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Identity HelpNunderite?

18th Feb 2013 17:44 UTCKristi Hugs

A client asked me about Nunderite today. It is described as, "From Nundel in New South Wales, Australia, this brown stone with green splashes is a combination of Jadite and Plagioclase Feldspar. It is a rare and intriguing tumblestone."

Another website says it is a type of Andaluscite with areas of green epidote.

I have never heard of this one and it is not listed here at mindat.org

Can anyone shed some light on this "Nunderite" ?? Thank you in advance!

mira

18th Feb 2013 19:01 UTCRalph S Bottrill 🌟 Manager

Jadeite is not recorded from Australia. Nundle has skarns, and this could be one, but spelling errors are casing confusion here. A Google search shows Nunderite on a couple crystal healing sites with the descriptions you give. These sites tend to make anything up so are not good references. The stones they show are a rock from Nundoora Station near Broken Hill, and is an aegirine-orthoclase syenite as I recall, once locally popular in lapidary and called Nundoorite but long worked out I heard.

18th Feb 2013 19:20 UTCKristi Hugs

Here is a pic and the same company the info above came from. http://www.ksccrystals.com/nunderite-1841-p.asp

18th Feb 2013 22:01 UTCTrevor Dart

Hi, I can confirm that the location on Nundoora Station has been worked out and no longer able to be accessed. It was a small outcrop of rock that was opened up in the 1960's for lapidary purposes and the best came from a fresh unweathered patch in the middle. The pit was not that big and the family that own the station cleaned up the pit with a bulldozer about twenty years ago. I have seen pieces now and then in local collections, usually lumps of rock with one or two polished faces. The rock is a light tannish-grey colour with green flecks throughout and quite hard. If you wanted to find out more, you could contact the Mannion family on Nundoora Station, but I believe they will only tell you that there is no more available.

18th Feb 2013 22:55 UTCGreg Dainty

Trevors gives a very good account of Nundorite. From memory , is is a quartz included with nickel...........Greg

18th Feb 2013 23:03 UTCKristi Hugs

Exactly Ralph, that is why I am here (folks do make stuff up) :)

So my question is......why is this stuff popping up all of a sudden? and why can't I find it in the mindat.org database. I figured the spelling was not correct and may be slowing down my research :)

Thanks again everyone! you are all so helpful and i am very thankful :)

mira

19th Feb 2013 01:56 UTCTrevor Dart

Hi Mira,

The reason that Nundoorite is not in the Mindat database is because it is not a mineral but a rock. As Ralph said it is a combination of aegerine in an orthoclase syenite. Syenite itself is an igneous rock and the Nundoorite has the added flecks of aegerine that make it more attractive. To answer your question as to why it has suddenly made a re-appearance could be that a new deposit of a similar rock has been discovered and exploited. As the original name of Nundoorite was used for this combination of minerals, it is logical that marketeers would use the existing name for the new material, regardless of whether or not it came off Nundoora Station.

I hope this helps with your research...

Trev

19th Feb 2013 02:00 UTCKristi Hugs

Thanks Trev,

you are awesome!

And than, you Greg and Ralph for sharing as well!

Good stuff!!

19th Feb 2013 13:02 UTCDoug Daniels

maybe its called nunderite because there's nun der anymore

20th Feb 2013 08:49 UTCRock Currier Expert

Perhaps we could place an entry on this, ideally with a picture, in our glossary?

20th Feb 2013 23:59 UTCKristi Hugs

that would be awesome Rock Currier!

21st Feb 2013 12:44 UTCRalph S Bottrill 🌟 Manager

Trevor, we should add the location to Mindat (at least for aegirine and orthoclase) but I'm unsure of its exact location, maybe in Evelyn County?

Rock, I'm not sure about adding Nundoorite to the glossary, it's just a lapidary term, not a real rock name, we don't want to clutter up the glossary with such things. Maybe it could go into Gemdat? I should still have some somewhere to photograph(?)

22nd Feb 2013 06:37 UTCRock Currier Expert

Ralph,

You may be right but I feel that if someone comes looking here for the term there should be something that a search could tern up even if it says this is something completely bogus dreamed up by the metaphysical crowd. There will be a lot of sharing of data between the two sites, and initially most of the content will come from mindat.

22nd Feb 2013 06:41 UTCKristi Hugs

I agree with Rock Currier, after all, I came here to mindat looking for info and I am a metaphysical type looking for the geological info. Now, not everyone metaphysical "dreams up" this stuff (ouch Rock) but those of us who prefer both the metaphysical and geological would like to know as much info as possible from both sides. :)

22nd Feb 2013 09:53 UTCTrevor Dart

Ralph,

After comparing some maps I believe that Nundora (note that I have changed the spelling to only one "o") Station is within Mootwingee County approximately 175 km north of Broken Hill via the Silver City Highway. Google Earth ref: 30.43.26 S, 142.02.09 E. The Nundorite deposit was close to the homestead itself, just near the Shearing Shed. I'll also have a look around for a good sample and photograph it for reference here on Mindat.

Trev

22nd Feb 2013 11:58 UTCRalph S Bottrill 🌟 Manager

Thanks Trevor, I added the site and minerals

22nd Feb 2013 14:18 UTCVandall Thomas King Manager

As a lapidary material, it should qualify as a listing in gemdat - including variant spellings.

23rd Feb 2013 04:32 UTCRalph S Bottrill 🌟 Manager

Van, I agree, but do we keep the names in Mindat also, and I'm not sure how many such names go into the glossary too?

23rd Feb 2013 15:23 UTCVandall Thomas King Manager

Nunderite seems to be a trade name just as tanzanite started out. Of course, tanzanite was preceded by the thoroughly unacceptable tanjeloffite that was a self-agrandizing name. The same is true of many names never offered for publication. For years, I had a "winnieite" and couldn't discover what it was, but eventually I found out it was aragonite named by a person for the finder's first name. As a relatively rare material, nunderite might only be a footnote, rather than a useful trade name. Maybe it would have utility as a synonym? Heavens knows there are oodles of agate names that do not refer to true agate.

24th Feb 2013 06:17 UTCRock Currier Expert

I think all mineral and rock related names not approved by the IMA should go into our glossary which should be shared in common with Gemdat along with suitable pictures and that when a user searches for them they can find them in the glossary if not our mineral database. The glossary should note that the name is not an IMA approved name and perhaps give a history of the origin of the name.

20th Mar 2013 20:43 UTCRalph S Bottrill 🌟 Manager

Rock, im OK with rock names moving to the glossary but we have a huge number of non-IMA approved names in the mineral database; should they be moved or duplicated?

21st Mar 2013 10:00 UTCRock Currier Expert

Ralph,

I would not presume to judge where they should go. Probably names that appear more or less in scientific and professional literature should have their own pages in our database and commercial names and things like varieties of agates for example might best go in our glossary. Hopefully when we get a better search engine here in mindat, people will just have to enter the name of what they are looking for and be directed to information about it.

12th Oct 2014 14:43 UTCLeah

While visiting my home town Broken hill this weekend and attending a market, I bought some nunderite, I discovered from my mum that my grandfather found and named this rock!

12th Oct 2014 15:19 UTCReiner Mielke Expert

I searched the mineral database and glossary for Nunderite and nothing came up? Where did you put it?

16th Oct 2014 14:56 UTCMara

Hi Kristi Mara Rose here. I lost you since the group closed & couldn't find your website? Anyway apologies to all for posting here as I had a feeling I might find Kristi & had no other way to get in touch. I have managed to procure a few small tumbles of Nundoorite from the original station in Nundoor & wanted to know if you would be interested in one (as a gift) You can contact me at c.haase@y7mail to let me know & fill me in on where your website has gone lol

28th Jul 2016 03:47 UTCCharles

I have a good photo of a piece polished up as a pendant. Thought this may be helpful.

3rd Mar 2017 00:24 UTCKristi Hugs

Gorgeous, thank you!!

3rd Mar 2017 00:29 UTCKristi Hugs

Hi Mara,

Just emailed you! would love to reconnect!

17th Dec 2017 05:35 UTCJames Kirkman

Hello everyone I am new to Mindat.org and this is my first post.

My first exposure to Nunderite was through the Metaphysical market. As Kristi Hugs did, I also noticed the discrepancy in descriptions and started to search for the truth. The search lead me to this page which has been most helpful. I then decided to search further and contact the appropriate agencies in Australia. Geoscience Australia told me to refer to this page as a good source of Info. I also contacted State sources in NSW who put me in touch with the Director Geoscience Acquisition & Synthesis, Geological Survey of NSW, He gave me this explanation of Nunderite.

Many thanks, this info is "Courtesy of the Geological Survey of NSW".

" There is only one outcrop of this rock type in the world. it is an altered mafic alkaline igneous rock. It is a special rock that has been strongly altered, possibly by superhot seawater on the seafloor not long after it was emplaced (interpreted because of the unusual sodium-bearing minerals in the rock). It has then been metamorphosed and foliated during orogenesis. "

" To the best of our knowledge this rock contains the minerals albite-aegerine-nepheline-natrolite, although there will be some other minor minerals. The natrolite would have crystallised well after the other minerals. "

I have contacted several members/sellers in the metaphysical rock world to try to correct their misidentifacation of this rock, but unfortunatly they all refuse to correct their statments even when faced with the undisputable facts about Nunderite, they have also refuse to do any research when provided with credable sources. They are claiming that they are getting these various misidentifactions from their supplier who is apparently based in Nundel, NSW. Even though this supplier can not correctly identify the mineral composition of Nunderite themselves, they claim to have found a new source of Nunderite.

As a metaphysical rock collector type I am embarassed by the responce of other meaphysical rock healing world members and feel I must state, "please do not judge us all from a few bad apples". The old adage "Buyer beware" is most definatly aplicable to this market and I recomend to all who buy rocks/crystals/minerals, " Do your research before any purchase ".

22nd Dec 2017 10:54 UTCRalph S Bottrill 🌟 Manager

Reiner, the material is shown in Mindat under Nundora Station, though I haven't added the rock as it was thought to only have one small intrusion, now worked out, and to be essentially an aegirine syenite. But I heard recently that they found a second intrusion, and a report is in progress. But the description and interpretation from the GSNSW differs from mine so I need to see if there is more recent info. before I update it.

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