Discussions

💬 Home 🔎 Search 📅 Latest

╳Discussions

💬 Home 🔎 Search 📅 Latest

Groups

Recent Images in Discussions

GeneralShattuckite location problems

20th May 2018 00:14 UTCRolf Luetcke Expert

Hello all,

Today we were in Bisbee and a situation came up I thought may be posted to the mineral community.

This has happened a few times that people show me a piece of cutting grade shattuckite and attribute the location to Bisbee.

I have studied this situation and spoken with the experts on Bisbee minerals and we all agree, Bisbee never produced cutting grade shattuckite. From the Shattuck Mine in Bisbee, the shattuckite was always in tiny acicular crystals and never in massive material.

Todays case was like several others I have come across where the shattuckite was from Ajo. African shattuckite can come in cutting material but not the specimen material.

So, if you have shattuckite supposedly from Bisbee in your collection and it is in massive form that is "cutting grade" it is not from Bisbee.

Since I have seen this a number of times now I thought I pass this along to the collecting community and maybe it will correct a few specimens that are mislabeled in personal collections or even for sale.

Rolf Luetcke

21st May 2018 09:21 UTCAlysson Rowan Expert

Thanks for this Rolf,

My one and only shattuckite (purchased in the 1970's) is a large lump of massive blue with a face being polished. It isn't 'cutting grade' by any means, and it was claimed to be from ... the Shattuck Mine. Now I know better.

Any idea as to actual regions in Africa (it is a BIG place, aftert all).

21st May 2018 17:13 UTCRolf Luetcke Expert

Alysson,

I have the specimen grade from Kandesi in Namibia and it comes from other places in Namibia also.

I purchased Republic of Congo shattuckite that was mixed in and was cutable from the Congo but there is also similar, acicular material from the Congo as specimen material.

I believe Ajo was the main producer of cutting grade shattuckite that has ended up on the market, much of it sold as coming from Bisbee.

I don't think shattuckite is the only mineral that has these problems but it is one I researched quite a bit and got the answers to.

I have friends who lost the Bisbee locality on their shattuckites but fortunately none paid a price that was way too much.

22nd May 2018 10:10 UTCAlysson Rowan Expert

Thanks Rolf.

I think I paid about £7 for the lump of massive shattuckite in 1974 - it was sold as Shattuck Mine material, but, as you say, there isn't any massive material from that locality.

It hardly matters to me since it is in amongst the "pretty stuff" rather than my current collection material, but it would be nice to have the label right. For that era, and from the photos, it looks like I have Ajo material - so that's going to be my (tentative) location for the piece.

22nd May 2018 15:11 UTCRolf Luetcke Expert

Alysson,

The two people who got the Ajo shattuckite in the cause for me to add this also paid a fair price for the pieces they got. I think it is a beautiful material and I personally like the Ajo material a lot, used to make jewelry out of it often.

.

First is the Ajo material and the second is the African. Only a guess which mine, the seller didn't have info on it but I was making it into jewelry and was not too concerned.

Still great material.

Not a bad price for a piece you paid.

22nd May 2018 16:15 UTCDana Slaughter 🌟 Expert

It should be mentioned that the Ajo material is from the New Cornelia mine. Ajo and New Cornelia are synonymous for Arizona collectors but others may not necessarily know the mine location.

Several years ago I was part of a group of Flagg Mineral Foundation [named for Arthur L. Flagg (1893-1961)] members that visited his son Richard's home in Tucson to pick up the A.L. Flagg collection that was being donated to our group by the remaining Flagg family. Most specimens were meticulously numbered but there were a few wooden crates containing unlabeled specimens in bulk. Two of these crates were particularly interesting and were casually dismissed by one of our group as massive azurite and massive galena.

The massive "azurite" turned out to be large and rich chunks of New Cornelia mine shattuckite. Most of us had never seen such large and rich chunks and we were thrilled to get the material. The massive "galena" turned out to be virtually pure chunks of rhenium-rich molybdenite from the Esperanza pit of the Sierrita mine in AZ. We assumed them to be from perhaps Climax, Colorado but one of our members discussed the material with Richard Flagg before his passing and he informed us that the material was indeed from Arizona!

22nd May 2018 17:01 UTCRolf Luetcke Expert

Dana,

Great material in that Flagg collection.

The Ajoite material, yes, you are right it is the New Cornelia but us Arizona guys just call it Ajo. We got ours in a flat from an old Bisbee miner. The Mostellers were friends from way back and Elmer had passed away and his wife was a good friend and we visited her every time we stopped in Bisbee. Pat was thinking of selling all the "stuff" Elmer had accumulated in his shed and asked us to have a look to let her know if there was anything valuable and give some pricing ideas.

I saw a flat labeled "Higginsite" and I knew what that name referred to. I needed a ladder to get to it but in my mind I was already visualizing big green conichalcite from the Higgins mine. When I opened up the flat it was full of the Ajo/New Cornelia ajoite in cutting grade chunks. I bought that flat from her for a hundred dollars.

Over the years after buying it I had made a line of jewelry out of it and one day a family stopped in and in conversation, asked if we by chance had any ajoite jewelry. I said we did and they were members of the Shattuck family. Over the years they stopped often and purchased about all the jewelry I had made from the ajoite. They were not concerned it being from Ajo but wanted their name sake jewelry.

23rd May 2018 16:19 UTCTony Albini

As Rolf has mentioned, I bought 4 pieces of shattuckite, one piece labeled from Bisbee and the other 3 pieces were not labeled. I had Rolf check them and all 4 were from the New Cornelia mine in Ajo, AZ. At least 2 had ajoite associated with them. They are all cabbing grade and beautiful pieces. The three I bought locally were reasonably priced. I had also talked to Doug Graeme (sic) and he also told me that cabbing material was not from Bisbee. I am glad the locality information is now correct.

25th May 2018 20:11 UTCDave Owen

This sounds very familiar!

Mindat.org is an outreach project of the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.
Copyright © mindat.org and the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy 1993-2024, except where stated. Most political location boundaries are © OpenStreetMap contributors. Mindat.org relies on the contributions of thousands of members and supporters. Founded in 2000 by Jolyon Ralph.
Privacy Policy - Terms & Conditions - Contact Us / DMCA issues - Report a bug/vulnerability Current server date and time: April 19, 2024 08:42:59

Go to top of page