FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[am mizunaka]

A very lustrous single crystal.

[Philip Simmons]

I finally got around to taking pictures of some of my New Mexico specimens. I'll keep adding photos as I get more taken. All of these specimens are field collected by me and my dad over the last 20+ years.

[Philip Simmons]

Some more photos

[Philip Simmons]

Now that I know how the process works, here are some more pics

[Philip Simmons]

I had some trouble posting more than three attachmanets at a time, so I'll attach three pics per post

[Philip Simmons]

Some more pics. I'll have to see if the Nacimiento Coper Mine is in Sandoval or Rio Arriba County. It is really close to the border.

[Philip Simmons]

Sorry for the typos. I didn't catch them until I had already submitted the posts.

[strahler]

Here are some pieces from 2011 digging at the Blanchard Mine. All these were dug by me, in March 2011. A huge thanks to Ray DeMark, he is the best.

[Philip Simmons]

Ryan,

Great specimens! The Blanchard Claims have always been one of my favorite places to collect in New Mexico along with Sierra Blanca (way back in the day!) and the San Pedro Mine between Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

Philip

[John Medici]

Bingham area and Sierra Blanca have been favorites of our family also. My aunt lived in Carlsbad for 17 years so we often combined family visits and rock collecting. My first visit Bingham and the Hansonburg district mines was around 1971, but most of our activity collecting was post-1990. The amethyst phantoms in smoky quartz are one of the Sierra Blanca treats! So is the wildlife when one camps on the quartz ridge (ravens, elk, coyotes, mountain lions (we've heard often, but not seen), bears (only 1 large brown bear seen).

[Philip Simmons]

John,

Great smoky with amethyst phantom! My dad and I have a single crystal that looks almost exactly like the one in your picture. To my knowledge, there were only 3 or 4 pockets found that had these amethyst phantoms, and your's is another one to add to the list. How big was the pocket you found the crystals in?

It's interesting that you had family in Carlsbad, because that's where my wife and I live right now. I work at the potash mines as a Mining Engineer.

Are you going to be at the main Tucson show this year? If you are, maybe we could meet and swap collecting stories.

Philip

[Philip Simmons]

Hey John,

I thought you would get a kick out of these two pictures from Sierra Blanca! They were probably taken about 20 years ago when I was collecting with my dad. Both of the crystals have amethyst cores in them about 1/3 of the way down from the termination and came from the pocket in the first picture.

[Antonio Alcaide]

Nice pictures from the past. Thanks for sharing!!!

Regards

[John Medici]

[John Medici]

a rarity at Sierra Blanca

[John Medici]

Other NM quartz, common in multiple areas in the state.

[John Medici]

Bingham, NM specimens

[John Medici]

Mex-Tex Mine specimens. (All NM specimens shown were collected by Medici family members.)

[John Medici]

Dave Pachan, Jay and I visited the Desert Rose Claim at Bingham a couple of years back after the Tucson show.

[Philip Simmons]

John,

A great fluorite and smoky combo! My dad and I never did manage to find any of the pockets with thoses nice green octahedrons, but in our explorations we did find one single smoky with a ~0.7 cm purple and green fluorite octahedron attached to the side. So you're the guys who collected the "Refrigerator Pocket"! It's interesting that you use that comparison because we always referred to it as the "Refrigerator Pocket" as well. I'll have to tell you a story about that pocket when I see you in Tucson. The largest pocket we collected was probably about 3/4 the size of yours.

I'm curious about the lang and sylvite piece you got from Tucson. I haven't gotten rid of any of mine yet, except to donate to the New Mexico Tech mineral museum, and I wonder where it came from. There are two potash companies in the Basin, and the specimen had to come from one of the mines they own. I could probably identify which location if I saw the specimen. By the way, I've been recently collecting some spectacular blue halite and some other rare sulfate minerals during the past two years that I've been working in Carlsbad.

I'm planning on making it to Tucson the weekend of the Main Show so I'll see you there!