Sweetwater Mine, Ellington, Reynolds County, Missouri, USA
5th Aug 2012 01:28 UTCSteve Stuart Expert
I have been looking more closely at several nice specimens of calcite from this mine, especially the matrix under the microscope. Found these interesting associations of iridescent chalcopyrite with what looks like silver, but is probably siegenite. Any other opinions before I post them to the Sweetwater gallery?
Thanks,
Steve
Moving from the micro world to the macro, here are two images of a nice doubly terminated calcite on matrix from the Sweetwater Mine. The calcite is about 4 cm in length. Image one is under incandescent lighting on a white background. Image two is under midwave UV (about 310 nm). All of my small suite of Sweetwater calcites show a strong fluorescence of magenta with a tinge of orange under MW UV. The response under SW and LW is a much weaker orange. The dolomite matrix shows a cream color under MW with no phosphorescence.
Regards,
Steve
Regards,
Steve
I know there have probably been too many calcite pockets in the Sweetwater mine to keep track of, but I am curious if anyone knows if there is an area of the mine (room or pillar) that the ones like in the picture below came from? They seem pretty distinctive to me, but then again maybe ones like it came from all over the locality. There are only two areas that I've ever seen on labels for Sweetwater, F-5 and J-19. I'm just hazarding a guess that might indicate room and pillar or stope and heading? I really have no clue though. Thanks!
