Possible New Franklin, NJ Mineral
From the SoCal FMS Meeting that took place on March 22 2018. A potentially brand new mineral was discovered that is primarily activated by SW ranges only available in LED form. In particular 275nm. After a second time reviewing the video it looks like there was a reaction caused by 253.7nm SW. However, the reaction is so dim that it could be easily mistaken for lamp reflection.
Calcite, Aragonite, Hyalite, Caliche
One of the few pieces of Helvetia that I took home from last year's collecting trip. I absolutely love the multiple generations of calcite that this mine produces. The combination of minerals form a wonderful fluorescent combination.
Calcite - red, orange, white
Aragonite - botryoidal white coated with caliche
Hyalite - Green
Locale: Helvetia, AZ
Weight: 1lb 4.7oz | 586g
Dimensions: 5.1 x 2.1 x 3.0 in | 129 x 52 x 77 mm
SoCal FMS Meetings - Minerals of Africa November 2017
11/28/17 Changed misidentified shattuckite to scholzite.
It's that time of year again. SoCal FMS meets up at Jim's house to view the minerals he's collected. This time it was a theme rather than a special guest - African minerals. Alas my collection of African fluorescents was practically nonexistant. I don't really collect based on a continent. However, this didn't stop some of our members. Jim had quite an amazing collection of African fluorescents that he had collected over the past year, some of which I had absolutely no idea about.
Here's a 360 of all of the minerals. Some of the highlights are red manganocalcites, purple fluorites, orange sphalerite, green hyalite. Behind the starting point you can see some green fluorescing scholzite with some blue hemimorphite.
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And here are the closeups of the minerals. My favorite of the night is definitely the hemimorphite from the Skorpion mine in Namibia. Glenn Waychunas had originally discovered this but the hemimorphite had a very interesting aspect. First of all it was tenebrescent. After UV exposure it would turn to a light grey. Secondly it doesn't make a great fluorescent specimen at first. It's incredibly dim but it gets brighter over time! Video below:
Among some of the technical discussions that occured that night were instituted by a Ludlum geiger counter. Some of the minerals on the table ended up being slightly radioactive but this was before I got to the meeting. On top of that was the latest innovations in the SW LED world. I brought some of the brightest that were available at the time in 265nm and 275nm binnings. We determined that they were about as powerful as a 4W bulbed lamp. Color rendition is still a bit of a struggle with the reference Franklin material that we used. Specifically the calcite. While 265nm rendered the reds they weren't that bright. About the equivalent of what you'd see if you were to use my much brighter LW light. However, 275nm hardly rendered the calcite as all, proving that the peak activation of the Franklin calcite is lower in the UV spectrum.
Lastly are the minerals that caught my eye. To start off there's the bright orange tarbuttite. There were also some interesting phantomed and zoned calcites and fluorites. In addition Jim had obtained some of the very rare Skorpionite from the Skorpion mine. In Todd's possession was an interesting ruby specimen. Normally they fluoresce red but that one also had orange!
Calcite, Fluorite
A classic fluorescent combo. You typically see the calcite fluorites from China or Morocco and they make wonderful specimens as they're well crystallized and brightly fluorescent. This Schickler mine material is mildly interesting though in that the fluorite is sandwiched between the calcite layers.
Locale: Schickler Mine, Wilberforce, Ontario, Canada
Weight: 1lb 1.4oz | 493g
Dimensions 3.5 x 4.0 x 2.6 in | 90 x 101 x 65 mm
Daylight
365nm LW
253.7nm SW
365nm LW + 253.7nm SW
Daylight
365nm LW + 253.7nm SW
Tenebrescent Scapolite var. Marialite
For a while I've been infatuated with tenebrescence or photochromism in minerals. That is to say the ability for that mineral to change color when put under UV light and back. In this case the marialite goes from a clear white in daylight to a dark blue after you put it under LW. This process can then be reversed by exposing it to white light. I've been infatuated with this phenomenon ever since I learned about it in the minerals of Greenland, specifically the hackmanite and tugtupite. However, I was never able to win any eBay listings for a price that I wanted. Not being able to crave this desire I decided to look up other listings for tenebrescent minerals. That's when I came across the marialite (though the dealers there mostly refer to it as scapolite) from Pitwak. It greatly appealed to me as it had the same deep color change that Greenland had while forming beautiful crystals. That was 3 years ago and I've since been searching for great crystals like this. I haven't even had the remote thought of purchasing any Greenland fluorescents for my collection.
Of note on this specimen is that it shows little tenebrescent response under 253.7nm SW. The response is strongest under 365nm LW. This is typically the other way around where the strongest response is achieved under SW. This specimen has also been irradiated. Funnily enough the cousin of the miner that collected this specimen got in contact with me through Facebook. Often times Pakistani mineral dealers will try to sell by sending friend request to people in mineral groups en masse. I usually just show them this specimen and say that I'm looking for at least this or better. That's when it was recognized by the miner's cousin. I'm inclined to believe him as he provided up to date photographs of Pitwak mine that aren't available elsewhere on the web.
Locale: Pitwak Mine, Kokscha Valley, Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan
Weight: 6.1oz | 174g
Dimensions: 3.3 x 1.9 x 1.4 in| 83 x 48 x 37 mm
Fluorapatite
This fluorapatite was purchased in October 2017. However, it was mined in June 2016. This was purchased directly from the Alchuri Mine in Shigar Valley, Skardu through a mutual connection of mine. Why did it sit for so long? Well, a unique set of circumstances allow Skardu mine owners to be picky. Normally it's all about turnaround time and minerals are pushed to various gem and mineral markets throughout Pakistan. That's how we get so many minerals from Afghanistan and Pakistan across all forms of social media and sale platforms. However, Skardu in particular shares a border with China. As such it isn't uncommon for Chinese mineral dealers to travel and do business directly with the Pakistani people there. On top of that Skardu is an important area strategically. I believe it has something to do with Skardu being abundant in uranium but I'm not aware of all the details. As such there is a heavier military presence. With that relative safety provides tourism from around the world. While it is mostly Chinese, many people visit various areas of Skardu (it's not just mining!). All of this combined means that they don't have to send everything to the market. They'll get high rollers that'll spend 5 figures on a specimen or dealers that come to them to purchase in bulk. They can wait until "the right person" comes along to buy a specific specimen if it's especially good. However, as a fluorescent mineral collector, this particular specimen represents something very interesting. It phosphoresces! I've never seen an apatite phosphoresce like this and I've seen quite a lot from locales around the world. While I don't know exactly what causes it to phosphoresce I will note that there are a significant amount of manganese dendrites forming on the specimen itself. A common fluorescent activator of fluorapatite is manganese replacing calcium.
It makes me wonder what else would be found if I had the ability to lamp everything in that mine. What other fluorescent treasures are waiting?
Locale: Alchuri Mine, Skardu, Pakistan
Dimensions: 2.8 x 1.7 x 1.5 in | 71 x 43 x 39 mm
Weight: 3.3oz | 94g
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
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
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
