Boron is a small town in the Kramer district about midway between the larger towns of Mojave to the West and Barstow in the east. Many of the workers in the big U.S. Borax open pit mine a little north of town live here. For many years borax and Kernite were mined from underground workings and at the time the open pit mine was started ~1958, it was the largest underground working in California with more than 200 miles of tunnels. Few specimens were produced from the underground workings compared to what have been produced from the open pit operation. The majority of the specimens are specimens of Colemanite crystals that were encountered just after the overburden of alluvial material had been removed from the top of the deposit and the altered cap of the borate ore body was exposed. This altered cap consisted mostly of Colemanite and Ulexite and was often quite full of crystals pockets. Other minerals like Kurnakovite, Inderite, Tunellite and Hydroboracite were also encountered. For several years, collectors were allowed to collect freely on the dumps and during this time thousands of specimens of various borate minerals were collected. Now the mine and its dumps are off limits to collectors except on rare carefully controlled occasions, usually for the little annual Boron gem and mineral show. The mine, its extensive dumps and its borate processing and production facility are continuously patrolled by security guards. Over the years there have been a few rather extensive labor disputes and this in addition to the litigious nature of American society have added to the security concerns of the company. There is however a very nice visitors center that the mine has built that overlooks the big open pit operation and an interesting video presentation is available for viewing in their small auditorium along with other historical exhibits that include one of the original 20 mule team wagon trains. Usually there is a pile of borate minerals that is periodically dumped in the parking lot of the visitors center where visitors can load up on high grade Kernite and sometimes low grade specimens of Ulexite and Colemanite.
[Rock Currier 2010]
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