FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Tom Mazanec]

Here is a subjective list of the top ten mineral locations in the world.
https://wheretofindrocks.com/the-top-ten-mineral-localities-on-earth-or-so-we-feel/ (link normalized by FMF)
The author admits others could be proposed.
What are your nominations for the list?

[Tobi]

My personal top ten:

- Dal'negorsk, Far-Eastern Region, Russia
- Elmwood mine, Tennessee, USA
- Sweet Home Mine, Colorado, USA
- Beihilfe Mine, Saxony, Germany
- Huanggang Fe-Sn deposit, Inner Mongolia, China
- Mt Xuebaoding, Sichuan Province, China
- Erongo Mountains, Erongo Region, Namibia
- Pederneira Mine, Minas Gerais, Brazil
- Hunza Valley, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan
- The several mines of Weardale, Durham, England

Tobi

[Tom Mazanec]

And only two from the USA, unlike the six (IIRC) in the original list.
Any other suggestions, people?

[Les Presmyk]

Touissit and Mibladen, Morocco should be considered, as well as the Red Cloud mine, since other one species localities are starting to show up. Also, California gold localities like the Eagle's Next or Colorado Quartz should be considered. This is always an interesting exercise because of everyone's personal preferences. Without some basic guidelines each person's list is going to vary from the next.

For example, are we only going to consider localities that are mineralogically diverse and rich like Franklin, New Jersey and Tiger, Arizona but lacking in showy specimens like from Tsumeb. Does a locality have to produce multiple species to be considered or will a single species suffice.

[Jordi Fabre]

Recommended readings:

Basic question No.1: Your favorite mineral species/families

Basic question No.2: Your favorite countries of origin

For the fluorite lovers: What are your favourite localities?

[Reelgoodwoman]

[Pierre Joubert]

[Pete Modreski]

Going back to this topic, I wanted to share some related lists I prepared almost a decade ago. First, I want to say that I really enjoyed reading Phil Persson's column on "Top Ten Mineral Localities", and my thanks to Tom for linking it on this Forum too. Back in 2008, I had given a talk at the FM-TGMS symposium in Tucson on "What Is the Most 'Important' U.S. Mineral Locality?". I tried to do a semi-scientific analysis to reach an answer, by tallying the number of photographs of U.S. specimens that appeared in 10 prominent books about minerals published between 1963 to 2008, ranging from Paul Desautels' "The Mineral Kingdom", to "American Mineral Treasures" (the show theme that year) by Gloria Staebler et al. I was limiting myself just to U.S. localities for the purpose of that talk, and for the record, the U.S. specimen localities ranged from about 14 to 20 percent of the total localities represented in these books (not counting Gloria's, which was all U.S.). And since I was tallying specimen photographs in these books, obviously chosen for their aesthetic appeal, this kind of count was obviously going to favor the localities for beautiful crystallized specimens, as opposed to what Phil termed the "mineralogical rainforests". I was actually surprised at what came out on top in my "scientific" survey; here were my top 7 localities or districts:

1. California gold districts
2. Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan
3. Bisbee, Arizona
4. Sweet Home mine, Colorado
5. Pikes Peak area, Colorado
6. Pala district, California
7. Red Cloud mine, Arizona

I listed the "runners-up" too, and you can imagine what some of those were. I'm sure that as time goes by the localities that would be represented in such a list will change, as new localities come to prominence and older ones fade into history and lack of current specimen production.

And, the year before, in 2007, I had prepared a similar talk for a Colorado mineral society, that time on "What is the World's Greatest Mineral Locality?" I didn't do any rankings, but only mentioned some favorites... on my way to the main topic of that talk, which was my own "favorite" world mineral locality, and I think it is Phil's too; Franklin/Sterling Hill, New Jersey. But here are the world localities I mentioned in that presentation:

Tsumeb
Broken Hill, N.S.W.
Mont St-Hilaire
Minas Gerais, Brazil
Gilgit region, Pakistan
Shaba (Katanga), Congo
Khibiny and Lovozero, Kola Peninsula
Langban, Sweden
Franklin, New Jersey

I am pleased to observe that, of the 16 localities that appeared in my two lists, 7 were among Phil's "Top Ten". And as a footnote, I'm sure that Phil will be pleased that I included Langban among those I mentioned!

[Vinoterapia]

I have not "selected" my ten best localities, but leaning towards micros, I am somewhat surprised that no mention to the Clara mine (Germany) had surfaced already. Mindat mentions 453 mineral species and varieties described at this location, while its photographic archives include some 3530 photos of such mineralogical diversity.

[Tobi]