Best Of California Minerals

Dave, Nice garnet hill find! Thanks for sharing.

Kelly, Glad your enjoying the thread.

Native Hydrocarbon, Mc Laughlin Mine, Napa Co., California. Measures 7.5 x 5 x 4 cm.


Hydrozincite, Argus Sterling Mine,China lake Naval Weapon Center, Inyo Co., California. Measures 9 x 8 x 4 cm.


Andalusite, White Mtn., Laws, Mono Co., California. Measures 9 x 6 x 4 cm.

Happy Thanksgiving Day to my fellow American collectors.

Amethyst, Kingston Mtn. San Bernadino Co., California. Measures 18 x 12 x 9 cm.


Actinolite, New Melones Spillway, Calaveras Co., California. Measures 9 x 7.5 x 3.5 cm.


Dolomite, Mc Laughlin Mine, Napa Co., California. Measures 9.5 x 7 x 4 cm.

David, I got to investigating your yellow fluorescent 'scheelite' specimen posted above and believe it's actually Powellite and quite rare from Garnet Hill making it and extra nice find.

One of the "Best of California" that resides in Australia.
Acquired from Tony Jones 1987.

Elbaite Himalaya Mine, California..





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/2011 09:20PM by Philip Perkins.

Palygorskite on Quartz And Dolomite, Carson Hill Mine, Calaveras Co., California. Measures9 x 6.5 x 6 cm. After hundreds of man hours of searching the entire mine workings only several crystal pockets on the lower benches were found to contain Palygorskite as a pocket filling.


Chlorite Included Quartz, New Melones Reservoir., Calaveras Co., California. Measures 15 x 8 x 8 cm. From a massive slope failure on the east side of the Reservoir in the early 1990's.


Chrysoprase, D'Agostini Winery, Amador Co., California. Largest specimen measures 9 x 5 x 3 cm.

Jay and everyone...

I am really enjoying the specimens on this thread. Especially those from unusual localities. Thanks for posting!

Here are some specimens from Crystal Hill, Deep Springs, Inyo County. They were collected in February, 2009.

Quartz, gemmy crystal, 5x2.5x2.5 cm


Quartz, flattened group, 8.5 cm long


Calcite cleavage, approx. 15 cm in longest dimension. This is a late-stage pocket filler with a crust of pocket oxides.


Cheers!

Steve

Wavellite on Smoky Quartz,Slate Mtn., El Dorado Co., California. Measures 11 x 7 x 7 cm. Collected back in the late 1970's this was removed from a basketball size pocket in solid quartz. The entire pocket of quartz crystals were coated with a thick incrustation of crystalline wavellite that had not adhered to The quartz. I judiciously removed the wavellite by hand to expose the smoky Quartz on this specimen.


Here's a piece from the same pocket as found. Measures 15 x 13 x 9 cm.


Wavellite on Quartz,Slate Mtn., El Dorado Co., California. Measures 7 x 5 x 3 cm. This wavellite specimen was from a small pocket that was not exposed to clay minerals like the previous two specimens were.

Pyrite in Phyllite, Carson Hill Mine, Calaveras Co., California. Measures 15 x 13 x 8 cm. Collected shortly after the mine closed. From what I hear the current property lessee has totally removed the phylliite bench where the pyrites were found in large free floating crystals.


Arsenopyrite in Quartz, Ireland Mine, Sierra Co., California. Measures 7 x 5 x 2.5 cm. The arsenopyrite at this mine carried gold values and was being stock piled for milling back when I visited the mine in the early 1990's.


Stibnite, Sulfur Bank Mine, Lake Co., California. Measures 8 x 4 x 3.5 cm. Collected in the 1970's.




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2011 06:36PM by Jay Buscio.

No one has posted photos of these notable California species. They occur elsewhere, but the best examples come from California.

Kelly, I am always surprised to run into someone who hails from the northeastern part of the state, Plumas County or elsewhere. Although I was born and spent most of my childhood in the Los Angeles area, I can say, without fear of contradiction, that I am one of the few people on Earth who has ever lived in Modoc County. Our mailing address was Lookout. I have met two people here in Evansville, Indiana who live (or have lived) in Lassen County--Susanville and Westwood. That's as close as I have ever come to anyone else from Modoc.

Enough of this jabber. Here are my specimens:


Hanksite occurs in large, well-formed crystals showing wonderful hexagonal symmetry. Most of the examples posted on mindat, including this one, were found at Searles Lake in San Bernardino County. It is 8.1 cm from top to bottom.


Thenardite occurs at several California locations that produce nice crystals groupings. This example is from Soda Lake in San Luis Obispo County. The overall specimen is 9.3 cm across; the crystal in the inset is the large one at the far right, viewed from a different angle.


Ulexite is another California celebrity evaporite. This marvelous example of silky nodular ulexite from U.S. Borax Mine in Kern County is 8.0 cm across.

Enjoy!

This one is a special case, so I am posting it separately from the evaporites (and Jay already posted a photo).

Metacinnabar is much more widespread in the world than the evaporites, but California has produced some of the best examples. My piece from the Mount Diablo Mine in Contra Costa County is notable for displaying a variety of well-formed isometric crystal forms. This photo shows a pyritohedron, and cubic and octahedral forms are present also. I have not run across previous published reports of pyritohedral crystals of metacinnabar. If anyone knows of any such reports, please let me know. Some of the pyritohedrons in my specimen are penetration twins that would be called iron crosses if occurring in pyrite (see example).


Single metacinnabar pyritohedron (pentagonal dodecahedron). The right-hand view shows marked pentagonal faces. The crystal is 0.9 mm across, left to right. A crystal dominated by cubic faces is at the upper left.


Penetration-twinned pyritohedrons of metacinnabar. These crystals are 0.7 cm across.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/2011 07:04PM by Norman King.

Albite with Actinolite from New Melones, Calaveras Co, California. Measures 8 x 7 x 4 cm.


Cinnabar, Gambonini Ranch, Butte Oil And Gas Co. Mine, Marin Co., California. Measures 7 x 6 x 2.5 cm. This is a solid vein of cinnabar with one face ground smooth from movement along a shear.


Calcite,Rattlesnake Bridge Prospect (Alabaster Cave; Rattlesnake Bar), El Dorado Co., California. Measures 7 x 4.5 x 4 cm.

Azurite,Lilyama Mine,Pilot Hill,El DordaoCo.,California. Measures 7 x 4 x 3 cm.


Lodestone, Iron Mtn. Mine, Shasta Co., California. Measures 18 x 17 x 10 cm. Lodestone was not that common at Iron Mtn. but could be found by looking for magnetite chucks with crumbs of magnetite clumping to them.


Chromite Vein, Pilliken Chrome Mine, El Dorado Co., California. Measures 19 x 12 x 7 cm.

Here is my contribution...Linarite, Quartz, Mottramite from the Chance Mine, Mono Co., California. The specimen is 11.9 cm in its longest dimension, and the largest linarite is a complex crystal group approximately 4 cm in length. This was the best specimen to come from the commercial mining effort completed in 2004 when I had the claim.

The mine is now done, as we hit the fault-bounded margins of mineralization.

Hey Jay,

Good thread...it's got me rooting around looking for something to post. Lyla

Bob, That's sure one killer Linarite you self collected! Thanks for sharing.

Lyla, I am glad your enjoying the thread.

Kammererite, Red Ledge Gold Mine, Nevada Co,, California. Measures 5 x 3.5 x 1.7 cm.


Kammererite,Pilliken Chrome Mine, El Dorado Co.,California. Measures 6.5 x 4.3 x 1 cm.. This is and unusually thick solid vein of Kammererite that was field collected back in the late 1970's.


Epidote,NewMelones Spillway,CalaverasCo.,California. Measures 11 7.5 x 2 cm.

Jay, Do you know which of the three localities at Pilot Hill the specimen is from, or is it from a locality not listed in our database?

Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.

Can you show me a picture of he bottom of the specimen. The gray/blue Boron mud is quite distinctive and different that anything found in Death Valley.

Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.

Rock, all the specimens from Pilot Hill that I have posted so far are from the Lilyama workings at the top of the hill.
You will have to ask andrew about the colemanite he posted.

Epidote, Magnetite, Quartz, Hematite, Lilyama Mine, Pilot hill, El Dorado Co., California. Measures 5 x 4 x 3.5 cm.


Pyrite in Calcite and Magnetite, Pioneer Extension, Pilot Hill, El Dorado Co., California. Measures 13 x 9 x 7 cm.


Chalcopyrite and Magnetite Pioneer Extension, Pilot Hill, El Dorado Co., California. Measures 7.5 x 6.5 x 5.5 cm.

Axinite, West Branch Feather River Canyon, Butte Co., California. Measures 4 x 3 x 3 cm.


Axinite, West Branch Feather River Canyon, Butte Co., California. Measures 3 x 3 x 2 cm.


Antigorite, Onion Valley, Plumas Co., California. Largest specimen measures 10 x 7 x 4 cm.