FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[GneissWare]

Here are a few more...

[am mizunaka]

A sceptered smoky quartz on matrix with other smoky quartz crystals. A higher resolution version of the image is available here: https://www.mindat.org/xpic.php?fname=0665444001351677608.jpg

[am mizunaka]

[am mizunaka]

[GneissWare]

Just photographed this tonight...to revive this thread.

[Mark Ost]

Astonishing colors on the opal here: https://www.mineral-forum.com/message-board/viewtopic.php?p=21142#21142
Definitely the showy cousin of common opal

[sambourque]

Hello,
My name is Sam Bourque, I am the Deep Post Mine geologist who collected this specimen years ago. I can't believe I let this one get away, although I do love the Tsumeb azurite I received in trade from Casey. The pocket that this came from was my first real find in Nevada, I didn't have any barite or stibnite in my collection prior.
The pocket was on the left rib of the 3750 C Ramp, in highly silicified tectonic breccia in silty limestones of the Roberts Mountain Formation. I was chipping away at two very small cavities, and they came together into a pocket that I could fit my entire arm and shoulder into.
Unfortunately, I had only been on the job for 6 months or so at that time and was super paranoid about violating any of the 14000 or so safety rules, or appearing to be goofing off. I rushed though collecting the pocket, left half of the crystals, did a lousy job of extracting the ones I got without damage, and then didn't take the time to go get the proper packing materials to transport them out of the mine safely. Arrrrrggggghhhhhh, the biggest regret of my collecting career. The miners came in right after me, smashed their way to the back of the cavity, pulled everything out, and broke just about every crystal remaining in the process. Then they sprayed shot-crete 4" thick over the entire drift, effectively killing any more collecting in the area.
I'm glad you managed to get hold of one of the nicer specimens to come out of that pocket. I estimate there are less than 15 undamaged combination pieces in existence. I found two additional zones of stibnite on barite, and each zone is distinctly different in color and crystal habit of both species. Those zones also only produced a few dozen specimens each, so a good Deep Post stibnite-barite is a proud inclusion in any Nevada collection.
Here is my personal favorite specimen from three years working at Deep Post. This is from a 4" thick vein of pure stibnite in the 4020 WC 10R8 drift. The collecting here was rather difficult, I knocked down a slab with a 13' scaling bar and dragged it back to supported ground, and it split open perfectly revealing this guy. I'm not much of a mineral photographer, but the terminations are flawless all over this specimen, a rarity for NV stibnites that I have seen.

Cheers

Sam

[GneissWare]

[sambourque]

Hello Bob,
Yes, that is the specimen I was referencing. I single handedly bashed it out of some very hard rock, pretty sure I traded a bit of blood for those crystals. This is the first time I've seen anything at all about Deep Post minerals online. I'll try to post some pictures of the nice stibnite-Barytes, stibnite, orpiment and realgar I collected there when I figure out how to take decent mineral photos.
Glad you like them!
Sam

[Antonio Alcaide]

Sorry for the meddling but because of stories like this I love the net and... of course, FMF.

Regards

[Tobi]

A small almandine on matrix from Nevada:

[rweaver]

Former Harvey Collection #19

[Michael Shaw]

The Sugarbowl Pocket was in the Murray Mine. I'm not aware of quartz-coated barites from the Meikle Mine.

[rweaver]

You are right I selected the wrong location from the menu. Can you please fix it for me.

Location fixed.
MGS

Thank you