FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Michael Shaw]

I just received the Jan/Feb. issue of Mineral Record in today's mail and was excited to see an article about the Panasqueira Mine in it. I was even more delighted when I saw that it was co-authored by Jordi. As is my usual habit, I put everything else aside and read the magazine from cover to cover. Congratulations to Carles Curto Milà and Jordi on an excellent article about this wonderful locality. I also greatly enjoyed Jordi's reminiscences of his early buying trips there; not only were they humorous, but they serve to point out what lengths mineral dealers will go to get the goods.

Well done, Jordi and Carles.

[Roger Warin]

Hello,
I look forward to receiving the January / Feb issue of MR
Panasqueira is a locality that I love from my youth.
Thank you Jordi and Carles for sharing your experience.
Attached, an apatite Panasqueira under UV light at 365 nm.
enjoy it.
Roger.

[Don Lum]

Dear Jordi and Carles,

Congratulations on the well written and illustrated article on the Panasqueira Mines in the January- February issue of the Min Rec. It was a real treat to read.

Thank you.

Sincerely yours,

Don

[Pete Modreski]

Great article! And, Roger, love the photo of the multiple colors of luminescence in the apatite.

[Carles Curto]

Thanks to all, but this article would not exist without the great work of Tom Moore and Wendell Wilson.

[Jordi Fabre]

Thanks to everybody, but it is Carles who really deserves the compliments, he made this the job of his life! ;-)

About the tales, yes, they are my reminiscences, and I still have a hidden surprise. I wrote a tale for each specimen in my collection, how I got it and the circumstances surrounding each "hunt," a kind of "mini-tale" for each photo. Of course the layout of the publication doesn't allow the addition of such a long text in the photo's caption, but I kept these texts as well as the original photos, so if I can reach an agreement with Wendell Wilson to publish (in the far future) these texts and photos, I will do it. Of course, my compromise is with the Mineralogical Record and only when the timing is convenient (it could take years) then maybe I will complete the funny part of this article with new implausible histories... ;-)

[Roger Warin]

Thank you Jordi.
What elegance that this apatite has. WOW !
Roger.

[GneissWare]

[James Catmur]

Just got my copy (it takes a while to get to the UK) and I am in the process of reading the article, but I have not yet finished it. So far it is great Carles.

[Juan F. Buelga]

Great article. Congratulations to the authors.

[Jordi Fabre]

As many of you already know, Carles Curto and I recently published a large article about the Panasqueira mining area in the magazine Mineralogical Record : The Mineralogical Record, January-February 2014, Volume 45, Number 1, pages 11-55, "The Panasqueira mines, Castelo Branco district, Portugal" and even more recently, another article, also large and also about the Panasqueira mining area in the German magazine Lapis: Weiß, S., Fabre, J. & Mila, C. C. (2014): Panasqueira, Portugal: Wolframit, Zinnstein und prächtige Apatite. Lapis, 39 (7/8), 16-29; Weiß, S. & Fabre, J. (2014): Panasqueira: Mineralien für Kenner - von A bis Z. Lapis, 39 (7/8), 30-53; Mila, C.C., Salvan, C.M. & Fabre, J. (2014): Panasqueira: Neufunde und Neubestimmungen. Lapis, 39 (7/8), 54-63. (check: https://www.lapis.de/aktuelles/editorial/238-editorial-62015)
Previously, we had also published one more article about the Apatites from Panasqueira in the magazine ExtraLapis "Apatite: the great pretender".

With these items we generated a lot of information about this great mining area, but some personal stories with photos of individual specimens were not published since the format of the magazines cannot incorporate such long texts with the photos. However, the online format does allow for pubication of these personal stories, mostly mine, that I believe allows a better understanding of this mine. I hope you like what we will publish from now.

Arsenopyrite with Sphalerite, Siderite and Quartz. 12.5 x 6.5x 6 cm. Mined in 1983.

I bought it to Senhor H. Senhor H was the most sophisticated seller in Panasqueira and a regular secret supplier of great specimens to Señor Folch. Unfortunately for me he retired a few years after I started to deal in Panasqueira minerals, so I did not have the chance to deal with him much with the exception of a few notable specimens like this one. The siderite on this specimen is cute; it looks like elongated fluorapatites and they are frequently labeled as such. But they are just an odd polysynthetic growth of siderite crystals...
Text revised by James Catmur. Thank you James!

[Pedro Alves]

Hello all,
Whenever I hear/read about Panasqueira, I feel a great pride in my country, although we have many other interesting locations.
For Panasqueira lovers I'll just add a new species for this locality: Florencite-(Ce).

As soon as possible I'll write a brief note on the subject.

Cheers,
Pedro Alves

[Jordi Fabre]

[Jordi Fabre]

See: Panasqueira Mine

Chalcopyrite with Ferberite and Stannite. 10 x 6.5 x 6 cm. Chalcopyrite crystal size: 5.5 x 5 cm. Mined in 1989

A very large and very sharp crystal of Chalcopyrite on Ferberite, partially coated with tiny Stannite crystals. Based on my knowledge, this is one of the best and larger Chalcopyrite crystal from Panasqueira. Mined in 1989, I bought it from Senhor X (see "Wild Panasquiera - A Memoir" in the Record's article) and without a doubt it is one of the best memories I have of him.
After analysis we noticed recently that many of the tinny grey-blackish crystals coating part of the Chalcopyrite crystals of Panasqueira could be Stannite, as they are in this case, so even better! ;-)

Text revised by James Catmur. Thank you James!

[Jordi Fabre]

See: Panasqueira Mine

Iridescent Arsenopyrite with Muscovite and Calcite-Dolomite. 14.5 x 12 x 5.7 cm. Largest Arsenopyrite crystal size 4 x 1 cm. Mined in 1990

These iridescent Arsenopyrites are not frequent but also not that rare in Panasqueira and although some people believed them to be fake, they are natural. They appeared in the mine with these colors, probably due some "redox" process. Actually their color is generally not as iridescent/colorful as this specimen, but some Arsenopyrites and even Pyrites with lower bluish, reddish and yellowish colors appeared there from time to time.
It was mined about 1990 and in the second level of the mine.


Text revised by James Catmur. Thank you James!