Prettiest Mine Dump Contest

Well, almost untouched, Alfredo. Lol

The picture shows the so called „Keltenhalde“ located in the ancient mining district Schwarzleo near Leogang/Saalfelden in Austria. The dump looks not spectacular but it is. The dump is about 3000 years old and heaped up by the ancient celtic tribes during the mining of copper ore. The 3000 years were time enough to create some interesting secondary minerals as Strashimirite, Hörnesite, Parnauite etc. etc.


Uwe Ludwig

Botallack/ St Just area cliff area mine dumps.

I have hundreds of photos of "prettiest" mine dumps.

I think prettiest should include the mine bunker.

If that could be a criterion, I vote for the Skylark Mine at Bayhorse, Idaho.

But if it's just a mine dump, how about this one of one of the Miner's Ridge Prospects with Glacier Peak in Snohomish County, Washington in the backround.

The Miner's Ridge situation helped create the Wilderness Act here in the States.

In the foreground is a portion of the mine dump which is composed mostly of chalcoalumite.

Bart

Silver Islet all the way! Within an hour of this photo I had caught 3 nice lake trout. The loons were diving under my canoe. This was just one of those memorable days.

This is from Crystal Peak Mine near Verdi Nevada, about two weeks ago. That is a giant pile of quartz right there. Found my biggest crystal ever there that day, and my first smoky! Very exciting!

Corie

Even I can figure out this one. You need to sink your shaft at the end of the ski lift. That was one smart miner!

Here is the view from the mine dump from the Colonial Mine, south of Cobalt, Ontario.

Nice place to be thats for sure.

Michael.

@Corie: I tried digging at that Verdi site a couple summers ago. It is a nice quartz pile, but it is almost entirely massive and non-crystalline; I spent an afternoon there and got thouroughly skunked as far as finding any nice crystals (other than a couple of very small broken points). I found a couple pieces of massive quartz coated with some kind of green copper mineral coating, but they werent really that interesting, although it was the best thing I took home from there. Sounds like you had much better luck than I did (but that's a lot of what this hobby is about though, right?) I'll have to try that spot again!

Matt,
when I got there I thought the exact same thing, and there is TONS of bullquartz! I can't figure out the green/blue dust-stuff either, but if you dig down at least 3 feet, you'll start to find some crystals and bigger points. Here is a quick photo of the big 3 I found.
The smoky is in front, and the one in the back left is 4.5" across. I found that one under a tree I was parked next to!

I'll go again, but next time I go in summer!! Feel free to send me a PM if you want company!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/14/2012 02:25AM by Corie Mattar.

Ask and you shall receive. Here you go Martin. A picture looking out from Harvard Quarry, Greenwood,Maine.

Chad Cramer

Gail, your Tucson pictures were great, as usual. I enjoy seeing the people as much as the minerals and seeing the photo of Nick Theis inspired me to review some slides of Tuckerville. I have posted a different shot of this dump previously. It is a very pretty place.



This is the main dump at the Tucker's Tunnel prospect, Tuckerville area, Hinsdale County, Colorado. This and waste in an area just below and to the right in this photograph were the source of many interesting mostly micro minerals that contained a variety of elements including copper, lead, zinc, silver, arsenic, cobalt and uranium. This is the type locality for theisite. Some of the well mineralized boulders when cut and lacquered showed a very colorful angular breccia that was, unfortunately, highly radioactive.



And, while you are collecting great micros from the Tucker's Tunnel dumps, you can stay at the local "0 star" hotel.

Cheers!

Steve

Okay, this might not be THE prettiest, but it's hard to beat... This is the White Knob Empire mine in MacKay, Idaho. The wrecked out building in the foreground was originally the terminal for a tramway that ran from the town of MacKay (in the valley below) up to the mine, which sits at around 8000 feet in elevation. This was taken during Memorial Day weekend (late May) but at this elevation you can see there is still plenty of snow that time of year. I think it had snowed just the day before. Across the valley is the Lost River Range, which is the tallest mountain range in the entire state; many of those peaks are over 12000 feet.

Rock hunting here is kind of marginal, you can find lots of low-grade copper minerals, plenty of chrysacolla/malachite staining for example, but nothing really superbly spectacular. It's mostly just a neat place to explore and hike around. There IS some good banded agate to be found in the Lost River Range though, and I have heard (unsubstantiated) rumors of good to excellent barite crystals being found up there as well.

In response to Martin's request here are two pictures taken at the Harvard Quarry, Greenwood, Maine, in 2009 while on a Boston Mineral Club fieldtrip. The first is the view southward from the top of the hill/dump, the second looking down over the steep hillside dump. The view alone is worth the climb, As for the dump, I find it is most attractive up close when the collecting is going well

The prince of Wales slate Quarry, Trebarwith, Cornwall, UK




Got to get a look in for the UK

Amanda

Cornwall is indeed, from my point of view of course, the place where one can find the prettiest dumps.
Some American views shown here are breathraking also.

Here's the place I prefer, in Cornwall of course.
This is Botallack and mine dumps are really everywhere. In front is a part of the Wheal Edward dump.



I wish I was there right now.

Take care and best regards.

Paul.

Looks lovely Paul, at least you had a sunny day! We are moving to St Cleer soon - looking forward to it!

Amanda

Hi Amanda,

Then you will be close to Caradon hill. Also one of my favourite places.



The Phoenix mine seen from the Cheesewring quarry.
We had a rainy day in the morning and sunshine in the late afternoon.
Between it, some dramatic clouds en rainbows by yhe dozen.

Take care and best regards.

Paul.

I visited two quite beautiful mine sites this past week; the Kelly Mine near Magdalena, New Mexico and the Harding Pegmatite near Dixon, New Mexico as part of a field geology trip I led. I hope to get some photos posted soon...

I have to confess that this is probably not the prettiest mine dump you will see on this thread, but it is in a pretty area and it is worth adding to the data base as it is an important mineral locality in Colorado. Clyde Long property, about 6 miles south of Silverton in the Animas River canyon, San Juan County, Colorado. 1975.



This property has an interesting variety of primary and secondary minerals containing Co, U, Ni, As, Mo, Cu, Ag and others in Precambrian rocks. Ore specimens were fairly accessible in 1975 but no crystals of significant size were found. The property, about 6 miles south of Silverton in the Animas River canyon, was best reached by taking the Durango-Silverton train and dropping off at a bridge about a half mile from the prospect. One could flag down the train as it made a return trip on following days.

Cheers!

Steve