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Pierre Joubert
Joined: 09 Mar 2012
Posts: 1605
Location: Western Cape
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 Posted: Dec 22, 2012 02:43 Post subject: Re: CROCOITE! A Huge New Pocket From The Adelaide Mine, Dundas, Tasmania, Australia |
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This is unbelievable!!! Such a discovery would be too much for my heart! Thanks for sharing this amazing story.
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Pierre Joubert
'The tree of silence bears the fruit of peace. ' |
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yowanni
Joined: 27 Feb 2008
Posts: 37
Location: Spain (Cantabria / Madrid)
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| Posted: Dec 25, 2012 07:44 Post subject: Re: CROCOITE! A Huge New Pocket From The Adelaide Mine, Dundas, Tasmania, Australia |
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| Incredible Crocoites!!!
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Chris Foltz
Joined: 28 Oct 2012
Posts: 92
Location: Maryland
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| Posted: Dec 27, 2012 07:25 Post subject: Re: CROCOITE! A Huge New Pocket From The Adelaide Mine, Dundas, Tasmania, Australia |
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You lucky dog, with trout fishing to boot ! lol :)
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stone-cutter |
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Nico78
Joined: 31 Oct 2012
Posts: 34
Location: Paris
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| Posted: Feb 13, 2013 15:23 Post subject: Re: CROCOITE! A Huge New Pocket From The Adelaide Mine, Dundas, Tasmania, Australia |
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Incredible!
A big thanks to share this reportage with us!
It's always a pleasure to know how the mineral species are find in them natural environments!
Morreover when we realise the conditions needed to extract one specimens, it's increase the personal value that we can give to ours own species!
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Young french geologist engineer somewhere around the world .
Also forgive me for my english syntax! I'm not yet fluent! |
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Roger Warin
Joined: 23 Jan 2013
Posts: 1232
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| Posted: Feb 13, 2013 17:20 Post subject: Re: CROCOITE! A Huge New Pocket From The Adelaide Mine, Dundas, Tasmania, Australia |
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I will use the same Nico78’s words to express my admiration.
Mine very impressive, with a reward at the end. Many thanks.
Roger.
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John Cornish
Joined: 19 Oct 2009
Posts: 128
Location: Port Angeles
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| Posted: Mar 07, 2013 15:56 Post subject: Re: CROCOITE! A Huge New Pocket From The Adelaide Mine, Dundas, Tasmania, Australia |
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| From down low at this point, this is how the pocket appeared, beautiful, spectacular and… |
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40621 Time(s) |
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Tight!
There’d be no room for error here, everything would have to work perfectly if the madness I was envisioning was to be realized. |
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40602 Time(s) |
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This is the view behind the right hand pocket wall.
Wonderful, crazy and so full of possibilities! |
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John Cornish
Joined: 19 Oct 2009
Posts: 128
Location: Port Angeles
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| Posted: Mar 07, 2013 16:07 Post subject: Re: CROCOITE! A Huge New Pocket From The Adelaide Mine, Dundas, Tasmania, Australia |
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| Having stoped this area open, removing the bulk of the rock from behind the pocket wall, I’ve left the wall more or less hanging and am getting more nervous, err, I mean closer to my goal of recovering this massive section of wall as a single monstrous crystal specimen! |
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40529 Time(s) |
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But only if everything goes right.
As with so many things in life, before the prize can be won, reality rears its ugly head! For me, this travesty took the form of that pesky crystal bridge I’d mentioned earlier, spanning the top of the lower pocket area. There, I had a lot of work to do *before* the pocket material below could be collected.
Ordinarily, this is a bad-bad-bad thing to do, working fragile specimens above fragile specimens, too many chances for something to go wrong, for something to fall.
And one thing’s for sure, crocoites don’t take damage well!
Still, it’s what I had to do to continue on. |
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40561 Time(s) |
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Thankfully, the shape of the bridge assisted and allowed me to recover some incredible specimens as during this process, the vast majority of my detritus fell from a sloping ledge to cascade impotently, safely away, from the pocket and its pristine crystalline contents.
Above the bridge, a million spikey orange crystals covered every surface. |
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40585 Time(s) |
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Joyous tidings, the Crocoite Super Highway has opened!
Congratulations Bruce, a fine, fine job and one which will make every day a whole lot easier. Hat’s off! |
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40541 Time(s) |
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| Heck, it’s even getting spacious down here. Dare I say it… |
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40579 Time(s) |
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Roomy!
As it should be! There is much work which will be done in this hollowed out area and many a precious load will be hauled from here outward towards the surface.
Every inch of space gained is gratefully appreciated.
On the left, the entrance into the little raise which opens into the Red River Upper pocket zone. On the right, just out of sight beside the shovels, the wall is cut back another 4 feet (1.3 meters) creating an expansive work area. |
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40527 Time(s) |
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John Cornish
Joined: 19 Oct 2009
Posts: 128
Location: Port Angeles
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| Posted: Mar 07, 2013 16:17 Post subject: Re: CROCOITE! A Huge New Pocket From The Adelaide Mine, Dundas, Tasmania, Australia |
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| As I worked the area surrounding the bridge, I was rewarded as the edges of the plate started to define themselves. Boundary’s became more evident until eventually, I broke through and my line of separation began to form. |
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40582 Time(s) |
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Up top center, you can see the void I’ve opened and will continue to expand.
Note also the extreme angle that the wall resides, the top leaning frightfully forward towards the pocket’s interior. This creates an excessive amount of weight pushing forward and while I wasn’t staggered, I was concerned and would really have to pay attention and compensate for this factor. |
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40545 Time(s) |
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| With progress going well above, and needing to clear out the hole of all the waste rock I’d dumped, I shifted to give myself a break and began mucking. With that task completed, it was time to begin undercutting the wall. To accomplish this, I had to dig the floor down about a foot (30 cm) beneath the plate’s base along its entire length. |
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40482 Time(s) |
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| Digging out the floor of the pocket was fun and many delicate and showy specimens were recovered during this time satisfyingly. The backside of the wall was much less glamorous to excavate! |
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40563 Time(s) |
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| In this photo, lower left, you can see the cut I’ve made under the wall defining the base of the specimen I hoped to recover. At this point the base of the wall is completely unsupported. Near the center of the photo, you can see where I’ve broken through into the pocket and have begun my upper cut separating the back-side of the wall from its host matrix. The faint lighter-colored scar rising above this area defines the cut I’ll be making. |
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40530 Time(s) |
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| More detail and more progress. |
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40539 Time(s) |
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Things were going well, but always in the back of my mind was the fear of something going dreadfully wrong, of the plate collapsing, of it falling to destroy the pocket’s contents, etcetera. With these morbid thoughts warring in my mind, I felt it prudent to, one more time, take pictures of the pocket’s opposite wall while it was still pristine and perfect.
This was my fear factor. |
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40524 Time(s) |
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John Cornish
Joined: 19 Oct 2009
Posts: 128
Location: Port Angeles
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| Posted: Mar 07, 2013 16:25 Post subject: Re: CROCOITE! A Huge New Pocket From The Adelaide Mine, Dundas, Tasmania, Australia |
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| And in case I’d somehow forgotten, the space separating one pocket wall from the other, it was still tight, very-very tight! |
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40504 Time(s) |
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| It’s difficult to make out in this photo but here, I’ve cut through and have completely separated the upper and lower parts of the bridge along its entire length. This leaves the top half of the bridge in-place, supported by the pockets opposite wall, when I remove the lower wall/specimen. It seems a bit precarious, read scary as Hell, but from all I can see, it’s a good mount and is supporting itself competently. |
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40483 Time(s) |
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Note how I’ve built a crib of miscellaneous timber beneath the plate to support it when I break it free from its host matrix. My goal is to have the plate settle and travel only a tiny, miniscule amount of distance after separation. I only need it to come free, that’s all. I’ll manage it from there.
No big moves. Slow and steady. |
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40546 Time(s) |
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| Another view of the big plate just before the final work to free it is exerted. |
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40516 Time(s) |
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With Bruce’s help, I’ll have him support the plate while I delicately remove the last of the attaching matrix from behind the plate.
It all comes down to these next few minutes, will or won’t it work… |
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40526 Time(s) |
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| Halloween 2012, how did you spend it? Did you get a trick or a treat? For us, we had our fingers crossed! |
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40494 Time(s) |
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John Cornish
Joined: 19 Oct 2009
Posts: 128
Location: Port Angeles
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| Posted: Mar 09, 2013 10:59 Post subject: Re: CROCOITE! A Huge New Pocket From The Adelaide Mine, Dundas, Tasmania, Australia |
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Yay, Treat!
It’s a shame I don’t have photos detailing our recovery of this treasure from off the wall but the truth is, Bruce and I, we were busy!
And in the end, the sweetest word of all… Success!
As I mentioned above, it’s a shame that I couldn’t take any photos of the Big Plates recovery off the wall, but maybe a close second…
This is an unedited excerpt direct from my Field Collecting Journal detailing the days adventure…
9:39 pm. Today was the day that 100% I was hoping for, today was a successful day and everything went perfect.
I’m exhausted as I write, and I’d taken a tiny snooze after I’d eaten and taken a shower (my sleep will likely suffer from it but no matter). Some cold cereal and here I am.
We got back early, around 4:00 pm. And even then, the release of the day’s tension, had me yawning and tired. That and one other thing, success!
At the mine, we each took several photos to document the scene prior to the Big Plate coming out. Then we did some video. With everything recorded to our satisfaction, and while the sunshine of a perfect Spring day made the outside a dream, we set to making our own dreams come true!
I’d left a small section of rock as an attachment supporting the Big Plate. Under the plate I’d made a wooden cradle to support the plate when it separated from its last support. Pointing these things out, I offered my ideas as to how we should proceed, cutting the support at its top and then move out the remaining material from the very last vertical support. This left a smaller and smaller attaching point to hold the plate and soon, as I supported the plates outer edge to hold it from collapsing into the pocket, Bruce worked his magic (prying at a point where two hard surfaces made perfect leverage points to * POP * the plate free).
It happened fast and slow all at the same time. One minute nothing, then the plate wiggles and then BINGO, the plate breaks free. It falls and settles and then its weight starts to shift, collapsing the plate towards total destruction, where I come in and counter its effect by gently pushing the plate back towards Bruce (as I do so, a chunk of matrix rips free in my hand and my heart slams in my chest as I drop it and re-grab the plate) who has settled in perfectly as we’d discussed, compressing his body against the plate and together we coerced the plate softly, gently, just like we’d planned, into a stable resting position, free-standing and Free-Free-Free and down!
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| Propped up and sitting alongside the pocket, the plate was huge! |
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40370 Time(s) |
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40388 Time(s) |
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With the plate removed, this is the open aspect of the pocket.
It’s just so far beyond impressive!!!
The left hand wall as shown here is a bit over 6 feet across on the horizontal by approximately 5 feet on the vertical I’d guess (1.1 by 1.2 meters). |
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40416 Time(s) |
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| Staring back into the void of the pocket, deep into its crystalline maw. |
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40382 Time(s) |
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| This is a close-up taken of the Big Plate showing the perfection of the crystals covering its surface. |
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40357 Time(s) |
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| Detail of crystals along the edge of the plate. These multi-generational groups of crocoite are just over 4 inches tall (11 cm) and are as beautiful as they are fragile. |
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40326 Time(s) |
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| Another view of crystals along the edge of the Big Plate. |
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40341 Time(s) |
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40375 Time(s) |
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John Cornish
Joined: 19 Oct 2009
Posts: 128
Location: Port Angeles
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| Posted: Mar 09, 2013 11:21 Post subject: Re: CROCOITE! A Huge New Pocket From The Adelaide Mine, Dundas, Tasmania, Australia |
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| At the mine, Bruce and I needed a little help getting this big bugger out of the pocket area and down the drift and out of the mine. Friend, Bear, had an old block and tackle set-up that worked just fine and with his help, and with the additional assistance of visiting friends Sascha and Anna, we set to it… |
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40363 Time(s) |
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| You can see the plate on its edge in the distance. It took hours and days to get the Big Plate out of the mine, a painfully slow process. |
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40327 Time(s) |
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| After a full days efforts the day before, this was how we left the plate resting in the drift and how we found it safe the next morning. |
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40337 Time(s) |
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Success, such a wonderful word and one better, sunshine!
After an unknown time, for the first time since its creation, this incredible treasure of Australian origin finally greets the light of day. This was a celebration moment and we snapped off lots of photos! |
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40289 Time(s) |
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| Bruce posing with a magical grin and the Big Plate! |
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40352 Time(s) |
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| On the bridge in the sunlight, the Big Plate and me! |
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40342 Time(s) |
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40346 Time(s) |
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| Bruce basking in the glory! |
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40317 Time(s) |
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40342 Time(s) |
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40283 Time(s) |
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| After getting the Big Plate out of the mine and over the bridge and onto the landing. Our next efforts will see the Big Plate loaded onto the back of Bruce’s truck after hauling it down the length of the dump and over the little make-shift ramp we’ve created. |
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40338 Time(s) |
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| In the truck and on its pallet base, we’ll next draw it further back into the truck and then we’ll secure it for its ride out. |
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40305 Time(s) |
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40296 Time(s) |
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40340 Time(s) |
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John Cornish
Joined: 19 Oct 2009
Posts: 128
Location: Port Angeles
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| Posted: Mar 09, 2013 11:30 Post subject: Re: CROCOITE! A Huge New Pocket From The Adelaide Mine, Dundas, Tasmania, Australia |
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| The Big Plate posing over the tumbling waters of the Dundas Rivulet and on its way to Zeehan. |
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40313 Time(s) |
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Detail of the crystals all glistening in the sunshine!
This was the last photo taken of the Big Plate while it was still the Big Plate. Remember my Halloween question, would it be a Trick or a Treat? Well, I’d been thrilled with my Treat when the plate came out, what I didn’t know was that the Trick was waiting…
Just after these last two water-side photos were taken, we continued our journey on the mine road towards town. Just before we hit the blacktop, disaster happened and the Big Plate broke, snapping right in two.
The scajillions of pot-holes in the road bed took their toll, and even though we were more than three quarters of the way out, what more could be said, that was that.
With our spirits crushed, the remainder of the ride out was sadly quiet. |
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40322 Time(s) |
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| In Zeehan prior to being unloaded from the truck. |
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40324 Time(s) |
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40317 Time(s) |
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Unloaded in Zeehan.
While a sadness and a disappointment, still, how incredible is this? It's still a monstrous and spectacular specimen, it'll just need a little love! The repair will mate the two surfaces together with very little issue if that's what's done... Who knows, maybe this just means we'll have to go after another one, a bigger, brighter and more sensational specimen yet!! |
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40297 Time(s) |
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John Cornish
Joined: 19 Oct 2009
Posts: 128
Location: Port Angeles
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| Posted: Mar 10, 2013 10:32 Post subject: Re: CROCOITE! A Huge New Pocket From The Adelaide Mine, Dundas, Tasmania, Australia |
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| With the Big Plate behind me, it was time to get back at it and as if to compensate for the bad luck we’d just had, the pocket next kicked out a little zone with some unique specimens… |
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40133 Time(s) |
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| It’s not the sparse coverage that makes these specimens so different from all the others… |
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40122 Time(s) |
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| It’s the incredibly, insanely thin matrix that these specimens occur on. This was the first of two large specimens recovered from this small area. |
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40109 Time(s) |
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| Here’s a close-up of the crystals on the one edge of the plate, bright and spectacular orange. |
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40066 Time(s) |
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| Here’s Bruce holding the best large plate I pulled from this little hot-spot. |
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40097 Time(s) |
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| This specimen was absolutely incredible with its beyond-bright orange crystals and its wonderfully interspersed forest-like crystal formations. |
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40091 Time(s) |
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| A close-up showing the fantastical crocoite crystal coverage of the specimen. |
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40167 Time(s) |
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| And like the other, it features a thin-thin-thin matrix, stable but way scary looking too! |
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40154 Time(s) |
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| This pocket photo shows the gossan ledge these crocoites formed on. In a world of near vertical crocoite coverage, this perfectly flat horizontal ledge really stood out, not just for its position but for its spectacular specimens too. |
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40104 Time(s) |
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| Description: |
| The ledge was easy to expose and collect once identified as it rested above a large soft, wet clay-filled area which was easily removed. |
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40131 Time(s) |
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| Here’s a couple of short collecting sequences. This first one as I’m going after a small corner fragment… |
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40105 Time(s) |
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John Cornish
Joined: 19 Oct 2009
Posts: 128
Location: Port Angeles
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| Posted: Mar 10, 2013 10:45 Post subject: Re: CROCOITE! A Huge New Pocket From The Adelaide Mine, Dundas, Tasmania, Australia |
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| Easy, pinch the matrix softly… |
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40125 Time(s) |
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| Ah, a tiny little treasure. |
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40072 Time(s) |
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40091 Time(s) |
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| And now the next piece, careful… |
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40077 Time(s) |
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| Ah, that sweet word again, success! |
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40104 Time(s) |
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DIRTY… This set of pictures offers a small glimpse into the romantic life of a miner... I’m tired and I’m dirty, dirty, dirty!
After each day’s session underground, our skin and clothes are stained with a tenacious grime of oxides. This Witches brew of elements marks us. The only way to remove one’s mine make-up is to use abundant soap and water combined with fierce exertion and enthusiasm, aided by a stout bristle brush, to scrub, scrub, scrub! |
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John Cornish
Joined: 19 Oct 2009
Posts: 128
Location: Port Angeles
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| Posted: Mar 11, 2013 10:52 Post subject: Re: CROCOITE! A Huge New Pocket From The Adelaide Mine, Dundas, Tasmania, Australia |
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| Description: |
THE RED CARPET, THE CROCOITE WALKWAY…
Back at the mine, down near the entrance to the lower workings, one day while wandering about, I noted the ground thereabouts had a strange reddish color, very pronounced and out of place as compared to the other exposures surrounding, I went to explore… |
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39789 Time(s) |
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| Description: |
| What I’d rediscovered was an area where masses of clay had been washed. Recovered from a crocoite pocket called the Clay Pocket, these masses were riddled with huge amounts of crocoite, often as fragmented, broken crystals. |
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39814 Time(s) |
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| Description: |
| This is where the clay masses had been washed and littering the ground in this area were the left behind, discarded detritus, hundreds of thousands of crocoite crystal fragments. |
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39808 Time(s) |
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