FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Fiebre Verde]

[Bergur_E_Sigurdarson]

Small but perfect little Emerald sitting on "wings" of Calcite... I called it the butterfly... but maybe it's so small, that just fly would be more appropriate :-)

[Bergur_E_Sigurdarson]

Before the lockdown I had to leave Colombia for a few days and went for a quick weekend hop to Lima, Peru. I used the opportunity to get some specimens from there.

Didn't have much time to prepare, find out where it would be best to buy and was feeling a bit underwhelmed by the offerings I saw (possibly because I wasn't in the "right" places and had little time). But upon my return and going through Peruvian material on the internet I'm a lot more pleased with what I got.

Here are some of the pieces, just in the order that I've been taking pictures.

As those were all purchased in Lima, I can only rely on their locality being what I was told (though I have scoured Mindat to verify that similar material is coming from those localities).

[Bergur_E_Sigurdarson]

The biggest microcline feldspar I've ever found myself, and I believe it's a manebach-twin, tho parts of it are missing.
I wasn't fortunate enough to find the pocket came from (I was just going through loose material, probably tailings from the old prospect), but expect it had some very nice things in it.

I was allowed onto the property next to the Little three mine near San Diego where I stumbled across this piece and a couple of small quartzes and even parts of the orange spessartine garnets the area is known for.
Judging by mindat, the property is located where the "Cable mine" used to be.
https://www.mindat.org/loc-91172.html

The owners showed me a huge ~25cm tall piece of quartz they'd found when digging some foundations, my little quartzes are just a couple of cm.

[Bergur_E_Sigurdarson]

I got this and a few more specimens at Peñas Blancas in the beginning of the year.
This one has a faden like line running through the quartz and in the same direction a line runs through the fluorite. (Also "faden" fluorite growth?)

I really like this piece as well as the others as they have less common combinations from there as well as in this case, a very unusual shape, especially for the fluorite.

When I got it it had some quite damaged aragonite coating it in parts, so I did etch it away with acid. The fluorite was already with a satin finish before that treatment, and the areas that had the aragonite and those that were exposed seem equal and same as before the acid (only needed about 15minutes to either dissolve or dislodge the coating)

I also have a piece that has the minerals more intact and won't be using acid to remove the aragonite and calcite there, but the photos I have at the moment don't do it justice and sadly even this one is just taken on my phone.

[Bergur_E_Sigurdarson]

Some green xmas colour.
A chain of emeralds in calcite and shale.
Some are even double terminated.

Bought in Bogota, so the location isn't 100%
... seller said Coscuez area, and that looks right to me (tho those "suffering" from the green fever might know better from just looking at the picture :-P )

[Fiebre Verde]

[Tobi]

Wonderful emerald, Bergur!

And concerning that:

[Jordi Fabre]

[Bergur_E_Sigurdarson]

Thank you Tobi
...and for the input on the Peruvian piece
...at the moment Jordi is right.
I have been searching the internet (mindat and more) and just recently found several near identical pieces but the owner has yet to reply if they know a more detailed location as the web-result also only says "Peru" at the moment.

Here are also photos of two recently acquired quartzes.

[Bergur_E_Sigurdarson]

I haven't had a place of my own since 2017.
After selling the house I owned in Iceland, I went travelling in the US and more.

My plan was to get a piece of land here in Colombia, where I now live mostly.

A few months ago I finally found something I liked, and bought it.
Been a bit slow since, in getting papers and such done, but just last week I got electricity hooked up to the land, and now an architect is working on making my basic plans into actual ones that can be submitted to the planning office.

My collection will finally have a place to be displayed.

And once the house is complete, it will have several little huts around it, where people can come and stay and enjoy the nature around (very close to native forest, a pretty waterfall and one of the most popular tourist destinations in Colombia, the colonial village of Villa de Leyva)

As an added bonus for those that stay, as well as those passing by, I want to have my collection open as a mini museum of minerals.
Currently there aren't good attractions of that kind here in Colombia, so I hope I can represent something "new" and interesting.
I'd like it to be of quality and will work on that in time, but at least I know I can offer variety and a good representation of Colombia and Iceland to begin with.

My budget isn't that of a high end collection, but one can dream... and have to start somewhere.

I hope to welcome any of you to my place, once ready and we're out of the pandemic being a problem :-)

[Fiebre Verde]

Congratulations Bergur!
This is already quite an achievement despite all odds.
I feel you might need to expand the mineral room sooner or later.
Saludos
Gerard

[Firmo Espinar]

Hi Bergur.

Congratulations for your new minerals collection room.

You will make the competition to the Villa de Leyva´s tourism.

[silvia]

[Bergur_E_Sigurdarson]

[Bergur_E_Sigurdarson]

Been a while since I added something to my actual collection

...so...

here is a large single calcite crystal.
Brownish grey core, band of green on the right, and nicely clear and lustrous surface.

14,5 x 9,5 x 8,5 cm

Palomas, Gachala, Colombia

[Bergur_E_Sigurdarson]

...and another

Beautiful arrangement of quartz with dark green chlorites.

Location slightly vague, but Belencito near Otanche is claimed (not far from la Belleza, known for similarly nice quartz)

appx. 10 x 7 x 6,5 cm

[Bergur_E_Sigurdarson]

Most of the fluorite known from Colombia comes from an area above the area where they are mining for emeralds in Peñas Blancas and seems to be in veins that have since then coated most of it in aragonite.

The left one shows one without cleaning and the right one after dissolving the aragonite off.

They have a rather silky lustre, so the acid most likely isn't doing much harm to them, tho I'm not sure many here in Colombia are very good at making sure their cleaning efforts don't actually harm the specimens.

[Bergur_E_Sigurdarson]

A partially "cleaned" group of fluorites from Peñas Blancas.

In some parts of the veins they're extracting from, it's evident that a lot has moved geologically. Breaking Fluorites off of the walls and they then subsequently all been coated in aragonite.

Here is a specimen with several cubes, that have been partially etched out form the chunk they were found in... some with internal fractures, most likely just from the geological activity.