FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Carles Millan]

Magnetite, pyrite

Group of rhombododecahedral {110} magnetite crystals with octahedral {111} pyrite. Overall size: 120 mm x 97 mm x 45 mm. Main magnetite crystal: 13 mm wide. Main pyrite crystal: 10 mm on edge. Weight: 642 g. Specimen mined before year 1981.

Brosso Mine, Cálea, Léssolo, Canavese District, Torino Province, Piedmont, Italy.

This specimen is no longer in my collection.

Photos copyright © Carles Millan. Reproduction allowed as long as the author's name is cited. Creative Commons Attribution Licence - Some Rights Reserved.

[Carles Millan]

Apophyllite, stilbite

Group of sharp lustrous transparent pale green crystals of apophyllite with some pink to white stilbite. Undamaged. The apophyllite crystals are prismatic and show the usual combination of {100} with {111} faces. Overall size: 105 mm x 70 mm. Main apophyllite crystal: 22 mm wide edge to edge. Weight: 266 g.

Jalgaon District, Maharashtra, India.

Photos copyright © Carles Millan. Reproduction allowed as long as the author's name is cited and the image not modified. Creative Commons Attribution Licence - Some Rights Reserved.

[Carles Millan]

Apophyllite, stilbite

Hard to photograph group of small transparent pale green crystals of apophyllite on translucent colorless stilbite. Undamaged. Overall size: 66 mm x 56 mm. Field collected about year 2002. Ex Buma and Wilke collections.

Jalgaon District, Maharashtra, India.

Photos copyright © Carles Millan. Reproduction allowed as long as the author's name is cited and the image not modified. Creative Commons Attribution Licence - Some Rights Reserved.

[Jim]

Thanks for the constant supply of fresh pics, Carles! Please post more -- especially gem crystals.


Cheers,

Jim

[Carles Millan]

Hi Jim!

>Thanks for the constant supply of fresh pics, Carles! Please post more -- especially gem crystals.

In fact I'm running out of specimens to shoot. Most of the pieces left are just the ones most hard to photograph. And I don't have a good time taking these shots with my humble camera.

Jim, I envy your Arkansas diamonds collection. It must be the best of all from the Crater. The Damien's 14 mm diamond published in "Private Mineral Collections in Texas" is really superb too.

The largest diamond in my collection is .... 2 mm wide! Of course, I'm not planning to post it here.

[Jordi Fabre]

[Carles Millan]

Jim Houran wrote

>Now, back to your collection! Too bad you're running out of specimens. The same is true for me. I don't go quantity, I go for "best of best" quality. I don't find aesthetics and perfection boring;

I wouldn't like to own a large collection. As you may know, due to the high population density most Europeans live in a flat or condo, and so do I. I have the room limited to a little more than one hundred square meters (just over 1,100 square feet) for my whole vital activities, sleeping and taking a bath included. In addition, I don't want to have to manage a great deal of specimens like a museum has. Fortunately for our fellow Gail Spann, she and her husband own a large home that allows them to maintain a collection with more than 3,000 specimens (not to mention their blessed economy, I guess). But ask her how much of her time has she to spend cataloging, storing, moving, cleaning, protecting from pets, and so on.

I now own 450 pieces and am fighting to get rid of the least valuable. From time to time I even send some of them to the trash bin. I think the ideal would be not more than 500 if one can get a minimal quality level. As you do, I also try to get the best quality I can afford instead of the largest quantity, although sometimes I do get wrong. But not all of my current specimens are 'postable'. Many have just a sentimental value (I worked hard in the field very long ago to get them), and others are worth only for Catalan local collectors. That means that only a little more than a half of my minerals are decent enough to be published.

I hope you will understand now what is the reason I'm running out of specimens for posting. I'm really sorry...

[Carles Millan]

Babingtonite, prehnite, quartz

Group of more than a dozen tabular black babingtonite crystals on translucent pale green botryoidal prehnite and several small colorless quartz crystals. Undamaged. Overall size: 83 mm x 59 mm. Longest crystal: 25 mm long. Second crystal: 20 mm wide, 7 mm thick. Weight: 124 g. It seems to be a floater (I can't find any attachment point).

Qiaojia, Zhaotong, Yunnan, China.

Photos copyright © Carles Millan. Reproduction allowed as long as the author's name is cited. Creative Commons Attribution License - Some Rights Reserved.

[Carles Millan]

Vanadinite

Group of intergrown, translucent, reddish-brown vanadinite crystals, many doubly terminated and some of them cogwheel shaped. Very clean of damage. It's almost a floater. The back side is covered with a secondary vanadinite phase of yellowish-brown color. Overall size: 57 mm x 50 mm x 36 mm. Major crystal size: 16 mm wide edge to edge, 11 mm tall. Weight: 141 g.

ACF Mine, Mibladen, Midelt, Khénifra, Meknès-Tafilalet, Morocco.

Photos copyright © Carles Millan (except as noted). Reproduction allowed as long as the author's name is cited. Creative Commons Attribution License - Some Rights Reserved.

My Personal Site

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7240M-vanadinite2.jpg
Description:	Vanadinite ACF Mine, Mibladen, Midelt, Khénifra, Meknès-Tafilalet, Morocco 57 mm x 50 mm x 36 mm
Viewed:	57025 Time(s)

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7240M-vanadinite1.jpg
Description:	Vanadinite ACF Mine, Mibladen, Midelt, Khénifra, Meknès-Tafilalet, Morocco 57 mm x 50 mm x 36 mm
Viewed:	57000 Time(s)

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7240-vanadinite.jpg
Description:	Vanadinite ACF Mine, Mibladen, Midelt, Khénifra, Meknès-Tafilalet, Morocco 57 mm x 50 mm x 36 mm Joe Budd (Oakland, California) photo
Viewed:	54899 Time(s)

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[Carles Millan]

Orthoclase, quartz, aegirine

Single twinned orthoclase crystal with smoky quartz and numerous very small aegirine crystals set mainly on the orthoclase's frontal and one side face but not on the back nor on the other lateral face. Overall size: 106 mm x 25 mm. Orthoclase crystal size: 92 mm tall, 26 mm wide, 17 mm thick. Weight: 80 g. Repaired because an accident with a sleeve.

Mt Malosa, Zomba Plateau, Malawi.

Photos copyright © Carles Millan. Reproduction allowed as long as the author's name is cited. Creative Commons Attribution License - Some Rights Reserved.

[Tracy]

I like this one...there's something very elegant about it.

- Tracy

[Carles Millan]

Hi Tracy!

You're right. It's very elegant. You don't always have to spend much money to get nice specimens. I don't know why, but that kind of pieces are really low priced. As you may know, a thread about this topic has been recently opened at https://www.mineral-forum.com/message-board/viewtopic.php?t=699

Thank you once again for your comments,

[Carles Millan]

Calcite, realgar

Group of calcite with a very small realgar crystal included, typical of the locality. Mined on December 2002. Overall size: 123 mm x 100 mm x 50 mm. Description from the vendor: "Aesthetic calcite with perfect tips and a nice position of the crystals which are crossed and upright on the matrix. A really minor small realgar crystal inside one of the calcite crystals."

Shimen As-(Au) deposit, Shimen Co., Changde Prefecture, Hunan Province, China.

Photo Fabre Minerals.

Note: A much better photo can be seen at https://www.mineral-forum.com/message-board/viewtopic.php?p=83811#83811

[Carles Millan]

Beryl, apatite, muscovite

Several crystals of pale blue to almost colorless beryl and a lustrous pale pink tabular apatite set on a matrix of bladed muscovite. No damage. One of the beryl crystals, unexpectedly only one, shows a fully developed {2111} face that makes the prism base square rather than hexagonal. Overall size: 102 mm x 83 mm x 41 mm. Main beryl crystal size: 21 mm wide edge to edge. Apatite crystal size: 14 mm wide. Weight: 367 g.

Nagar, Hunza Valley, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan.

Photos by John Veevaert.

My Personal Site

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8291DF-beryl.jpg
Description:	Beryl, apatite, muscovite Nagar, Hunza Valley, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan 102 mm x 83 mm x 41 mm
Viewed:	55950 Time(s)

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8291DFM1-beryl1.jpg
Description:	Beryl, apatite, muscovite Nagar, Hunza Valley, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan 102 mm x 83 mm x 41 mm Beryl close up with the fully developed {2111} face enhanced (photo edited by C.M.)
Viewed:	55985 Time(s)

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8291DF-beryl2.jpg
Description:	Beryl, apatite, muscovite Nagar, Hunza Valley, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan 102 mm x 83 mm x 41 mm Apatite close up
Viewed:	55942 Time(s)

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[Carles Millan]

Cinnabar, dolomite

Twinned dark red cinnabar crystal on dolomite. Overall specimen size: 62 mm x 50 mm. Cinnabar crystal: 18 mm wide, 20 mm tall. Weight: 133 g. It happened to be repaired long after purchase from an unidentified Chinese vendor at 2004 Munich show, but not forged as reported at https://www.mineral-forum.com/message-board/viewtopic.php?p=11026#11026

Yanwuping Mine, Wanshan, Tongren, Guizhou, China.

Photos copyright © Carles Millan. Reproduction allowed as long as the author's name is cited. Creative Commons Attribution License - Some Rights Reserved.

My Personal Site

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2457M-cinnabar.jpg
Description:	Cinnabar, dolomite Yanwuping Mine, Wanshan, Tongren, Guizhou, China 62 mm x 50 mm
Viewed:	55219 Time(s)

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2457M-cinnabar1.jpg
Description:	Cinnabar, dolomite Yanwuping Mine, Wanshan, Tongren, Guizhou, China 62 mm x 50 mm
Viewed:	55191 Time(s)

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2457M-cinnabar2.jpg
Description:	Cinnabar, dolomite Yanwuping Mine, Wanshan, Tongren, Guizhou, China 62 mm x 50 mm
Viewed:	55149 Time(s)

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