FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Jordi Fabre]

Congratulations Nurbo!!

[nurbo]

Thanks Carles, Jordi,

Here we have a Cerussite from Force Crag in Coledale,Im a big fan of these, they;re, very delicate and the matrix falls apart very easily, There is some debate as to what colours them blue,

[nurbo]

So I just got this little polished Agate pebble, it was in the James R Gregory collection and dates between 1866 and 1874,

[nurbo]

Here's a rare find, interpenetrant interpenetrant twin's, It's, from Bayles Hush in Teesdale, the Fluorite is a very light mauve colour and highly fluorescent.

[nurbo]

I said this already and now I find I have to say it again ... I dont collect Chinese minerals but every now and again something comes along that I cant resist. This Spessartine sample is one such piece.

[nurbo]

I've been lucky enough to get my hands on some really good Fluorite's recently, this one is from Dawsons Vein,
I also got this one, from Gutterby Pit, it's not pristine but it's one of the best I've seen from there.
Finally today Graphite from the Lake District, in the early 1800's this stuff was selling for over £4000 a ton, (1 imperial ton = 0.907 metric tonnes) the mines had armed guards 24 hours a day and the miner's were cavity searched when they left work.I used an online calculator which said that £4000 in 1800 would equate to £1/4 million today.

[nurbo]

Today Ive got my most expensive thumbnail purchase, ever,.and it came glued to styrofoam, thankfully I managed to work it free and put it in a box with white tack.

Here is an unusual piece, so far I've had it in super iron out and given it several goes in an ultrasonic cleaner but there is still a fair bit of dirt on it, one day I'll clean it up a bit more. The Baryte has tiny Smithsonite blobs on it and sits on a matrix of Calcite. Shame its got a tiny ding on it.

[nurbo]

Here are a couple of pieces, the first is unusual, this was the first time I'd seen Crinoids brecciated with Fluorite! I collected this piece from a small working near Kirkby Stephen in Cumbria, I only found a couple of pieces, there are other veins of Crinoid stems in the area but those are Brecciated by Calcite.
I am a huge fan of Sphalerite, this piece is from Brownley Hill.

[nurbo]

For today Ive done three more UK pieces, first up is Dolomite that has brecciated some broken Kidney Ore leaving behind the cast of the Botryoidal structure, it has some great flattened red Quartz crystals that grew between the layers.

Next we have a Pyromorphite from Force Crag in Coledale, I especially like the banded crystal in the top left of the second photo.

Finally today one of those weird Mexico Opencut Pyro's that look like shiny fungus.

[nurbo]

I got this Tsumeb Azurite ridiculously cheaply, it has some green stuff on it which Id normally assume to be Malachite but I guess with Tsumeb it could be any one of a number of other things.

[Ru Smith]

Very lovely specimens, nurbo! Are those not corals with the fluorite?

[nurbo]

Hey Ru,
As far as I know they are Crinoids, Im absolutely no where near being an expert on fossils though and I could easily be wrong,
db

[GneissWare]

[nurbo]

re Crinoidy things ... I did have the thought that the centre of the stem should be hollow but I had a bit of a google and that isnt necessarily the case.

On the subject of Azurite I got one of these Azurite discs from Malbunka, Im a bit confused as to why one side is ridged and the other isnt? If they are flattened nodules that formed between layers of Kaolinite why arent both sides the same?

[Mark Ost]

It is such a nicely formed arrow with good faces though. A pity as these are a true rarity. Think twice!