MINERAL LOCATIONS Oe TUCSON 2008 brought to you by the operators & supporters of WWW.THE VUG.COoOmMWe are also CASH BLYERS S for a aT reaonl nen Sa aces aL PLT ave ca Rema Cee PFC eyee een Ueen Ura eg) ee | mt. Our Tucson Selling a ek: ae i ome ate Net ee YO SNAG aHea apt RON TEMe BARU Aare Mw MK Ny Teele TAD van Scriver aan P.O. Box 10, Prague 9, 19900, Czech RepublicJustin Zzyzx - Publisher & Editor Official Magazine Brandy Naugle - Advertising Design ‘Alfredo Petrov - Associate Editor of the Website The-Vug.com Intended for free distribution Your Guide to Everything at the 2008 Tucson Mineral Show Mineralogical Online VOL 1 Number 1 Jan 31-Feb 15 SSS ee TABLE OF CONTENTS Opening the Dragon’s Mouth Pocket - Joe Dorris DVD Review - The Photo-Atlas of Minerals 2006 Heulandite Dig - John Cornish... Minerals of the Charter Oak Mine - ie acre RockhoundingVideos.com: St. Lawrence County - Justin Zzyzx...... Recent Updates from the Rowley Mine - Marcus Origlieri .Pg 36 For more articles, video, reviews, links and listings, visit The-Vug.com Contents copyright The-Vug.com 2008 Los Angeles, Calfornia 323-284-8360 Justin@the-vug.com Articles and Submissions always welcome This Magazine could not be printed without the support of our advertisers. Please tell them that you noticed their ad here. Chris Tucker Minerals Specializing in minerals from Montana JD ays cam dnd Jno peu | ChrisTuckerMinerals.comA note from the editor... Thank you so much for picking up a copy of our new project, this magazine! We are your faceless friends from the internet, The-Vug. com. We show you all sorts of great links to educational websites, mineral club links, show calendar, mineral dealers and so much more. We certainly hope you enjoy this magazine and take the time to tell our authors how much you liked their work. If you want to read extended versions of many of these articles check out the articles section of The-Vug.com. -Justin and Brandy And Now...for something completely different... Who is afraid of the big bad internet? The Intemet. It isn’t a series of tubes, or a dump truck. It is, however, one of the more powerful new tools we have to use to expand the hobby of Mineral Collecting. Did the movie business go bankrupt when VHS came on the scene? Many said it would, but looking back those same people seem really foolish! Why would you repeat the same backwards thinking and expect any different outcome? The intemet is not a replacement for anything, MAY 2ND - In regards to intemet mineral dealers I will give you the results of a very non-scientific poll that was conducted on The-Vug.com last year. Out of a total of 97 responses the buying habits of mineral collectors was made quite clear to me. People that buy minerals online tend to buy from the same dealer that they buy from at mineral shows, unless they do not go to mineral shows, then they buy minerals from eBay dealers. The reason people do not go to mineral shows is because they don’t know about them and are not members of any mineral club. People that sell minerals on eBay go to mineral shows to buy minerals to sell to the people who don’t go to mineral shows. The internet helps to fill the hole when it comes to the ever shrinking mineral clubs. If you want to bolster attendance at minerals shows you have to get people to join mineral clubs. It is a tough challenge, but one that helps two groups at once with the same goal. So, what tool could you use to convince more people to join mineral clubs? I do believe that the internet is there to use to your advantage. - Justin Zzyzx ‘Somewhere online in Los Angeles 4TH, 2008 EMBASSY SUI ES near THE yNRM a MARY J. PERRY ROCKS AND MINERALS Arizona Mineral & Fossil Show - InnSuites Hotel Room 240 (Second Floor Facing the Courtyard) February 1 - February 16, 2008. | can also be reached by phone at 813-579-8618 at any time throughout the show. Buy great rocks and minerals at reasonable prices from a private collector. Classic specimens from world-wide locations. * Sweet Home specimens © Specimens from closed mining localities in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Africa * Crystalline specimens in matrix © Tourmalines, Topaz, Aquamarines © Sulfides from Colorado, Russia and Romania * Caleites and Fluorites from around the world ° Beryl, including a huge boulder with dozens of gem-quality red beryls from Utah’s Wah Wah Mountains © Excellent Smithsonite collection from the Kelly Mine, Arizona, Tsumeb, Mexico and Moroceco. © Many other specimens too numerous to listWWW.KEYSMINERALS.COM world class mineral specimens online since imoleys: KEY’S MINERAL COLLECTION Uncovering the Dragon’s Mouth Pocket, Crystal Peak, Colorado Joe Dorris Box 413, Manitou Springs, Colorado, 80829 (719) 685-4479 “The Legend” - Photo by Kevin Dixon We began mining on Saturday, 27 July as soon as we were allowed back into the area after the Hayman fire. It bumed through the Smoky Hawk Mine on 9 June, leaving mostly charred trees. For awhile we feared we wouldn’t get to mine but we finally got word we could resume operations. ‘The entire area we were working had been completely hand dug anywhere from 3’ to 12’ deep. We didn’t expect to find pockets near the surface, but we were hopeful the structures ran below the depth the hand diggers had reached. With this in mind, we decided to take the backhoe about 50 yards down the hill below the previous prospect and begin working back towards it. A year before I had hand dug down to a very resistant pegmatite in this area which had shown some good amazonite fragments. Inno time Jack, my crane operator, was tuming over chunks of pegmatite about 1 1/2’ thick. The sign was exceptional. Any timehe pulledachunk over, we expected to see a cavity. Sometimes 3” to 4” inch long subhedral amazonite crystals would tumble out, and large smoky fiagments with euhedral faces occasionally showed, butno pocket was to be. We dug nearly the entire day without hitting any good crystals. I filled several 5-gallon buckets with good colored fragments, but nothing was euhedral. Throughout the 28th, | continued to work the backhoe to the west of the tree, the tree being on the eastside of the growing pit. The pockets were badly fractured, but the color was nearly unmatched by any previously found. The amazonite crystals were small, but had excellent luster. This seam became eventually knownas the Baby Dragon Pocket. None of the openings exceeded 6”, but the color from the hundreds of amazonite fragments was stunning. At times, itappeared as if green emeralds were spilling from the earth. Still, we had found nothing of size, nor were there any smoky Quartz to speak of. By late aftemoon a seam of coarse granite, approaching a true pegmatite structure, appeared across the length of the south face. It averaged about 3” wide but no crystals appeared. It was a solid tan color with some occasional smoky chunks. If we did open a pocket, it looked as if it would be microcline. As evening drew near, we had a pit about 8’ deep and we had mined through the coarse seam. Nothing but uniform, decomposing granite showed across the length of the face. Sunday evening as I examined the prospect, I was rather discouraged. No pegmatite structures were visible andnothing of real substance had been encountered. Ireminded myself that the time ithad taken to get to this point had eaten up most of my digging capital. I hadenough cash remaining for a few more hours on Monday and that would be it. The night of July 28, I must admit, I went to bed rather discouraged, and not certain of how to proceed. www.the-vug.com: pg 7On Monday, July 29, we arrived at the pit by 8 AM. Jack showed up shortly after. “This is the day, Joe, I can just feel it,” he greeted me cheerily. We began work on the uphill face on the south side of the excavation. At least we had found some sign here. Because results had been meager, I had thought of filling the prospect and trying elsewhere, but too much good sign remained in this area. Within ahalfhour we had exposed another coarse seam in the working face. It looked identical to the one from the night before and looked just as barren. I didn’t get the least bit excited. I watched as with each scoop of the backhoe a couple more inches were exposed. The deeper into the face we worked, the thicker and more coarse it became. Then I thought I noticed green. I worked out a few fragments of amazonite and coarse quartz. If it would open, it sure looked like it had the makings of a p EE After another cut, the chunks of pegmatite began peeling away from the wall, and I thought I could see blackness behind them. Tim jumped into the excavation to examine the pegmatite. He pulled several large red-stained chunks of pegmatite away and then turned around holding up an 8” smoky quartz. Strewn about it were fragments of green amazonite. We had broken into a good-looking pocket! The sight was incredible! Removing a few more chunks of pegmatite, we had indeed exposed a large cavity. P—s wuW.the-vug.com: PE g About6” ofspace opened above therubble of the pocket contents, but you could tell that the pocket went in and up as well as down, Somebody brought a flashlight so we could explore more. It appeared the pocket dipped east as the opening disappeared in blackness downwards in this direction. It rose towards the west and Tose towards the back of the pocket into the bank, What was most incredible were the smoky quartz crystals and amazonite crystals still attached to the ceiling. Never had we found or even heard of a pocket with intact ceiling plates! By my knowledge, by size, this was going to be one of the largest ever discovered in the district. We knew actual collecting could takea couple days. During the actual removal process, we'd carefully extract specimens in order they were found and mark the flats. This would enable us to later reconstruct pieces if we found good matrix plates. Now was time for the really scary part. We needed to remove rock and material from above, below, and to the sides of the pocket in order to work it. We stuffed the opening with newspaper and held our breaths as Jack began carefully removing the overburden and excavating around the pocket. We had to work very carefully with the bucket. One slip and it could penetrate into the pocket or knock the ceiling plates down causing additional damage. Too much of the value rested in a perfect specimen. We held our breaths and watched in silence. When Jack finally nicked the newspapers, we immediately shut him down and hand dug out the rest to expose the pocket. We had to take a moment of silence, staring at the again exposed pocket. Now the fun of excavating and filling flats would truly begin. Three pieces were removed and then Tim pulled out an intact combination amazonite and smoky quartz group! That had been the missing element. All aspects. were now in place. We knew the pocket would produce quality combination specimens! By now the shape of the pocket was apparent. It was big, and it had quality. We had to use caution in sticking our heads into the growing cavity for fear of hitting the crystals on the ceiling. I told my sons, “I never worried about you guys cutting your scalps on the crystals, but I did worry about you breaking off a crystal!” We decided the most appropriate name for such a pocket was the Dragon’s Mouth Pocket. ns www. the-vg.cOM: PE QeROOM 128 Silver, Morocco InnSuites UV Wright's Rock Shop SPECIAL WHOLESALE FLATS Of MIXED MINERALS Silver, New Twin Fluorites, Calcite From Morocco Calcite, Fluorite, Celestite, Sphalerite in Quartz from China Pyrite on Quartz from Romania 3612 Albert Pike « Hot Springs, Arkansas 71913 501-767-4800 ¢ email: wrightsr@ipa.net web-page: http://www.wrightsrockshop.com Much of the pocket was loose and had detached from the ceiling and sides. As we pulled these pieces out, we washed them and placed them in flats in the order they were removed. Whenever possible, we fitted crystals to the matrix pieces and wrapped these together. A few of the pieces which were on top of the loose pile were truly remarkable combination pieces and groups. By late afternoon, all the floor material had been removed. It was time to remove the top plates. To do this we stuffed the cavity with blankets and empty flats (to take up the space). The next step would be to remove more of the granite from the top plates by picking into the bank above the pegmatite. We intended to remove the decomposing granite until the pegmatite matrix was encountered. At this point, we hoped the pegmatite pieces would be loose and could be removed. It took about 2 hours to drive the face back, exposing the pegmatite. Now we were able to remove the ceiling plates. Despite this care, all the crystals from one plate became detached. For the most part, those on the other ceiling plates remained intact. We recovered about four groups which promised to be good quality pieces. We worked until late in the evening, as long as there was light. What remained was the back of the cavity and we could probably finish that in the morning. At first light, the next day, we resumed work. We were as far back as we could crawl in to reach and the surrounding rock would no longer yield to our picks. Even though we were unable to reach the farthest portion of the pocket, we finished collecting on 29 July. I knew I would have to get equipment back immediately to finish the work and to protect ourselves from high-graders. Even one specimen could end up being a key specimen to repair a plate with. We couldn’t chance it. The main specimen from the pocket was cleaned and presented for display at the Denver show in 2003. Photo by Kevin Dixon Pe —————————— wow. the-vug.com: pe 1] ———— OD,Tine VUG.COM AF Fr x The Photo-Atlas of minerals 2.0 is the new version of the highly popular title of the same name released by the Gem and Mineral Council of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles a few years ago. The original version ‘was well received and had what seemed at the time to be a huge amount of pictures. Now, with the advent of 4.7 Gigabyte DVD disks, this program is packed with nearly 16,006 images of minerals from around the world, quite a remarkable amount with only a little over 4,000 different mineral identified to date. With pictures from favorite photographers such as Jeff Scovil and Wendell Wilson, the user gets a remarkable database of great images that are able to be searched in several ways. Just searching the mineral pictures for the state of Arizona caused my arm to go numb from clicking through the entire gallery. Of course, if you just want to look at a particular region or from just by characteristics, such as color, twinning, psuedomorphs or chemistry, the main directory search page will give you these options among many others. The DVD also features a mineral identification game, slide show options, a glossary of mineral terminology, and a vast database of mineral information. You can even add your own pictures to the program. Each mineral in the database includes a pronunciation audio file to listen to as well, which could have been made just for me. the Photo; rey} on 2 There are many photos and tons of information on the DVD, making it a must have for anyone who is interested in the hobby or science of minerals. The only drawbacks to the DVD is the fact that to get the most out of it you need. to install all of the images to your hard drive. The installation takes an hour or more, so we recommend getting some popcom and a movie while the computer receives all the files. The interface is a little clunky seeming at first, Dut after playing with it for awhile you'll have no trouble bouncing around the database and pulling up all sorts of photos and information on subjects you. are looking for, but also lots of new stuff you might not have seen before. ‘There are plenty of pictures of minerals the popular locations but also a great deal of pictures of minerals from obscure locations. I thought that it might be biased towards certain locations close to the geographic region of Los Angeles, but not only are the databases of Califomian and Southwestem minerals full of great pictures, the same care was given to the rest of the world. People ask me all the time for recommendations of books for people beginning to collect minerals or just starting to get into the study of mineralogy. I always suggest the following; the book Mineralogy by John Sinkankas, the bi-monthly magazine “The Mineralogical Record”, the online interactive mineral database website MinDat.org and now I’m happy to recommend, The Photo-Atlas of Minerals 2.0 as my pick for must have informational computer program. ‘You can find them all from your portal to minerals, The-Vug.com -Review by Justin Zzyax To purchase go to www.nhmorg/pam ipl es WWW.the-Vug.com: Po | 2 ly A eee STJohn Cornish. professional mineral collector; follows his passion by unearthing beautiful _ Heulandite specimens out in therolling volcanic hills of Idaho. This is an excerpt from his 2006 mining report. Stop by his hotel room during the Tucson show and pay him a visit. But now, let’ join John as he makes his way to the mine for the beginning of his digging season... I fired up the S-10 and made my way back to town for some hot chicken and gas and then headed back up to the claim. It continued to snow and as another storm came in I marveled at how beautiful everything was. The sun was setting and its fading light was > making the white snow clouds a glorious purply-pink color. It’d be a cold morning! Sure enough, it froze that night, but with my cocoa warming the cup held in my hands, and my throat and belly warming with cach swallow, the day was starting out wonderfully. Frost twinkled on everything and the sun washigh- and bright. with hardly a cloud inthe sky. Getting out of my claustrophobic camp, [headed up into the cut ‘to. take in the panoramic view of the valley. My timing: was good too as I was able to watch my operator coming in with his DSH Dozer, the first of two pieces of equipment we'd be bringing up the hill this year. Ps WWWLHE-VUZ.COM: PE 4 Ry is WWW.EHE-VUS.COM: PE 45 heyy John Cornish’s. , 2006 Rat’s Nest Heulandite a \Later, with the Excavator also ese I % was starting to get excited; We were getting Closer to actually beginning this year’s mining “ operation! I’d been busy during the day with several little projects, the biggest of which was marking an approximate 400 foot area below my workings where we'd be digging a monster trench. This year would be the first where we’d be able to dump our waste rock rather {Hen jim having't0 stockpile it above our workings for later reclamation. The trench would catch any of the bigger rocks traveling from above. Sunday dawned bright and sunny-and Gloria’s arrival was all I could think about. I cleaned camp and then partially stripped the truck in anticipation of meeting her down at the storage _ shed. Our van would not make the trip in and i I'd have to transfer everything over from her tig fo mine and then transport it all up the hill. Back at camp, we unloaded and began setting up the tents. That ol’ camping pad was getting real full with all our gear and I made a mental note to have the pad enlarged when the Excavator came through. In celebration, all our chores done, I took the girls out to dinner. . That next day, my twenty-first on the road, I woke before the girls and left them to head to the claim where I anticipated finding work already begun. The Excavator had a bracket break on the battery tray causing the whole mess to slide around and rupture the hydraulic radiator. They were in the midst of repairs and had already gone back to town for the welder and were soon back on schedule. By the time the girls arrived down below and I had to go get them, the trench had been completed and the equipment, both the Dozer and the Excavator were on the hill. We had maybe four hours to dig that first day, plenty of time for us to get into some serious fun! We opened lots of pockets, some over two feet long. The bummer was that a majority were predominantly infilled by crystallized laumontite, a mineral that readily releases the water from its structure upon exposure, causing the crystals to break down from a solid soft pink prismatic thing of beauty into eventually, predictably, piles of white powder. Pocket after disappointing pocket and not a thing to collect other than a few insignificant calcites. These would be the only calcites we’d find in 2006. Thankfully, once we passed through this area of heartbreak, we started finding specimens of a much more agreeable character, those luscious bright pinky-orange heulandites all blanketed in pristine white wispy sprays of soft, delicate mordenite. Tuesday the 26th of September. The day dawned beautiful and sunny, a pattern I was very much enjoying, especially with Gloria here. She and her sister sleptin whileI gotmy cocoa going. This year’s specimen mining was focused in a small area separating my north cut from my south cut which I anticipated would be hot, hot, hot as on either side of this small unmined area, we'd found some very fine things. I wasn’t disappointed in my enthusiastic predictions, but those dam laumontite pockets had really messed with me. I was in the trench when a rig came up the hill. I stopped mining and headed down to meet this stranger and was shocked to see my friend Chris Tucker behind the wheel of his big blue Dodge 4x4. The digging he’d planned to do in Utah after the Denver show had been a time best left far, far behind and, wanting a more enjoyable experience, he’d called it quits there and pointed his rig north a week earlier then we'd expected. He was more than welcome. I asked Chris if he’d like to try his hand at digging some world class crystal pockets. Chris’ smile answered my question! Wehada solid day recovering crystal treasures until we punched through into the old south cut and specimen mining was essentially over for 2006. Chris and I worked through twilight, well after the equipment had shut down, until darkness finally kicked us off the hill. When we got down to camp, the girls had dinner ready for us with hot food!