FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[nurbo]

Here we have a Hilton Mine Fluorite with the faintest blue phantoms and Chalcopyrite inclusions, its a good shape.
and a decent sized Fluorite from Florence

[nurbo]

In amongst my thumbnail collection today I found these Green Diopside with associations, all from Burma, Id forgotten I had these. , so I dug out the photos I took a few years ago.

[nurbo]

Here is a Haematised Bivalve, this came from Frizington Parks Mine,
next up is a large Aragonite from the Florence,Mine,

[nurbo]

It occured to me that I have never posted any of my Australian pieces, so here goes ...
First up is a pristine double terminated Rutile on matrix from Carvers Claim, then a Reaphook Scholzite, I have a much larger Scholzite that I must get around to photographing one day.

[nurbo]

for todays offering I thought Id stick with the Antipodean flavour ...
A Dundasite micro from Dundas in Tasmania
A Crocoite with Pyromorphite from Platts Prospect likewise in Tasmania
and
A big Cerussite from Broken Hill

Off to Bakewell mineral show tomorrow so I should have a few decent bits and pieces to show off next week :-)

[nurbo]

I just finished editing these, this is my new Cinnabar from China, I don't collect Chinese mineral's but I couldn't resist this, I'm pondering trimming the busted crystal off but it'd really unbalance the piece unless I trimmed a fair bit off from elsewhere too, it's a tricky decision.
Bakewell was fun I got about 30 piece's which I will start to photograph tomorrow, There was a lot of English Fluorite available, (And so there should be) so I ended up giving a home to 7 of them, there were some insane bargain's available too, I got a Belgian Calcite with a superb 20 mm crystal on it and a Cuprian Adamite from Greece for £1 the pair.

[nurbo]

First up is the 50p Calcite I got at Bakewell last weekend, I might have a go at cleaning it up a bit.
and a Stilbite on Apophylite from Poona that I didnt get at Bakewell, Ive had it for ages I just only now got around to photographing it.

[nurbo]

I got this great Barytocalcite thumbnail from Peter Ward at Bakewell last week, and I got this good sized purple Fluorite from Heights Quarry off one of the many dealers who were touting UK Fluorite's.

[Ru Smith]

That is a wonderful barytocalcite!

[nurbo]

Thanks Ru, im very pleased with my haul from Bakewell, If I had a lot more money there were so many things I wanted to buy. I got some nice stuff from Weardale

This Calcite with Aragonite is a real favourite, there's a tad of Galena in there too, it looks oddly like one of my Witherite's that Ive yet to photograph.

An Orange Aragonite , sadly it lost a couple of terminations in transit because like a fool I left it white tacked into a plastic box and it came loose, (A mistake I will make only this once!) I, should have taken it out and wrapped it for the journey, Ive kept the bits though and one day when Im feeling up to it im going to repair it.

.And finally for today a Fluorite from the West Pasture mine, Im extra pleased with this because the label had the pocket details, I got this off the Lawson brothers, I actually bought 4 fluorite's off them, to me they had the best ones on offer, some were less than perfect but from really unusual localities. This West Pasture piece has good zoning and a lovely curved surface. (Note If your pedantic like me you should label your pieces from here as "West Pasture" not "West Pasture's", this is the correct name for the locality.)

[Philip G]

I agree with Ru .. thats a very nice barytocalcite.

Now I know what you were doing when you disappeared for an hour at the Bakewell show !

Phil G

[nurbo]

hiya Phil,
I was hunting for a perfect 2 inch floater double terminated Witherite crystal with one termination clear and gemmy and the other partially replaced by Baryte preferably from Haggs, I didnt find one but I can dream. :-)

[nurbo]

Here is one of my Campylite's, it has crystals ranging from the classic curved shape to Vanadinite like hexagons in colours ranging from brown to lime green via some really neat yellow/red zoned ones, I guess the curved ones should be called Campylite and the others I should refer to as Mimetite ?
Next time I've got some spare cash I'm going to buy a trinocular microscope which would help hugely when photographing things like this unusual thumbnail specimen of what we have assumed to be Aragonite var Floss Ferri with micro Calcite prisms and larger Calcite crystals on a matrix of mixed Carbonates, Ive only seen Floss Ferri which had a smooth surface, this has formed from tiny Baryte like blades, it fizzes in acid. If anyone has a good argument to challenge this ID I'd be really interested to hear it. This material was recovered from a small unnamed dump below Dam Rigg Level at Arkengarthdale in North Yorkshire.

[nurbo]

Another piece I nabbed at Bakewell, excellent shiny Galena Octahedrons on Dolomite on Quartz on Sphalerite, this piece cost £1 what a bargain.
Another Smallcleugh piece, this time Pyrite with Sphalerite on Dolomite with a few Calcite's and some other stuff,.likely Brianyoungite or Hydrozincite, one of those White secondaries that seem omnipresent in some areas of the mine.

[nurbo]

A couple more Australian pieces. First up is a yellow Pyromorphite then a brown Pyromorphite both from the Broken Hill area of New South Wales, I still cant figure out how the yellow Pyro was put in its box without wrecking the crystals, they coat the piece all round.