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28 Mar-09:37:50 Re: 2 unknowns co-occurring with caledonite, grand reef mine, az (Cfrench58)
27 Mar-19:47:08 Re: 2 unknowns co-occurring with caledonite, grand reef mine, az (Pete Richards)
27 Mar-16:15:44 Re: 2 unknowns co-occurring with caledonite, grand reef mine, az (Cfrench58)
27 Mar-15:18:59 Re: 2 unknowns co-occurring with caledonite, grand reef mine, az (Alfredo)
27 Mar-14:39:29 2 unknowns co-occurring with caledonite, grand reef mine, az (Cfrench58)
27 Mar-05:21:48 Re: the mim museum in beirut, lebanon (Mim Museum)
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26 Mar-00:53:41 Re: collection of volkmar stingl (Volkmar Stingl)
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25 Mar-00:25:58 The mizunaka collection - quartz (Am Mizunaka)
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22 Mar-08:32:28 Re: collection of michael shaw (Michael Shaw)
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21 Mar-22:47:40 Re: green seam. Looks like it in a state of decay. (Ning)
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21 Mar-15:34:23 Re: the mizunaka collection - quartz (Am Mizunaka)
21 Mar-14:35:08 Re: jim’s mineral collection (Jim Wilkinson)
21 Mar-14:15:36 The 4th phoenix heritage mineral show (phms) hosted by mineralogical society of arizona (m (Chris Whitney-smith)
21 Mar-04:36:10 Re: the mizunaka collection (Tobi)
21 Mar-04:11:47 Re: jim’s mineral collection (James Catmur)
20 Mar-23:34:15 The mizunaka collection - quartz (Am Mizunaka)
20 Mar-18:13:16 Re: jim’s mineral collection (Jim Wilkinson)

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Wrong localities
  
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minsur




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PostPosted: Mar 31, 2019 15:38    Post subject: Wrong localities  

Regarding these rare silver minerals from the San José Mine I am seriously questioning this occurrence.
I visited this very modern and big mine a few weeks ago and was even lucky enough to meet their geologist. I was told that they are mining a very low grade ore, basically Acanthite (hardly visible by the naked eye!) in Quartz, with an average content of just 40gr Ag and 2 gr Au per ton. I showed him a few photos of minerals supposedly from there. To my big surprise, he said he had in all his years working here NEVER seen something similar. Not even "plata roja" (Proustite/Pyrargyrite) which is easily identifiable, even by amateurs!

He also explained to me that the mining company imposes a strict zero tolerance policy towards "theft" of rocks by the miners, regardless of whether they could be worth something or not and that there had even been a few cases where miners had been caught, trying to smuggle out a "pretty rock". Needless to say that they were sacked immediately - not much fun in this pretty poor part of Mexico…
Security measures are so strict that I was not even allowed to pass the door to the "patio" - HE had to come out to the parking lot to have a talk!
He showed me what can be found. Mostly Calcites, some quite nice, and Quartz crystals covered by small Pyrite and Galena. Certainly nothing worth risking the job for. Of course he had to immediately bring back the specimens to the office, because he did not want to lose his very good job, as he was joking;)

Based upon all that, my guess is, San José after all is just a camouflage and all these rare silver minerals are produced somewhere else.
May be we will find out one day - or not;)
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Bob Harman




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PostPosted: Mar 31, 2019 16:16    Post subject: Re: Wrong localities  

This discussion of Minsur opens up a possible pandora of discussion.

I will note that last September, at the 2018 Denver show, my buddy, a fossil expert, and I saw 2 display cases of incorrect examples. One was a fossil/mineral combo which does not occur at the given locality and the other display case had a totally wrong locality given for one of the displayed minerals. We decided to do nothing regarding the mistakes in both cases.

These mistakes may either be unintentional or intentional, but, more importantly, may be much more common than is generally realized. Maybe there should be more accounting for both the ID of the minerals in the display case, and more accounting for the localities from whence they come?? Bob
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alfredo
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PostPosted: Apr 04, 2019 11:34    Post subject: Re: Wrong localities  

Years ago, I was talking to one of the managers of the Huanzala mine in Peru, the mine which (according to Rock Currier's assessment) has produced more tonnage of crystallized mineral specimens than any other in the world (mostly pyrite crystals, but also some fluorite and many other species). This mine manager told me with a straight face that he didn't think any specimens came from Huanzala at all, because he had been underground many times and only seen massive ore, never a vug with crystals!
Then an American mine engineer with experience in Peru, Arizona and other places told me he had been a mine engineer for 25 years and had never seen a vug on the job! (And he was a mineral collector himself.)

Based on such stories, and my own many visits to large mines, I conclude the following:

1) Vugs with crystals are much more rare in nature than collectors think.
2) The miners know where to find these rare vugs; the mine managers don't have a clue.
3) If a mine prohibits collecting, a miner selling a rock from there has an incentive to lie and say it came from somewhere else. There is no logical incentive to do the reverse, so if they say it came from a mine with a no-collecting policy, it probably did.
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John Betts




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PostPosted: Apr 04, 2019 12:07    Post subject: Re: Wrong localities  

Minsur, were you at the same San José Mine? There is more than one in Mexico...
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Peter Megaw
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PostPosted: Apr 04, 2019 12:35    Post subject: Re: Wrong localities  

4. Mine managers and high level salaried employees have every reason to dissemble on specimen production...they look bad to their bosses if they admit it happens and invite more collecting if word gets out the miners can recover valuable specimens on the job.

John's question of which San Jose is in question is well taken. The San Jose silver mine in Oaxaca where these specimens come from has an average grade 7 times higher than the quoted 40 grams per tonne.

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minsur




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PostPosted: Apr 14, 2019 17:11    Post subject: Re: Wrong localities  

The mine I visited is very close to the village of Ocotlán, near Oaxaca.

Of course I considered the fact that the first meeting with the geologist was in public and he might have had to lie somehow. But I met him again in private the other day and he could not offer me anything interesting. What he would have really liked, as he stated many times - a few extra Pesos are always welcome…
Alfredo's point of view is so far really intriguing, but by no way surprising.

Conclusion: Either wrong locality or my contact was/is not part of the local mineral mafia;))

Given the fact that the minerals are indeed very interesting, but nevertheless quite small and of limited interest to most collectors, I decided to move on and not to spend more days searching on spot and probably getting some miners into problems...
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