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25 Mar-00:25:58 The mizunaka collection - quartz (Am Mizunaka)
23 Mar-13:35:22 Re: collection of firmo espinar (Firmo Espinar)
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Are we running out of localities?
  
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Tom Mazanec




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PostPosted: Feb 18, 2016 14:40    Post subject: Are we running out of localities?  

One thing I have learned in my reading is that a good mineralogical location requires a rare interaction of geological and hydrological events. Also, reading about minerals I often read something like "Whatsitite was found at the Suchandsuch Mine, but is now exhausted."
In view of our "inexhaustible resources" running out in other fields of endeavor, are we in danger of running out of good mineral specimens?
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Bob Harman




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PostPosted: Feb 18, 2016 14:58    Post subject: Re: Are we running out of localities?  

TOM, My answer to your question.....ARE WE RUNNING OUT OF LOCALITIES? ......might be Yes and No,

If you are a field collector in the USA the answer might just be "yes" as there now are so many extinct localities, closed and off limit mining areas, closed and off limit quarries, private lands and federal/state lands where all collecting is prohibited. Field collecting has indeed become severely limited in many areas. Many of these areas no longer accessible are in the Eastern US. The West still has some promise, but even there collecting has been curtailed in many areas.

In other parts of the world the situation seems more variable. The developed areas are more or less like the US, but there are new and enlarging mining areas in the less developed area of Africa, Asia, and South America among others. From these areas many new collectible mineral specimens are being brought to the market.

So, if you are a US field collector, even with club field trip access to local quarries, l think things ain't so rosy, but if you are a buyer of mineral specimens and willing to look thru dealer stocks for your examples, thing continue to be quite bright. That is my opinion. CHEERS......BOB
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kushmeja




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PostPosted: Feb 18, 2016 14:59    Post subject: Re: Are we running out of localities?  

I don't believe that we will run out of mineral specimens anytime soon, especially on a global scale. China alone has a multitude of new localities and more mines are being opened each year, and tons of new specimens flooding the market currently.

There's still a lot that hasn't been explored, and I even if the localities that are now easy to access disappear, there will still be other areas that were not previously viable due to mining costs, regulations, etc... that may become more viable in the future as conditions change.

At some point in the distant future, I'd expect that the overall volume of new specimens will slow, but there's always new sources that are being discovered and existing sources that are now viable, so I'd expect it will be a long time to come before we reach that point.
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alfredo
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PostPosted: Feb 18, 2016 15:31    Post subject: Re: Are we running out of localities?  

I know a couple of collectors who specialize in studying new construction projects, like fresh highway road cuts, mountain tunnels, even building foundations in big cities. They do quite well. Brand new localities (albeit with a short lifespan) popping up all over! I remember one juicy giant green quartz crystal with epidote inclusions that was too heavy for one person to lift, from a construction site in California.

And then there are micromount collectors, such as myself... Micromounters never run out of new material to break up.
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Les Presmyk




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PostPosted: Feb 18, 2016 15:34    Post subject: Re: Are we running out of localities?  

I agree. Every time I think everything has been discovered there are new discoveries and new minerals coming into the market. Even the old supposedly played out mines and mineral deposits like purple English fluorite and other European specimens are being rediscovered.

If nothing else, there are 6000 square miles of the Deccan basalt that could produce minerals for a long, long time. The western United States is certainly more restricted than 30 or 40 years ago but a number of localities are protected by unpatented mining claims.

The future of mineral collecting and the production of mineral specimens is good. After all, as the value of minerals stay high, it justifies initiating mining projects for just the specimens, rather than waiting for some miner working for a big mining company to fill up his or her lunchbox. No one would have predicted the fine azurites, malachites, brochantites and volborthites coming out of Milpillas, Mexico or the cuprites and azurites from Laos.

Just about the time I think there is nothing new, I read Tom Moore's column on "What's New in Minerals" and realize there is a lot of new going on. It might work for an Arizona collector but it certainly does for any number of other specialty or general collectors.
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Tobi
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PostPosted: Mar 05, 2016 04:13    Post subject: Re: Are we running out of localities?  

I agree, too. Sure, most of the world's mineral deposits may have been found, but there will be new finds for many decades, the 21st century shows several examples for this:

I just read the ExtraLapis No. 26/27 about China some weeks ago. It's from 2004, and on 200 pages you won't find the name of Huanggang! Only a few years later spectacular finds of many different minerals were made and not even a decade after the Lapis issue this locality had become the "second Dalnegorsk" and one of the world's main sources for spectacular minerals, often in unique paragenis.

Even Germany gives examples, though I must confess that these are not new localities but "only" new finds from quarries and mines. However, I think mentioning them can bring some optimism that we don't run out of new minerals:
Actually you think that such a densely populated country after many centuries of mining and with such a long history of mineralogy and collecting does not produce any news. Maybe some rare minerals, but spectacular stuff for a mineral display? Never! But that was proven wrong: In 2007, the Meyer Quarry in North Rhine-Westphalia offered its most spectacular galena clusters that quickly found their place among the many galena classics from Germany. Another example? 2008 a new find of spectacular orange mimetite balls was made in Haus Baden Mine in Black Forest - often considered as the best mimetites ever found in Germany.

Here you can see examples for those 21st century new discoveries in Germany from my collection:
https://www.mindat.org/photo-519448.html (specimen mined 2007)
https://www.mindat.org/photo-484946.html (specimen mined 2008)

I guess (and I hope!) that such new discoveries will not end during the next decades - but I'm sure they won't :-) And if even Germany features some new minerals (or at least new finds from older localities) in this century, we can hope to see much more new stuff from regions such as China, Russia, central Asia in general, or Africa! Who knows what Morocco or Namibia or other countries have yet to show us? Just think of the green fluorites from Riemvasmaak! They became desired classics among fluorite collectors around the world ... and they came out when? I guess it was 2005, until that the name Riemvasmaak was rather unknown ;-)

So we can hope for more :-)
Just my two cents

Tobi
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