Great finds!
Some of my favourite finds.
Two Emerald specimens I found in Habach valley, Austria. That day I discovered a very good spot, within a couple of hours I had 14 very good pieces, some crystals over 3 cm long, and some of the crystals had extremely good colour and clarity.
Two specimens from a pocket I opened in the Bstogne area, Belgium. The cleft contained 100+ kg of good Quartz specimens.
Two specimens from a Fluorite pocket I found in Wellin, Belgium. About 30 very good specimens came out of that pocket.
Two Millerite specimens from Hagen, Germany. During a couple of years fantastic Millerites could be collected from Calcite veins in Donnerkuhle quarry.
Two of my favourite Calcite finds, both from Landelies.
I'll post some more later.
Cheers,
Harjo
Some of my favourite finds.
Two Emerald specimens I found in Habach valley, Austria. That day I discovered a very good spot, within a couple of hours I had 14 very good pieces, some crystals over 3 cm long, and some of the crystals had extremely good colour and clarity.
Two specimens from a pocket I opened in the Bstogne area, Belgium. The cleft contained 100+ kg of good Quartz specimens.
Two specimens from a Fluorite pocket I found in Wellin, Belgium. About 30 very good specimens came out of that pocket.
Two Millerite specimens from Hagen, Germany. During a couple of years fantastic Millerites could be collected from Calcite veins in Donnerkuhle quarry.
Two of my favourite Calcite finds, both from Landelies.
I'll post some more later.
Cheers,
Harjo
This is a "plate" matrix specimen, chiselled off the side of a small miarolitic cavity in granite, from the Devil's Den area of the Sawtooth Mountains, Boise County, Idaho. It shows the "essential' minerals of the granite (smoky quartz, microcline, and albite), with accessory minerals zinnwaldite mica and topaz. The specimen was removed with a single hammer blow right after the second picture was taken, which shows the prominent feldspar crystal at the top of the plate on the right side of the exposed vug (hammer for scale).
Here's a favorite axinite with actinolite and albite that was self collected back in 1976 during the construction of the New Melones Spillway, Calaveras Co., California. It measures 10 x 9 x 3 cm. This specimen was totally encased in a block of fine grain palygorskite which took many tens of hours to remove with a very thin needle probe. No liquid was used to avoid the actinolite needles from getting matted into cow licks.
I have always liked these fluorites from Esmeralda County, Nevada, because of their crystal size and perfection. The surface alteration is a distraction but, unfortunately, no one was able to collect them a couple of hundred thousand years ago when they might have been pristine. I collected this specimen from a closed pocket in 2009. It has a gemmy, pale green interior with light lavender corners and is formed on a thin plate of small quartz crystals. Overall size: 5.5x5x4.5 cm.
Fluorite on quartz, Esmeralda Co., NV
Fluorite on quartz, Esmeralda Co., NV, transmitted light shows interior clarity.
Cheers!
Steve
Fluorite on quartz, Esmeralda Co., NV
Fluorite on quartz, Esmeralda Co., NV, transmitted light shows interior clarity.
Cheers!
Steve
This specimen came from an uncommonly productive pocket at one of my favorite collecting spots in 2009. The pocket, about the size of a squashed soccer ball, produced a couple of flats of nice specimens and was conveniently located at eye level. Most of the specimens were removed by hand with a padded box held underneath to catch those loose ones that would fall when disturbed. This pocket is shown in the second picture.
Barite, Boulder Hill Mine, Wellington District, Douglas County, NV. 10x7.5x4.5 cm.
This specimen from the pocket shows at the upper left typical zoning outlined by micro stibnite with late-stage, bright red realgar crystals. 4.5x4x2.5 cm.
Pocket containing barite crystals and powdery jarosite (?) rich fill.
Cheers!
Steve
Barite, Boulder Hill Mine, Wellington District, Douglas County, NV. 10x7.5x4.5 cm.
This specimen from the pocket shows at the upper left typical zoning outlined by micro stibnite with late-stage, bright red realgar crystals. 4.5x4x2.5 cm.
Pocket containing barite crystals and powdery jarosite (?) rich fill.
Cheers!
Steve
A suite of self collected Quartzes from central Australia (found between 2009 and 2011), and an odd gemmy Beryl from a classic Australian locale.
Further details in each photo.
Further details in each photo.
Although a relatively common pegmatite mineral, this albite (var. clevelandite) specimen is extraordinarily large for the species. Composed of only three "blades", this specimen is three inches wide, nearly three inches high, by 1 1/2 inches deep. Large microlite crystals were found associated with these large clevelandite crystals, found embedded between the blades. Fine muscovite crystals dusting one side of the clevelandite.
Over the years I have collected several hundred baryte crystals with stibnite or stibnite-realgar zoning or phantoms from the Boulder Hill mine near Wellington, Nevada. This type, with only realgar outlining a phantom, is quite uncommon. Realgar crystals in this specimen are approximately 0.1 to 0.2 mm but range up to 2-4 mm in some baryte specimens. Overall specimen size: 3x2.4x1.5 cm.
Cheers!
Steve
Cheers!
Steve
Still doing the geode thing. For a while I collected mini geodes; I think that the criteria included that they had to be under 6 cm in maximum dimension. This one is one of the few that I have left. It is open on both ends for a rare view of a geode 'backside'. :-)
Aragonite, quartz and goethite geode, (old) SR37 5.5 N. of Bloomington, Monroe County, Indiana. Circa 1965. 5x3.5x4 cm.
Front
Backside
Cheers!
Steve
Aragonite, quartz and goethite geode, (old) SR37 5.5 N. of Bloomington, Monroe County, Indiana. Circa 1965. 5x3.5x4 cm.
Front
Backside
Cheers!
Steve
Wow! Allen, just saw your post and had to edit this in. What a great crystal!
Hey Bob, maybe not with the geode collecting but if you ever collected the pyrite, marcasite and calcite at Pleasant Ridge, Indiana you would have an similar experience with clothing. It was the closest thing to collecting in an open-pit oil well. As I recall, the quarry breaches an Ordovician reef that is saturated with oil and tar. Lots of pockets and specimens but everything is coated and the matrix oozes oil for years. I always wore throw away clothes and took others to change into for the trip home. I used to buy gas from my uncle's farm tank to soak specimens in. About $0.25 per gallon in those days.
Here are a couple of calcites from the Cave Rock Quarry at Norristown, Shelby County, Indiana collected in February, 1966. So say my notes in my card index, but, strangely, I have no memory at all of the actual collecting trip, a one time event I suppose.
Calcite, golden gemmy crystal with etched, rhombohedral termination. 6x4x3 cm. Collected 2-12-1966.
Calcite, clear to faintly brownish rhombs with complex morphology. Large crystal is 4x3.5x2.5 cm. Overall size: 7x5x4 cm. Collected 2-12-1966.
Cheers!
Steve
Hey Bob, maybe not with the geode collecting but if you ever collected the pyrite, marcasite and calcite at Pleasant Ridge, Indiana you would have an similar experience with clothing. It was the closest thing to collecting in an open-pit oil well. As I recall, the quarry breaches an Ordovician reef that is saturated with oil and tar. Lots of pockets and specimens but everything is coated and the matrix oozes oil for years. I always wore throw away clothes and took others to change into for the trip home. I used to buy gas from my uncle's farm tank to soak specimens in. About $0.25 per gallon in those days.
Here are a couple of calcites from the Cave Rock Quarry at Norristown, Shelby County, Indiana collected in February, 1966. So say my notes in my card index, but, strangely, I have no memory at all of the actual collecting trip, a one time event I suppose.
Calcite, golden gemmy crystal with etched, rhombohedral termination. 6x4x3 cm. Collected 2-12-1966.
Calcite, clear to faintly brownish rhombs with complex morphology. Large crystal is 4x3.5x2.5 cm. Overall size: 7x5x4 cm. Collected 2-12-1966.
Cheers!
Steve
ENJOY and to all the others out there.......GREAT PIX of GREAT SPECIMENS!
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
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
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
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
Fluorite, Esmeralda County, Nevada. 4x5x4 cm.
Another view
Cheers!
Steve
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
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
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
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
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
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
It was found as a floater. It has fairly sharp lines and good lustre.
10cm x 6cm x 4.5cm
Here is one of my favorite "self" collected minerals, my wife actually removed it from the pocket, but i found the pocket...hehe
Here it is still in the pocket, before removal.
Herman
http://www.mindat.org/user-15510.html#2_0_0_0_0_0_
Here it is still in the pocket, before removal.
The biggest quartz still in the pocket.
Klein Spitzkopje granite stock, Spitzkopje Area, Dâures Constituency, Erongo Region, Namibia
Klein Spitzkopje granite stock, Spitzkopje Area, Dâures Constituency, Erongo Region, Namibia
Herman
http://www.mindat.org/user-15510.html#2_0_0_0_0_0_
Purple spinel 15mmx 10mm hammered out of the marble matrix on site in Quebec, Canada
From the same locality, 7mm x 5mm spinel on 3mm x 3mm x 2mm matrix of calcite-forsterite, also hammered out on site
From the same locality, 7mm x 5mm spinel on 3mm x 3mm x 2mm matrix of calcite-forsterite, also hammered out on site
This is one of my favourites. In about 1992, I climbed up to the top of the apparently worked-out pyromorphite pipe at Bwlchglas, something I (and many others) had done numerous times. Tapping around, I was lucky enough to break into a hitherto-undetected pocket. Instead of the usual brecciated milky quartz, this was a simple vug lined with low pyramidal quartz crystals coated with pyromorphite. The pyromorphite was a little different too - instead of the familiar dense coatings of grass-green acicular crystals, it consisted of acicular crystals with paler, blocky extensions - an almost sceptre-like habit. This 80 x 60mm specimen was the first one out - and the best. Bar one, the rest were much smaller because tectonic events had fractured the quartz, so that on working the pocket it came out in small pieces. Just learning how to do macro photography in more detail so it seemed a good piece to use for practice!
Back to the original topic… It’s a close call, but my favorite personally-collected specimen comes from a visit to the Gem Mine in San Benito County, back in December of 2006. Much of the collecting at the benitoite locality consists of digging or picking up likely pieces of float and hoping something cool comes out when you etch it in hydrochloric acid. In the hopes of finding something others had missed, I went crawling around under some bushes a little down the hill and stumbled across a head-sized rock with neptunites and a couple ugly little ugly benitoites in what looked like a contorted vein.
Having a couple of young kids leaves you with limited options for soaking something in a couple of gallons of acid, so that rock sat in my garage for four years. Eventually a fellow BAM member and benitoite-etching pro, Dan Evanich, was kind enough to do the work for me. Several pieces came out, but this was the best of them:
6.0 x 5.0 x 5.0cm
Because there was so much crossite in the natrolite matrix, the terminations are a little rough and most crystals don’t have the top neptunite luster. It’s remarkably three-dimensional for the locality, however; most of these form in flat veins and etch out as crystals lying on a surface, rather than sticking up. The crystal are also pretty large; the biggest (upper right in the first pic) is a doubly-terminated one attached to the backside that is 3.9cm in length.
The same rock also yielded a nice “spiral staircase” of about 15 crossite-included benitoites, most of which were doubly- or triply terminated. I have yet to manage a good photograph of it yet, though – perhaps for a future post!
Cheers,
D.
Having a couple of young kids leaves you with limited options for soaking something in a couple of gallons of acid, so that rock sat in my garage for four years. Eventually a fellow BAM member and benitoite-etching pro, Dan Evanich, was kind enough to do the work for me. Several pieces came out, but this was the best of them:
6.0 x 5.0 x 5.0cm
Because there was so much crossite in the natrolite matrix, the terminations are a little rough and most crystals don’t have the top neptunite luster. It’s remarkably three-dimensional for the locality, however; most of these form in flat veins and etch out as crystals lying on a surface, rather than sticking up. The crystal are also pretty large; the biggest (upper right in the first pic) is a doubly-terminated one attached to the backside that is 3.9cm in length.
The same rock also yielded a nice “spiral staircase” of about 15 crossite-included benitoites, most of which were doubly- or triply terminated. I have yet to manage a good photograph of it yet, though – perhaps for a future post!
Cheers,
D.
At the 22 September i found near Zerbst in Germany a large pebble of Feldspar (glacial erratic). I like this mineral, because it can be found in many kinds of structures and colors. So i collect coarse or monocrystalline Feldspar pebbles. But this thing is very special.
It is not only the largest monocrystalline feldspar pebble, which i found. It has also by far the best quality. It is a Moonstone with a good visible greyish schiller through the whole stone (partly visible in the top of the second image). The size is 9 x 6 x 6 centimeters and it weights more than a pound. It has also some zones with oriented quartz inclusions (graphic granite, orientation is best visible in the first image at the right), which are also transparent, so that the grains of quartz can be seen even inside this Feldspar. And the best is, that this thing is already polished by nature, so that i dont need to cut it. It is not as good as indian moonstones, but Moonstones with good visible schiller from glacial erratics of nothern germany are very rare, while i even never heared of transparent graphic granite moonstone.
It is not only the largest monocrystalline feldspar pebble, which i found. It has also by far the best quality. It is a Moonstone with a good visible greyish schiller through the whole stone (partly visible in the top of the second image). The size is 9 x 6 x 6 centimeters and it weights more than a pound. It has also some zones with oriented quartz inclusions (graphic granite, orientation is best visible in the first image at the right), which are also transparent, so that the grains of quartz can be seen even inside this Feldspar. And the best is, that this thing is already polished by nature, so that i dont need to cut it. It is not as good as indian moonstones, but Moonstones with good visible schiller from glacial erratics of nothern germany are very rare, while i even never heared of transparent graphic granite moonstone.
Certainly one of my favourite self collected pieces ... Here is a Baryte with Smithsonite I collected at Wet Grooves near Askrigg in North Yorkshire a few years ago, I must have a go at cleaning it up a bit more, the cavity in the boulder I trimmed this out of was completely full of dry mud, The little Baryte butterfly measures around 6 mm, the whole piece is 30 x 20 mm.
Thank you, Matt
I am always willing to take fellow rock-hounds out to look for minerals in my area, if you are planning to be in this area let me know!:)-D
meanwhile back at the ranch... my choice for today.
a small Grossulare that was found at the Stifel claim, Georgetown, El Dorado co., California, USA
approximately 2 cm in size
I am always willing to take fellow rock-hounds out to look for minerals in my area, if you are planning to be in this area let me know!:)-D
meanwhile back at the ranch... my choice for today.
a small Grossulare that was found at the Stifel claim, Georgetown, El Dorado co., California, USA
approximately 2 cm in size
Self collected in 2010 at a virtually unknown Indiana fluorite location these 2 examples show 0.4 cm - 1.0 cm egg yolk yellow crystals and an accompanying 1 cm sphalerite crystal. The fluorites are intensely fluorescent. Easy to self collect, the locale is a road cut on Indiana route 37 just North of the town of Bedford in Lawrence County. This location is about 10 miles south of the famous Harrodsburg road cuts; no geodes are found at this road cut. CHEERS…..BOB
Being in a mineralogically challenged city (Cleveland, Ohio), I don’t have a lot opportunities to self-collect for specimens. Many of my self-collected specimens were collected as part of college geology field trips and are nowhere near as nice as most of members who have posted on this thread.
About nine years ago, our geology classes often did fossil hunting field trips as excellent exposures of Ordovician fossils were plentiful. One of these trips did yield an unexpected and unusual surprise. I found a plate of fossils, but along the edge of the plate, one of the fossils, a cephalopod (Orthonybyoceras duseri) had partially dissolved forming a cast and then was later filled in with calcite crystals. I found this specimen at a roadcut near the Fairfield/Brookville area, Indiana, United States. My professor told me that these geodized calcite specimens (mostly brachiopods) were pretty common in Brown County, Ohio, but a geodized cephalopod specimen was fairly uncommon for this exposure in Indiana.
The specimen is approximately 18.3 x 11.5 x 2.5 cm and the calcite vug is about 5 x 1.8 cm. The specimen is approximately 440 ma from the Liberty Formation.
Above: The specimen in its entirety
Above: The specimen showing the calcite vug
About nine years ago, our geology classes often did fossil hunting field trips as excellent exposures of Ordovician fossils were plentiful. One of these trips did yield an unexpected and unusual surprise. I found a plate of fossils, but along the edge of the plate, one of the fossils, a cephalopod (Orthonybyoceras duseri) had partially dissolved forming a cast and then was later filled in with calcite crystals. I found this specimen at a roadcut near the Fairfield/Brookville area, Indiana, United States. My professor told me that these geodized calcite specimens (mostly brachiopods) were pretty common in Brown County, Ohio, but a geodized cephalopod specimen was fairly uncommon for this exposure in Indiana.
The specimen is approximately 18.3 x 11.5 x 2.5 cm and the calcite vug is about 5 x 1.8 cm. The specimen is approximately 440 ma from the Liberty Formation.
Above: The specimen in its entirety
Above: The specimen showing the calcite vug
Emerald deposit, Leckbachgraben, Nasenkopf mountain, Bramberg am Wildkogel, Zell am See District, Salzburg, Austria