FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Mike Wood]

[Greg Lilly]

Hopefully I can add a little information here but please note I am not a geologist! This is knowledge I have built up from 35 plus years of active mineral collecting and viewing collections as a resident of New Zealand.
The landscape of NZs north island is due mainly to volcanic activity, many areas still being active. The South Island being largely due to faulting. We have a number of economically important minerals which are mined in NZ ( gold, coal, oil, iron sands, bauxite, etc ) but only a small number of minerals which would interest mineral collectors.
Minerals which are commonly collected or seen in collections include quartz ( colourless or amethyst ) calcite, zeolites, stibnite, dolomite, selenite, pyrite, cerussite, and a few other minerals from the oxadised zone of the Tui Mine in Te Aroha. Other minerals found in literature are generally found in micro size.
A lot of lapidary type material is collected such as carnelian, agate, jasper, rhodonite, obsidian, petrified wood etc. Nephrite occurs on the west coast of the South Island predominantly and from what I understand the rights to this material have been given back to the traditional land holders of the region.
The only alpine type minerals I have seen were a few quartz crystals from the Franz Joseph glacier on the west coast of the South Island. This area is part of a national park and collecting would be very difficult.
I hope this helps a little
Greg

[Peter Lemkin]

I am sure that the two volumes were: hardback, recently published, large format and thick, full of maps, photos and both mineral and location information. After having held them in my hands I was surprised to not be able to find them on the internet with my memory of the title. An Olso mineral book dealer took them and I even confronted him about it. He said it was rare and he'd make a 'fortune' reselling them. That is all I know other than I wish I had held on to them and not put them in my growing box of books I was to buy.......