by checking to see it's reaction to simple white vinegar.
If there's no reaction it may be a silicate (chrysocolla), if it bubbles a bit, possibly an admix aragonite/malachite (carbonate).

Always nice to find a little color on those old dumps!


MRH

I'm going to the Seattle Mineral Market this Weekend (May 19)

Mark Heintzelman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Tom,
> Just love Cornwall materials, a facinating
> deposit, mine and history!
> I like the serpentine sample you found, most folks
> don't make much note of this deposits
> serpentinized zones, but I find them kinda
> fascinating.
>
> I wouldn't hazard a guess on the white coating,
> but for the copper secondary, start off by
> checking to see it's reaction to simple white
> vinegar.
> If there's no reaction it may be a silicate
> (chrysocolla), if it bubbles a bit, possibly an
> admix aragonite/malachite (carbonate).
>
> Always nice to find a little color on those old
> dumps!
>
>
> MRH

MRH
As for the Serpentine .... I have been to Cornwalls a half dozen times and never saw any before ....
Probably because I wasnt ' looking ' for it .... this last trip , though was different .... I noticed it for one thing !
Gonna see if my buddy can do me a cab from it ....
The Unknown White stuff - well I hope it aint bird poo !
Thanks for that tip about the Vinegar - I cant wait to try it out
Thanks
- Tom

Jessica and Robert Simonoff Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> National Limestone Quarry this weekend for
> calcite, strontianite, wavellite, and more. The
> quarry was recently sold and rumor has it that
> next month it will be closed to collectors
> forever.
>
> Bob

Hey Bob
How did that go ?
I wish I was a member of your club - that site looks like it loaded ....
I thought I might try to weasel my way in as it is not that far from me ....
Find anything good ?
Any pics ?

I'm with Rob -see you in Seattle!!

We are going to the National Limestone Quarry on June 2 with the North Jersey Mineralogical Society. I have been told that we will be the last club to collect there, ever! I too would be interested in how Jessica & Robert did on their trip. Hopefully you found some good wavellite. We came home with a trunk full of nice calcite crystals last year but very little decent wavellite. Gary

Last weekend of May is opening weekend for the Rock Candy Mine. Hopefully won't have to cut dozens of trees off our road as has been necessary previous years. And maybe Mom Nature will have given us a gift vug behind frost-split rock as the snow melts in the pit.

Bob

Would love to head up to my claim near Crystal Peak in Colorado this weekend, but I am 1200 miles away in TN.

I'll go for you Bob ;) Actually I will see if the 3rd time is a charm to get to mine. Car died just as I got to the parking lot last time, so I worked on getting home to fix it instead of digging.

Finally able to get out this weekend with nice weather to boot.
Looking up to where we are working.

Linda's largest double terminated quartz of the day

Group shot. Park Border Claim, Colorado