The Best from Down Under

Harjo, I have just seen the most incredibly beautiful micromount (well, a big micromount, almost a thumbnail) of pyrrhotite I've ever seen, and it was from Holland :))

Gentlemen,
Please note that the name of this thread is “The Best from Down Under”, not the “The Best from the World”.
Samuel- If you want others to find your pictures you should upload your photos to the gallery as opposed to just posting in the forum. The Chinese do have fabulous stuff coming out and you may well believe that there is not much of value in Australia, but there are many of us who collect minerals because we love them, not just because they may be an investment or have any value other than our sentiment. Also there are many of us that do not have space for huge cabinet pieces so we collect thumbnails or miniatures.

I don’t pretend to have the biggest or best of anything. Mindat is great for sharing of the ordinary as well as spectacular minerals. There is room for us all here. Thank you Mindat.

Here are some pics I had handy of 2 Australian pieces that I really enjoy and want to share. They are obviously not what would be considered world class but I appreciate them just the same. Cheers to Australia.

I have given this piggy back smoky a caption, "He ain't heavy, he's my brother".

Smoky Quartz, from Mooralla, Victoria. 3cm x 2cm



Chabasite var Phacolite, from Gads Hill, Tasmania. 4cm x 3.5cm







Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/2011 04:20PM by Stephanie Martin.

I said Holland Alfredo, not Limburg ))

Stephanie, no worries, we'll only hijack the topic for a minute...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/03/2011 07:30PM by Harjo Neutkens.

Harjo, no problemmo, just want to keep things civilized and on topic :)

SAMUEL FAIRFIELD Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Good Evening all:
>
> Well I have rattled the boys from Oz. First of all
> are you educated gentlemen? Do you read about the
> world at large and not just what is happening
> beneath Capricorn?
>

I dont want to drag this out too much but ...

Samuel
erm Im from England, I have an Honours degree and stuff and I have lived in countries other than where I was born so hopefully this will allow you to qualify what I am about to say with some relevance,
There are many things you say I would love to take issue with but there isnt really any point, itd be like a bird trying to teach a fish to fly however Id be quite intrigued to know what your criteria is for a good mineral specimen? Personally some of my favourite specimens cant be appreciated without a lense and the bulk of my collection is thumbnails. Does this (In your eyes) make me a collector of inconsequential pebbles? I really think you should go out and collect some local specimens from around where you live, some scruffy dinged up fluorite that it took you an hour to extract with a lump hammer that you busted your finger with, or some Cerussite on decomposing Galena which the matrix is so hard you cant trim it without destroying the Cerussite 2 cms of Cerussite on 10 cms of ugly matrix.
I think its safe to say most mindaters field collect a lot of their specimens, anyone can go out and buy stuff, it doesnt mean anything, its just a purchase. Collecting, trimming, cleaning and displaying things you went out and collected is (in my opinion) the point of collecting. Though if something takes my fancy I will buy it.
and a big thanks to Australia for the Mt Gunson Atacamites with the tiny pink Calcite and Galena associations, and the Scholzites and the Natrolites and the Iron Knob Haematite roses and the opals and the Gold on Quartz pieces and the ........................

db

p.s. Does China produce Atacamite's to the quality of My Gunson pieces or Scholzites like you get from Reaphook?

Well done Alfredo

NIce Pun Peter

Cheers

Samuel, this is becoming a bit silly. Why talk about where the best mineral specimens in the world come from these days in a topic that is about the best ones from a specific locality?
You just have to use the right parameters.
So, if you like, your discussion can be merrily continued if you open a topic called The best of the world.

Cheers,

Harjo

Some religious people claim to own the truth, other do the same, and therefore they kill each other - truth is not that easy, and as a scientist you should know, Samuel!

Excuse me for being so direct, but you seems not to being open minded for different points of view. As have been said before - your way of collecting is not the only one.

Samuel I doubt that you have ever driven up the length of the Great Dividing Range, what world class minerals still lie undiscovered in those mountain rangers? if we had a population of over a billion people trying to make a living & thousands crawling over that country in search for minerals, do you not think world class minerals wouldn't be found?
I know of two abandoned Stibnite Mines, one of which an attempt was made about 20 years ago to reopen it, i know a guy who paid a contractor to put a drive in it & nice Stibnite specimens were collected & i have one of those specimens, but i think the deposit wasn't large enough to be economicly viable compared to China, at another locality twinned Quartz & at another spot an unworked Wolfram deposit but at the moment don't have time to give attention to these.

Like Rock Currier stated about our export of iron ore to China by the millions of tonnes, how many world class Hematites have been crushed?
Stephanie made a good point about this thread being The Best from Down Under & i add lets not make this a battle ground & a waist of space in this topic,
also think about the high rate of pay in this country compared to that of China, i once spoke to the Mine Manager at the Red Dome Mine & he told me of the World Class Cuprites & Chalcocites in the pit, i asked why they weren't being preserved & the answer, "our machines cost a thousand dollars per hour to run".

But you didnt answer any of my questions samuel, merely told us that you are right and you have some kind of superior knowledge because you buy stuff from people cheaper than you seem to think the rest of us can get it, as regards your "Only trying to open the eyes of you ignorant mortals" line, well thanks for that, Ill sell my Australian specimens straight away and go and buy lots of Chinese ones.

8-)

Well, Samuel have proven his not the best one from Down Under, I hope he will start his own topic and leave this one for all of us that still enjoy australias many wonderful minerals...

"This hobby in the words of a good American friend of mine is about aesthetics. Scientists examine minerals to extract knowledge, mining companies extract minerals to make a profit, but looks is the driving force behind the mineral collecting hobby. Those that disagree are only fibbing to themselves." I am a species collector so sorry for being so blunt but it isn't just about aesthetics. " the geology in Australia just does not support the formation of ore bodies that host the type of material that occurs in Bulgaria, Peru, Bolivia, China, UK and America" Really! what type of material might that be?

I suggest you check mindat, it lists most of the minerals ( and deposits) you mentioned as occurring in Australia. However mindat does not have all the localities in Australia listed yet but we are working to that end. On the other hand there are many minerals found only in Australia, for example Decrespignyite-(Y).

Australia contains many world class mineral deposits about that there is no argument. Collector quality is a relative term, as far as I am concerned to me you are not a collector of minerals but a collector of pretty things that just happen to be minerals.

Diamonds from Australia
Diamonds from China

The pink Oz diamonds are the best in the world Sam

Sam,

I have no self- collected or bought specimens of crystalline red diamond from Western Australia's Argyle lamproite pipe. I collect every weekend, but only from the dumps and within the mines of the Northern Pennines, UK. No diamonds here unfortunately.

I was trying to point out that in saying "apart from the Crocoites there is nothing of any real worth coming out of the country" (July 03, 2011 05:29AM), you may have overlooked diamond. Sorry if you thought I was inferring that I owned any of the specimens in the MinDat diamond photo galleries.

Samuel you give me the impression your still in school, am i right? studying Rocks & Minerals in science & your trying to make yourself look big, whose minerals are you posting, your science teachers? please get off mindat or wake up to yourself!

SAMUEL FAIRFIELD Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Bruno, let’s call a spade a spade. This hobby in
> the words of a good American friend of mine is
> about aesthetics. Scientists examine minerals to
> extract knowledge, mining companies extract
> minerals to make a profit, but looks is the
> driving force behind the mineral collecting hobby.
> Those that disagree are only fibbing to
> themselves. Sorry for being so blunt but someone
> had to say it.

Well Fairfield appearance is the gateway through which most collectors pass when they enter the hobby but many of us soon get over it and begin to find other reasons to collect, have you heard of "Systematic" collecting? or some people even collect Rare Earth Elements which by and large are ugly little chunks of rock, but those that collect them are every bit as passionate about them as the collectors of eye candy. there are lots of reasons to collect and none of them are "Better" than the others, they are all just different.
Im enjoying your pics of Aussie ore minerals though, they look much more interesting than all that Chinese eye candy. Its kind of wierd to see you set yourself up as the holder of some kind of truth to which you feel the rest of us must adhere, the whole "somebody has to put you buffoons straight" approach is, in the context of the people who use this website, fairly ridiculous.

Samuel i have visited mindat[for 2 years, everyone is so pleasant on this site, never have i known such an arrogant person as you, your just so haughty, if you want to stay on this site would you PLEASE learn some manners,don't go out in the wind buddy as your tickets will blow away!
Please b]don't disturb the peace with your excessively proud manner Samuel, even your name sounds fake, but if you come down off your high horse we may forgive you.