Rutherford Mines, Amelia, Amelia County, Virginia, USA

Well formed microlite group crystal. Rolf Luetcke specimen and photo.

An attractive pair of tabular tantalite-(Mn) crystals with great metallic luster and sharp terminations. A Virginia classic! Matt McGill photo.

© Matt McGill

A wonderful partial microlite xl. The image displays the top down view of the termination. If it were complete, the specimen would've been huge for the locality. As it is, it still is an impressive specimen. Ex. John Pitifik collection. (ID card top left)

© 2023

From an old collection of Joe Murter. Collected in 1959 and measures 15mm x 15mm. Too bad about the ding but these old Rutherford Mine specimens are hard to find. Photo and collection of Brander Robinson

© Brander Robinson

Naturally etched spessartine crystal from the Bill Larson collection and acquired from Rob Lavinsky (5 x 3.5 x 2 cm)

© Rob Lavinsky photo

Snow white cleavelandite collected from the old Rutherford Mine in the 1990s.Common in the dump and surrounding area.Wish I could find all the material I collected there.4x4x3 cm.

Large, clear crystals of Albite variety Cleavelandite, 5cm by 5cm. Collected by Richard Gillespie. Rolf Luetcke specimen and photo.

Field of view: 3 mm Photo and collection Antonio Borrelli

© Antonio Borrelli

The width of field is 2.5 mm. Collection of Jesse Crawford. The depth of field has been enhanced using Helicon Focus (11 exposures). Equipment: Nikon D-100 digital camera on a homemade microscope.

© 2008 by Jesse Crawford

Garnet var. Spessartine Size: 5x3.5x3cm

Aqua colored Fluorite cubes with Cleavelandite.12x11x7 cm.

The sample is 2 cm x 2 cm. It is an early 1970's purchase. Tan coloured,

3.0 x 1.4 x 0.9 cm. An attractive pair of adjoining, tabular tantalite-(Mn) crystals from Virginia. The black crystals have good to very good luster, and the chisel-point terminations are sharp. I find this pair, and the way they are arranged, to be very interesting visually, and the quality of the crystals is good. This is a very rare, old, ...

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

3.5 x 2.8 x 1.8 cm. Mineral specimens, in general, are very uncommon from these old feldspar pegmatite mines. Columbite specimens are very rare. Two lustrous, sharp, metallic-black tabular crystals are set in the albite matrix that hosts glassy, yellow-green muscovite plates. The ends of the columbites are broken, but this remains a very fine, ...

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

A fine crystalized specimen of Muscovite growing on albite crystals. Specimen was collected by John Sinkankas and traded to the Smithsonian Institute. The specimen eventually ended up in the collection of Robert Trimingham. The scale at the bottom of the image is an inch with a rule at one cm.

© Rock Currier

3.0 x 2.0 x 1.7 cm. A very rarely seen, sharp, well-formed crystal of dark brown monazite measuring 6 mm sitting on white blocky albite matrix. This is honestly the only piece of the material that I have seen.

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

Terminated, lustrous crystal on quartz. This one was in the Julian Blakely collection. Collection of Rudy Bolona.

Aqua colored Fluorite cubes with Cleavelandite.12x11x7 cm.

Spessartine garnet (10x14mm) from the Rutherford

6.1 x 4.0 x 0.8 cm. Amazonite is extremely rare from these well-known feldspar pegmatites and mineral specimens, in general are very uncommon. Some of the best US spessartines come from here. This is a striking, colorful, two-sided cleavage slab of bright variable bluish-green, partially translucent amazonite. Ex Kay Robertson Collection with no ...

© Rob Lavinsky & MineralAuctions.com

In Coll. M. Slama Canon EOS 600D with Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x, stacked from 21 Images using Zerene Stacker (Pmax)

© Martin Slama

6.4 x 3.5 x 3.2 cm. Aquamarine or beryl specimens are rare from this less well-known Virginia pegmatite mined for feldspar. The sharp, lustrous, hexagonal crystal is moderately translucent and has greenish-blue color. The color saturation lights up when the crystal is backlit. Weighs 109 grams.

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

2.9 x 2.5 x 1.0 cm. Mineral specimens of any type are uncommon from this Virginia pegmatite mined for feldspar and tantalite specimens are rare. This is a sharp, tabular, mottled-brown crystal with a bit of embedded mica. Excellent and rare material.

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

White to partly clear Albite variety Clevelandite crystal. Rolf Luetcke specimen and photo.

Yellow, transparent Muscovite crystals in Albite. Rolf Luetcke specimen and photo.

Gray smoky quartz, some in large crystals in white albite variety cleavelandite. Collected by Richard Gillespie. Rolf Luetcke specimen and photo.

Oval cabochon, moonstone with blue iridescence (G3171) from the U.S. National Gem Collection (#G3171), Smithsonian Institute. Photo by Chip Clark.

© NMNH Smithsonian Collection

Well formed crystal with bright faces all around on a bit of cleavelandite. This one came from the Julian Blakely collection. It registered 300 CPM on A Radalert 100. Collection of Rudy Bolona.

Large, white crystals of albite variety cleavelandite with minor gray smoky quartz. Collected by Richard Gillespie. Rolf Luetcke specimen and photo.

Gray-black smoky quartz with white to colorless cleavelandite variety of albite. Former Richard Gillespie collection. Rolf Luetcke specimen and photo.

White to clear Albite variety Clevelandite crystal. Rolf Luetcke specimen and photo.

Gemmy, orange, etched crystal. The numerous dodecahedral faces are very lustrous. This one came from the Julian Blakely collection. This was one of his favorite mineral localities. Collection of Rudy Bolona.

3.5 x 2.8 x 1.8 cm. Mineral specimens, in general, are very uncommon from these old feldspar pegmatite mines. Columbite specimens are very rare. Two lustrous, sharp, metallic-black tabular crystals are set in the albite matrix that hosts glassy, yellow-green muscovite plates. The ends of the columbites are broken, but this remains a very fine, ...

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

2.1 x 1.8 x 1.3 cm. Virginia spessartines are some of the most recognized orange spessartines from the United States, second only to the vibrant orange spessartines from the Ramona area of San Diego County, California. They are incredibly rare, especially with any verifiable provenance. This stone has a very nice, rich, reddish-orange hue (from a ...

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

Euhedral crystal of Garnet var. Spessartine with classic stepped development from the Rutheford mine, Amelia Courthouse, Amelia Co., Virginia. Older collection specimen size: 1.5 x 1.5 x 0.8 cm. From the VA Annex of my personal collection, acquired in 2007.

© 2007 M. R. Heintzelman

3.0 x 2.0 x 1.7 cm. A very rarely seen, sharp, well-formed crystal of dark brown monazite measuring 6 mm sitting on white blocky albite matrix. This is honestly the only piece of the material that I have seen.

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

"Rutherford Moonstone"; white albite displaying that beautiful, electric blue schiller. Lapidary quality material available on the dumps became harder and harder to find over time. but we still managed to find enough rough to cut and polish... Collecting there at that time was limited to Labor Day Weekends, in conjunction with a little show ...

2.1 x 2.0 x 1.5 cm. Lustrous and translucent, with an incredible vivid cinnamon-orange color, this spessartine crystal thumbnail is of competition quality because of its color impact and significance for this very old, classic, USA locale. Ex Irv Brown thumbnail collection.

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

Well formed microlite group crystal. Rolf Luetcke specimen and photo.

Albite vr: Cleavelandite Mass: 27g rlh2250

Single Spessartine "floater" crystal, translucent orange-beer bottle color, with one large, flat, frosted luster face on the front of the crystal and numerous mini-faces all around the perimeter and back of the crystal. No matrix. Personal collection of Sharon Cisneros.

© Eugene & Sharon Cisneros

Well formed microlite group crystal. Rolf Luetcke specimen and photo.

A relatively large mass of allanite-(Ce), ex-A.E. Seaman Museum, approximately 6.5 cm across. Analytically confirmed as Ce>La>Nd via SEM/EDS in Excalibur Mineral Corporation laboratory in 2023.

© Excalibur Mineral Corp.

Nice white albite showing the Rutherford blue flash when the light hits it just right. Self collected in the early 1990's

A close up view of the etching found on spessartines from this locality. The bright orange color is more rare than the red and usually attributed to smaller specimens. The specimen as a whole is of thumbnail size and originally belonged to the collection of John Pitifik.

© 2023

Dark cassiterite in white albite var. cleavlandite.

© DBKingery

This 11.0 mm FOV image presents a rare matrix specimen of spessartine garnet from the Rutherford Mines and pegmatite bodies of Amelia Virginia. This garnet does not have the beautiful surface features of the other spessartines that were donated, but backlighting shows that it has a most attractive internal fire.

This 9.0 mm FOV photomicrograph shows the rich color and pleasing geometric complexity of a spessartine garnet from the Rutherford mines and pegmatite bodies at Amelia, Virginia. Amazingly, this 7.0 mm garnet was "collected from the giveaway tables at the 2017 Desautels Micromount Symposium in Baltimore, Maryland.

Beautiful trigonals on this tiny spessartine from the Rutherford Mines in Amelia, Virginia. A lucky find among the many small treasures on the giveaway tables at the 2017 Desautels Micromount Symposium in Baltimore, Maryland.

Clevelandite & Quartz.

Crystallized white Albite forms the matrix for a single red-brown 1.0 X 0.6 cm Microlite crystal. Personal collection of Sharon Cisneros.

© Eugene & Sharon Cisneros

Microlite is an uncommon tantalum-bearing oxide found in granite pegmatites and this is a sharp, complex, lustrous, variegated brown crystal from Amelia Courthouse, a famous Virginia locale. Well-formed crystals such as this one are highly sought after and most are over 100 years old. One of the last major American Civil War battles was held ...

© Rob Lavinsky & iRocks.com

Spessartine garnets from Virginia are some of the most recognized spessartines from the United States, second only to the vibrant orange ones from the Little Three Mine in California. They are incredibly rare, especially with any verifiable provenance, and many date back to the late 1800s and early 1900s. This piece is a cluster of nice, slightly ...

© Rob Lavinsky & iRocks.com

The best part of a Rutherford Mine spessartine garnet that was "collected from the giveaway tables at the 2017 Desautels Micromount Symposium in Baltimore, Maryland.

Spessartine garnets from Virginia are some of the most recognized spessartines from the United States, second only to the vibrant orange ones from the Little Three Mine in California. They are incredibly rare, especially with any verifiable provenance, and many date back to the late 1800s and early 1900s. This piece is a cluster of nice, slightly ...

© Rob Lavinsky & iRocks.com

Spessartine garnets from Virginia are some of the most recognized spessartines from the United States, second only to the vibrant orange ones from the Little Three Mine in California. They are incredibly rare, especially with any verifiable provenance, and many date back to the late 1800s and early 1900s. This piece is a cluster of nice, slightly ...

© Rob Lavinsky & iRocks.com

Spessartine garnets from the old mines in Virginia used to be, in the 1800s, finest of species. Now, they are sadly almost forgotten because they are so rare and only seen in museum collections, if then. We have handled several over nearly 40 years as a dealer at this time (2024) and this is one of the largest we have even seen, museum or private. ...

© Rob Lavinsky & iRocks.com