FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[nurbo]

Another piece I got at Bakewell was this Calcite, the label reads Cartegena, Murcia, Spain but no mine, if any of the experts on Spanish minerals could fill in the mine details for me Id be very grateful. The matrix is orange dusty Limonite.

[Jordi Fabre]

[nurbo]

Blimey, well spotted Jordi, I found the point on the specimen that seems purple in the photo and there is no Fluorite present.

[Jordi Fabre]

OK, then I will submit your request in FMF Spain, maybe some mega-expert there can recognize the specific mine.

[nurbo]

Thanks jordi

[nurbo]

I'll keep my fingers crossed that one day someone recognises the Calcite.
On the subject of calcite I realised I haven't added this piece to my collection thread. This is my rather grubby and as yet uncleaned Palygorskite from my unanswered thread in Mineral cleaning of 1 year ago. These are old photo's, and not that great but I don't like removing it from the cabinet since every time I do it sheds some of the tiny Calcite's which hang from the Palygorskite. Its a big piece..

[nurbo]

Here are some more of my UK Fluorite's, along with some photo's of them under Long Wave UV..Both these piece's are from Weardale.
Did you ever lose a specimen when you moved house and thought it gone forever, having been left in a van or something? I did, the Stellerite "Bow Ties" I showed on page 6 of this thread, I was absolutely ecstatic when I found it. I hadn't seen it since April 2011.

[Jordi Fabre]

[nurbo]

Thanks anyway Jordi, sometimes its just impossible to know exactly where something comes from. One final question on the Calcite ... Do the mines which have been suggested work the same vein/orebody?
thanks
db

[Jordi Fabre]

All localities suggested match: Sierra Minera de Cartagena-La Unión, Cartagena, Murcia, Spain , so I suggest to you to use this.

[nurbo]

Thanks Jordi.

Here are some photos of my bigger Scholzite.this beauty measures around 10 x 10 cm'swith Scholzite'a to around 16 mm, and another piece from the recent Bakewell show, this piece has Ankerite which has been XrD'd my other pieces from here are labelled Dolomite. I'd rather spend my money on specimens that testing though so I guess they will have to stay that way.

[nurbo]

More Fluorite's, The first three photo's were taken in artificial light, provided by a small LED torch, I think it seems to wash out the colours a little bit but for colourless specimens I think it is the way forward. The second piece shown here was taken under a mixture of LED and daylight. Finally for today I was recently given this Sierra de Cruces Raspberry Garnet, I managed to squeeze it into a thumbnail box with a little judicious trimming.

[nurbo]

Today some Aqua's from Pakistan, the age of these pices might suggest Gilgit but I'm not sure there is any way of being 100% sure of the exact locality, so i;ll leave it as a simple Pakistan.
Then a Blue Quartz from Antequera, in Spain, I think it has what looks to me like ring of Specular Haematite around one of the Quartz crystals, I noticed Haematite is listed from the locality on Mindat, all the same any help from the Spanish experts would be good to confirm or deny whether this is Haematite or something else.

[Joaquin Montoro]

Nurbo, it is not Antaquera, but Antequera (Málaga, Andalucía, Spain).

[Antonio Alcaide]

Both of you, Joaquin and Nurbo, are right. I have changed the wrong spelling. And it is certainly haematite. The locality is known for these iron rossettes as well as blue quartz.

Regards

PS: I am not an expert, of course.