Fieldtrip Report:
Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum Scheduled Dig Report
April 13-14, 2007Steve Bonney
Specimen with light and dark purple fluorite, with galena crystals at the upper left corner.
Fieldtrip Report:
Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum Scheduled Dig Report
April 13-14, 2007Steve Bonney
Specimen with light and dark purple fluorite, with galena crystals at the upper left corner.
Eureka Prospect (Mine) unknown. What I originally thought was dirt filling cavities left by a dissolved mineral turned out to be thousands of needle-like micro crystals.
The evening fluorescent trips took place at the Columbia Mine. Despite more rain and a very cold wind participants quickly filled their buckets with material. The fluorite doesn’t appear to fluoresce, but material which fluoresces light blue is quite abundant and appears to be some type of secondary mineral associated with decomposition of the zinc ore (sphalerite, hemimorphite, and smithsonite). The museum is planning to have some analyzed to determine its identity, but I suspect it may be hydrozincite.
Less common is material which fluoresces deep red in shortwave UV.
Some material fluoresces a pale yellow in longwave UV. This is probably cerussite.
The Clement Museum staff and field trip guides were extremely friendly and helpful. Their friendliness, combined with some nice specimens for the collection, is all the incentive I need to return whenever the opportunity presents itself. Private digs can be arranged for groups with at least 10 participants. The Museum folks felt relatively confident they could arrange for several additional locations to dig over the course of a weekend for a decent size group.
