Gail's NEW favourite of the day, PART 2

Transparent fluorite cubes with calcite from Dal'negorsk is today's favorite. 6.9 x 5.0 cm.

© A&M

AM! spectacular photo! ::o

My latest acquisition:
Regards,
Ralph

Very nice specimens everyone, it's a pleasure to view them.

(:D

This is the first mineral that Jim and I purchased together in Breckenridge , Colorado, at a small shop called Nature's Own. I thought it might look nice on our coffee table, ha!
When we left the shop I turned to Jim and said " I can't believe how much we just paid for a ROCK!"
They also gave us a copy of the MinRec Sweet Home mine publication and a DVD of the SHM history.
This is what got us to the Houston Museum to go see the Alma Queen. I fell in love with minerals while there and that was the start of that!

So, to our first piece purchased as a couple......

Gail Patricia Copus Spann

Hi,

Gail, I see a lot of miniatures in that beautiful rhodo.

Maybe this specimen in our collection came from the same pocket?

Rhodocrosite. Cash Flow Pocket 1992. 4 cm by 5 cm.
Joseph and Lorraine Polityka collection. Pictured in "The Mineralogical Record", Vol. 29, #4, 1998. A photo of this specimen is on page 27


Best wishes,

Joe

Gail, it's nice to be able to look back on the one specimen that got everything started. I wonder how many collectors still have that first piece that sent them down this crazy road. For me it was the following piece that I was given back in 1963 by a generous collector friend.

Calcite - Put-In-Bay Island, Ohio

Today's favorite is a pale blue apatite cluster on quartz from Portugal. 2.6 x 4.7 cm.

© A&M

Everyone's photos are spectacular, great to see.
AM, wow.....speechless.

Gail Patricia Copus Spann

AM,

Great specimens and great photos.

I'm still in a hungry mode and mood: Apatite on quartz, 7.5 cm by 7.5 cm from the Noyes Mountain Quarry (Harvard Quarry), Greenwood, Oxford County, Maine.


Best,

Joe

My favorite of the day was this 3cm spinel on chondrodite which I call " A spinel cone", until I saw AM's blue apatite on quartz.

This miniature pyrites from Nanisivik mine, now closed for over 10 years, is a nice example of the less common simpler crystal forms . Usually the pyrites and pseudomorph marcasites from this mine are much more complex. It is one of the pieces in the Babet Collection that I have.

Here is a calcite crystal from Indiana

Adam,

Nice Indiana calcite.

I went into New York last week for lunch and visited the American Museum of Natural History with my daughter. I happen to like Mimetite so I thought I would post a picture of this classic which is in their collection. Huge crystals of Campylite from Roughten Gill, Cumbria, England.
The speicmen is approximately 10cm by 16cm in size.


Best,

Joe

The one that got my attention today, this lovely Brookite.


Gail Patricia Copus Spann

Gail,

Are you sure the locality on that brookite is correct? It looks more like one of the pieces from Baluchistan Prov. (most likely Kharran, where the majority if these things came from). Zagi Mtn is farther north near Peshawar and the border with Afghanistan, and I haven't really seen any decent brookite from there...

Ibrahim

One never really knows, it is what was stated when we bought it from the Arkenstone. We have it labeled as such but we will research it now that you have brought it up, we have had this piece for quite some time, so need to ask our friend who often goes to Pakistan. I don't doubt your statement though, not unusual to find out things are not from where they were stated to be from.
Thank you.


Ibrahim Jameel Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Gail,
>
> Are you sure the locality on that brookite is
> correct? It looks more like one of the pieces
> from Baluchistan Prov. (most likely Kharran, where
> the majority if these things came from). Zagi Mtn
> is farther north near Peshawar and the border with
> Afghanistan, and I haven't really seen any decent
> brookite from there...
>
> Ibrahim

Gail Patricia Copus Spann

Ibrahim, do you think it is from the Dalbandin area? All our other Brookites are from there.
We have nine other Brookites from the area you suggest. We will change the info on the above piece, again..thank you!
Here is a recent one, very different, from the Obodda private collection, now in our collection.



Gail Patricia Copus Spann



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/2011 05:38PM by Gail Spann.

Gail,

I really couldn't tell you precisely.... Mindat lists 7 occurrences of brookite in Baluchistan Prov.: Taftan, Dalbadin, Quetta, and 4 localities in Kharran (including Kharran itself).

The listing for Quetta is almost certainly an error.

Unless your source obtained this piece at the mine, it would be impossible to determine the locality with certainty. In all likelihood, your brookite was found somewhere in Baluchistan then taken to Peshawar, where it probably changed hands a couple times. It was exported from there, and may have changed hands a couple more times in the western market (assuming you did not buy it from a Pakistani dealer.)

In any case, the original locality information of this piece and your other brookites was probably lost as soon as the specimens made it to Peshawar. Baluchistan is the only part that is certain, beyond that probability would point to somewhere in Kharran.

ibrahim

Thank you again! Appreciate your help.

Gail Patricia Copus Spann