Vestre Kjörrestad, Bamle, Norway

In Hintze´s handbook Vestre Kjörrestad near Bamle/Bamble is mentioned as a locality where large Enstatite crystals have occured. Is Vestre Kjörrestad identical with one of the localities in the Bamble area listed in mindat?
Christof

Not from what I can tell.

I only find the name Kjørstad on my Bamble map, but I think this might be the same as Kjørrestad.

Large enstatite crystals are described by Brøgger and Reusch (1880) ("Norwegian apatite localities" from several localities in Bamble, specialy the apatite-veins like in Ødegården. Brøgger and Rath (1877; Ueber grosse Enstatit-Krystalla, aufgefunden von W.C. Brøgger und H.H. Reusch bei Kjørrestad, Bamble. Zeitsch.Krist. 1, 18-30.) describe unaltered enstatite crystals to 40cm lenght from Kjørrestad-kilen in Bamble.

The Kjørrestad locality is given, but only with apatite:

[www.mindat.org]

I will add references and enstatite on the locality page.

Peter

There is probably only one locality for the huge enstatite crystals at Kjørrestad in Bamble which corresponds to the locality described by Brögger and Reusch, Hintze and others. Even if I know the area very well and have located numerous old mines (both pegmatites,apatite and rutile mines), I have been unable to locate with certainty the locality for these huge enstatites. It would be interesting to know if anybody have found this locality in "modern times".

A friend (passed away since) had a large enstatite X from Bamble, found by one of his kids, on a vacatian in the early 1970's.

Hi Knut. I spent many hours in Kjorrestad, but I never found these huge enstatites. The only large (180mm long) enstatite xl's that I have ever found were from Odegardens Verk. Spencer.

Thanks for answering.
Via Peter´s references I found a translation of the Brögger and Rath paper (On certain large crystals of Enstatite…) in MinMag, Vol. 6/6, pp1-14
They wrote:

“In the apatite mine of Kjorrestad between Krageröe and
Langesund, in the autumn of the year 1874, enstatite was
discovered in crystals of a size reached only by very few minerals.
The locality where the great enstatite crystals have
been found is one of those numerous apatite veins of Southern
Norway. The main rock of this part of the coast is mica and
amphibole slate, in which the apatite veins are included. Their
predominating mineral is amphibole.
In the vicinity of these normal veins there is to be found at
the Hankedalsvand, not far from Vestre Kjorrestad, an isolated
deposit, as a thick lode constituted principally of large crystals
of enstatite and enormous masses of rutile. There was
not much apatite, but some greenish-white mica and talc and
for this reason apatite was obtained only for a short time.
The enstatite crystals, from 0.3 to 0.4 metre in size, had
been thrown away unheeded till they were discovered by
Brögger and Reusch in their researches on the apatite beds
(Zeitsc]tr. d. deutscs geol. Gesellsc]t. vol. xxvii, p. 646, 1875).
As the mine of Vestre Kjorrestad had been already abandoned,
the investigations of the discoverers were confined to the matter
thrown out.“
Christof

This question have triggered me doing a little bit more research, with the little recourses I've got... I've checked a pretty detailed geological map-scetch of the Ødegården verk/Havredal area in Bamble, and the farm Kjørstad is just east of Havredal. Within this geological map area there are 18 mines and prospects marked.

I'm getting more and more convinced that the Vestre Kjørrestad prospect is one of the mines/prospects conected to the Ødegården field. There is 14 mines or prospects on apatite along the apatite-vein bearing meta-gabroes/amphibolites conected to the Ødegården field.

Guess I have a project this summer, among all the other...

Hi Peter, I noticed that what Christof wrote there was a mention of " Hankedalsvand", this was given as just west of kjorstad! On my map there are two lakes just west of Kjorstad, one is "Bjorndalsvatnet" and the other smaller one is called "Fugleputt", could Bjorndalsvatnet or Fugleputt be "Hankedalsvand"? I also agree with what you wrote that the Kjorstad prospect comes under the Odegarden field. I wish you luck in trying to solve this mystery. Spencer.

There is something strange about this Vestre Kjørrestad...

I noticed that there are actualy two Kjørstad farms pretty close to each other. The eastern most is just north of a lake named Haukedalsvann. Hankedalsvand is probably only a misspelling of this one. Haukedalsvann have some small bays, called "kiler" in norwegian, and one of these bays could very well be the "Kjørrestad kilen" mentioned by Brøgger and Reusch. The big question is if there is anything left on the dumps...

Hi,

If one enter the database at the Museum of Natural History in Stockholm (www.nrm.se- mincat 2000) and go for "enstatit and bamle" there are 113 entries.
Most frequent locality is just "Bamle"- second "Ödegården". Kjörrestad, Kjörstad and Kjörstadkilen occur as well.
Sadly- I cannot tell the size of either- but some ought to look similar to the attached pic, size 260x150x150 mm. Uploaded it under Bamle today.

rgrds

Aksel

Aksel,

The picture you have uploaded look like enstatite crystals partly altered to greenish talc and embedded in yellow apatite from the Ødegården mines, Bamble. The large crystals from Kjørrestad are more brownish. unaltered and not so sharply developed. Some of them I have seen look like brown "logs".

Engolfed ?

A visit to the Kjørrestad farms today will reveal a large golf-course covering large areas just south of Haukedalsvann. The construction of the golf-course has engulfed at least 3 small pegmatite quarries and may also have engulfed the small enstatite locality described by Brögger and Reusch? It is truely sad that so many people enjoy the outdoors playing golf in stead of collecting minerals...

A similar fate fell upon the marvelous Strickland Q and Schoonmaker dump in Portland, CT, USA. Before it became a golf course, I heard that the owner offered to send several trucks full of dump to another location for collectors, but the town said, "Do what? Who wants old rocks..." Now it's a golf course and markedly off-limits. The club house reportedly has some "lovely" minerals decorating the landscape.

Possible to say where this one came from ?
X 140 mm wide, rim of talc 5 – 20 mm, core brownish Enstatite, associated minerals Apatite and Mica.
Unfortunately the label reads <Aegirine, Langesund>.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/14/2008 09:31PM by Christof Schaefer.

Looks like the Ødegården enstatite. The mica is phlogophite.

Thanks Peter, I have added the picture to Ødegården page.