FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Tobi]

Though it produces masses of specimens and the stuff became quite common, Itremo/Madagascar became one of my favourite localities for quartz:

[Tobi]

We should talk more about quartz ;-)

There are two other favourite quartz localities that should be mentioned here, I think many collectors like them because of their incredible inclusions:

- Messina Mine, Musina, Vhembe District, Limpopo, South Africa
- Cabiche, Quípama Municipality, Boyacá Department, Colombia

I can't contribute specimens from these localities because sadly I don't own one, but I think others here do and could share photos of that wonderful quartzes :-)

Regards & stay safe
Tobi

[Bob Harman]

I decided to revive this long dormant quartz thread.

Interesting combinations of druzy quartz, variety amethyst and hematite included amethyst are rather commonly found together in examples from the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco.
This one of several examples in my collection, shows the gradation from one color to the other.
Several small calcites of no consequence are also seen.

[Eck Noch]

Here is a favorite of mine, an exceptional Smoky Quartz sitting atop some Albites. From an unlisted locality that we affectionately call The BBC Mine named such because of the large Smokies that we find.

[Eck Noch]

Here is another self collected piece out of our Eclipse mine, found in 2017 and pulled from the pocket that later became the namesake for the claim. The material from this pocket had exceptional inclusions but the quartz generally lacked clarity and luster, likely due to its rapid formation and tortured history. The material was picked up by Nathan Renfro of GIA and was published in the Micro World section of the Fall 2017 issue. This phantomed piece has numerous individual Anatase crystals as well as Anatase covered with epitaxial Rutile growth.

[Tobi]

Two wonderful quartz specimens! I really like the large one with the inclusions, but the "alpine style" smoky is also exceptional. Great pieces!

Regards
Tobi

[Eck Noch]

Tobi, thank you for your kind comment. Much appreciated! Here is a large, dark, but transparent Smoky Tessin from our pegmatite mine in Northern California. This came from a large pocket we dubbed the BBC Pocket for is exceptional and large smokies with brilliant green muscovite and rare hoppers albite formations.

[Eck Noch]

Here is a lattice formation of light Smoky Quartz as a lattice formation. This epitaxial growth formation is due to the fact that the quartz grew from a cyclic baveno twin. The baveno twin was also coated with epitaxial Albite.

[Eck Noch]

Here I present another from our Eclipse mine, this came from the Epiphany Pocket found in late 2016. This pocket yielded many very fine specimens of rich green Chlorite included Quartz, but to one side, were many crystals with white inclusions that I suspect are Calcite or clay minerals like cookieite. The orange and yellow colors are possibly due to limonite staining.

[Eck Noch]

Here is a cute zoned Smoky/Amethyst scepter, I found this one in a small, exposed pocket on the side of a large boulder of pegmatite at our BBC Mine. The saturation changes drastically depending on the angle it is viewed.

[Eck Noch]

I mentioned the exceptional chlorite included Quartz that we found in the Epiphany Pocket that was worked 2016-2017. This is one of those, though a fairly small example.

[Eck Noch]

Some epitaxial Quartz on albite over feldspar twins. Some muscovite is present as well as a thin coating of cookeite. From our mine in Northern California.

[Bob Morgan]

I'm enjoying your quartzes very much, particularly the lattice pieces,'gitterquartz'.. The Baveno twin explanation was new to me. I'm interested in quartz-feldspar epitaxy. Do you know of anything written about that phenomenon? 'Looking forward to more of your collection.

[Tobi]

Great pieces, wow, thank you for those wonderful contributions! Especially the 33 cm Morion Monster is a killer!

Like Bob said

[Eck Noch]

A beautiful plate of Quartz from New Mexico. This plate exhibits multiple growth forms including cactus/spirit growth and clustered scepters. Dug by Robert Lairy.