Favorite Self-Collected Specimens

Another specimen from one of my favorite places.

Clear, sharp fluorite crystals to 1.5 cm. in matrix voids between intergrown baryte crystals. Overall size of specimen: 12x7x6 cm. Collected in (about) 2000.


Boulder Hill mine, Wellington, Douglas County, Nevada

Cheers!

Steve



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2012 05:22AM by Stephen Rose.

I have posted this on another thread a while back but thought that it would go along with these two site photos. This is probably tantalite as columbite is not reported from this locality, but I call it tantalite-columbite as there is no formal id on it. Tantalite-columbite crystal on montebrasite (?), Tin Mountain Mine, Fourmile, Custer District, Custer, South Dakota. Chipped from a large boulder along with two other specimens of similar size in 1968.


Overall size: 13x9x9 cm. Main crystal: 5.5x5x2.5 cm.

Tin Mountain Mine, approaching primary dump from the south. 1968


Tin Mountain Mine. Cut exposing pegmatite and mine workings extended into the core. Precrambrian metamorphic rocks host the pegmatite and are seen at the the top of the photograph. 1968.


The massive core of this deposit is largely quartz with some feldspar and muscovite. Sparse pockets contained beautiful micro spears of muscovite associated with sharp cassiterite crystals of micro to about 1 cm in size.

Cheers!

Steve

This one dates back a bit, to about 1985. Twinned, curved, stacked calcite rhombs with silky cerussite and minor micro hemimorphite on a limonite matrix. Tecoma Mine complex, southeast of Montello, Elko County, Nevada. This mine and associated minerals are essentially on the Utah/Nevada line and specimens are often reported as being from the Lucin District, Box Elder County, Utah. Calcite crystals to 1 cm. Overall size 9x5x4 cm.



Cheers!

Steve

These colorful specimens were cut from large boulders of mineralized breccia collected from the main dumps at the Tucker's Tunnel prospect at Tuckerville in Hinsdale County, Colorado in 1975. They made attractive, if a bit radioactive, bookends and these found their way to my sisters home in Philadelphia many years ago.



In this first specimen the host rock is a dolomite (buff to tan) with rich copper secondary minerals that are mostly green. Copper mineralization has replaced some of the breccia fragments. Primary sulfides are seen in the upper right of the laquered face. Manganese oxides are seen in the buff dolomite and are mixed with other minerals in the copper rich part of the specimen as black stringers. Small cracks and inter-breccia openings in rocks like this were the source for many interesting minerals, including the new species, theisite. Specimen face shown approximately 18x25 cm. Collected in 1975.
Photo courtesy of R. Foley.



The second specimen shows intensely brecciated dolomite with some weak copper mineralization and manganese oxides. The specimen is approximately 15x20 cm. Collected in 1975. Photo courtesy of R. Foley.

Cheers!

Steve

This is a crystal that I collected some years ago and have wondered about it's morphology. It looks like a combination of octahedron and cube and, maybe, a dodecahedron to me. The dodec would be uncommon for the location. The preferential etching and the change to a lavender color is fairly common on cube corners here. In any case, a favorite for today.



Fluorite, Esmeralda County, Nevada. 4x5x4 cm.



Another view

Cheers!

Steve



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/27/2012 10:14PM by Stephen Rose.

Where are all of you field collectors with photos of your wonderful finds?

I collected these in 1965 from rocks near a small intrusive in the Dougherty Mountain complex on the east side of the North Boulder River valley, Jefferson County, Montana. I have always wanted to go back and spend some time there as these were abundant and there must be some good specimens to be found, but it looks as if that won't happen. If anyone is interested in additional information about the locality let me know and I'll give you what I know.


Vesuvianite, Jefferson Co., Montana 2.5x2.5x2 cm. 1965


Vesuvianite, Jefferson Co., Montana. Crystal is 0.5x0.5 cm. 1965.

Cheers!

Steve

Hi Steve,

I thought I would join this thread and answer your plea for someone else to add something. I have been up to Arkaroola in the Northern Flinders Ranges, eight times in the last twenty years and these are some of the samples I have collected in the field while there. I know that these are already listed on the "best down under" thread, but they also qualify for this one...



Malachite pseudomorphs after Azurite - from the Sir Dominick Mine - sample is 6cm across



A large Orthoclase feldspar crystal 10cm on edge with quartz - from Mawson Valley



Magnetite crystals in talc - from the Lady Buxton Mine - sample is 5cm across

Great specimens, Trevor! The 'Down Under' thread is one of my favorites.

This one has been posted to the New Photos Today files but hasn't shown up yet. One of my favorite locations, unfortunately no longer accessible.



Calcite, fishtail twin, Devil's Corral, Hycroft mine complex, Sulphur mining district, Humboldt Co., Nevada. Circa (about) 2000. 7.5x6.5x5 cm.

Cheers!

Steve

A nice specimen of clear fluorite on a blocky baryte crystal. Overall size 9.5x7x4 cm. Fluorite crystals to 1.4 cm.



Boulder Hill mine, Wellington, Lyon Co., Nevada

Cheers!

Steve



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/2012 05:07PM by Stephen Rose.

OK Steve,
Here's a quartz Japan law with lunaite ball from Bald Hornet property, King Co, WA, collected 1988. One of 16 twins from this pocket. Left twin ear is 3 inches long. Right twin ear is perfect, just hidden. Wish we'd taken a photo of the back side! Rick Dillhoff photo.

Bob

Bob,

Great twin! I've never had the pleasure of collecting a Japan law twin, or lunaite for that matter, but here is a fine little tabby from Nevada.





Quartz, tabular crystal from the CK claim, Bottomly Prospect area, North Trinity Range, Pershing County, Nevada. 3.5 x 3.5 x 0.5 cm

By the way, what is the origin of the name of the "Bald Hornet"? I am familiar with white face hornets, and a variety of others, but never ran into a bald one.

Cheers!

Steve

Nice tabby, Steve! A friend from Texas dug some tabby quartz and asked me if I thought there was a possibilty of Japan twins there, and I said 'Definitely', from the tabby forms. He dug there for a year, never found a JLT, and I realized later that the tabbys were originally fadens, the 'strings' obscured. Embarrassing!

Bald Hornets are I believe, a subset of whiteface hornets. The white starts about eye level and continues over the head. Perhaps someone with greater entomological knowledge than I (that is almost everyone!) can comment on this. The white head makes them easy to spot and avoid ... nasty sting.

Another twin group form BH, dirty. Cleaned, is now in Houston. Same 1988 pocket.

Bob

Here is the 'brother' to the twin I posted on the 15th. Same location. Within a few feet, anyway.



Calcite, butterfly twin, Devil's Corral, Hycroft mine complex, Sulfur District, Humboldt County, Nevada. Overall size: 7x6x3.5 cm.

Cheers!

Steve



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/30/2012 06:32PM by Stephen Rose.

Nice twin, Steve. Pershing County sure looks to be a fun place to collect!

Bob

Bob,

Nevada is a great place to collect! Lots of wide open spaces and mines, mountains and geologic diversity and a general lack of those pesky tumbling streams, rain forests and withdrawn areas.

Cheers!

Steve

steve,
Nice calcite!!

I dug this nice scepter this winter in the loose soil below Petersen Mt near Hallelujah junction.
It measures 10cm by 5cm...clear to smokey.

Very nice specimens, everyone! Here's a covellite miniature I collected at the Reynolds Tunnel in Summitville, Rio Grande county, Colorado in 1978. covellite

A pyritised fossil I found as a 13 year old boy. From the tailings of a coal mine in Ibbenbüren, Germany.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/06/2012 03:54PM by Mario Hendriks (2).

This doubly terminated fluorapatite crystal was one of the first I found... in the hills outside of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
It was found as a floater. It has fairly sharp lines and good lustre.

10cm x 6cm x 4.5cm

© JR Montgomery

© jR Montgomery

© JR Montgomery

Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 05/26/2012 06:49AM by Rock Currier.