Corundum var. Ruby
A very rich piece of Cascade Canyon ruby. I collected this the second time I went there. I normally wouldn't photograph a specimen before I felt it was prepared. However, the fluorescent photos are representative enough and show just how much ruby is in this piece. Still on my list of to-dos for this specimen are to media blast it so that the rubies are fully exposed and hence their full fluorescent response can be seen. It's very low on my to-do list though. Specimen has been repaired.
Locale: Cascade Canyon, San Gabriel Mts, San Bernardino Co., California
Dimensions: 5.7 x 2.7 x 3.5 in | 145 x 70 x 90 mm
Weight: 1lb 1.7oz | 503g
Smithsonite
This was one of the pieces that was gifted to me by Mark Cole while I was visiting his house for the total solar eclipse of 2017 and perusing his inventory. He had a wonderful assortment of specimens from all over the world. However, this one caught my eye. It is very aesthetically pleasing in daylight with stalactites and stalagmites being well preserved by the smithsonite. This combined with the wonderful pink fluorescence make this a worthy addition to my collection.
Locale: Mexico (?) Specimen did not come with a label. However, speciemens from Mexico typically have matrix like this.
Weight: 9oz | 254g
Dimensions: 2.9 x 1.9 x 2.8 in| 73 x 49 x 70 mm
253.7nm SW
Daylight
Hyalite
I had been wanting a Zacatecas hyalite ever since I first saw it at Jim's house. He had a wonderful specimen that had quite a large amount of daylight fluorescence. While I still haven't found my perfect specimen containing nothing but daylight fluorescing hyalite, this specimen did catch my interest. It has some unusual columnar hyalite crystals that are daylight fluorescing. It's been well documented that the cause of the fluorescence is a large amount of uranyl ions (though not that large. We're still talking parts per million) and it's fairly radioactive. Nothing too crazy. It only hit a max of 2400 CPM with a background of 140-150 as you'll see in the video following.
Locale: Zacatecas, Mexico
Weight: 5.2oz | 148g
Dimensions: 3.2 x 2.7 x 1.4 in | 80 x 69 x 35 mm
Chalcedony Covering Quartz Geode
Update: 10/23/17 It has been pointed out that this could possibly be chalcedony instead of the original hyalite that was guessed. I've updated the title to reflect that until I've properly tested it.
Update: 10/26/17 Was not able to scratch it with a 7 mohs hardness pick. That would make it chalcedony. Article updated.
This was an interesting specimen that I got while looking for fluorescent quartz. The seller showed me a poor quality UV photo and claimed that the quartz was responding to the UV light. Unfortunately this is one of those times where I took the risk and it failed. While it was fluorescent, it wasn't the quartz itself that was fluorescing. Instead, there is a secondary formation of chalcedony. I can'tfault it as a daylight specimen though. It has many wonderful quartz crystals that are well formed. As a photographer it provides a very interesting contrast that many would not have experienced while collecting geodes. The background is fluorescent providing a light colored background amongst the darker non-fluorescing quartz.
Locale: Nuevo Corral, Ruby District, Arizona
Weight: 15.9oz | 451g
Dimensions: 3.6 x 2.2 x 3.5 in | 91 x 55 x 90 mm
Fluorapatite
This was one of the first specimens that I got in a trade with Graham Fraser. He had just come back from one of his fairly arduous collecting trips throughout Australia and this was one of the pieces that was leftover. Fairly confident he just traded it as a way to get to know me as the trade we made far favored me. I had just given him a small 1-2" piece of Princess Pat willemite that I had collected when I had first found that pile of it.
Locale: Rothsay Beryl Mine, Western Australia. Collected by Graham Fraser Nov 2014
Weight: 11oz | 311g
Dimensions: 2.9 x 1.4 x 3.2 in | 75 x 36 x 81 mm
Kratochvílite
This was a rather interesting experience. Purchased by myself in February 2017 after a stint of looking at the International Mineralogist Association's list of fluorescent minerals on fluomin.org . There were quite a lot of minerals that I had never even heard of and unfortunately most weren't being sold on eBay at the time. However, one of the ones that I came across was kratochvílite from a Czech seller. He also was able to take decent UV photos of his specimens. Enough to show me that I wouldn't get skunked on a non or dimly fluorescent variety of the mineral as often happens in the hobby. It was a match made in heaven for me. It's hard to emphasize how hard it is for dealers in a country outside of the US to get good fluorescent photos simply because all of the "name brands" in this hobby are based in the US. With that information in tow I asked him about several minerals that were on the IMA list. His prices were very reasonable so I just asked him to show me the best of the best of those species. This is what he showed me. An absolute best-in-class specimen of kratochvílite that's better than anything I can find documented on the internet. Came from his personal collection. It is both the richest in terms of overall saturation of kratochvílite and has multiple large pockets of pristine crystals.
Locale: Kladno mine, Kladno, Czech Republic
Weight: 325g
Dimensions: 114 x 60 x 56 mm
Fluorapatite and Unknown
This is a wonderful fluorapatite specimen gifted to me by tess99991 from YouTube. It makes a wonderful daylight specimen as the fluorapatites are aesthetic and fairly well terminated. Unfortunately this isn't the best fluorescent specimen as the fluorapatite is a bit dim with the unknown red in the middle being the brightest fluorescer. Tess99991's channel features wonderful videos of collecting trips from various spots in the Bancroft region where he collects specimens like this one.
His channel can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/user/tess99991
Locale: Schickler Mine, Wilberforce, Ontario, Canada
Weight: 343g
Dimensions: 144 x 71 x 36 mm
Scheelite and Hyalite
Collected by myself in December 2016. This is a wonderfully bright specimen of fluorescent white scheelite and green hyalite. This was somewhat of an exploratory find as I went outside the bounds of where collectors normally find their 3-5 color mineral specimens. Along the road to the mine there are various discard piles of waste rock from the mining process. Interestingly this material is dumped for the more pure scheelite that can be discerned by a fluorescent blue coloring. As there becomes more molybdenum in the scheelite it turns this whitish color eventually becoming yellow by replacing the tungsten and turning into powellite.
Locale: Princess Pat Mine, Adelanto, CA
Weight: 198g
Dimensions: 96 x 46 x 65 mm
Calcite with Quartz
Update 4/8/25 - After talks with Peter Megaw, a subject matter expert on many Mexican locales, I believe this piece to be from the El Carmen Mine in the West Camp. According to Peter, it was mined in the early 90s.
Found at a local rock shop by myself. As usual the owners had no idea that this specimen fluoresced. All to my benefit! This is an absolutely gorgeous Halloween combination of fluorescent orange calcite and green quartz. I actually didn't notice that there was fluorescent orange when I had first bought it. I just knew that the quartz was fluorescing - a rarity in the hobby. Fluorescence is primarily shortwave but some of the quartz crystals fluoresce orange under longwave! Also of note is that there is a small outcrop of micro fluorite crystals (approximately 1mm in size) that fluoresce red, another rarity. The combination of the two makes this an exceptionally special specimen in my books.
Locale: El Carmen Mine, West Camp, Mexico
Weight: 175g
Dimensions: 98 x 69 x 36 mm
Diopside, Dolomite, and Calcite
Diopside (fl blue), dolomite (fl yellow), and calcite (fl red) from the Red Raven Mine. This is one of my best pieces from there and was personally collected by myself in December 2016. This was quite an exhilarating trip starting off with some collection of willemite from the Princess Pat Mine with Dave Stuck, myself, and another new SoCal FMS member. Unfortunately FMS President Dave Stuck had gotten a flat tire during his time at the Princess Pat and had to get his car back the next day! As a result he did not join me at the Red Raven for the hour and a half I spent swinging at a boulder in order to get a piece to break off. Then it was a matter of getting as many fresh faces as possible to get this magnificent piece. Absolutely worth the effort and would do again! All of these minerals are best guesses by local FMS club members and have not been properly identified. Fluorescence activated with 253.7nm SW. Little to no response under LW.
Locale: Red Raven Mine, Adelanto, CA
Weight: 269g
Dimensions: 95 x 56 x 52 mm
Chalcedony
This was purchased for me by my mom in 2015 on her trip to Taiwan. Specifically this specimen is from Taitung. Pretty good considering she didn't want to bring one of my lights! She just had a feeling it'd fluoresce based on what I showed her before! There aren't any photos of chalcedony even on Mindat. I imagine that's because most of it got turned into jewelry. This was one of the specimens that were being sold along with the jewelry it was made from. Collected by locals that claim that there's not that much of this material left.
Location: Taitung, Taiwan
Weight: 241g
Dimensions: 89 x 49 x 29 mm
Petroleum Quartz
This was purchased by me from a miner named Nasir Munir in April 2017. He and his friends have visited the Balochistan area to collect specimens like this one. At the time of purchase petroleum quartz specimens on matrix were incredibly rare. You would only see them on sale for exuberant prices $1000+. However, thanks to his efforts specimens like this are now available for affordable prices. It was quite interesting getting to know Nasir and seeing a completely different perspective. For example, much like sites over here in the US you pay a fee in order to go collecting for minerals. Unlike here this helps fund an army presence to guard the border from insurgents. Also unlike here there are very strict guidelines. Legal documents proving your citizenship are required, photos are absolutely not allowed, and only the tools provided can be used.
I showed Nasir several photos of the collecting site I found off Mindat and he says that it's changed quite a bit thanks to an army presence and insurgents. Quite a terrifying thought just imagining that someone could potentially be shot at while enjoying the hobby. I also asked Nasir to write the names of the area in his native language out of curiosity. The Urdu writing just looks beautiful to me and to see it handwritten by a local makes this quite an enjoyable purchase for me.
Of interest is that there seems to be two different activators. One blue and the other yellowish green
Location: Balochistan, Pakistan
Dimensions: 71x67x21 mm
Weight: 100g
Lepidolite
This specimen was purchased February 2017 at a local show. The dealer had several of these specimens from the same locale, all of which fluoresced equally. There were wonderful pieces with topaz embedded in the lepidolite but this piece was by far the best fluorescent specimen. It's quite an interesting piece as the bottom is clearly the mica that one would recognize when thinking of lepidolite. However, as we go up we can see that it started forming columnar stacks and eventually terminating. Photographed under LW as well as daylight. No effect SW
Location: Virgem da Lapa, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Weight: 389g
Dimensions: 77 x 68 x 52 mm
