Collected With Your Dirty Hands
30th May 2016 17:58 UTCMatt Courville
Despite the mediocre photo here is one that I was quite happy to find, given that it was unlike any other listed at the locality:
Beryl - from The Beryl Pit, Ontario, Canada
Thanks for posting everyone. This thread is evolving into what I had hoped for with exciting, but not necessarily museum specimens. Peter and Lukasz - I love the photos of your completely new mineral finds. This would be the 'top of the mountain' for me if I ever found one! Lukasz, your Polish flag reminded me of my trip to Poland a few years back (my wife is from Poland) and it made me think of the absolutely incredible Wieliczka Mine we visited that contains all of the salt carvings.Worthy of a 'google search' at the least;)
I will post today two side-by-side photos of beryl for comparison. One is hideous-looking beryl crystal, possibly due to the radioactives found at the site, while the other small, translucent piece of beautiful aquamarine beryl. Both are found at my go-to spot - the Beryl Pit, Ontario. I find it amazing how such variety can happen in nature, at the same site meters apart.
Cheers,
Matt
(25x17x8mm)
(12x7x6cm)
I will post today two side-by-side photos of beryl for comparison. One is hideous-looking beryl crystal, possibly due to the radioactives found at the site, while the other small, translucent piece of beautiful aquamarine beryl. Both are found at my go-to spot - the Beryl Pit, Ontario. I find it amazing how such variety can happen in nature, at the same site meters apart.
Cheers,
Matt
(25x17x8mm)
From yesterday. It was a good day. Lots of cool stuff.
Unidentified acicular crystals in basalt vugs (likely aragonite but could be one of the zeolite group or something else)
Close up of clear acicular crystals (appear like mesolite but not identified)
Close-up of yellowish acicular crystal (possibly aragonite or iron-stained zeolite)
Had lots of fun and only hit my finger once breaking rocks
Cheers - Doug
Unidentified acicular crystals in basalt vugs (likely aragonite but could be one of the zeolite group or something else)
Close up of clear acicular crystals (appear like mesolite but not identified)
Close-up of yellowish acicular crystal (possibly aragonite or iron-stained zeolite)
Had lots of fun and only hit my finger once breaking rocks
Cheers - Doug
Although technically speaking I only photographed, here are some recent picts of my adventure up Cascade mountain in Banff to the Upper Bankhead anthracite coal mine ruins. The photo of the lookout view had me actually standing on a gigantic pile of coal from 100 years ago. It was a bit terrifying as you got close to the edge - and it's an official lookout point, but I would be surprised if anyone was here in over a week. I added larger/more picts on my homepage. The coal I was looking at was as 'dirty' as it can get!
Matt
Matt
This is an odd little piece. I was helping a geologist friend do a sampling trip into the bottom of the Burro Pit of the Johnson Mine in SE Arizona. They had hit a mineralized area with odd things right at the bottom of the pit. This piece is white quartz that had pockets with free standing molybdenite crystals that were coated by a clear, bubbly chalcedony. Made for an unusual piece. The first photo shows some reflections coming from the crystals inside the chalcedony that makes it look golden. The second photo you can see in the top crystal the nice molybdenite inside the chalcedony.
Wow, some very nice finds John(tu) Here are some of the tremolite crystals which I found this past May long weekend at Grace Lake locality Ontario. It must have been a holiday get-together for the blackflies as well because everywhere I looked they were there in the millions having a good time:-S
http://www.mindat.org/photo-757577.html
http://www.mindat.org/photo-757577.html
I found this specimen in May 2016:
In these ancient surface workings that lie in the Unity Wood Mine sett:
In these ancient surface workings that lie in the Unity Wood Mine sett:
Going from ancient Cornish workings to a relatively recently abandoned site in South Africa, Rooiberg A Mine:
A visit in April 2016 to this site yielded these pieces:
A visit in April 2016 to this site yielded these pieces:
This specimen was collected underground at the Macy Mine (Hillsboro District, Sierra Co., New Mexico) with Jerry Cone in summer of 2015. I was after some of the larger calcite that can be found in the lower levels of the mine. I had a piece of rock that looked like it had nice calcite inside and began looking for an anvil stone nearby. Quickly finding one, I gave one whack, but the anvil broke instead of my "choice" rock. I picked up the broken anvil to find pristine clusters of 1-2 mm arsenatian vanadinite crystals, one of the best finds that trip!
Hey Matt, nice finds and thanks for sharing the location as well. In keeping with Garnet theme and full disclosure of locality (non secret) here are some Garnet specimens I recently found at the HWY 620 road cuts.
Two thumbnail specimens of andradite that I collected from the Memphis Mine in the Organ District of Dona Ana Co., New Mexico. Great potential there for more of these and the site is open to the public including collectors!
I like this thread! There must be no professional photographs and self-collecting remains the main thing.
My pics are from Yongping copper mine in Jiangxi province (Shangrao prefecture) in PR China. I was there several times and went back home never without good finds. Even the local people helped me and provided me with heavy Tools and their own strength. I really had a nice time there!
Calcite on siderite, dirty when i found it, and after cleaning (sorry for the quality).
My pics are from Yongping copper mine in Jiangxi province (Shangrao prefecture) in PR China. I was there several times and went back home never without good finds. Even the local people helped me and provided me with heavy Tools and their own strength. I really had a nice time there!
Calcite on siderite, dirty when i found it, and after cleaning (sorry for the quality).
Two pieces I collected from dumps at Wheal Kitty Mine, St Agnes on the 9th September whilst showing a new Mindat member good spots to collect.
Here's some more pictures.
Here's an Apatite from Bear Lake Diggings before it closed this year. I was absolutely entertained when I heard the news.
Now, here are two minerals where I want everyone to guess and they are and where they come from. I don't know if this hint helps but, I live in Ontario completely near Quebec (Province. Not the city).
Here's an Apatite from Bear Lake Diggings before it closed this year. I was absolutely entertained when I heard the news.
Now, here are two minerals where I want everyone to guess and they are and where they come from. I don't know if this hint helps but, I live in Ontario completely near Quebec (Province. Not the city).
Here's a photo of me holding a molybdenite specimen just collected off the dumps at Houtenbeck http://www.mindat.org/loc-56340.html There's also a photo of some lying on the ground, with vein quartz and bits of the granite host rock.
Don't normally look for gold specimens but going through my collection to photograph minerals I got to the gold section and these are a couple of my favorite self collected gold specimens. The first one is from the Gallagher mine in the Tombstone district of Arizona, thin sheets of gold growing on a tiny, clear quartz crystal.
The second one is from the Golden Rule mine by Dragoon. This one I liked for the association of gold by the anglesite crystal.
Love seeing so many of the self collected specimens posted on this thread.
Rolf
No petrified sticks this time, promise!
First pic is a spray of flattened bari(y)te crystals, collected from central Idaho, in the upper Salmon River area.
The second one, it's from the Owyhee Mountains, Idaho side, and is a lime-iron silicate contact zone mineral deposit, as far as I can tell the main mineral is probably Hedenbergite. I just like the way it looks, with the somewhat brittle black needles fanning out into this large cluster. The mines in the area are active again, but people could still drive on up past them to pick up rocks near the summit (at least, they could as of 2 summers ago.)
The third one is a nice little black tourmaline crystal, a little over an inch tall, it's doubly terminated and really nicely formed. This was from the "black crystal pit" in an undisclosed area in southern Idaho.
A rather nice specimen of crystallised Pyrite from Wheal Friendship Mine, collected on the 9th November.
Considering it has been sitting out on the mine dump for in excess of 100 years it is still in remarkably good condition and once the muck was cleaned off has a good lustre.
A surprisingly good specimen of Chalcosiderite collected on the 13th November 2016 from dumps at Stowes Shaft Phoenix United Mines, the type locality for this mineral:
Also collected on Sunday from the same dump, a very rich Cassiterite in 'blue peach' matrix:
Also collected on Sunday from the same dump, a very rich Cassiterite in 'blue peach' matrix:
A nice Cassiterite, collected on 28th December 2016:
Specimen collected from this dump at Creegbrawse Mine:
Specimen collected from this dump at Creegbrawse Mine:
Burrows at Flakeys Shaft
Creegbrawse and Penkevil Mine, Creegbrawse, Chacewater, Cornwall, England, UK
Creegbrawse and Penkevil Mine, Creegbrawse, Chacewater, Cornwall, England, UK
Rolf that's some amazing gypsum! My old house was a few minutes from the Erie Canal in New York and adjacent to that was an old rail road clearing. All along the hillside next to the old rail road is covered in gypsum. Nothing clear like that but some nice big pieces to go have some fun digging out. I was walking there this summer on my way back to the car and found this nice little piece shaped exactly like a pistol. Not a big gun fan but just had to keep it.
As the weather was nice on the 2nd January, I was able to visit a few sites, first location was the cliffside dumps of Wheal Droskyn at Perranporth where I got several nice specimens:
This specimen above is interesting as it has Topaz as small crystals associating with the Cassiterite. I have not previously noted Topaz at this locality.
I then went on to Trevaunance Cove at St Agnes, where despite there being a lot of sand covering the bulk of the pebble bank, I got an interesting Cassiterite bearing pebble and two modest Wood Tin specimens.
Final stop was to Magors Shaft of Unity Wood Mine, where a bit of diligent searching in the late afternoon sunlight yielded a specimen containing Cassiterite and Wolframite:
This one looks better 'in the flesh' than in the picture.
This specimen above is interesting as it has Topaz as small crystals associating with the Cassiterite. I have not previously noted Topaz at this locality.
I then went on to Trevaunance Cove at St Agnes, where despite there being a lot of sand covering the bulk of the pebble bank, I got an interesting Cassiterite bearing pebble and two modest Wood Tin specimens.
Final stop was to Magors Shaft of Unity Wood Mine, where a bit of diligent searching in the late afternoon sunlight yielded a specimen containing Cassiterite and Wolframite:
This one looks better 'in the flesh' than in the picture.
An interesting specimen of cassiterite in a heavily fractured quartz / metasediment matrix.
Self collected from the cliffside dumps lying to the north of Contact Shaft of Cligga Mine.
Yesterday I was breaking some material from the Manila Mine, now closed to collecting and came across some great habits of wulfenite. The first one is a tiny little cube of wulfenite with tiny phosphohedyphane on chalcedony.
The second photo is one with a number of things going on. Don't know if the hoppering is part of the growth or etching from fluids later. There are also two hollowed out wulfenite shells at the far left. This mine had a lot of various habits of wulfenite but unfortunately all in micro crystals.
Got this nice vein section from the northern contact zone of the Cligga Head granite mass yesterday afternoon:
Wall rock of metasedimentary clay-slate (killas) with a nearly three inch wide quartz vein carrying Wolframite, some Scorodite is also present a bluish green encrustations.
This specimen represents the extension of one of the greisen bordered sheeted veins where it has passed from the greisenised granite into the adjacent country rock.
Wall rock of metasedimentary clay-slate (killas) with a nearly three inch wide quartz vein carrying Wolframite, some Scorodite is also present a bluish green encrustations.
This specimen represents the extension of one of the greisen bordered sheeted veins where it has passed from the greisenised granite into the adjacent country rock.
Whilst visiting the Trevaunance Mine site yesterday afternoon, I spotted this freshly exposed patch of mine waste, turned up when a new cable stay was added to an electricity pole. Given it was right next to the road I thought it was worth a look as I was heading home:
Turned out to be a good call as I found three really good Cassiterite specimens in this little exposure:
Turned out to be a good call as I found three really good Cassiterite specimens in this little exposure:
A couple of nice celestine on calcite specimens dug last Tuesday in Emery County, Utah on the eastern flank of the San Rafael Swell. Photos (i.e., photographer) don't do them justice. Celestine1 is 8 x 13 cm with a 4 x 4 cm celestine cluster; Celestine2 is 5.5 x 8 cm with individual celestine blades to 1.5 cm.
Specimens of Cassiterite collected from a demolished hedge line during a site investigation of a new building plot located on part of the former Wheal Montague Mine site in June 2017.
A large block had split apart and the two halves were just sitting on a rubble pile glittering in the sun. These specimens are considerably trimmed down from the large sections of the block.
From the Marmoraton Iron Mine in Ontario - This place is just a huge place to collect at, and although the garnet gets all of the attention, there are some oddities such as this calcite with what appears to be microscopic fibrous actinolite that was growing throughout the calcite.
Also a nice spider that was actively devouring a live beetle...circle of life I suppose
Also a nice spider that was actively devouring a live beetle...circle of life I suppose
Here are the things that I found last weekend.
Analcime
Astrophyllite? (or Aegirine) (plus, sole yellowish mineral that I don't know)
Okay, my iPhone doesn't do a good job taking pictures of small minerals. But...Sabinaite?
Before you ask, I found them in Mont St. Hilaire.
There are more pictures to come.
Analcime
Astrophyllite? (or Aegirine) (plus, sole yellowish mineral that I don't know)
Okay, my iPhone doesn't do a good job taking pictures of small minerals. But...Sabinaite?
Before you ask, I found them in Mont St. Hilaire.
There are more pictures to come.
Self collected from dumps at Poldice Mine on the 30th July 2017 while out for an afternoon walk with my dog, I didn't have my collecting bag or hammers with me, only a hand lens in my pocket.
A large hand specimen showing crystalline Cassiterite to 4mm liberally sprinkled across this face of the specimen in cavities on the other faces and some minor amounts of Wolframite (in cavity towards upper right of specimen in this view) hosted in a matrix of tourmaline hornfels with chlorite.
When first found the specimen was heavily coated in dump growth iron oxides and only the small patch of Wolframite was visible, although the weight of the piece hinted at further mineralisation concealed by the muck.
It has been cleaned in oxalic acid to reveal the Cassiterite.
Some brown-ish axinite and green epidote from the Malone quarries in Ontario. Not only was I fortunate enough to be invited to this 'scheduled, club only' collecting site, but the weather was finally sunny after we got some much rain here this spring and early summer. My 1st axinite as well!
Axinite F.O.V roughly 25cm, epidote 15-20cm
Yes, it was collected in 2011. I don't know why, but I decided that in this thread we boast only by our fresh finds. But my last field trip took place in 2013 between two artritis attacs. Now I'm no longer a fare. :(
Hi Phil,
It is really amazing how mineralogy of these precambrian skarns are similar worldwide - the same orange calcites, diopsides, blue apatites, black spinels, brown pargasites you may to collect in Canada, Madagascar, Slyudyanka or Aldan.
When Gon deposit was in operation for its phlogopite, 10-12-cm size spinels weren't rarity here. Once I brought 6 kg complete and doubleterminated forsterite crystal from these skarns. But I haven't space in my apartment to store such large stones, so I exchanged it for 2-3 Langban's micros.
I collected 35-cm high books of phlogopite, but preserved only this one as souvenir.
Unfortunately I never met personally larger complete apatite crystal then this, but saw 30x10 cm fragments of them without terminations.
But all this was long ago in past for me.
Hi Phil,
It is really amazing how mineralogy of these precambrian skarns are similar worldwide - the same orange calcites, diopsides, blue apatites, black spinels, brown pargasites you may to collect in Canada, Madagascar, Slyudyanka or Aldan.
When Gon deposit was in operation for its phlogopite, 10-12-cm size spinels weren't rarity here. Once I brought 6 kg complete and doubleterminated forsterite crystal from these skarns. But I haven't space in my apartment to store such large stones, so I exchanged it for 2-3 Langban's micros.
I collected 35-cm high books of phlogopite, but preserved only this one as souvenir.
Unfortunately I never met personally larger complete apatite crystal then this, but saw 30x10 cm fragments of them without terminations.
But all this was long ago in past for me.
Found some small but nice sphalerite crystals at the Flamboro Quarry yesterday. My hands didn't get too dirty since I was wearing gloves! They are not TOO amazing in the world of sphalerite but sure were fun collecting!
The complex brownish crystal is about 20mm across. The plate with little clusters is 55mm across. The gemmy clustered specimen is 45mm across.
David K. Joyce
The complex brownish crystal is about 20mm across. The plate with little clusters is 55mm across. The gemmy clustered specimen is 45mm across.
David K. Joyce
Found some decent blue hemimorphite digging in the tailings of the reclaimed Memphis Mine, Organ Mountains, Dona Ana Co., New Mexico on 8/20/2017
Golden calcite from Crystal Hill Mine, Colorado. Two generation growth, golden scalenohedrons with colorless composite form crystals (modified scalenohedron?). On a crystallize manganese matrix.
There is a calcite paramorph of quartz on the bottom right in the 1st image, or on the left in the 2nd image. You can see a grey prism (quartz) and the white mass are white calcite crystals. My next post is a lose paramorph very much like the one in this image.
Approximately 15 cm x 8cm
There is a calcite paramorph of quartz on the bottom right in the 1st image, or on the left in the 2nd image. You can see a grey prism (quartz) and the white mass are white calcite crystals. My next post is a lose paramorph very much like the one in this image.
Approximately 15 cm x 8cm
White to light golden colored calcite scalenohedron crystals paramorph of a single quartz crystal. Calcite enveloped 3/4ths the quartz exposing a single crystal prism. There were many tiny quartz crystals within the breccia that the calcite formed in, and produced a few paramorph specimens, some on matrix with the golden calcite (see previous post by me, the bottom right of the specimen is another paramorph).
Crystal Hill Mine, Saguache Co., Colorado -- 3.5 cm tall
Crystal Hill Mine, Saguache Co., Colorado -- 3.5 cm tall
This is the largest known at the locality dark platy crystal of Ferriperbøeite-(Ce). It penetrates through greenish-grey rounded crystal of Tornebohmite-(Ce). Additionally here is section of brown prismatic xl of Biraite-(Ce) at right and couple redish-brown lustrous grains of Fergusonite-(Ce) (or may be Fergusonite-(Nd) - I didn't check) in the upper right corner of the photo.
Here two brownish-grey grains of Biraite-(Ce) are visible below and right from it, and large yellowish Cordylite-(Ce) grain to left from the center of the photo. FOW is ~12 mm.
It was find recently in sample from border zone of Cordilitovaya vein collected by me in 2004.
Here two brownish-grey grains of Biraite-(Ce) are visible below and right from it, and large yellowish Cordylite-(Ce) grain to left from the center of the photo. FOW is ~12 mm.
It was find recently in sample from border zone of Cordilitovaya vein collected by me in 2004.
Usual size of Ferriperbøeite-(Ce) from this deposit is in 100 times smaller.
Medium bright plates of Ferriperbøeite-(Ce) are penetrated by two prismatic striated Ferriallanite-(Ce) and intergrows with brightmost isometric crystal of Monazite-(Ce).
Collected by me in Ternebomitovaya vein in 2004, but photographed today.
This is very small grain of golden Chalcopyrite with microscopic bluish Galena cube inside of it and surrounded by purple Bornite spurs.
Surrounding carbonate matrix is Aragonite-Strontianite intermediate member (Ca0.5Sr0.5)[CO3]. Above and below are two plates of greenish Talk.
This is the first Bornite recorded for the locality.
Medium bright plates of Ferriperbøeite-(Ce) are penetrated by two prismatic striated Ferriallanite-(Ce) and intergrows with brightmost isometric crystal of Monazite-(Ce).
Collected by me in Ternebomitovaya vein in 2004, but photographed today.
This is very small grain of golden Chalcopyrite with microscopic bluish Galena cube inside of it and surrounded by purple Bornite spurs.
Surrounding carbonate matrix is Aragonite-Strontianite intermediate member (Ca0.5Sr0.5)[CO3]. Above and below are two plates of greenish Talk.
This is the first Bornite recorded for the locality.
I got to collect a few minerals whilst on holiday in Colorado, topaz, aquamarine, gold, fluorite, baryte, vesuvianite , diopside, and some zeolite types and whilst we were on our way back from a trip to Wyoming to watch a big lump of anorthositic basalt move in front of the sun we found some heavy black mineral which Jim identified as magnetite but once we got back to Jim's we discovered its actually a variety of magnetite called titaniferous magnetite. So far i have only taken images of my zeolites and gold.
The zeolites are thomsonite-Ca and chabazite Ca from North table mountain, Golden, Colorado, and the gold is from my first experience of gold panning in Clear creek, Colorado.
The zeolites are thomsonite-Ca and chabazite Ca from North table mountain, Golden, Colorado, and the gold is from my first experience of gold panning in Clear creek, Colorado.
One of the best red beryl specimens I have personally collected, recently re-photographed
This outcrop of Taylor Creek Rhyolite was discovered in Summer 2015 by Jerry Cone and has since yielded dozens of red beryl specimens. The red beryl is associated with quartz, feldspar, hematite, possibly ilmentite, and clay, but common minerals locally such as bixbyite, pseudobrookite, and cassiterite seem to be absent here.
This outcrop of Taylor Creek Rhyolite was discovered in Summer 2015 by Jerry Cone and has since yielded dozens of red beryl specimens. The red beryl is associated with quartz, feldspar, hematite, possibly ilmentite, and clay, but common minerals locally such as bixbyite, pseudobrookite, and cassiterite seem to be absent here.
In the early 1970's I had gone to collect at the Old Yuma Mine. It was then open to visitors and not in the Saguaro National Monument, as it is now.
You could look over Tucson from the mine. I didn't go underground and collected in the various diggings near the surface.
The vanadinite was a lot more common than the wulfenite the mine is known for.
The photos here are of one of my favorite self collected pieces with a different shape for vanadinite. All three photos are of areas on the same specimen.
On the 24th December 2014 I found this nice little specimen of Cassiterite in a quartz-feldspar matrix on the dumps of Reeds Shaft at Unity Wood Mine:
The piece had obviously been recently broken apart as there were fairly sharp edges and the face showing in this view was distinctly fresher looking than the rest of the specimen. At the time I looked around to see if the other half had been left around but was unable to find it.
Moving forward to 22nd October 2017 and I decided to take Pip for a walk at Unity Wood on our way back from scouring Trevaunance Cove beach following a storm in the week that had shifted the shingle around.
As we passed Reeds Shaft I decided to have another look around, at first finding some modest Wolframite and an interesting vein section carrying minor Cassiterite. Just as I was getting ready to move on, I looked down and right at my feet, partially poking out from under another rock, was the other half of the above specimen, needless to say it came home with me:
The two halves side by side:
And fitted together:
The piece had obviously been recently broken apart as there were fairly sharp edges and the face showing in this view was distinctly fresher looking than the rest of the specimen. At the time I looked around to see if the other half had been left around but was unable to find it.
Moving forward to 22nd October 2017 and I decided to take Pip for a walk at Unity Wood on our way back from scouring Trevaunance Cove beach following a storm in the week that had shifted the shingle around.
As we passed Reeds Shaft I decided to have another look around, at first finding some modest Wolframite and an interesting vein section carrying minor Cassiterite. Just as I was getting ready to move on, I looked down and right at my feet, partially poking out from under another rock, was the other half of the above specimen, needless to say it came home with me:
The two halves side by side:
And fitted together:
The gypsum in the bank in the first photo with our friend Jeffrey Anderson took a couple of hours to work out and the second photo shows the material we got this trip.
Unfortunately the location is closed to the public but our property has a gate to the property and we have permission from the owner to have access to the land.
Only place we have found this type of gypsum in our SE Arizona area.
So many neat and realistic minerals being posted. Unfortunately too often only the most beautiful, undamaged stuff gets posted and field collectors have nothing realistic to compare to. Here is some that I collected in an area of new suburban developments in Ottawa, ON 's west end. We have: dark brown titanite, shiny graphite, dravite tourmaline (had some tested). The site feels like a giant fresh roadcut!
For JOHN MONGOMERY, these examples from Monroe County Indiana might be considered "hoppered calcites".
A 7 cm blue chalcedony geode with a 4 cm "hoppered" and triple terminated pink calcite.
a 9 cm chalcedony geode with a 6.5 cm complex group of orangish "hoppered" calcites
Both examples were self-collected about 12 years ago. CHEERS.......BOB
A 7 cm blue chalcedony geode with a 4 cm "hoppered" and triple terminated pink calcite.
a 9 cm chalcedony geode with a 6.5 cm complex group of orangish "hoppered" calcites
Both examples were self-collected about 12 years ago. CHEERS.......BOB
Here is an image of the Calumet material before etching the calcite from the various minerals; actinolite (v. uralite), epidote, and/or magnetite. The dark splotchy areas are hopefully small matrix specimens of uralite or epidote. Once the calcite is dissolved away, you get specimens like what Chris posted.
I am far behind Chris however, I got ill after we went there during a beuatiful 50+ degree day! 2nd image is another calcite hunk, with more promise as you can see large uralite crystals frozen in place.
I am far behind Chris however, I got ill after we went there during a beuatiful 50+ degree day! 2nd image is another calcite hunk, with more promise as you can see large uralite crystals frozen in place.
A Cassiterite specimen fresh from the dumps of Trevaunance Mine, St Agnes.
Self collected yesterday morning (22/01/2018) whilst waiting for an excavation to be pumped out in order to undertake site investigation to check for unrecorded mine workings.
Specimen well coated with dump growth oxides and some lichen.
The same specimen after carefully trimming off the excess barren matrix, a bath in hypochlorite to remove the organics and three hours in hot oxalic acid to remove the worst of the iron oxides.
This has revealed a lot more crystallisation than was originally visible in the field.
The specimen after a further hot oxalic acid bath.
Jeff - it's always fun for me to try and re-discover minerals when our Canadian winter comes and leaves you basically bored as a field collector. I've found neat things by taking large pieces and breaking them down into smaller ones in the quite cold, but endurable garage;) You can also try new acid etching like you are doing or take samples of odd stuff and send it in for analysis. I once though my mother-in-law had found a zircon in an odd place (shape exposed was similar) so I send it in for analysis - turned out to be garnet in the end.
I'll throw-up a couple photos of garnet on that note; from 2017 collecting season. 1st is garnet from Marmoraton Iron mine that took about 200 hammer strikes since it was embedded on a completely flat giant boulder. 2nd set was meters away from my father's trailer at a campground just south of Notre-Dame du Laus, Quebec. You never know what you can find if you pay attention;)
I'll throw-up a couple photos of garnet on that note; from 2017 collecting season. 1st is garnet from Marmoraton Iron mine that took about 200 hammer strikes since it was embedded on a completely flat giant boulder. 2nd set was meters away from my father's trailer at a campground just south of Notre-Dame du Laus, Quebec. You never know what you can find if you pay attention;)
Here's a recent actinolite and epidote specimen found with Chris Rayborn earlier in January. We found some nice calcite encrusted mineral specimens. Some are up to 30+ pounds and I have no idea how I will be able to work with those.. Maybe trim them down after removing the calcite...
I'll take some better images (esp on the epidote) later but this little guy has some nice fibrous actinolite and uralite (actinolite pseudo pyroxene mineral) and double terminated epidote to 15mm.
I'll take some better images (esp on the epidote) later but this little guy has some nice fibrous actinolite and uralite (actinolite pseudo pyroxene mineral) and double terminated epidote to 15mm.
Here's a specimen before it's HCl bath and then after. It's not the best specimen but is a good representation of what these specimens look like when pulled from the mine...
Before:
After: EDIT: Just realized I used the wrong picture LOL!!! Just found the correct one and its really blurry... Anyway, this is how the average specimen looks after the calcite baths:
Before:
After: EDIT: Just realized I used the wrong picture LOL!!! Just found the correct one and its really blurry... Anyway, this is how the average specimen looks after the calcite baths:
Jeffrey Anderson and I collected in the St. David area of SE Arizona and he brought over his "treasure", the long cluster of fish tail crystals he dug out with me on the last trip out to the spot. He brought if over the other day so I could get a couple of photos of it and said he would like it if I posted it since he is not on mindat. So, here is Jeffrey's piece and a wonderful one too.
It's great that new people feel free to post here - Vma nice calcites. I believe that people get better feedback with photos vs links though, but I opened all of yours since I'm not too picky/lazy;) haha Vma - once you know the basics of the geology of where you are collecting, then you can get a very good idea of what could be found. Sometimes for new collectors, it helps to look through photos in the general area on mindat to get a feel for what is nearby.
Forgive the quick phone photos - I'll post a nice translucent aquamarine from the Beryl Pit, ON, and a tremolite which somehow remained intact in the calcite in a neat way from Musclow-Greenview roadcuts near Bancroft, ON.
Forgive the quick phone photos - I'll post a nice translucent aquamarine from the Beryl Pit, ON, and a tremolite which somehow remained intact in the calcite in a neat way from Musclow-Greenview roadcuts near Bancroft, ON.
Calumet mine -- round 2, found a nice hunk of calcite with epidote crystals poking out on the sides... I knew it was a good one as the epidote were on all sides. Here is an ACTUAL before and after images of how this material looks when pulled from the tailings, and then after maybe 5 hours in a HCl bath (anyone interested in working these specimens must take SUPREME care with HCl and calcite, this stuff fizzes like crazy and sends acid mists in the air, use caution)...
Before
After
Before
After
A nice little specimen of crystalline Cassiterite found at the northern end of the old mens workings in Unity Wood lying within the Unity Wood Mine sett a short distance to the south of its boundary with Killifreth Mine.
This view shows it after just having the worst of the mud washed off it:
Same specimen after cleaning:
This view shows it after just having the worst of the mud washed off it:
Same specimen after cleaning:
This is a find from June last year. I just trimmed and cleaned it last night. This is my favorite pseudomorph found in chalcedony geodes in Saguache County. The "caterpillar" is 5 cm long and has a coating that is fluorescent. This is quite an unusual find, as the vast majority of the pseudomorphs are just rhombs. This is the only one found like it in the many days I've dug at this location.
My guess is that there once was a rhomb that was twinned, and it just kept growing and growing into its current form.
My guess is that there once was a rhomb that was twinned, and it just kept growing and growing into its current form.
A large specimen of tourmaline hornfels featuring a good sized vug of highly lustrous Cassiterite crystals, well coated in fine silt when found, this has had the benefit of protecting them from damage. Collected on 14th April 2018 from an excavation on the North Seal Hole Mine, part of the St Agnes Consols group.
Very nice specimen once cleaned:
After cleaning:
Very nice specimen once cleaned:
After cleaning:
Some of the other specimens found at the North Seal Hole site on the same day as the Cassiterite above:
I had collected this years ago at the famous CN dump right in the middle of Bancroft, ON. The material is from the Golding-Keene quarry nearby which is now a provincial park. It contains blue sodalite, white nepheline and black mica. There is also traces of what is believed to be a radiactive mineral possibly containing uranium which displays as an amazing eerie green color under short-wave UV light!
If anyone ever got this fluorescing green analysed please feel free to share what exactly it is. The snow out here is finally gone and the fingernails are gettin' dirty;)
A large specimen showing coarse Cassiterite crystals lining a joint surface in metasedimentary rock that formed one side of a vein.
Collected on the 12th May from dumps of old workings of Cligga mine close to the granite-killas contact.
When first collected only a few crystals were visible, but careful removal of a chlorite/limonite vein filling that was present revealed a large number of pristine crystals up to 10mm.
An exceptional example that shows that good specimens can still be found if a bit of perseverance is applied.
Chris, I agree, I kept a few larger matrix specimens in hope to trim. But when I brought them home I could not see how to do so without damaging the baryte... That mineral is so brittle...
[attachment 75555
These two probably won't last a trim:
IMG_20180505_1728497812.jpg]
Got lucky with this one, the baryte survived but wasn't the most aesthetic trim:
[attachment 75555
These two probably won't last a trim:
IMG_20180505_1728497812.jpg]
Got lucky with this one, the baryte survived but wasn't the most aesthetic trim:
Here are my first finds for this year.
Note: This Spinel is the size of a die.
These Spinels, that I've found on the day that I went to Des Cedres Dam, were mostly around 5-6mm. The best one was like 1.5cm. Most of the good stuff are completely stuck on the boulders at the occerance. It's one of those locations that requires advanced tools like a big chisel and an electric drill. Right now, one of the other findings that I've found on that day is in a small container of vinegar.
Note: This Spinel is the size of a die.
These Spinels, that I've found on the day that I went to Des Cedres Dam, were mostly around 5-6mm. The best one was like 1.5cm. Most of the good stuff are completely stuck on the boulders at the occerance. It's one of those locations that requires advanced tools like a big chisel and an electric drill. Right now, one of the other findings that I've found on that day is in a small container of vinegar.
On a club trip, found a very small vug that had a couple fluorite cubes. This was the largest, its little over 2cm and its on the host rock of the vug. I like the yellow, lilac and blue hues within the crystal. Its quite gemmy too, but the luster is slightly muted. It has little round spots on the surface, probably from goethite. However, it cleaned off with just soap and water!
Behind some of the pegmatite was the tiny vug. It was just big enough to form the fluorite, a few smokies up to 1.5 cm, and some curved microcline. Unfortunately, after 2 days of digging, all that was found was this little vug. I did find a good pocket about a month ago in the same spot, but the peg appears to be thinning out in all directions. So it appears this spot is done...
Behind some of the pegmatite was the tiny vug. It was just big enough to form the fluorite, a few smokies up to 1.5 cm, and some curved microcline. Unfortunately, after 2 days of digging, all that was found was this little vug. I did find a good pocket about a month ago in the same spot, but the peg appears to be thinning out in all directions. So it appears this spot is done...
1.5" long nicely striated and complete schorl crystal in a small calcite pod in traprock with the termination of another small crystal visible. Self collected many years ago from a small find at the Lafarge quarry in Churchville, Maryland. It now resides in its final resting place in the dry-stacked retaining wall I built behind my house. The 5' black rat snake in the third pic is for scale.
These two azurite pieces I collected twice, first time at the Last Chance Mine in Courtland Arizona back in the 1970's and had a pile on our back yard with ores from there. Yesterday I brought in two boxes of the dirty old pieces and put them through the sonic cleaner and then split what looked good on the outside. These two were in a couple of the specimens. Kind of fun to think of them lying out on the mine dumps for many years, then in our pile for many more years and they were still very nice inside. I was happy and they went in my main collection.
Getting back on topic.
I found this specimen at Poldice Mine on Saturday the 9th June:
It had been broken apart and the half with the greater number of crystals was just sitting on the dump in plain view, the crytals are razor sharp and have a very high lustre.
The other half of the piece was found after a short search. Odd that someone had broken it then left it, as it is a stunning specimen with crystals to around 2.5mm.
A return visit on Sunday the 10th yielded this:
A large hand specimen with crystals to 4mm, this one took a lot more finding as was absolutely filthy when discovered, but has cleaned up well.
I found this specimen at Poldice Mine on Saturday the 9th June:
It had been broken apart and the half with the greater number of crystals was just sitting on the dump in plain view, the crytals are razor sharp and have a very high lustre.
The other half of the piece was found after a short search. Odd that someone had broken it then left it, as it is a stunning specimen with crystals to around 2.5mm.
A return visit on Sunday the 10th yielded this:
A large hand specimen with crystals to 4mm, this one took a lot more finding as was absolutely filthy when discovered, but has cleaned up well.
Houselog Creek, Saguache Co. Colorado, here's a 1cm rhomb pseudomorph of chalcedony after calcite. It's more of a deep blue than black of which this camera couldn't produce very well. It was found face first in the sandy debris of the tailings. I like the multitude of little rhombs on the surface, and an odd shaped Crystal next to it, as well as the contrast of the pseudo to the white chalcedony matrix.
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
I had the pleasure of being on the mapping team for the Oroville Spillway repair last year. These sites are now under 10-150 feet of concrete, and I had to collect between blasting and cleaning crews stomping over them.
Quartz from the Oroville Spillway, Oroville, Ca, USA. These were etched from calcite.
Stilbite
Quartz from the Oroville Spillway, Oroville, Ca, USA. These were etched from calcite.
Stilbite
I'd like to share some photos of my trip to the Hooper Mine in New York State's Adirondack Park. The mine was mined for industrial grade garnet to be used in sandpaper. Mr. Hooper later went to work at the well known Barton Garnet mine a few miles away. There is still garnet mining done nearby slightly north of Hooper mine. I cannot find a way to trim down the photos, so I'll post in two separate posts.
Here are some recent finds from the Kaladar marble quarry. I was hoping for the apparent emerald green diopside to 10 cm long as per Ann Sabina's guide. This is what is typical of the locality (actinolite-tremolite) which is similar in appearance to Grace Lake Occ. a few hours west, and possibly some talc (grey colored) . A neat spot with some ruins still intact nonetheless;)
. Goldfield Nevada. This High Grade Epithermal Gold Specimen is from the famous Rustler #2 and Florence Mines. The Native Gold is associated with Famatinite, Cryptocrystalline Quartz, Bismuthinite and Quartz. The specimen also contains Dacite Alunite and Milltown Andesite. Found on July 15th, 2018. 5/8” x 5/8” x 3/16”..
I took a rare summer trip to New Mexico last weekend (usually a winter destination for me) and collected at the Blanchard Mine in Socorro County. We chose an outcrop of silicified limestone just outside the main adits. After a half-hour of sledge and chisel work, I opened a crack and was able to lift a large slab off of the top of the outcrop. Underneath was a wide seam of fluorite and baryte with numerous vugs. Bingo! We recovered dozens of nice fluorite plates, baryte clusters and combos. Photos show:
IMG_1550: The fluorite/baryte seam, just after I uncovered it
IMG_1551: The underside of the slab that covered the seam
IMG_1553: Freshly dug fluorite and barite waiting to be wrapped. The large baryte on the lower left is roughly 15 cm long.
IMG_1550: The fluorite/baryte seam, just after I uncovered it
IMG_1551: The underside of the slab that covered the seam
IMG_1553: Freshly dug fluorite and barite waiting to be wrapped. The large baryte on the lower left is roughly 15 cm long.
nice finds Sean and John,
This is a high grade vein piece from Cobalt. It was attached to about a 250 lb boulder I metal detected under a jumble of spruce trees. My son and I managed to detach it from the boulder. The first photo shows the underside which was on the diabase rock and the second the outside rind which has been exposed to the elements for 100 years perhaps. It weighs 2 lbs 10 oz and is just under half an inch thick
This is a high grade vein piece from Cobalt. It was attached to about a 250 lb boulder I metal detected under a jumble of spruce trees. My son and I managed to detach it from the boulder. The first photo shows the underside which was on the diabase rock and the second the outside rind which has been exposed to the elements for 100 years perhaps. It weighs 2 lbs 10 oz and is just under half an inch thick
Hi Matt,
As the "founder" of this thread, not sure if you're entertaining samples collected in the southern hemisphere? If so, here are two specimens I collected in July 2017 while visiting the defunct Berg Aukas mine in the Otavi Mountainland, Namibia.
This specimen (7.4 cm) is an intergrowth of dendritic descloizite and white dolomite crystals:
This one (8.5 cm) is a hand-specimen I picked up off the dumps and subsequently had cut and one side polished. It shows cores of red-orange vanadinite mixed with descloizite and partly rimmed by dark green-brown descloizite. The white matrix is mainly dolomite with some minor smithsonite:
As the "founder" of this thread, not sure if you're entertaining samples collected in the southern hemisphere? If so, here are two specimens I collected in July 2017 while visiting the defunct Berg Aukas mine in the Otavi Mountainland, Namibia.
This specimen (7.4 cm) is an intergrowth of dendritic descloizite and white dolomite crystals:
This one (8.5 cm) is a hand-specimen I picked up off the dumps and subsequently had cut and one side polished. It shows cores of red-orange vanadinite mixed with descloizite and partly rimmed by dark green-brown descloizite. The white matrix is mainly dolomite with some minor smithsonite:
Chalcedony pseudomorph of calcite from jasper laden geodes. Saguache County, Colorado. July 28th find.
What makes the this one unique is the isolated rhomb, and its blue in color on white matrix. Most specimens that I have found are clusters, and many have the same color as the matrix. It has interesting rhombic features on the surface. There is another crystal next to it, about 3-4 mm, that has a different shape, a modified or maybe twinned rhome that creates a triangular shape with blue zoning as well.
Sorry for the lack of quality on the images. My regular camera is packed up for a move. The camera on my phone is mediocre at best...
What makes the this one unique is the isolated rhomb, and its blue in color on white matrix. Most specimens that I have found are clusters, and many have the same color as the matrix. It has interesting rhombic features on the surface. There is another crystal next to it, about 3-4 mm, that has a different shape, a modified or maybe twinned rhome that creates a triangular shape with blue zoning as well.
Sorry for the lack of quality on the images. My regular camera is packed up for a move. The camera on my phone is mediocre at best...
Thanks Chris. I thought your finds were quite unique especially the larger cluster of dogtooth pseudos. It seems the calcite morphology differs quite a bit from just a short distance from each dig.
This is another example of how dirty some of the geodes get, when they are closer to the surface... I almost missed this specimen until I saw a tiny rhomb sticking out of the dirt.
With just a rinse, the dirt comes off easily. I didn't have high expectations until I rinsed it, and it revealed black pseudos. The colors I've seen in these pseudos go from colorless, blue, black, yellow, and pink.
This is another example of how dirty some of the geodes get, when they are closer to the surface... I almost missed this specimen until I saw a tiny rhomb sticking out of the dirt.
With just a rinse, the dirt comes off easily. I didn't have high expectations until I rinsed it, and it revealed black pseudos. The colors I've seen in these pseudos go from colorless, blue, black, yellow, and pink.
looks like a big feldspar Jeff, judging by the surrounding crystals. Here is another high grade vein piece from Cobalt just shy of 2lbs.
@ Chris, Cobalt is a fascinating place and well worth a visit anyone interested in early hard rock mining history or collecting not just silver but many other metals. Amazing to think veins like the little silver vein could be tapped at the surface in the Cobalt heyday
https://www.mindat.org/loc-213702.html
@ Chris, Cobalt is a fascinating place and well worth a visit anyone interested in early hard rock mining history or collecting not just silver but many other metals. Amazing to think veins like the little silver vein could be tapped at the surface in the Cobalt heyday
https://www.mindat.org/loc-213702.html
I dug this loose columbite out of the dumps of the first prospect near the power line cut at the Case Beryl Prospects in Portland, Connecticut under permit in 2016. Most of the columbites found here are small and acicular, but this one exhibits classic columbite habit and has some of the irridescence often seen on the crystal faces. I was told this is a huge columbite for the locale and even the state. The best part of finding this was that it was buried in the dumps about a foot above an old beer can so obviously somebody missed it in their search for beryl.
-Guy
-Guy
Here's a 16.5 cm specimen of pink halite collected from the evaporitic salt pans on the Skeleton Coast of Namibia. The pale pink colour is caused by algae. The second photo is from the pan. At the bottom right you can see the crusts of halite occurring veins. The best specimens come from around the edges of the pans where the larger crystals aggregate.
These are chunks of calcite with fluor-richterite were collected by me in the late 70's near Wilberforce, Ontario. I'm just starting to work on these and am hoping to get a few nice pieces.
This first photo shows the material and some of the buckets to be used. The weight of the rocks ranges from one kilo up to 30 kilos, most being about 20kg.
The second photo is a closer look at one of the large pieces, a 30 kg chunk with large crystals everywhere in it. I have high hopes that this one might provide a good specimen.
This photo shows one of the large pieces submerged in a pail soaking in muriatic acid and water. The volume of calcite being dissolved is great so the process requires quite a lot of acid. But as can be seen, the results are worth it. The crystals can clearly be seen starting to emerge from the matrix. Another full day in the bath should liberate most of the broken crystals from the surface and begin to reveal complete ones inside the calcite.
This first photo shows the material and some of the buckets to be used. The weight of the rocks ranges from one kilo up to 30 kilos, most being about 20kg.
The second photo is a closer look at one of the large pieces, a 30 kg chunk with large crystals everywhere in it. I have high hopes that this one might provide a good specimen.
This photo shows one of the large pieces submerged in a pail soaking in muriatic acid and water. The volume of calcite being dissolved is great so the process requires quite a lot of acid. But as can be seen, the results are worth it. The crystals can clearly be seen starting to emerge from the matrix. Another full day in the bath should liberate most of the broken crystals from the surface and begin to reveal complete ones inside the calcite.
This photo shows a number of smaller pieces that were worked on yesterday, as well as a few loose crystals I thought worth keeping. They will be soaked in clean water until all traces of acid are removed. I'm unsure about keeping these on matrix because the calcite takes on an unnatural, pearly look from the acid-etching. Anyone got thoughts on this?
And finally, here's a closer look at one of the specimens after a day in the acid bath. It's curious that the acid-etching accentuates around the crystal outlines and does not etch the rock equally all around. This piece can probably still use a bit of reduction and could possibly even be split to make two specimens.
And finally, here's a closer look at one of the specimens after a day in the acid bath. It's curious that the acid-etching accentuates around the crystal outlines and does not etch the rock equally all around. This piece can probably still use a bit of reduction and could possibly even be split to make two specimens.
This is a bit of a re-discovery for me. Collected the material at the Reef Mine in SE Arizona years ago and it was sitting in a pile outside for years. Had collected mostly for the scheelite and these didn't glow so they say.
On reexamination I discovered they had very nice stolzite in some of the mineralized quartz.
Just took these photos yesterday from the pieces I had trimmed to put in the collection.
This week-end I visited the crazy locality of native lead close to Voronezh city. The locality is represented by pipe-like structure hosted in white chalks and composed by silicified limestone breccia. The pipe is opened at right slope of small ravine washed out within chalk layers.
Local name of such formations is "diva".
Here structure of the breccia
and its cement are shown:
Local name of such formations is "diva".
Here structure of the breccia
and its cement are shown:
Most of nuggets were found at the slope under the pipe (with MD and simply by eyes). Many balls and half-balls 3-7 mm size were found.
This is my personal prey.
Main part of rich native lead from the pipe itself was already collected before us, so we found only one platy nugget right in situ. It was found occasionaly during hammering of the wall.
The lead is very pure (no admixtures of Sn, Sb, S weren't detected in microprobe sensitivity limits. Accompanied mineralization is represented by lead carbonates and oxides. Host limestones contains about 10 wol.% of silica and up to 20 wol.% of heulandite-Ca.
And this is present to me of founder of the locality - larger nuggets covered with secondary minerals xls for further investigation.
This is my personal prey.
Main part of rich native lead from the pipe itself was already collected before us, so we found only one platy nugget right in situ. It was found occasionaly during hammering of the wall.
The lead is very pure (no admixtures of Sn, Sb, S weren't detected in microprobe sensitivity limits. Accompanied mineralization is represented by lead carbonates and oxides. Host limestones contains about 10 wol.% of silica and up to 20 wol.% of heulandite-Ca.
And this is present to me of founder of the locality - larger nuggets covered with secondary minerals xls for further investigation.
Hi All, I was also out in the Grenville Metasedimentary Belt recently and collected some nice amphibole and fluorapatite crystals from weathered calcite vein-dykes. Gibson Road East with friends. If the amphibole crystals look unusual, it is because they are elongated, twinned crystals. The fluorapatite crystals have poor terminations but very nice prism faces. Very enjoyable time in the bush getting dirty.
David K. Joyce
David K. Joyce
Hi, again, All,
I was fortunate, recently, to have the opportunity to collect at the Flamboro Quarry, north of Dundas, Ontario. I was happy to locate a boulder with some pretty nice fluorite crystals and collected a couple of nice specimens. The single cube is 2.3cm on-edge and the matrix specimen is 12.5cm across. A good day!
David K. Joyce
I was fortunate, recently, to have the opportunity to collect at the Flamboro Quarry, north of Dundas, Ontario. I was happy to locate a boulder with some pretty nice fluorite crystals and collected a couple of nice specimens. The single cube is 2.3cm on-edge and the matrix specimen is 12.5cm across. A good day!
David K. Joyce
Nice David! I love the fluorite. Very sharp and clean.
I was up your way from Colorado a couple of weeks ago and got into a good vein of titanite and amphibole at Gibson Rd E (Titanite Hill). The amphiboles range up to 3 x 5 cm; the titanites are about 6 cm across. Interestingly, the vein had almost no apatite.
I was up your way from Colorado a couple of weeks ago and got into a good vein of titanite and amphibole at Gibson Rd E (Titanite Hill). The amphiboles range up to 3 x 5 cm; the titanites are about 6 cm across. Interestingly, the vein had almost no apatite.
Some really good finds guys!!! Don't forget the In-Situ topic, should any of you have images of the specimens you found in the original hole...
I have been in the middle of moving and setting up my new house, haven't had any time to go hunt for crystals... Now I need to jump back onto the bandwagon!!!
David, those fluorites are sure beautiful! Its become my favorite mineral to "hunt" for, as they aren't exactly elusive in Colorado, but not easy to find good crystals... This is a cube from Lake George, Colorado. Its hard to see, but it has blue, purple and yellow (staining??) zones in a mostly colorless crystal. It was found in a tiny vug while I was searching for good pockets.
I have been in the middle of moving and setting up my new house, haven't had any time to go hunt for crystals... Now I need to jump back onto the bandwagon!!!
David, those fluorites are sure beautiful! Its become my favorite mineral to "hunt" for, as they aren't exactly elusive in Colorado, but not easy to find good crystals... This is a cube from Lake George, Colorado. Its hard to see, but it has blue, purple and yellow (staining??) zones in a mostly colorless crystal. It was found in a tiny vug while I was searching for good pockets.
The Walker Mineralogical Club also went to the well-known French River occurrence this Fall. A bunch of us worked in blistering heat to recover nice aegirine crystals and crystal sections of bizarre-coloured deep yellow-orange cancrinite. I collected with Bob Beckett and here are a few pics of specimens we recovered. The large massive piece of cancrinite is 15.0cm across. The specimen showing a cancrinite crystal section with red altered rind is 12.0cm across. The field of view for the aegirine specimen is 4.0cm across. I'll post a couple more photos in a second post.
David K. Joyce
David K. Joyce
Here are a few more pics from the French River Occurrence:
This specimen is 7.0cm across and shows yellow-orange cancrinite, green aegirine and other alteration minerals.
Here is a view of the pit/trench where we worked. The cancrinite and other minerals of interest occur in seams and clots in mostly feldspar matrix.
Here is an in-situ pic of me taken by Bob Beckett, back at the lodge beside the French River, in the evening, relaxing after a shower with my banjo. I think there is a cold brewski there somewhere. BTW, the French River was part of one of the most important east-west canoe routes across Canada for Europeans for centuries and for indigenous people for much longer, of course.
Best,
David K Joyce
This specimen is 7.0cm across and shows yellow-orange cancrinite, green aegirine and other alteration minerals.
Here is a view of the pit/trench where we worked. The cancrinite and other minerals of interest occur in seams and clots in mostly feldspar matrix.
Here is an in-situ pic of me taken by Bob Beckett, back at the lodge beside the French River, in the evening, relaxing after a shower with my banjo. I think there is a cold brewski there somewhere. BTW, the French River was part of one of the most important east-west canoe routes across Canada for Europeans for centuries and for indigenous people for much longer, of course.
Best,
David K Joyce
In the theme of Titanite Hill - here is a before and after with some slightly altered titanite, along with some dark amphiboles, and a small amount of grungy feldspar and apatite. Some of these require a lot of iron-removal.
The last shot is Titanite Hill's unofficial mascot - 'Theo the Toad' fearlessly protecting my digging spot. Let's just say he has an apatite for laughing at ridiculous filthy humans collecting rocks ;)
The last shot is Titanite Hill's unofficial mascot - 'Theo the Toad' fearlessly protecting my digging spot. Let's just say he has an apatite for laughing at ridiculous filthy humans collecting rocks ;)
I took a visit to one of my favourite St Agnes collecting sites on Sunday and found this rather unspectacular looking specimen:
After a good clean in oxalic acid it came out looking like this showing a layer of brown Cassiterite encrusting a joint surface:
This example gave a good response under short wave UV light:
The collecting trip was carried out under the watchful eye of Pip:
After a good clean in oxalic acid it came out looking like this showing a layer of brown Cassiterite encrusting a joint surface:
This example gave a good response under short wave UV light:
The collecting trip was carried out under the watchful eye of Pip:
Pip checking on proceedings
Beautiful Bronchantite Rolf! Quite often smashing boulders apart seems to be the only way to go at certain sites.
Here are some photos of the Frontenac Lead mine (Draper Lake) in Ontario where I was fortunate enough to go out collecting this year. The site goes back to 1886 and had gone down 6-levels to 270 feet in the first of 3 adits with numerous open cuts/trenches over the site. They had an aerial tram connecting the three adits over a distance of 4000 feet through small hills and forest.
Here are a few heavily overgrown site photos and a neat calcite encased with marcasite crystals, despite the photo not doing it any justice.
Here are some photos of the Frontenac Lead mine (Draper Lake) in Ontario where I was fortunate enough to go out collecting this year. The site goes back to 1886 and had gone down 6-levels to 270 feet in the first of 3 adits with numerous open cuts/trenches over the site. They had an aerial tram connecting the three adits over a distance of 4000 feet through small hills and forest.
Here are a few heavily overgrown site photos and a neat calcite encased with marcasite crystals, despite the photo not doing it any justice.
Well, the wifey has been a bit irritated lately as my rockhounding trips have taken chunks out of recent weekends. She told me I've temporarily lost my rockhounding privileges to any site that takes more than 20 minutes to get to from home. She complained recently that I have rocks on my mind, rocks in my head, rocks for brains... ...she may have a point.
So, while the family was still sleeping, I sneaked in a little mini trip to an inactive Serpentine quarry not too far from my house.
This quarry is reported to have calcite and aragonite. I certainly found both.
So, while the family was still sleeping, I sneaked in a little mini trip to an inactive Serpentine quarry not too far from my house.
This quarry is reported to have calcite and aragonite. I certainly found both.
This is kind of a fun collecting story. Two friends went into the field in SE Arizona a couple of weeks ago and I decided it was something I wanted to do also but not to where they had gone. I had collected the Fairbank Arizona railroad bed over the years and had the material in a pile in the yard at our house. Since the guys were out there I went to the pile and was looking at the limonite I had collected there and picked up one of the pieces and the piece was too heavy for just limonite and I took it to my breaking table and when I split the piece I was amazed at the sparkle inside.
Took the material into the house and looked under microscope and saw the great columnar groupings of crystals. Turned out to be plattnerite, identified by a Bisbee expert and the nicest I had found in Bisbee. The material came from overburden from about 1887 from the Copper Queen Mine area. Sure was fun to find something I had actually collected several years ago and besides lying in the desert for about 120 years, it lay in our yard for another ten before I actually "found" the specimens. My best plattnerite in our collection.
Here in Ottawa, Ontario we're back to cold temperatures and a foot of snow, so collecting season has basically come to an end. Here are some of my favorite finds this past summer from Dog Lake Occurence in Frontenac Co. They are diopside roughly2 to 4 cm in size, with some alteration to talc. Some of these at this locality come semi-gemmy while others are opaque; in browns, and off-white colors.
Hi Matt--Colorado is frozen up too, at least for the time being. Textbook diopside! Here are a few of my favorites from a thoroughly enjoyable 2018 collecting season. Apologies if I've posted any of these previously.
Blanchard fluorite: July 2018, Blanchard Mine, Socorro County, NM. 4 x 5 cm.
Calumet pyrite_uralite: Modified pyrite dodecahedrons on "uralite" (actinolite ps. diopside), March 2018, Calumet Mine, Chaffee County, CO. 4 x 8 cm.
Crystal Hill quartz: August 2018, Crystal Hill Mine, Saguache County, CO. 7 x 14 cm; individual crystals to 4 cm.
Blanchard fluorite: July 2018, Blanchard Mine, Socorro County, NM. 4 x 5 cm.
Calumet pyrite_uralite: Modified pyrite dodecahedrons on "uralite" (actinolite ps. diopside), March 2018, Calumet Mine, Chaffee County, CO. 4 x 8 cm.
Crystal Hill quartz: August 2018, Crystal Hill Mine, Saguache County, CO. 7 x 14 cm; individual crystals to 4 cm.
I was able to get at least one more dig here in Colorado. This pseudomorph (more of an epimorph) specimen was found in a new dig nearby Houselog Creek.
This is about 15 cm wide and has a neat double terminated Crystal perched aesthetically in the center. The camera didn't pick up the true color, it's actually a light purple. My camera sucks on this phone though.... Need an iPhone I guess...
Anyway, the last image shows a broken shell that has more pseudos inside the Crystal itself. I wonder how that happened...?
This is about 15 cm wide and has a neat double terminated Crystal perched aesthetically in the center. The camera didn't pick up the true color, it's actually a light purple. My camera sucks on this phone though.... Need an iPhone I guess...
Anyway, the last image shows a broken shell that has more pseudos inside the Crystal itself. I wonder how that happened...?
Nice pseudomorph Scott!
What makes a good specimen for me, a specimen I want to display in my collection, is a rock that represents the geology of where it was found AND it must have a sufficient amount of the desired mineral that I'm looking for. I will always take a mineral with a matrix over a larger crystallized mineral without a matrix. The more varieties of minerals on a specimen, the better!
Recently I took a field trip to the locally famous Ikuno Silver Mine in northern Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan. It's a really nice mine to visit as you can take a tour with a geologist of many of the tunnels in the mine. Some areas have exposed quartz veins filled with sulfide minerals. In some places there are black veins of silver!
Unfortunately collecting is not allowed in the immediate vicinity of the mine. but there are mineral filled quartz vein outcrops in the surrounding hills around the mine.
After leaving the mine, I did a reconnaissance of some of the creeks and ravines of the area and found this rock dominated by a quartz vein running through it. This rock shows how hydrothermal fluids punched into the cracks and weaknesses of the rhyolite country rock and left behind these mineral-rich quartz veins.
Since Ikuno has produced an abundance of tin, copper and lead, I'm hoping the metallic crystals in the quartz are cassiterite. Cassiterite crystals are not abundant in Japan. There are also yellow specks of chalcopyrite and blue specks of what I believe to be bornite.
Included are pictures of the front and back of the specimen.
What makes a good specimen for me, a specimen I want to display in my collection, is a rock that represents the geology of where it was found AND it must have a sufficient amount of the desired mineral that I'm looking for. I will always take a mineral with a matrix over a larger crystallized mineral without a matrix. The more varieties of minerals on a specimen, the better!
Recently I took a field trip to the locally famous Ikuno Silver Mine in northern Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan. It's a really nice mine to visit as you can take a tour with a geologist of many of the tunnels in the mine. Some areas have exposed quartz veins filled with sulfide minerals. In some places there are black veins of silver!
Unfortunately collecting is not allowed in the immediate vicinity of the mine. but there are mineral filled quartz vein outcrops in the surrounding hills around the mine.
After leaving the mine, I did a reconnaissance of some of the creeks and ravines of the area and found this rock dominated by a quartz vein running through it. This rock shows how hydrothermal fluids punched into the cracks and weaknesses of the rhyolite country rock and left behind these mineral-rich quartz veins.
Since Ikuno has produced an abundance of tin, copper and lead, I'm hoping the metallic crystals in the quartz are cassiterite. Cassiterite crystals are not abundant in Japan. There are also yellow specks of chalcopyrite and blue specks of what I believe to be bornite.
Included are pictures of the front and back of the specimen.
Thanks for the advice David. Alfredo does indeed seem to know all the ins and outs of the mineral world out here.
Today's specimen was perhaps the best "mine dump" finds that I've found this year. I found this piece in orange, limonized mud at one of the pile of tailings at Kishu Copper Mine, Kiwa town, Mie Prefecture.
I only noticed it because a couple of the crystals were gleaming in the mud. After giving it an hcl bath and then letting it sit in Hydro Fighter (the Japanese version of Iron Out) I was pleasantly surprised to find lots of crystals of sphalerite and chalcopyrite imbedded in the quartz.
Specimen is roughly 9×6 cm.
Today's specimen was perhaps the best "mine dump" finds that I've found this year. I found this piece in orange, limonized mud at one of the pile of tailings at Kishu Copper Mine, Kiwa town, Mie Prefecture.
I only noticed it because a couple of the crystals were gleaming in the mud. After giving it an hcl bath and then letting it sit in Hydro Fighter (the Japanese version of Iron Out) I was pleasantly surprised to find lots of crystals of sphalerite and chalcopyrite imbedded in the quartz.
Specimen is roughly 9×6 cm.
Actually found this one twice. I had been to North Carolina back in the 1970's and camped out near the mine. Collected a number of pieces and had put them away in a box which ended up stored in my shed. Got the box out the other day and thought the emaralds in the mine had eluded me. Then came across a small pocket of the granular quartz and here were some emeralds after all. Took the photos yesterday. Was happy to find this in my long ago collected material.
Hello all,
I was fortunate to collect for a few days in Arizona last week. My best day was at the well-known Total Wreck Mine in Pima County. The reputedly terrible road into the mine wasn’t all that terrible, and I had the place to myself on a beautiful day. My best finds were in a small open pit just to the west of the main workings. The pit is guarded by a large bee hive, which I noticed only when the temperatures rose and the bees grew active. I’d been digging right below them. They were almost certainly Africanized, like most hives in Arizona, so I ruled out negotiation and left the pit to them.
Specimen 1b is approximately 3 x 6 cm. The FOV on each of the two close-ups is approximately 2x3 cm.
I was fortunate to collect for a few days in Arizona last week. My best day was at the well-known Total Wreck Mine in Pima County. The reputedly terrible road into the mine wasn’t all that terrible, and I had the place to myself on a beautiful day. My best finds were in a small open pit just to the west of the main workings. The pit is guarded by a large bee hive, which I noticed only when the temperatures rose and the bees grew active. I’d been digging right below them. They were almost certainly Africanized, like most hives in Arizona, so I ruled out negotiation and left the pit to them.
Specimen 1b is approximately 3 x 6 cm. The FOV on each of the two close-ups is approximately 2x3 cm.
The story of this specimen goes back to the 1970's. I had taken a trip to Colorado for collecting and asked at the mine office for the Sunnyside Mine about collecting at the mine for rhodonite but they said the mine was closed to collecting but the trucks that went by the office went up a steep hill to a processing plant and often chunks fell from the trucks and I was welcome to pick up any of the pieces with the pink by the road across from the office. I did just that and thanked them and took home a number of nice chunks with many metallics in the white quartz with a lot of pink. Later it turned out what people thought was rhodonite was actually pyroxmangite. I came across a big piece I had in our yard just a couple of days ago and broke it up to see what it held.
Inside were hollow spots in the quartz with small but nice crystals of sphalerite, chalcopyrite and even rhodochrosite but in these pockets I found the tiny needle like crystal groupings. The first photo shows the mostly white crystals that grew in two directions but in one pocket were the dark crystals but in the same habit as the white. I have no idea what the needle crystals are but my guess was some kind of etched rhodochrosite. Would love any input on what those crystals might be.
Back in March we took a trip to Tucson to visit my mother in law. I asked around and was directed to a group of hills that supposedly had an abandoned mine or exploratory dig that was safe to enter. I took my two boys, some tools, and plenty of water :-) and headed out. There were some other people there when we arrived but they were packing up to leave and we got to enter and explore on our own. The entrance is only about 24" high so we had to squeeze in. We found a nice vein of chrysocolla and pulled about 5 pounds out. The first image is of the entrance, the second is of me and the boys inside the mine, and then the vein. The post after has a couple of the pieces we pulled out.
Photo 1: Agate/Rhyolite nodule, dug in the Succor Creek area in eastern Oregon
2: Same kind of thing- This was a fun day of rock digging for these baseball-sized things (that look like crusty baseballs until one has the foresight to cut them open)
3: Calcium Sulfate deposit, also from the Succor Creek area only a few miles to the north of the baseball agates (and I'll let the viewer decide whether to call it Selenite, Gypsum, or just a plain old Calcium Sulfate deposit. Since that came up recently.)
2: Same kind of thing- This was a fun day of rock digging for these baseball-sized things (that look like crusty baseballs until one has the foresight to cut them open)
3: Calcium Sulfate deposit, also from the Succor Creek area only a few miles to the north of the baseball agates (and I'll let the viewer decide whether to call it Selenite, Gypsum, or just a plain old Calcium Sulfate deposit. Since that came up recently.)
Here's a good find for the 2019 year, found on January 5th!!!
Heres a unique 3cm red chalcedony pseudomorph of a complex calcite crystal (albeit it is broken and repaired). I have a new spot that produces red pseduos, this location has produced a lot of blue in the past so this is a good sign that my new spot is going to pan out!! Unfortunately the weather finally turned to winter here in Colorado. So I'll have to be patient to see what else this spot produces!
I hate my phone's camera. But I cannot locate my good camera unfortunately... A DSLR is in my near future...
Heres a unique 3cm red chalcedony pseudomorph of a complex calcite crystal (albeit it is broken and repaired). I have a new spot that produces red pseduos, this location has produced a lot of blue in the past so this is a good sign that my new spot is going to pan out!! Unfortunately the weather finally turned to winter here in Colorado. So I'll have to be patient to see what else this spot produces!
I hate my phone's camera. But I cannot locate my good camera unfortunately... A DSLR is in my near future...
My first two finds of 2019 that are worth taking pictures of:
From the 5th January:
From 13th January:
From the 5th January:
From 13th January:
Another Succor Creek area agate, this one a pure rounded nodule around two inches across, with really nice yellow and white banding. I didn't even need to cut it to show it off. It was just sitting on a hillside like this.
Agate again, though this one is from the Challis (central Idaho) area. This is typical of what they look like from this area when big enough to slice.
Flourite, from an abandoned mine complex about 40 miles northwest of Challis, Idaho. This isn't Illinois, so the fluorite from around here isn't as colorful or as nice as what they have in other parts of the country. This has nice crystal form though, if nothing else.
My son Daniel and I spent part of a day at Gringo Gulch, near Patagonia, AZ, two days ago and collected some nice quartz crystals (including a 3cm reverse sceptre) and quartz pseudomorphs after fluorite(?) at the quartz location PLUS my first vanadinite and descloizite. Secondary minerals! Kinda cool for guys from Canada where very few secondary minerals exist. Here are a few photos.
OH! and the quartz pseudomorphs after, I guess, fluorite. The pseudo's are totally hollow with no trace or hint of the previous mineral. No secondary minerals present. I found quite a few of these pseudomorphs at the "Quartz" location at Gringo Gulch, not the JC Holmes Claim. They are associated with full quartz crystals and sometimes calcite. The octahedra in the photos are up to 5mm or so on edge.
These are two pieces of chalcedony-jasper collected in Dry Canyon, Cochise County, Arizona. The interesting thing here is one time collecting there my wife Mary found an arrowhead made from this material and an abundance of the material was in the same canyon. This was a bit unusual since just about all the arrowheads we have found over the years were not made of material found in the same canyon. Unfortunately she gave the arrowhead to a child not long after she had found it. I had looked for it the other day and she said she had given it away. She had found it and has always been very generous with her finds toward kids.
Just thought the little story was of interest and I am sure there are a number of people who collect arrowheads on mindat.
A hand specimen of quartz matrix with Fluorite crystals, found on the 26th March 2019 at the Wheal Buller Mine site:
On the reverse of the piece this was noted when a little of the red mud was scraped off:
After careful cleaning this was revealed:
Considering this specimen was hauled out of the mine as waste, then thrown onto the burrows where it has sat for over 100 years, it is a remarkably good specimen.
View of whole specimen after cleaning:
Smaller crystals in near perfect condition deeper in the vug:
The main 10 mm crystal:
On the reverse of the piece this was noted when a little of the red mud was scraped off:
After careful cleaning this was revealed:
Considering this specimen was hauled out of the mine as waste, then thrown onto the burrows where it has sat for over 100 years, it is a remarkably good specimen.
View of whole specimen after cleaning:
Smaller crystals in near perfect condition deeper in the vug:
The main 10 mm crystal:
Nice Fluorite Dale. As spring is here I have been tasked with cleaning out the garage. This find from the Cobalt area happened to ready for freshen up. Now it is in the house.
Native silver with Cobalt arsenide and some fine pale green Tremolite crystals. 11cm 546 grams
Native silver with Cobalt arsenide and some fine pale green Tremolite crystals. 11cm 546 grams
Nice little rich Cassiterite specimen collected on the morning of Easter Sunday 2019, from dumps on the Wheal Vincent section of the Wheal Lushington / West Wheal Towan group of mines:
The same specimen following a good clean:
The same specimen following a good clean:
This plate is 13” from point to point and 6” wide. The smoky quartz crystal is 4” long. This plate has black tourmaline, Muscovite, microcline and another feldspar of unknown species. This unknown feldspar is a blue green color. The blue green feldspar grew over the graphic granite in the pocket wall.
Here are some Hartsel baryte found on a club trip last weekend. I think we all got a ton of crystals of varying qualities. I haven't upwrapped my best but here are some of my favorites that I have cleaned thus far. Please excuse my garbage photos, my phone camera is a joke and I am awaiting a new, better camera since someone stole my good camera last year...
6x4 cm, does have interesting color zoning:
6x4 cm, does have interesting color zoning:
A couple more. The first one is a cool bi-color floater, and the 2nd is a fat, thick crystal with some white zones on the termination. The thicker they get, the darker and more saturated the color can be!!! And some come out bi-color, with blue and yellow zoning. In those specimens, it appears that the blue is a phantom and the yellow color was the last to deposit. I haven't seen a yellow with blue outer zoning. Only blue cores!!
Then there are some that have white layers on the terminations. Those are more tabular in shape, but I found them up to 4 inches!!
Then there are some that have white layers on the terminations. Those are more tabular in shape, but I found them up to 4 inches!!
Found these last weekend right before a nasty thunderstorm hit. From Hartsel claims in Colorado.
A very good seam of numerous large clusters were found like this one. Its just been rinsed but not totally cleaned, but it has dozens of nice terminated crystals. It has not been in the sun so it could get more blue:
Some crystals from this spot had thick terminations and blue color right out of the ground with no known exposure to the sun. I found that some that were blue like that got really deep blue in color after being in the sun.
Some were faden like in their structure.
A very good seam of numerous large clusters were found like this one. Its just been rinsed but not totally cleaned, but it has dozens of nice terminated crystals. It has not been in the sun so it could get more blue:
Some crystals from this spot had thick terminations and blue color right out of the ground with no known exposure to the sun. I found that some that were blue like that got really deep blue in color after being in the sun.
Some were faden like in their structure.
So many great finds as well as variety!!
Two sites - 1st is the Clyde Forks mine, which was not easy to locate, but neat because of it's adit and azurite/malachite quite uncommon for this region of Ontario.
2nd site - the western edge of the Marcy anorthosite massif along a high peak trail - labradorite, which requires decent natural sunlight and moisture to show well until it is polished
Two sites - 1st is the Clyde Forks mine, which was not easy to locate, but neat because of it's adit and azurite/malachite quite uncommon for this region of Ontario.
2nd site - the western edge of the Marcy anorthosite massif along a high peak trail - labradorite, which requires decent natural sunlight and moisture to show well until it is polished
I posted this to the Facebook page earlier, but thought I'd share here, too.
Here's one of my favorite finds from my collecting trip today: Chrysotile on serpentine from the Stifle Claims, Traverse Creek Special Interest Area, near Georgetown, CA. 20x magnification (I know the focus is a little off, but I did 'asbestos' I could :D ) The chrysotile band is about 1-2 mm wide.
Here's one of my favorite finds from my collecting trip today: Chrysotile on serpentine from the Stifle Claims, Traverse Creek Special Interest Area, near Georgetown, CA. 20x magnification (I know the focus is a little off, but I did 'asbestos' I could :D ) The chrysotile band is about 1-2 mm wide.
Found early on Sunday 7th July at dump on the Pell section of St Agnes Consols, a 3mm solid venlet of Cassiterite in matrix, seen here having just broken part of the specimen and showing lots of organics coating it. Pip looks on patiently:
The specimen following a good clean:
The specimen following a good clean:
Hello,
its late here and I am tired to search the "in Situ" Thread, but before go to bed
Titanite x from Bulgaria ( May 2019 )
unfortunately repaired, but better than nothing
62x25x15mm, 37 gramm
https://www.mindat.org/loc-243767.html
my current photos are still waiting for confirmation
All the best
Marcus
its late here and I am tired to search the "in Situ" Thread, but before go to bed
Titanite x from Bulgaria ( May 2019 )
unfortunately repaired, but better than nothing
62x25x15mm, 37 gramm
https://www.mindat.org/loc-243767.html
my current photos are still waiting for confirmation
All the best
Marcus
For me personally, I have learned to photo document as much as possible in the moment. I have found that, obviously, much of the material that comes out of a pocket will piece together to form much larger pieces rather than large numbers of individuals. I try to separate all contacted and broken pieces. Later after cleaning and when I have spare time, I will do my best to piece as much of the pocket together as is possible. Sometimes this does nothing for the aesthetics of a piece that may look better as an individual. Other times the results are spectacular. I’ll see if I can find some repaired minerals I have collected. BTW, a totally awesome thread subject...
This one was two, nothing special, has a tourmaline needle running through one of the terminations.
This one double terminated floater cluster was 4 pieces. It took me a long time to find all the pieces and in fact it’s still missing a tiny fifth crystal.
This piece is 13” long and about 4-5” wide & tall. It came out in about 20-25 pieces but I was only able to piece back together 13 of them. We had tossed stuff that didn’t have terminations, I have since collected some of that stuff and repaired it but they still don’t all fit together with this chunk.
This one was two, nothing special, has a tourmaline needle running through one of the terminations.
This one double terminated floater cluster was 4 pieces. It took me a long time to find all the pieces and in fact it’s still missing a tiny fifth crystal.
This piece is 13” long and about 4-5” wide & tall. It came out in about 20-25 pieces but I was only able to piece back together 13 of them. We had tossed stuff that didn’t have terminations, I have since collected some of that stuff and repaired it but they still don’t all fit together with this chunk.
I have been doing some prospecting and have found mostly drift material from what I believe to be one (or more) collapsed pegmatite pockets in an area of Connecticut unknown to produce colored tourmalines. Most of the pieces of elbaite I have recovered are small and fractured but the colors are deep and amazing! I cannot find any reference to purple tourmaline occurring anywhere in the Connecticut.
I will also include some photos of several smoky quartz crystals I have recovered.
I will also include some photos of several smoky quartz crystals I have recovered.
...lastly two Native American artifacts I also recovered in and around the drift materials the first is knapped from milky quartz from the immediate area and the other is a finished but broken projectile point knapped from a high grade translucent flint/chert from well outside Connecticut's borders.
Aaron, those are some fantastic finds. I think finding a new site for colored tourmaline is one of the ultimate dream come true collecting experiences in the state.
I am no longer an active field collector but for years I enjoyed prospecting and found a few neat things in the woods. There is plenty of things left but patience is required to find and be able to collect them.
Here is some fluorite and some smoky quartz with orange crusty hemimorphite from one of the spots that provided me with countless dozens of hours of enjoyment in the forest of Connecticut. It took a lot of prospecting to find this site but I was able to do so by having a good scientific knowledge base and spending lots of time just walking and looking.
I am no longer an active field collector but for years I enjoyed prospecting and found a few neat things in the woods. There is plenty of things left but patience is required to find and be able to collect them.
Here is some fluorite and some smoky quartz with orange crusty hemimorphite from one of the spots that provided me with countless dozens of hours of enjoyment in the forest of Connecticut. It took a lot of prospecting to find this site but I was able to do so by having a good scientific knowledge base and spending lots of time just walking and looking.
A hand specimen of Siderite with Galena from an old location that is now largely obliterated:
The Wheal Boys site is now unrecognisable as being an old mine, the only giveaway is occasional pieces of mineralised mine waste built into some local buildings.
This specimen was found in a hedge at the site, unfortunately the crystals are a bit the worse for wear, but given it has probably sat there for over a century, the condition isn't too bad and is a decent specimen from this location.
The piece when found felt excessively heavy for Siderite alone and following a clean and trimming displayed a rich core of Galena:
The Wheal Boys site is now unrecognisable as being an old mine, the only giveaway is occasional pieces of mineralised mine waste built into some local buildings.
This specimen was found in a hedge at the site, unfortunately the crystals are a bit the worse for wear, but given it has probably sat there for over a century, the condition isn't too bad and is a decent specimen from this location.
The piece when found felt excessively heavy for Siderite alone and following a clean and trimming displayed a rich core of Galena:
Wheal Unity Wood, Chacewater, Cornwall, England, UK