There are two distinct species here based on the fluorescence response. Pale yellow fibrous sprays of weeksite that look like they fluoresce yellow, but are just reflecting the surrounding opal that fluoresce strongly. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 40 images (white light) and 10 images (UV). Use the slider...
A single black crystal with a hint of internal red fire. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 60 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Locality not listed in Mindat, nor can I find any other reference to it. Single sylvite crystal without matrix. Sheila Harper found this reference so that might help a bit. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 95 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Tiny pyrite crystals on the face of a barite crystal, with dark purple fluorite associated. The barite is said to be coloured because of pyrite inclusions, but that even under a microscope, crystals can’t be seen. Except in this case you can see them. Width of view 5.75mm. Stack of...
A small piece of gypsum collected at the same time as specimens of barite, calcite and fluorite. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 66 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Blue fluorescent purple octahedral crystals on quartz. Ex Art Smith Collection. Ex Carl Stazak. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 75 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Octahedral fluorite colourless through to a fracture, then pale purple-grey over the rest of the crystal. Blue fluorescence. Hemisphere of brown siderite(?), rounded pyrite, and colourless albite, all on pinkish-tan K feldspar. Ex Art Smith Collection. Acquired by Art from Al Kidwell in 1990. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of...
Purple fluorite cluster and isolated crystals with green needles of aegirine, brown pseudohexagonal pyrophanite, and colourless albite crystals, all in a white albite matrix. Ex Art Smith Collection (collected in 1986). Width of view 8.63mm. Stack of 50 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Tiny purple octahedral fluorite crystalson albite with greenish chlorite, white prismatic crystals of natrolite(?), colourless quartz, and brown pyrophanite. Also on specimen magnetite, Ex Art Smith Collection (collected in 1979). Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 57 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version. When I...
Colourless rhombs of whitlockite on orange bladed montgomeryite, it partially coated by white balls of fluorapatite. Ex Jo Price Collection. Ex Jack Nelson Collection. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 70 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Transparent tan-coloured rhombohedral crystals of whitlockite with prismatic crystals of childrenite? Ex Jo Price Collection. Width of view 5.75mm. Stack of 100 images. Edit: May be eosphorite rather than childrenite (or somewhere in the series). Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Red-brown to blackish crystals. Ex Jo Price Collection. Ex Jack Nelson Collection. Width of view 5.75mm. Stack of 70 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Sharp pale lilac crystals. Ex Jo Price Collection. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 180 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Dark blue lazulite crystals with tan whiteite and colourless quartz. Ex Jo Price Collection. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 100 images.
Single green terminated crystal 13mm long. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Purple fluorite tabular crystals (one axis is shorter than the other two) with very tiny modifications on the corners (modified by the trapezohedron). Colourless to greyish white dolomite crystals (matrix is a dolostone). Tiny pyrite crystals on fluorite. Ex Noel and Ann Kennon Collection #F48. Acquired from Pete Richards in...
A sharp metallic black tetrahedral sphalerite crystal on white albite. Ex Noel and Ann Kennon Collection. Ex Jean Pierre Beckerich. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 109 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Deep sharp red-brown rhombohedral crystals, one perched on aegirine crystal. There are also colourless reticulated crystals below right of centre. Maybe albite? One small area on top of rhodochrosite (not in photo) fluoresces orange. Ex Noel and Ann Kennon Collection. Ex Jean Pierre Beckerich. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of...
Franconite (white spheres), actinolite (green sprays) and brown crystals of zircon(?) that fluoresce orange. Ex Noel and Ann Kennon Collection. Ex Jean Pierre Beckerich. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 59 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Pinkish acicular crystals of lorenzenite. There are a couple of unknowns too, the pale greenish prismatic crystal and the brown material upper left (it fluoresces orange). Ex Noel and Ann Kennon Collection. Ex Jean Pierre Beckerich. Width of view 5.75mm. Stack of 100 images. Click on the image below for...
As with many MSH specimens, you don’t always know what you’ve got! White to tan calcioburbankite on hexagonal prismatic petersenite-(Ce). Many of the brown crystals, the lighter ones, are siderite, but some, the darker brown ones, fluoresce orange, maybe hilairite? There are tiny thin plates of an unidentified mineral that...
Colourless striated prisms. Ex Noel and Ann Kennon Collection. Ex Pete Richards. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 68 images. Blue sodalite (part of matrix) fluoresces a strong orange. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Rootbeer brown crystal. It is labelled as eudialyte but it is not known if it has been analysed. Ex Noel and Ann Kennon Collection. Ex Jean Pierre Beckerich, collected May 2007. Width of view 5.75mm. Stack of 70 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Small cluster of brown cubes. Ex Noel and Ann Kennon Collection. Ex Jean Pierre Beckerich. Width of view 5.75mm. Stack of 85 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Phlogopite pseudohexagonal plates on prismatic colourless pectolite. Pectolite crystals have zoned fluorescence, pink with blue caps. Ex Noel and Ann Kennon. Ex Jean Pierre Beckerich. Width of view 5.75mm. Stack of 60 images. Comparison image width of view 11.5mm. Click on the images below for a higher resolution version. For...
Yellow “reverse sceptre” burbankite. Second photo ilmenite and burbankite. Calcite also present on specimen. Ex Noel and Ann Kennon Collection. Ex Jean Pierre Beckerich. Width of view 5.75mm. Stack of 18 images (burbankite). Stack of 36 images (ilmenite). Click on the images below for a higher resolution version.
Colourless twinned epididymite with cream hemispheres of franconite(?), with tiny silver pseudohexagonal muscovite, and tiny pyrite crystals, minor albite, all on analcime. There is also a prismatic hexagonal crystal of epididymite pointing down to the bottom left just below the yellow arrow. Ex Noel and Ann Kennon Collection. Ex Jean...
Elpidite greenish and bright fluorescent green under longwave UV, gaidonnayite (not in photo) clear. Ex Noel and Ann Kennon Collection. Ex Jean Pierre Beckerich. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 57 images (white light) and only 9 images (UV). Use the slider on the photo below to compare the white...
Prismatic pale pink crystals. Ex Noel and Ann Kennon Collection. Ex Jean Pierre Beckerich. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 134 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Thin tan blades. Ex Noel and Ann Kennon Collection. Ex Jean Pierre Beckerich. Width of view 5.75mm. Stack of 55 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Sprays of thin grey prismatic crystals. Ex Noel and Ann Kennon Collection. Ex Jean Pierre Beckerich. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 95 images. Most of the matrix fluoresces orange, probably nepheline. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Type Locality for hilairite. Brown hilairite with colourless/grey twinned gaidonnayite. Hilairite fluoresce green under longwave UV, but gaidonnayite doesn’t appear to respond. Ex Noel and Ann Kennon Collection. Ex Jean Pierre Beckerich. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 114 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Small orange crystals. Originally labelled as kentbrooksite, but probably ferrokentbrooksite and most likely collected before that mineral was described as a new species. Ex Noel and Ann Kennon Collection. Ex Jean P Beckerich. Width of view 5.75mm. Stack of 42 images. Type Locality. Click on the image below for a...
Orange crystals. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 40 images. Desautelsite is named after Paul Desautels (1920-1991), well-known mineral micromounter and Curator of Gems and Minerals in the Department of Mineral Sciences of the U.S. National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution) in Washington, DC. Click on the image below...
Tabular orange wulfenite with a brown core (sandwich). Shown backlit. Width of view 17.25mm. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Green fluorescent voglite with platy yellow zellerite(?).
Microcrystalline black vrbaite, brown avicennite and metallic grey parapierrotite coating chert matrix.
Lemon-yellow platy crystals of metauranocircite. Highly fluorescent. Ex Jim Daly. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 30 images (white light) and 8 (longwave UV). Use the slider on the photo below to compare the white light and UV images. Click here for a higher resolution version.
Lemon-yellow highly fluorescent plates on a goethite matrix. Ex Al Wilkins. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 35 images (white light), 10 images (longwave UV). Use the slider on the photo below to compare the white light and UV images. Click here for a higher resolution version.
An interesting little specimen of topaz that measures just 24mm in width. Ex Mike New Collection.
Collected by Mike Reinke. Width of view 6.5mm. Stack of 80 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Amethyst and red rutile found in a boulder by Jerry Cone when in an arroyo with Mike Reinke where Route 187 crosses over Kelly Canyon West, a few kilometres north of Caballo. Width of view 6.5mm. Stack of 75 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Amethyst and red rutile found in a boulder by Jerry Cone when in an arroyo with Mike Reinke where Route 187 crosses over Kelly Canyon West, a few kilometres north of Caballo. Width of view 6.5mm. Stack of 40 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Pseudohexagonal white plates of tridymite with black balls of hematite(?). Branching stalactitic groups of stacked crystals may also be tridymite. Collected by Mike Reinke on open land near to ToR. Width of view 6.5mm. Stack of 70 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Fibrous white alum with calcite (it dissolves leaving alum). Visual ID by Rolf Leutcke photo in Mindat. Collected by Mike Reinke. Width of view 6.5mm. Stack of 20 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Colourless bladed stellate tridymite, orange titanite(?) and grey-green “pyrobole”, an unidentified pyroxene or amphibole. Collected from a boulder on the ridge above Animas Creek by Mike Reinke. Width of view 4.9mm and a stack of 40 images (tridymite). Width of view 3.25mm and a stack of 30 images (titanite). Click...
Tiny green crystal aggregate on quartz. Ex Mike Reinke, Jerry Cone. Width of view 3.25mm. Stack of 40 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Delicate flakes in cavities where once was a sulphide. Ex Mike Reinke. Width of view 3.25mm. Stack of 40 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Chips of obsidian can be picked up off the open ground north of the TorC Elementary School. This specimen collected by Mike Reinke in situ in Ash Canyon, just east of TorC. Width of view 6.5mm. Stack of 40 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Massive goethite with a fibrous look on the edge, with a glassy surface. In this are some orange/brown rings with a blue tint. Collected by Mike Reinke downstream from Palomas Gap. Width of view 6.5mm. Stack of 20 images (first photo), 45 images (sceond photo) and 100 images (third photo)....
Blue-tinted topaz in rhyolite. May be coloured by what is under it. Collected by Mike Reinke. Width of view 1.75mm. Stack of 20 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Massive fine-grained material. Acquired from Jim Ferraiolo 6/2005. Width of specimen 13.5mm. Stack of 35 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Green chlorite (labelled clinochlore) on and under zoned colourless/white calcite crystals from the Silliman Quarry (as per the label). Little balls of chlorite can be seen perched on the termination of a couple of the calcites. Width of view 17.25mm. Stack of 50 images. Click on the image below for...
A single deep purplish-red hexagonal crystal 7mm long and 6mm across in matrix. Ex Graham Lee Collection. Width of view 17.25mm. Stack of 50 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
A single crystal without matrix showing perfect cleavage. Ex Bernie and Margaret Day Collection. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 80 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
A pale green hiddenite crystal without matrix. Width of view 17.25mm. Stack of 24 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
A lovely cluster of azurite crystals without matrix, labelled as from the Holbrook Extension. Width of view 32mm. Stack of 35 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
A group of pale but lustrous grossular garnets with interesting surface features. Ex John Sobolewski. Ex Matt Gibbs. Width of specimen 12mm. Stack of 50 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
A single deep pink/purple grossular crystal on a small amount of wollastonite matrix. A few smaller crystals are dotted around. The garnet, a darker pink than many, fluoresces red under longwave UV. Ex Keith Williams, Williams Minerals. Width of view 33mm. Stack of 50 images (white light) and 25 images...
Zoned yellow cacoxenite hemispheres. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 60 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Pale peach/pink coloured topaz 38x35x26mm. Found by Rich Fretterd during an episode of The Prospectors. See article in Minerals Newspaper.
Type Locality. Ex Joan Lamond Collection. Acquired by Joan in 1985 from a collector in Edmonton, Canada. Width of specimen 9mm. Stack of 112 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Type Locality for goudeyite. Green patches of botryoidal goudeyite and tiny needles visible under higher magnification, with pale-coloured prismatic olivenite crystals. Ex Richard Grant Collection. Width of view 5mm. Stack of 47 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Lilac bladed crystals. Width of view 5mm. Stack of 21 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Visible gold (just above centre) with yellow timroseite and green khinite. Type Locality for timroseite. Width of view 5mm. Stack of 51 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
White sprays of maricopaite with yellow mimetite. Type Locality for maricopaite. Width of view 2.5mm. Stack of 34 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Colourless prismatic crystals. Ex Jim Ferraiolo. Width of view 2.5mm. Stack of 51 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Vintage Neal Yedlin micromount. Width of view 19mm. Stack of 44 images. A fine adamite from the Ojuela Mine, mounted by Yedlin on a piece of black cork in a hand-labeled vintage cardboard micromount box, and numbered 136. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Type Locality. Light orange stained crystals. White arrow points to spot. Width of view 5mm. Stack of 70 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Pale yellow brazilianite with colourless quartz collected in 1969, mounted Feb. 5, 1984, and from the renowned collection of J.W. Grandy. Width of view 5mm. Stack of 100. Click on the mineral image below for a higher resolution version.
Hackly gold in a quartz vein. Ex John Sobolewski. Width of view 5mm. Stack of 50 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Nicely protected yellow sprays in a quartz vugh. Ex John Sobolewski. Width of view 5mm. Stack of 50 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Type Locality. Brownish modified tetrahedra frozen in matrix. Ex John Sobolewski. Width of view 5mm. Stack of 35 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Bluish-green platy crystals of chalcophyllite. Ex John Sobolewski. Width of view 5mm. Stack of 40 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Type Locality for metaheinrichite. Ex John Sobolewski. Width of view 5mm. Stack of 30 images (white light), stack of 20 images (UV). Use the slider to see specimen under white light and longwave UV. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Orange coffin-shaped heulandite crystals coating the inside of a vesicle in basalt, from a locality first discovered in the 1960s. Also present is rosettes of green chlorite. Ex John Sobolewski. Width of view 5mm. Stack of 30 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Type Locality. Cubic crystal of boleite upon which plates of pseudoboleite have grown epitactically on the boleite cube faces. Ex Bernie Day specimen. Width of view 5mm. Stack of 30 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Acquired from Mark Ascher 9/2007. Width of view 3.5mm. Stack of 50 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Specimen acquired in the micromount room at the Tucson Show. Ex Bob Jenkins. Width of view 3.5mm. Stack of 30 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Colourless analcime crystals on heulandite. Ex John Sobolewski. Width of view 3.5mm. Stack of 40 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Silver in matrix slice, 67x45x7mm. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Yellow pottsite and small areas of orange clinobisvanite. Specimen is 6mm wide. Type Locality for pottsite. Acquired from Jim Ferraiolo 6/2005. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Interesting textures. Specimen is 34mm wide. Ex Bart Cannon. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Labelled as boulangerite, El Sombrette Mine, Durango. Likely jamesonite, and from the Sombrerete Mine, in Zacatecas, but close to the border with Durango. Ex John Lewis Collection.
Purplish-grey vanadinite with yellow descloizite. A.O. stands for Al Ordway who found nice micro vanadinite and descloizite. Acquired from Al Wilkins. Width of view 3.5mm. Stack of 40 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Acquired by Joan Lamond in 1991. Ex Museum Victoria.
Colourless blocky coffin-shaped heulandite crystals with colourless prisms of erionite-K. Width of view 3.5mm. Stack of 55 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Obtained in a trade with Al Wilkins. Width of view 3.5mm. Stack of 70 images.
A black franklinite crystal is either a seed for, or an inclusion in, a brown hendricksite crystal. Width of view 3.5mm. Stack of 30 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Black franklinite, pink rhodonite and red fluorescent colourless calcite. Width of view 10mm. UV photo using a Convoy S2+. Click on the images below for a higher resolution version.
Black franklinite crystals with secondary copper minerals in between. Width of view 3.5mm. Stack of 25 images. Type Locality for franklinite. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Dark olive green olivenite with thin bands of lime green conichalcite. The white mineral between is unknown. Width of view 3.5mm. Stack of 40 images. Acquired by Joan Lamond from Harry Critchley in 1998. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Colourless to yellowish hexagonal prisms of milarite. Ex Bob Rothenberg. Ex Walter Bagley. Width of view 3.5mm. Stack of 80 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
