FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Philip Simmons]

[Philip Simmons]

Thanks for moving this as a new topic. Can one of the Admin make a New Mexico Collecting thread and include the Macy mine in it? I am planning on writing and showing photographs for many more New Mexico localities, and this topic should be part of a larger group of stories/photos.

[Philip Simmons]

A few more photos from the first trip I took with my father in June 2016. The vanadinite photo is on my collection page, but it needs to be part of this topic as the specimen is most likely the best vanadinite (variety arsenatian) that has been found from the Macy mine.

[Pete Modreski]

Thanks for sharing these photos, Philip! Great vanadinites. I've collected there, with Ray DeMark, but, gosh, it's probably been over 35 years ago.

[Jordi Fabre]

[Philip Simmons]

[Philip Simmons]

One of New Mexico's most renowned localities is the Mina Tiro Estrella claim located near Ruidoso. In the late 1970's the famous southwestern field collector, Dick Jones, learned about a smoky quartz vein at the foot of the Capitan Mountains and decided to investigate. He dug there for several months and eventually found a series of pockets that produced superb dark smoky quartz Japan-law twins on a quartz/feldspar matrix. These specimens quickly gained notoriety, both good and bad. The good: the specimens Dick collected made a huge impact on the collecting community, and collectors quickly snapped them up when he set up "tables" of the material at the Tucson show. The bad: nobody who has worked the claim since has found even a fraction of the quantity of dark smoky quartz that Dick had, and there are credible reports that he sent them to a University of Arizona lab to be irradiated and turn the quartz a dark smoky color. Once word of the find got out, Dick had many problems with high-grading , and he eventually let the claim lapse. The claim lay mostly dormant for the next several decades, although several people owned the mineral rights during that time.

I had always dreamed of collecting here, but I had never been able with my father when I was growing up. A little over five years ago, I was finally able to track down the exact location of the claim, although I was told by New Mexico collectors that the area was mostly worked out by the previous owners. However, I was determined to collect there since it was a childhood dream. The first trip took me several hours to locate the pit that had been dug by previous workers because everything had been overgrown by plants due to a fire in the early 2000's. Near the end of the day I did manage to find the place, and I immediately located a good spot along the side of the 5 meter by 15 meter pit. Within two hours I had dug several nice twins (up to 3 cm), and I was hooked! I have been working the Mina Tiro Estrella locality ever since, of which I am now a part owner.

Quartz from the claim is generally light-to-medium smoky, and untwinned crystals, to 9 cm, are often the Tessin habit. One unique aspect about the quartz is that a large percentage of crystals form contact Japan-law twins. The twins are highly striated on the prism faces perpendicular to the twinning plane. Twins range in size from less than a centimeter to over 12 cm wide. They also form "heart" or "butterfly" twins, "rabbit-ear" twins and elongated vertical twins where the re-entrant angle is nearly imperceptible. I have even managed to find an extremely rare Reichenstein-Greiserntal twin!

[Philip Simmons]

[Glen Miller]

Phil,
Thank you for your report along with the excellent photos. It's a treat to actually see the fabled quartz locality and extracted treasures. Your picture of Sierra Blanca reminds me of the times I've looked from there toward the El Capitan site, wondering what ever happened to it. Friends have tried finding the location without success, so I wish you continued success in collecting.

Glen Miller
Redding, CA

[Philip Simmons]

Here are a few more photos from Mina Tiro Estrella. This brings everything up to date for the claim. I will post more photos as I continue to dig for twinned smoky quartz!

[Philip Simmons]

I forgot to include this little story for the "Best twin just from pocket" photo.


My best find of the entire time I've been digging on the claim has a good story. I had been digging for two days and had found a few good specimens (see Tessin Japan-law twin). As I dug deeper in the vein, I opened up a huge pocket for the locality. It was 25 cm across by 70 cm deep and had nothing in it! This is very unusual because most pockets have many, if not hundreds of, small quartz crystals in them. I only found one partial twin in the entire pocket. After two frustrating hours of digging nothing but pocket clay, I eventually hit a piece of quartz in the very bottom of the pocket with my digging tool. I didn't pay much attention to it until the next bit of clay removed revealed a large crystal. I excitedly uncovered the rest of the crystal and then the other half of the twin! As I pulled the twin from the clay I noticed an indentation in the ceiling of the pocket that looked like matrix. Sure enough, I extracted the matrix and matched the rock to the twin. The resulting specimen is the best twin I have found on the claim and one of the best twins to have ever been found there!

[Glen Miller]

Philip, although the ground may be wet, have you tried to stabilize the clay "matrix" with thin Star Bond like the paleios do for their bones? Might result in more specimens on "matrix."

[Philip Simmons]

[Pierre Joubert]

Wow Philip, how blessed you are to have a dad that digs with you. Mine died many years ago. Field trips are so exciting, especially when one sees where the specimens on the shelves originated from from. Thank you for sharing your exciting adventures with us.

[Kelvin Hu]

So good article to read through! Waiting for your next update!

[Philip Simmons]

Hi all,

Sorry for the long wait between postings. I have been out field collecting almost non-stop for the past 6-8 weeks as it is prime season for outdoor activities. I will post some of our recent findings soon as I get the minerals cleaned and prepped. For now I want to present the Cookes Peak District, which has produced many great fluorites along with other interesting minerals.

The Cookes Peak and Jose Districts were first discovered in 1876, and production started in 1880. The first target was argentiferous galena, followed by oxidized lead and zinc ores. Final production was focused on the primary lead and zinc sulfides. The mines ran intermittently through 1953. The ore bodies are classified as manto-replacement type, and were usually on the order of less than 1,000 tons per zone. Overall production of the District was relatively small: 7.7 million tons of lead, 5.8 million tons of zinc and >6,000 ounces of silver. However, it's mostly the gangue minerals (fluorite, vanadinite, sidwillite, calcite, quartz) that are of interest to collectors.

[Philip Simmons]

Some more photos from the Cookes Peak District.

[Philip Simmons]

We worked the pocket for 10 days and had dug all the fluorite in sight. Everybody was ready to go home and recover after spending so much time in the dingy, dirty mine. A few days later I called Chris, Mike and Fred to see if they wanted to dig in the pocket area a little bit more. Both thought there was still some potential to find good specimens, but Mike and Fred had other commitments, so it was just Chris and I collecting this time.

We dug in a promising area that had produced some highly etched green fragments of fluorite, and within a couple hours we opened up another chamber to the large pocket. Interestingly enough, this part of the pocket was under muck in the old drift the miners had driven well over a hundred years ago. This time the pocket produced vibrant ("jolly-rancher") green etched octahedrons sitting on 1st generation etched blue cubes. This 4 day trip produced many more specimens, including a large plate of green and purple fluorite, known as the "Jolly Green Giant". This specimen also now resides in the NMBGMR Mineral Museum collection.

[Philip Simmons]

The Cookes Peak District also produces some other great specimens besides the fluorites form the Surprise #1 workings. I've put together a nice representation of the not so well known specimens from this area.

[Philip Simmons]

More Cookes Peak area minerals.