PEG 2013

  

For additional information please contact

peg2013symposium@gmail.com

PROGRAM

VENUE

SPONSORS

REGISTRATION

POST-MEETING FIELD TRIP

ABOUT

ABSTRACTS

TUCSON TUCSON TUCSON

February 2013 While I went to Tucson Gem & Mineral Show, I took very few pictures and instead of my ramblings click on  Gail Spann's Tucson Adventure even those of us that go feel indebted to what she does. It is great that she takes the time and effort to put this information for all of us to see. Even if you can't go to Tucson, Gail gives you a feel for what it is like. Also check out other shows she has done in the past on the FMF Mineral Forum Thank You Gail for all you do. Keep checking back for updates as sometimes it takes her a little while to get it all on the site.

Otto's Pocket revisited

Summer 2011 Jim Nizamoff was suppose to come up for a day of mining. Where he doesn't come often I like to have something special for him to look at. He has the ability to get some identification done on difficult to identify specimens, it is worth giving him something special to see. Ray and I had been working a pocket in preparation of Jim coming, that was primarily quartz crystals but was showing some tourmaline cast and some other interesting mineralization but this quickly ran out. Knowing there was still some of Otto's pocket left to work on, we shifted gears and uncovered this pocket for Jim to be able to work in. We started working what was thought to be the bottom of the pocket with not much interesting showing, mostly some poor quality quartz crystals but with mining pegmatites you never know what will suddenly show up. I needed to leave early for a birthday party. All birthdays should should fall anytime of the year except mining season. Jim wanted to stay a while longer and see if anything showed up. Many hours later I get a call to find out that they started to find pocket beryl in the pocket. It was too late in the day for me to go up and Ray was taken the material home with him so I wouldn't get to see it for another week. This was exciting and frustrating at the same time. This would be the first pocket beryl that I had seen from the Havey and there wasn't much written historically on pocket beryl being found here.

photo by Ray Sprague Jim Nizamoff  with etched beryl he had just pulled out of the pocket with a cluster of lepidolite pillars.

photo by Ray Sprague Etched beryl from above, opposite side plus some other pieces that came out in the same area. One side has an orange tinge being morganite and the other side has a slight blue tinge which doesn't show clearly in the picture.

photo by Ray Sprague Lepidolite pillars-These show up periodically in the bottom of the pocket.

Etched beryl in the current bottom of Otto's pocket. Approximately 16cm across

These were not associated with the pocket but where in the same area and were 3 to 6cm across

Associated with the pocket beryl were some large quartz crystals although most like the one pictured above were not very pretty

I was chomping at the bit to get back up to the mine and check out the pocket beryl area. It can be frustrating to have to go to your day job instead of being able to go up to the mine. I did sneak up late one afternoon after work and did some digging in the pocket without much result. I needed to wait a couple of more days before I could go up and work it for an extended period of time. Finally the day came and I was able to go up and work the pocket in search of some additional pocket beryl. In the same area that Jim had found the initial pieces some other beryl started to show up. This was very exciting.  As we continued to work the pocket some pieces of tourmaline were showing up, they also were etched. The tourmaline was very sparse and the hope was that as we got deeper into the pocket tourmaline might show up or if there was a separate chamber that had a different growth habit that there might be a concentration of tourmaline.

Jim Nizamoff  working in Otto's pocket. The pocket had a substantial  side chamber but for its size it did not produce much. Some additional etched beryl came out along with quartz crystals some tourmaline, and a small amount of columbite. 

Photo by Jim Nizamoff Ray Sprague entering the Havey

This past winter miner Ray Sprague had seen the previous error of his ways and made the move to Maine. Rumor had it, this was so he could be closer to Roy's hamburgers in Auburn where he can often be found on mining days. With him moving to Maine and some changes at the Emmons, Ray moved his coffee pot temporarily to the Havey  It would be good to have some additional help. Ray has been mining long enough that he knew that it would not be all glamorous work. Everyone wants to help when there is a pocket to be dug but in reality that is a small percentage of mining. He is also very good at mineral identification and is good at cleaning specimens. I like to find specimens and Ray doesn't mind cleaning them, this was sounding good to me as I was getting quite a few pails stockpiled. Although I enjoy mining alone there is so much to do that having another set of hands and eyes would allow more mining to get done. In mining these pegmatites we really do not move very far in the course of a year and realizing there is more mining here than I can do in my lifetime it is good to speed up production. Move more rock, find more specimens. It is also great having someone who can identify the rarer minerals. I have to make sure I bring up Toot and Razz to keep Ray occupied in the slow times..  

New England Mineral Conference

Welcome Everyone,

 

 It is almost here, the first New England Mineral Conference. We invite you to check out the event at the link below. Anyone coming to the Maine Mineralogical and Geological Society club show this weekend can still register at the reduced rate. If you have not yet registered and would still like to come there is registration available the day of the events at the door. After 22 years of a successful run the Maine Mineral Symposium ended and left a void and people have been anxiously waiting for a return of a similar event. This years event will be held April 26th-28th at the Ramada Conference Center in Lewiston, Me. There is still lodging available for anyone traveling from away.

 

To give you a taste of what you can expect this year, the past president and founder of the Maine Mineral Symposium, Woody Thompson, will be presenting a celebration of Ray Woodman. For those of you that don’t know Ray, he was a State of Maine geologist who has been an avid collector and over the years amassed what is considered the most complete Maine mineral collection. Luckily, this collection ended up at the Maine Mineral Museum in Bethel that will open later this year. Carl Francis, of Harvard fame and now working with the Museum, will also speak on the collection and the museum. The museum will also be displaying some of the Ray Woodman collection. There will be many other displays from around New England, as well. Skip Simmons, PhD, pegmatologist from the University of New Orleans, will be our emcee and keynote speaker. Anyone who has heard Skip speak will tell you that you need to be here for this event.

 

Cordially,

 

 

Jeff Morrison

President

New England Mineral Association  

New England Mineral Conference

Spaniard's Tourmaline Pocket

Late Spring 2011 It is difficult to explain the feeling of finding a nice tourmaline pocket after putting in all this time. I can say I  was on an adrenalin rush for almost a week and had a difficult time focusing at work. There had been so many times when I thought I was close to finding something with no results and then as I am trying to blast a road the pocket shows up. Some people even thought with all the work I had done that finding the pocket had come to quickly. I wasn't in this group as I may not have put in a lot of years but I had put in a lot of time. Maine is not known for giving up its colored tourmaline very easily. There are very few localities that produce consistently and even those can go years and sometimes decades considering people try mining and then give up and then someone new comes along with all kinds of energy and starts all over again. May 1st of this year it had relented to give up tourmaline at the Havey quarry and rumor was heard that up at Mount Marie Dennis Durgin had found a tourmaline pocket. Dennis has done a lot of mining at Mount Marie with many lean years but it looked like he had stuck it out long enough to reap some rewards. Click on the Mount Marie link to see some of the beautiful things that he has been finding recently. It's encouraging to here of other miners finding pockets as it mine although sometimes producing similar minerals there growth habit can be dramatically different.

After originally working on the tourmaline pocket for a period of time the decision had been made to cover the remnants of the pocket and open it back up after the Pegmatite Workshop had taken place. This would be over a month away but Encar Rhoda who is doing research at the mine was coming over from Spain and this would be a great opportunity for her to see a Havey tourmaline pocket with some of the tourmaline still in place. It was also a chance to look at the pocket with some of the excitement at least from my part worn off. Opening up a pocket can be like a kid having free rein in the candy store and grabbing for everything and and not appreciating the need for some patience and slow down to appreciate the experience.

photo by Al Falster Taking  Toot for a walk. I am sure that Jim dropped the stick first.

The day came to reveal the tourmaline pocket and the boulders that were hiding and protecting the pocket were removed. Anticipation was building as it is always difficult to know what may be left. Sometimes the pockets just end abruptly and other times you may find an additional area that you weren't aware of. The first thing that needed to be done was to start washing away some of the debris. Washing usually highlights any of the color that might be there, it can be very productive when searching for tourmaline. With the initial washing a couple of small pieces were found which was nice but wasn't exactly what we were hoping to find. Then came an area that had some kaolin and as the kaolin was washed away the tourmaline kept showing up. This was a great photo op for all those present. This area was a little beyond my original workings and indicated that the pocket may have continued in this direction. Where the top of the pocket had gotten blown off  there was great access into the pocket. Most of the time if you break into the side of the pocket taking pictures can be difficult at best. Now hopefully we would find some additional material to collect and photograph.

photo by Al Falster Washing down the area in search of tourmaline.

photo by Raymond Sprague An area that had been washed down , with most of the kaolin and some of the fines removed.

Photo by Ray Sprague Freshly washed tourmaline pieces

Photo by  Jim Nizamoff  Havey Tourmaline right from the pocket.

photo by Alexander Falster  Except for some watermelon tourmaline almost all the tourmaline that came out of this pocket was almost identical in color.

photo by Ray Sprague The bottom of the pocket. The pocket went up and behind the large quartz crystal on the upper left of the picture.

photo by Jim Nizamoff  Some of the tourmaline under the large quartz crystal

Encar Roda-PhD working the Spaniards Pocket in search of tourmaline. This is how the pocket got its name.

 Working the pocket

This was a great day. We found several areas that I had not cleaned out from the previous mining episode. Everyone got a chance that wanted to, to dig in the pocket and pull out some nice Maine tourmaline.