FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[silvia]

Best wishes to all. My name is Silvia Esteves, and I am a retired science/math teacher. I took early retirement in 2019 with the hope to do some traveling with my partner, but world events put a stop to that. I have been collecting minerals for about 40 years, but seriously for only about five years.

I hope you will enjoy what I have to offer.

I will start with my minerals from Panasqueira, a mine I hope to visit again.

I welcome all polite criticism and comments, and I will try to post a few pictures every few days.

[Volkmar Stingl]

Welcome, Silvia! I am looking forward to see more of your treasures.

Volkmar

[Tobi]

Hi Silvia,

welcome to the community, nice to see another new member here. Your first specimen is really fine, also a very good photo! What are your focuses in collecting, any favourite minerals and localities? Besides Panasqueira ;-)

Best regards
Tobi

[James Catmur]

Hi Silvia

Welcome to the FMF. Do try looking at the FMF gallery feature if you want to see the photos from a locality or member. For example, by location:

https://www.topminerals.info/index.php?searchterms=Panasqueira&searchauthor=-&level=search (your photo is on this page too)

or by member

https://www.topminerals.info/index.php?searchterms=&searchauthor=James&level=search

or even, an individual specimen

https://www.topminerals.info/index.php?level=picture&id=76869&searchterms=&searchauthor=James

James

[ALshawani]

Welcome Silvia, and thank you for sharing with us. We had fun!

[jose luis jara jara]

Hello Silvia
It is a pleasure that you want to share your pieces, it is good that you start with Panasqueira, its minerals are very good, thank you.

[Kevin Schofield]

Hi Silvia!

Adding my welcome to your participation in the forum. Always a treat to see what other people treasure :-)

Kevin

[Philippe Durand]

A warm welcome to the forum. Can't wait to see more of your collection.

[Fiebre Verde]

Welcome aboard to this exciting forum Silvia!
Gérard

[Michael Shaw]

Welcome to the Forum Silvia. I hope you will find it a rewarding place to spend some time. As others have mentioned, we look forward to seeing more of your collection.

Regards,
Michael

[silvia]

[silvia]

I am very interested in the genesis of minerals within the Panasqueira ore-body, and I have read many scientific papers on the site, some published in late 2020 and early 2021. My partner often says that rocks do speak - you just have to listen. So I will let my Panasqueira speak by showing all aspects of the specimen.

[silvia]

Rear of the specimen showing Siderite

[silvia]

Close-up photo (FOV 30 mm) of a portion of the specimen - Quartz terminations.

[Tobi]

Wonderful specimens and outstanding photo quality, Silvia, I hope we will see a lot more :-)

[Michael Shaw]

Hello Silvia,

Very nice Panasqueira specimens and great photos. Thank you for sharing these.

When posting photos to your collection page you can include up to 15 photos in the same post instead of posting each of them separately. This keeps the topic box of newest posts on the right hand portion of the page from being filled up by by one user. After including your photo and entering the required information, just press the preview button and you will be able to attach another photo. When you are done you can then submit the entire post.

Michael

[Don Lum]

Welcome to The Forum, Silvia

Don

[silvia]

Hello:

I hope I have not caused a problem. I will try to add the photos as a group, but sometimes, in fact often times, after loading a photo I decide to take another a day or two later.

As I am interested in how a mineral forms within the Panasqueira ore-body, in fact all ore bodies, this requires that I take photos of a mineral from several views and a few photos taken as close-ups. These might be taken after I have already loaded a picture.

I will upload a few photos showing the mineralization within the Panasqueira ore body. My partner and I have friends in Panasqueira, and some work for Almonty,, and they have supplied some wonderful site photos - gems in fact.

I hope you understand.

[silvia]

Specimen contains translucent Fluorapatite crystals to 30mm on a Muscovite crystal matrix with a 70 mm long glassy gem Quartz crystal. The specimen is also rich in crystallized Sphalerite and small Siderite crystals. Many of the Siderite crystals contain spherical cores of a sulphide mineral (Pyrite/Pyrrhotite/Marcasite ??) The Fluorapatite crystals display bright orange fluorescence under UVA light.

[silvia]

Book on Panasqueira

One of the projects my partner and I are keen to do is self-publish a book on the Panasqueira Mine. It will be well documented, professionally illustrated and available to all free-of-charge as a download from our webpage - a living legacy to our children.

The book will cover many topics, including but not limited to past and present mining methods, geology, geography, historical personalities, and of course our Panasqueira mineral collection.

Thanks to family and friends, and the help of Almonty we have some wonderful pictures to show.