FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[nurbo]

Thanks Jordi.

Here are some photos of my bigger Scholzite.this beauty measures around 10 x 10 cm'swith Scholzite'a to around 16 mm, and another piece from the recent Bakewell show, this piece has Ankerite which has been XrD'd my other pieces from here are labelled Dolomite. I'd rather spend my money on specimens that testing though so I guess they will have to stay that way.

[nurbo]

More Fluorite's, The first three photo's were taken in artificial light, provided by a small LED torch, I think it seems to wash out the colours a little bit but for colourless specimens I think it is the way forward. The second piece shown here was taken under a mixture of LED and daylight. Finally for today I was recently given this Sierra de Cruces Raspberry Garnet, I managed to squeeze it into a thumbnail box with a little judicious trimming.

[nurbo]

Today some Aqua's from Pakistan, the age of these pices might suggest Gilgit but I'm not sure there is any way of being 100% sure of the exact locality, so i;ll leave it as a simple Pakistan.
Then a Blue Quartz from Antequera, in Spain, I think it has what looks to me like ring of Specular Haematite around one of the Quartz crystals, I noticed Haematite is listed from the locality on Mindat, all the same any help from the Spanish experts would be good to confirm or deny whether this is Haematite or something else.

[Joaquin Montoro]

Nurbo, it is not Antaquera, but Antequera (Málaga, Andalucía, Spain).

[Antonio Alcaide]

Both of you, Joaquin and Nurbo, are right. I have changed the wrong spelling. And it is certainly haematite. The locality is known for these iron rossettes as well as blue quartz.

Regards

PS: I am not an expert, of course.

[Carles Millan]

[supertxango]

Hi all !

Antonio, simultaneous messages !!!!

Yes it´s hematite and also, like Antonio, I have corrected the description :-)

Regards.

[nurbo]

Thanks for changing whatever it was you changed Joaquín, Antonio and Supertxango

and thanks Carles for your information on the Gilgit locality.

[nurbo]

First up today we have a light blue Hemimorphite from Roughton Gill, Im not sure what the colouring agent is in these it looks the colour of Aurichalcite.
Then we have a Eisenkiesel from the Florence Mine, I find these kind of specimens are really quite hard to photograph, in fact I find anything with Specular Haematite is hard to get a good picture of.

[nurbo]

I really like this Atacamite specimen, it has little pink Calcites on one side and a little Galena in there too. Also today here is another Aquamarine with a particularly fine termination, I like the edges, I've seen these beveled edges on other Aqua's I've owned/sold/traded over the years. I was wondering, since Aqua's are hexagonal, would the beveled edges be classed as dodecahedral modifications of the pinacoid?

[nurbo]

These are my favourite UK Fluorite's (At the moment) First up is a reticulated Fluorite with Calcite and tarnished Chalcopyrite crystals, The Calcite has a slight yellow fluorescence in Long Wave UV

Then a superb yellow Fluorite with Chalcopyrite inclusions from Wet Grooves, one corner looks dingerd but it isnt, its formed quite strangely in that one particular place. this was my most expensive purchase at the recent Bakewell show, I got it from the Lawsons..

Can anyone recommend a book that explains the environmental conditions which lead to the different types of Fluorite growth or even point me to something online ? Im quite fascinated by this at the moment

[nurbo]

So I got to experiment with some different lighting arrangements, In the past couple of years Ive tried to photograph this first piece Im showing here several times, never with much success. Yesterday I finally got some photo's Im mildly pleased with. The first one is Wulfenite on Goethite the second shows Calcite on Wulfenite on Malachite on Goethite, obviously from Whim Creek.

[nurbo]

First up today is an insect like group of limonite coated Pyrite crystals on a matrix of Aragonite from Austria
I managed to get one of these Scottish blue and yellow Hemimorphites recently, it has a hollow tube at the bit Ive elected to be it's top.

[nurbo]

I also have this small polished section of a Baryte stalactite or stalagmite,, I guess we can never know which this stuff is. It is also known as Oakstone,. Oakstone Baryte is usually only seen from Derbyshire, this piece is from North Yorkshire, its far less brown than its Derbyshire cousin which makes the banding far more prominent.
On the subject of North Yorkshire here is another Aragonite variety Flos Ferri. Its quite hard to photograph the jumble of crystals on this matrix, there is in the midst of this chaotic jumble a crystal shaped like an upside down Y, Ive copied the photo and slightly outlined it.

[nurbo]

Here is a rather large specimen of Resinite (Amber) from Yorkshire. this is from the Carboniferous period there is still coal on the back of it. and a Pyrite from Rampgill.

[nurbo]

A fairly recent addition to my Ojuela collection is this rather good little Parasymplesite specimen and whilst in the America's, here is a Baryte rose from Oklahoma. The label that came with the Baryte doesnt make any sense, it reads "Garfield ss, Noble Co, Cleveland, Oklahoma, USA". as far as I can make out Garfield, noble and Cleveland are all counties, looking on Mindat it appears that the Cleveland part is correct but for the rest of it I'll leave that blank unless new information comes to light.

[Michael Shaw]

[nurbo]

Thaniks for clearing that up Michael,.

The first piece Im showing today is a real favourite, Pyromorphite on Campylite on what seems visually to be Plumbogummite,the photo's give quite an accurate visual of the colour, dark gray blue. but as always without testing its just an educated guess so I will not put this on the label without further confirmation.
While were in the Caldbeck Fells: the other piece Ive been photographing is a piece from the Carrock Mine, The Carrock Mine was worked for Wolfram (Among other things) but only when the price was high, i.e. during wars.

[Jordi Fabre]

[nurbo]

Thanks Jordi.

Today's first photo's is of a rare beast indeed, Lumps of Limestone matrix coated by Ankerite and Sphalerite cemented together by a big ball of Witherite, with surface alteration to Baryte, there are a few Baryte crystals on it too, from the Wellhope Shaft.

Next up is "Big Wulfy" that I first posted 3 1/2 years ago, I trimmed it so it isnt such a big Wulfy anymore, here are before and after shot's.