Mining the Havey: Merry Christmas

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Merry Christmas

The crew of the Havey Mine wish you all a Merry Christmas

Toot-Don't think that I am going out in the snow to pull any sleigh

Razzmatazz-I rather be mining.

photo by Jim Nizamoff Raymond Sprague-Can we go to Roy's yet?

Mike O'Neil-In Sarah Palin's words "drill baby drill"

Jeff Morrison

Jim Nizamoff-I'll let you know when I have this pocket cleaned out.

photo by Jim Nizamoff Encar Roda-PhD scientist extraordinaire

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Me and the Havey Blog

Most rock hounds can tell you when they first got interested in rocks at an early age. I am not like that. I did not start collecting rocks early in life, instead one day while looking through the real estate section on the computer there was a tourmaline mine for sale relatively close to where I live and I thought it would be interesting to check it out. Being from Maine there are occasionally articles written on Maine tourmaline and I had taken notice of this and had some curiosity about tourmaline. I did some research and the Havey Quarry looked very interesting. It had a glorious past approximately 100 years prior. There had been some recent success in the adjacent mine(Berry Quarry-same pegmatite) in the last 10 years and this was encouraging. The kids were leaving for college which would give me some additional time to do things and I thought that this would make a nice new hobby. I have an excavation company which would make the hard work somewhat bearable and there would be plenty of new things to learn. This is a very challenging endeavor and it takes a many hours of dedication to be able to find some of the beautiful minerals pictured in this blog. To date I am not a mineral collector. I love some of the things that I find but I truly love the search and the wonder of trying to predict what is going to show up upon the next blast. I have no scientific background and even though I know the technical term for many of the mineral specimens I prefer to use the more common verbage that most of the miners use. In writing this blog I am trying to help encourage the average person to appreciate what is under there feet that they aren't even aware of. Tourmaline is the Maine state mineral but most people from Maine do not know what it is or where it comes from. Hopefully we can educate more people to what is around them and have some appreciation of what out there. There is nothing more joyful than watching a young person finding a rock, mineral or crystal and learning from that. This is what life is about. Shut off the TV and start an adventure.

About the Havey

The Havey quarry is a working quarry and closed to the general public.

The Berry-Havey pegmatite (Poland, Androscoggin County, Maine, USA), is a highly evolved rare-element pegmatite enriched in Li, F, B, Be and P. It belongs to the Oxford pegmatite field, located in the western portion of the state of Maine, in proximity to the Sebago granitic batholith. In this field pegmatites concentrate along the northwest, northeast and eastern margins of the granite. Different degrees of evolution are attained by pegmatites in this region, with an internal zonation that varies from poor to well developed, sometimes with the occurrence of pockets, where gem tourmaline may be present. The Berry-Havey pegmatite has a complex internal structure, with an asimetric zonation where different zones have been identified: border zone, two intermediate zones, core margin and core zone. Tourmaline is present in all of them, with textural and compositional differences among the different zones.

Maine Mining

Mining for mineral specimens in Maine has had a resurgence in the last decade or so. A well traveled mineral expert commented to me awhile back is that there is more mining going on for specimens in Maine than possibly any other state in the country. Many of the old areas are getting worked very hard and some wonderful specimens are being found. Don't believe what you read on the internet that things are quiet up here. I think you will be amazed with what is being found in the State. I realize we aren't well represented on sites like Mindat but hopefully that will change. Most of these working mines are closed to the public but there are still great places to go but don't expect to just find tourmaline lying on the surface of the ground, you will need to do some digging.

Significant Pockets

Otto's October 2010-July 2012-etched tourmaline both elbaite and schorl, etched beryl, smoky quartz. This pocket had two major chambers and overall dimensions were 32' long 12' deep and up to 6' wide. To the bestest dog

Spaniard's May 2011-tourmaline and gem rough. First major tourmaline pocket in almost 100 years. This started the "sparhawk tourmaline" promotion

Ice Cream Sundae June 2013-red capped tourmaline. Complete pocket contents went to the Maine Mineral & Gem Museum

Silver Dollar June 2013-large tourmaline crystals. Largest intact crystal went to the Smithsonian along with a 30.62ct gemstone from an adjacent pocket

River of Gems July 2013-blasted the ledge away leaving the pocket remnants covered in a thick coating of clay. Wonderful experience of washing the clay away as the tourmaline crystals became exposed

Franks Oct 2013 Home of the "Pocket Fairy", now in the MM&GM's hands.

World Series Oct 2013 Home of "Orions Belt" This pocket had 3 chambers all the tourmalines went from an olive termination, to a solid green and then a light green. Finished spring 2014

Heath July 2014 After Barry's funeral went back to the mine and hit this pocket for a friend and fellow miner

Fireworks Aug 2014 Blue capped tourmaline, found second chamber over a month after we originally opened the pocket.

Berry-Havey Mineral List

Albite

var: Cleavelandite

Almandine

Apatite-(CaF)

Arsenopyrite

Autunite

Bertrandite

Beryl

var: Aquamarine

var: Morganite

Biotite

Calcite

Cassiterite

Columbite-(Mn)

Cookeite

Cryptomelane

Dahllite

Dickinsonite-(KMnNa)

Elbaite

Eosphorite

Fairfieldite

Hureaulite

Hydroxylherderite

Lacroixite

Landesite (TL)

Lepidolite

Lithiophilite

Loellingite

Meta-autunite

Metaschoepite

Microcline

Microlite

Mitridatite

Monazite

Montebrasite

Montmorillonite

Muscovite

Phosphosiderite

Purpurite

Quartz

var: Amethyst

var: Rose Quartz

var: Smoky Quartz

Reddingite

Rhodochrosite

Rockbridgeite

Schoepite

Schorl

Siderite

Sicklerite

Spodumene

Stewartite

Strunzite

Tantalite-(Mn)

Todorokite

Tourmaline

var: Rubellite

var: Verdelite

var: Watermelon Tourmaline

Triplite

Uraninite

Uranophane

Wardite

Xenotime

Zircon

Books on Maine Mineralogy

Bastin, Edson S., Geology of the Pegmatites and Associated Rocks of Maine-Published in 1911 this book is as relevant today as it was then.
King, Van, Mineralogy of Maine Volume 2: Mining History, Gems and Geology
King, Vandall T. and Foord, Eugene E., Mineralogy of Maine Volume 1: Descriptive Mineralogy-If you want to know what minerals Maine has and where you can find them this is it.
Perham, Jane C., Maine's Treasure Chest-A great book giving an overview on more than 35 Maine mines.
Simmons, Webber, Falster, Nizamoff, Pegmatology-This is the quidebook for the Maine Pegmatite Workshop and even though it is about pegmatites world wide it is very applicable to Maine
Thompson, Joyner, Woodman, King, Maine Mineral Localities-This book is also available online at the Maine Geological Survey website

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Merry Christmas

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