FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[nurbo]

I got an email from the former owner of the Wellhope piece I just posted, it turns out that the piece was collected in the Haggs Mine and brought out to the surface through the Wellhope Shaft, which had been unblocked by some intrepid mine explorer types allowing specimen collecting, this was in the 1970's. Accurate labeling of some specimens can be virtually impossible due to these situations, specimens are often labelled as coming from the mine they came out of rather than the place they were actually recovered. 'Ive changed the labeling to reflect the actual origin of the piece.

[nurbo]

First up today is an Atacamite from Ireland and then keeping the colourful theme alive, an Azurite from Australia. Finally for today ,,, is it possible for a Mushroom Tourmaline from Burma to be twinned at 60 degrees along the c axis ? I'd forgotten I had this but rediscovered it a couple of days ago, I'm glad I did.

[nurbo]

These are a couple more of my many Baryte's, first up is one from Wet Grooves, I'm really fond of this piece, I was lucky enough to get to pick through a whole flat of them and this was undoubtedly the best of the bunch. Then a German piece from the Dreisler mine, I like the Chalcopyrites on it.

[Pierre Joubert]

Very nice specimen and photo Nurbo! (image 5.jpg)

[Michael Shaw]

Very nice the Wetgrooves Baryte.
Michael

[nurbo]

Thanks for taking the time to comment Pierre and Michael, Im led to believe that there are a lot more of these Baryte's underground waiting to be collected than have already been brought out, so lets hope more of these fine Baryte's see the light of day some time in the near future.

Today I'm posting this Navajun Pyrite, I cant decide if this piece has been glued back together, the second and last photo's shows the view of the part I'm suspicious of, at the junction of the two main cube's it looks glued on, does anybody know if they mix matrix/micro Pyrite crystals in with the glue? as there are micro Pyrite cubes visible around the edge of the cracked part.

Secondly a good sized yellow Smithsonite from KM3, Trimmed from a huge piece I was tempted to keep whole.

[supertxango]

Hi!

Yes it seems that your pyrite specimen has been glued. Most of the pyrite specimens from Navajún are rebuilt. Before you extract them the pyrite crystals are well formed but after that, it´s too difficult to maintain them intact. It´s better to understand when you have been digging there and you see it in-situ. It is something well known by collectors and for this reason Pedro, the owner of "Piritas de Navajún" doesn´t specify it in its labels.

Here you are a good post about this discussion in the Spanish Forum: Cubos reconstruidos Sorry it is in Spanish.

Hopefully this helps you.

Regards

[Riccardo Modanesi]

Hi to everybody!
I would like Pedro to write a reply of what Supertxango wrote just now. I bought a similar specimen (i.e. pyrite crystal series from Spain) in a bourse in Zurich Switzerland in 1989. One cube crystal drop down the specimen thus disglueing some six months later. I kept it (and still have it in my collection) as a cubic pyrite, therefore a separate specimen. Also we have to know how to distinguish a glued pyrite crystal complex from a not-glued one. Pedro, I'm waiting for an answer from you!
Greetings from Italy by Riccardo.

[nurbo]

Hello,
Thank's for your input Juan, I had heard that pretty much all the matrix piece's had the cube's glued in but I didn't really expect it if they were off matrix. The tiny cube's could become mixed into the glue quite easily I suppose, especially if they were "Processing" a lot of specimen's at once.

Today Ive done some photo's of my new Hedenbergite from Owyhee and a neat little Haematite from Frizington Parks.


db

[nurbo]

Whenever possible when I buy a specimen I try to get two in different sizes, like a small cabinet and a thumbnail or better still a thumbnail and a micro but this isnt always possible as you can see from some of the larger pieces I have. Today Ive got photo's of the Wet Grooves Baryte counterpart, I dont think there are thumbnails of this stuff (I could be wrong though).. Also at Bakewell 2012 I got my hands on quite a nice Cavansite, Which has proved quite hard to get a decent photo of. Then finally today Tsumebite from Ojuela is definitely one of the least showy things you can get, here is a piece I got recently, I might trim it into a thumbnail.

[nurbo]

To a certain extent I treat ebay like a mine dump: there's a LOT of rock's on there, most are just dead's, sometimes if your lucky you can find a small area full of good stuff but most often you find stuff that can be good but it needs a bit of work. To that end I just got this Ojuela Mottramite, I can definitely get a perfect thumbnail out of it two if I'm careful.

Whilst at Ojuela here is a Cuprian Adamite, it's a very bright green indeed.

Finally today an excellent little scruffy looking Calcite from the Mouldridge Lead Mine,

[nurbo]

Here are two Pike Law piece's, one show's oxidized Siderite that was exposed to the elements the other was completely covered in tiny Calcite prism's when it came my way, but they were so full of mud and stuff that I burned them off with a weak acid. I could see the shape of Fluorite crystals underneath, outlined by the prisms (to about 3 mm). I was surprised to find clear Fluorite though I expected it to be purple, what I didn't expect was unoxidized Siderite, there is tonnes of stuff from Pike Law where the Siderite is oxidized (See piece 2) but this is the first I've seen where it isn't (though hopefully not the last), Like most Pike Law stuff it is strongly fluorescent.

Finally today Dolomite, with tiny Fluorite's on a matrix of mixed Sulphides, the matrix shows Pyrite, Chalcopyrite, Galena and Quartz there is probably some Sphalerite in there too, and a coating of something white, probably a Zinc secondary, Brianyoungite, Hydrozincite or something similar.

[nurbo]

So I got this Actinolite from Norway,i was told the matrix is Dolomite, to me it look's like a layer of Dolomite on top of Labradorite,mostly because of how shiny the lower part of the matrix is, It's a great piece whatever.

A rare little fluorite thumb from North Yorkshire I picked at Bakewell

The Burgam Mine in Shropshire produce's excellent sample's of Pyromorphite,the Colour is incredibly vivid. I picked this one up at Bakewell too.

I was given this little Mimetite by a very knowledgeable collector/dealer friend who said it was a wierd Campylite, the crystal is curved but instead of a conglomeration of curved crystal's forming the familiar barrel shape this is just a single. I'm open to argument's either way, I cant find a picture of anything called Campylite that's not a barrel shape so I'm not sure what to call it, it's neat though.

[nurbo]

Today Ive got some photo's of some of my bigger piece's, not my biggest,, but pretty big. (I've got a boxed 6 foot long drill core from a coal mine, that is my biggest specimen.)

First up is a section of Galena in Baryte from the Lunehead Mine in Co Durham.

Then a Fluorite with Baryte the Fluorite has Chalcopyrite inclusion's, from one of the many unnamed working's in the Arkengarthdale area, this piece has a Fluorite twin smack bang in the middle of the well crystallized part, twinned Fluorite is pretty rare and unusual in the Pennines.

Finally a whopping great lump of Haggs Mine, the matrix is Siderite, on it there are strongly Fluorescent Fluorite's, some Dolomite/Ankerite series crystal's and Calcite.

[nurbo]

Today Ive got a couple of Spanish Aragonite's.I thought i'd start and finish the posting with them. I'm a big fan of these since being shown some earlier in this thread, I like the many forms of Aragonite,
Another small piece from the Rampgill mine, this time Galena,
Finally today a fibrous Cerussite from the Old Brandley Mine, not a place to visit if you don't have a head for heights.

[nurbo]

Today Ive done a couple of North Yorkshire pieces and an Alstonite,
The first up is Witherite, or maybe was Witherite, it looks like its altered to Baryte, as always it's not (and is unlikely to be) tested so it's just guesswork. It's a really good example from that locality anyway's up.
Then a series of photo's of a piece that is mostly Calcite, though there are also other species present, we think there is Sphalerite and maybe a bit of Hemimorphite on there but I dont know what the opaque cream coloured stuff is, it look's like Barytocalcite that Ive seen from an occurance to the West of where this is from, difficult to be sure without a big microscope.or a lab to use. The Calcite's are yellowy green under LW UV.
Finally a tiny Alstonite from the co type locality of the Fallowfield Mine in Hexham.

[nurbo]

Today Ive done some more of the piece's I brought home from Bakewell ...
First up we have an Adamite from the Hilarion Mine, the Adamite crystal's are very very sparkly,
Then a nice Hemimorphite from Spain
Finally for today a piece from Taffs Well Quarry in Wales, the big Calcite's from here are as good as big calcite's from anywhere else in the world but for some reason seem virtually impossible to sell, trust me folk's, now is a good time to buy Taffs Well Calcite's. This piece is a quirky Baryte with tiny Calcite crystal's covering it.

[Jordi Fabre]

[nurbo]

Hi Jordi,
Ok I'll try the acid test and report back. The piece came with 4 different label's which all said Hemimorphite but who know's. It's always best to independantly verify things if there's any doubt.

Today Ive done a Kyanite from an unusual localtion in Scotland
Then a big Caldbeck Pyromorphite, from Roughton Gill, the hacked Quartz matrix is covered in Yellow Pyromorphite crystals to around 3 mm. This piece would trim into some great thumbnail's but it seems a shame to break up a piece this size, especially since the powers that be banned collecting up there. Still its obviously better to let this classic locality with it's incredible and varied mineral wealth go untouched than to let collectors go up there and do their thing,
Finally today a big Kidney Ore from Frizingtom Parks mine.

[Jordi Fabre]