Black Canyon mine, Luis Lopez manganese District, Socorro Co., New Mexico, USA

I have a Psilomelane specimen that is labeled from this location. Is there a locality expert that can verify? Thanks.

Mike, it is not easy to walk anywhere in the district without seeing manganese oxides......so, yes, the Black Canyon does produce psilomelane as specimen......its just that no-one has posted a pic or aded psilomelane to the mineral list.....

Don

When I lived in New Mexico and collected at this locality, someone at the Mineral Museum in Socorro gave me a paper showing that an analysis of the so called "rats hair" Psilomelane from the Luis Lopez District showed that these specimens were all composed alternate layers of Hollandite and Romanechite. I have a copy of the paper somewhere but cannot put my hands on it right now. John S.

Hi John. Peter Modreski gave an excellent talk about the material at one of the long-ago NM Mineral Symposiums. He had tested material and found it to be interlayered hollandite and romancheite.
It was good to see you in Tucson!
Take care.
P

Hi Pat, That is consistent with the paper I referred to, although that paper was published in some scientific journal and not in the Proceedings of the NM Mineral Symposium. Hope to see you in Tucson again next year. John S.

Interesting. I guess I should change the label and look for that paper. Thanks!