radioactive mineral photos.. post them!!

Opps Boo Boo!

Cheers Mark.

We will never have all the answers, only more questions!



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/16/2010 12:03PM by Mark Willoughby.

Howdy All,

I've been asked to add one of these photos by a couple of people, so I took a couple of quick snaps and will update these later, when I finally get my collection and photographic set-up out of storage.

Anyway the first of these is a single cryrstal of Brannerite from Crockers Well, in South Australia,
the second is a small group of three Brannerite's from the same locality and
the third is one of my Metatorbernite's from No:7 workings, Mount Painter, South Australia.

The day at Crockers Well when I collected the Brannerite's we had a geiger counter placed over my bucket, needless to say, as these four were only a few of those I collected, the geiger counter went well off the scale!
These Brannerite crystals are VERY HOT!

enjoy!




Cheers Mark.

We will never have all the answers, only more questions!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/16/2010 12:36PM by Mark Willoughby.

I'll do that Rock, they are from Plumbago station, SA collected by John Chivers. I'll ask John for the story around the analysis and we can probably find a few more/better ones. These were just the ones he gave me, he would have kept a few nice ones himself. Give me a few days.

Ed

Well, I'm currently in Taos, NM, and my rads are about 700 miles away back home in Dallas, TX so I'm just going to post something from my gallery for now. This specimen isn't too hot (still wouldn't want to carry it around with me ;) ), but it's a pretty rare piece considering it's locality. Personally collected a few years back...

...a Gadolinite crystal section (black), Thorogummite (the dark-red alteration product on the Gadolinite segment), Behoite (tan-white powder), Quartz, and Microcline from the Petrick Pegmatite, Llano Co., TX, USA.

Hello All,
Now that winter has arrived to parts of the Colorado high-country, I FINALLY have time to sort through my finds from this past summer. I told Dean Allum (I have not forgotten about you Dean) that I would take a photo of the Aeschynite-(Y) specimen that I found at the Clora May mine, Chaffee County, Colorado this past July. It measures 8 1/2" wide, 9" tall, and on average 2" thick; it weighs 17 1/2 pounds and is VERY radioactive. I tried my best to remove the specimen from the wall of the mine intact, but no such luck; it came out in six pieces. There is still some minor Biotite and Quartz attached to the specimen. Enjoy.
Ralph Parkes

Ralph,
Thanks for posting this REE monster!
Be on the lookout for associated gadolinite and xenotime which Rudy has found.
6 pieces is a lot easier than the hundreds that Jim Hall, Tom Henderson and I were pulling out last spring. We had an assembly line going.

You might have a world's record there. I have forgotten what Jim's largest piece weighed.

Here is a link to a similar find 2 years ago:
[www.mindat.org]

Regards,
Dean Allum

Hi all,

Great stuff all.
Will swing this topic on again ............ with a KILLER.

[www.mindat.org]

Zenjoy.

Paul.

Impressive Kamotoite, Paul. I did not know such exceptional large and aesthetic specimens had been found. As for the REE-carbonat, an EDS could probably give you an idea about the ID. The Ca/Y-ratio often give a good clue to the ID.
Knut

Here they are some Portuguese torbernites


These xls from Bendada quarries are kept in water and not suffer any dehydration over the years


This nice specimen is from Assunção mine

Autunite from Portugal
[www.mindat.org]

Autunite - Bosco del Corvo, Longobucco, Camigliatello Silano, Sila, Cosenza Province, Calabria, Italy

31.6 mm group of Autunite crystals. Collection & Photo Matteo Chinellato



Autunite - Bosco del Corvo, Longobucco, Camigliatello Silano, Sila, Cosenza Province, Calabria, Italy

23.76 mm group of Autunite crystals in normaly light - left - and under UV large band light - right. Collection & Photo Matteo Chinellato



Autunite - Montefallonio Prospect, Peveragno, Cuneo Province, Piedmont, Italy

10.28 mm area with several Autunite crystal in normaly light - left - and under UV large band light - right. Collection & Photo Matteo Chinellato



Mindat Page

[www.mindat.org]


Attrezzatura e tecnica sono solo l'inizio. È il fotografo che conta più di tutto. (John Hedgecoe)

Here is one of my favorites that I collected. A 2x1.5cm cluster of Betafites with Zircon from the Silver Crater (basin property)


Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/2011 06:07PM by Andrew Johns.

David Aldridge Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ...a Gadolinite crystal section (black),
> Thorogummite (the dark-red alteration product on
> the Gadolinite segment), Behoite (tan-white
> powder), Quartz, and Microcline from the Petrick
> Pegmatite, Llano Co., TX, USA.

Dear David,
thorogummite never grow over gadolinite (not replace it) due to quite low Th content in the later. Reddish-brown products over gadolinite usually are represented by hydrated and oxidized metamict gadolinite glass and outer more light coloured zones often are
composed of REE carbonates - bastnasite, tengerite etc. In very rare cases in products of gadolinite alteration behoite was detected.

Thorogummite is rare enough and is alteration product of uraninite-thorianite series minerals.

Here is huge metamict crystal group of Euxenite-(Y) from Betafo, Madagascar. This specimen is pretty hot for Euxenite.
Dimensions: 4.2 x 3.8 x 2.5 cm

Torbernite from Assunção mine
A.Monteiro

Torbernite Assunção mine
A.Monteiro

Mr. Monteiro your Assunção minerals are spectacular, and I'm happy to have a few from you in my collection!

Here is a Norwegian "classic", not near any Congo material in quality, but... It's probably impossible to find any such samples at the locality anymore, since most of the quarry have been filled up with the dumps, and are getting hard to collect at :(

Zellerite from Howard Zeller's personal collection.

Hail

Here is a 3 cm Thorite from Kemp Prospect. Its my best small Thorite so far. It gives off about 8 µSv/hr.

Michal.

Here's a couple of pictures of a specimen of becquerelite with studtite from the Shinkolobwe Mine. Specimen dimensions are approximately 7 x 5 x 2cm and the matrix is comprised almost entirely of uraninite. The becquerelite crystals reach up to 4mm long and are very richly scattered over the front face of the specimen.

Alan