XEY-A3PApophyllite Group AB₄[Si₈O₂₂]X · 8H₂O , Natrolite Subgroup, Stilbite Subgroup M_6-7[Al_8-9Si_27-28O₇₂]·nH₂O , Hematite Fe₂O₃

Jalgaon District, Nashik Division, Maharashtra, India

Dimensions: 42 mm x 28 mm x 20 mm
Largest Crystal Size: 30 mm
Weight: 11.34 g

A super aesthetic specimen from the Jalgaon quarries comprising a three-centimetre-long greenish terminated glassy crystal of apophyllite with attached stilbite crystals on a matrix of haematite-dusted stilbite, accompanied by a single cluster of cream-coloured natrolite.

4R7-AHDFluorapatite Ca₅(PO₄)₃F , Fluorite CaF₂

Riesenwald quarry, Hinterohlsbach, Ohlsbach, Gengenbach, Ortenaukreis, Freiburg Region, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Dimensions: 55 mm x 42 mm x 28 mm
Weight: 68.68 g

An intriguing specimen comprising divergent crystalline apatite with a grey-green to violet colour within a porphyry host matrix, associated with purple fluorite.

LQF-DG0Fluorite CaF₂ , Quartz SiO₂

Mahodari quarry, Sinnar, Nashik District, Nashik Division, Maharashtra, India

Dimensions: 67 mm x 40 mm x 17 mm
Largest Crystal Size: 9 mm
Weight: 45 g

Hemispherical translucent buff yellow fluorite resting in a cradle of clear quartz backed by fragments of basalt. The spheroidal pair can be seen together on the bed of quartz in the accompanying child photos. Interestingly, before arriving with me this particular specimen had passed through at least three different collectors over the years and the labels from each of them have slight variations to the spelling of the locality it is from, although there is no doubt they all the refer to the same location. The first label has Mohadari Quarry, Nasik, India, the second shows Mahodri Quarry, Nasik, India and the third states Mahodari (as it also appears on Mindat), Sinnar, Nashik District, Maharashtra, India. There is clearly some confusion whether it is pronounced Nasik or Nashik too. Before 1982 both the city and district were called by the name Nasik. When the population of Nasik City exceeded to 1.2 million on the 7th November 1982, as per incorporation rules Nasik City became a Corporation. Since then the name officially changed to Nashik by the Government of Maharashtra.

[The locality itself is situated west of the NH 60 national highway (Nashik-Pune Road), some 24 km (15 miles) southeast of Nashik and 178 km (110 miles) north of Pune. Mahodari (including alternative spellings) belongs to the system of aggregate quarries around Nashik town and is quite famous for spheroidal fluorites. Botryoidal fluorite is known from only a few locations in the world, and it is uncommon throughout India in general, found in just a few states. The Mahodari locality produces arguably the best seen of this type of fluorite. Why they form there is still a puzzle?]

Earthrise - NASA

Taken on 24th December 1968 by Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders.

(Public domain)

QAV-LVTFluorite CaF₂ , Quartz (Var: Eisenkiesel) SiO₂

Erika Mine, Säulnhof, Stulln, Schwandorf District, Upper Palatinate, Bavaria, Germany

Dimensions: 80 mm x 58 mm x 22 mm
Largest Crystal Size: 9 mm
Weight: 147 g

Amber yellow clear to occluded cubic fluorite crystals with reddish iron oxide spots over eisenkiesel tinged quartz druse across the face of this specimen. Interestingly, this particular object was previously in the collection of the German Mineralien-Museum Andreas Gabrys, also known as Gabrys Museum.

The Mineralien Museum Andreas Gabrys was a privately run museum with a huge collection of more than 10,000 mineral, rock and fossil specimens. Located in Lam, Bavaria, Germany, the family owned museum was founded in 1969 by Andreas Gabrys, mine manager at the time for the Fürstenzeche (otherwise known as the Oswald mine) in Lam, and it had been open to the public until 2004. The small museum was run by Andreas and his wife, until he died in 1994. She then continued to run it for ten more years when, due to her age and illness, it became necessary for her to move into a nursing home. The museum was temporarily closed in the hope that someone in the community or a commercial enterprise might be found that would be interested in keeping things going, but sadly that was not the case. The son of Andreas, Manfred Gabrys together with his wife (both elderly themselves), became responsible for the museum and its large mineral collection. Although they wanted to keep the collection together and fully intact as a legacy to Andreas Gabrys, when a buyer could not be found for the museum and contents as a whole the building was put on the market and the collection was subsequently auctioned off in partial lots and dispersed.

E6J-P4LIlvaite CaFe³⁺Fe²⁺₂(Si₂O₇)O(OH)

Torre di Rio - Santa Filomena area, Rio Marina, Rio, Livorno Province, Tuscany, Italy

Dimensions: 43 mm x 33 mm x 28 mm
Weight: 78 g

Masses of fibrous black ilvaite crystals in a block. Labelled as Elba Island (Monte della Torre).

Torre di Rio is a cliff immediately south of Rio Marina harbour, cut by a road (here for pedestrians only) leading to Porticciolo. Santa Filomena is a place beside the road, 40 metres above the cliff. In some older references, this area is named "Monte della Torre": that is the hill above Santa Filomena. The area forms part of the "Rio Marina Skarns", which are mainly composed of massive hedenbergite and ilvaite. Ilvaite from Rio Marina is relatively abundant, characteristic and easy to find.

Rio Marina is a small town and former comune (i.e. municipality) on the northeast coast of Elba, an island in the Tyrrhenian Sea; exploited since Etruscan times are the nearby iron mines. On 1st January 2018, the towns of Rio Marina, Rio nell'Elba, Cavo and Bagnaia, and the villages of Capo d’Arco, Nisportino, Nisporto and Ortano were merged to become frazioni (i.e. subdivisions) of the comune of Rio, together with the small islands of Cerboli and Palmaiola.

Interestingly, the island of Elba has given its name to two minerals; ilvaite (“Ilva” was the ancient Latin name for Elba) and elbaite (which is found on the western side of the island mainly around Marina di Campo and Procchio).

W1W-4E0Ilvaite CaFe³⁺Fe²⁺₂(Si₂O₇)O(OH)

Mega Horio, Serifos Island, Milos, South Aegean, Greece

Dimensions: 53 mm x 15 mm x 15 mm

A grouping of terminated, somewhat altered, ilvaite crystals which show idiomorphic granular morphology after being partially replaced by iron-manganese oxides.

Megalo Livadi is a picturesque coastal village which gradually grew in size because of the numerous mines located nearby, but further inland and up in the hills is Megalo Chorio (Greek: Μεγάλο Χωριό), or Mia Chorio, also Mega Horio. This was the ancient capital of Serifos. Today, Megalo Chorio is an almost uninhabited village. Megalo means “large” in Greek and chorio means “village”. Thus, Megalo Chorio was the “Big Village” and it was indeed the largest settlement of the miners era too. Between 1880 and 1920, the villages of both Megalo Livadi and Megalo Chorio were at their zenith with many residences built up around them. There was also a school (“Grohmann School”), plus numerous businesses and services including grocery stores, bakers, shoemakers, tailors, baths, and police station. There were two medical facilities. What remains of one of the hospitals has survived to this day, but the other one has disappeared, dragged down by the collapse of a mine gallery. Shortly after the closure of the mines, Megalo Chorio was gradually abandoned. Today it is almost deserted and what you will find there now is mainly ruins, as well as the entrances to some old mine galleries.

0CN-YK3Ilvaite CaFe³⁺Fe²⁺₂(Si₂O₇)O(OH)

Rio Marina, Rio, Livorno Province, Tuscany, Italy

Dimensions: 34 mm x 21 mm x 11 mm

Semi lustrous terminated prismatic crystals of ilvaite to 10 mm in height coming off matrix from Rio Marina (northeast Elba).

Interestingly, the island of Elba has given its name to two minerals; ilvaite (“Ilva” was the ancient Latin name for Elba) and elbaite (which is found on the western side of the island mainly around Marina di Campo and Procchio). Ilvaite from Rio Marina is relatively abundant, characteristic and easy to find.

2VP-QMMAutunite Ca(UO₂)₂(PO₄)₂·10-12H₂O , Fluorite (Var: Stink-Fluss) CaF₂

Marienschacht Mine, Wölsendorf, Schwarzach bei Nabburg, Schwandorf District, Upper Palatinate, Bavaria, Germany

Dimensions: 76 mm x 54 mm x 35 mm
Weight: 152 g

Aggregates of yellow autunite and dark veinlets of violet ‘stink-fluss’ fluorite in altered granitic rock from the Marienschacht Mine. The uranium mineral autunite displays strong yellow-green fluorescence on the surface of this specimen (demonstrated in the main photo under LW UV light).

Collection and photos: David Carter

Regarding the fluorite and uranium mineralisation at the locality:

"The main course mass is fluorite of light violet blue and green color, stinkspar is not found in the presence of gneiss (this is not to say that gneiss is always present in fluorspar of different colours). Note: Light purple or blue fluorspar is not known from the Kuppel Mine (or later from the Marienschacht Mine), it is purple fluorspar. Of the uranium minerals, autunite was only found whilst the western part of the gangue, which starts in granite, was being mined. This mineral was distributed over veins and cracks that ran through the reddish-coloured granite."
~ Drechsler, Dr. Franz, Hochschule München: "Zur Mineralführung und Chemie der Oberpfälzer Flußspatgänge". Die Befahrung des Reviers hat im Jahre 1923 stattgefunden; in "Sonderdruck aus dem 17. Bericht für das Jahr 1924 des Naturwissenschaflichen Vereins Regensburg E. V"., Seite 1 - 48, Regensburg 1925.

“The fluorspar is found in very different colours. Crystallised pieces, often built up in zones, are greenish, yellow to yellow-brown, dirty olive-green and at the same time opaque, as well as light to dark purple in colour. The predominant crystal form is the hexahedron. Only the dark violet variety, which according to its smell must be called stinkspar (although such has not been found here in significant quantities), also has other shapes, octahedra and pyramid cubes. In 1931/32 a lens of stinkspat 10 m in length was passed over in the second corridor (central corridor) to the east.”
~ Kohl, E. und Haller, H., Berlin: "Die Mineralführung der Wölsendorfer Flußspatgänge", in "Zeitschrift für praktische Geologie", 42.Jahrgang, Heft 5, Seite 69-79, Berlin Mai 1934.

“Fluorite occurs in all colours except pink and a strong green. Greenish octahedra (111) were also found. The following uranium minerals have been observed in detail in Grube Marienschacht: autunite, coffinite, kasolite, pitchblende, torbernite, uranocircite, uranophane, and uranopilite. Lermontovite is questionable.”
~ Bald, Gerhard, Fürth: "Wölsendorfer Flußspatrevier", Seite 38 - 48, in "Aufschlüsse Zur Erdgeschichte Bayerns"; VFMG-Sommertagung 2000 vom 15. bis 18. September 2000 in Amberg/Oberpfalz, 50 Jahre VFMG.

GNG-NWXEllingsenite Na₅Ca₆Si₁₈O₃₈(OH)₁₃·6H₂O , Tuperssuatsiaite Fe³⁺Fe³⁺₂(Na◻)◻₂Si₈O₂₀(OH)₂(H₂O)₄·2H₂O , Aegirine NaFe³⁺Si₂O₆ , Villiaumite NaF

Aris Quarries, Aris, Windhoek Rural, Khomas Region, Namibia

Field of View: 3.5 mm

A small phonolite rock specimen that is fairly rich with various micro minerals, most noticeably inside a miarolitic cavity which contains white pom-poms of ellingsenite, bundles of reddish brown tuperssuatsiaite, numerous black-greenish prismatic crystals of aegirine and pink villiaumite.

Collection and photos: David Carter

“Nearby to the small Namibian village of Aris, 27 km southeast of Windhoek, there are many phonolite bodies that have been known for more than 100 years. From two of these bodies, phonolitic rocks have been extracted for decades for road workings and railway embankments. A few hundred metres from the Windhoek-Rehoboth road, on the property of the Aris 29 farm, there is the East Quarry, or Ariskop (meaning “roundish hill”) Quarry. The western phonolite body forms another roundish hill with a diameter of 800 metres. It is located within the property of the Krumhuk 30 farm, a few metres west of the road and near to the railroad. This quarry is called Railway Quarry, or Aris West.
The Aris quarries produced rocks for the Namibian roads and railways. However, it was only only from 1983 when significant radioactivity was detected that they were they studied. Results of analysis in 1987 showed that the uranium content was around 30 ppm and thorium values were in the range 150-200 ppm. This is 12-15 times the average crustal percentage. While the Ariskop Quarry is still active the Railway Quarry is nowadays inactive (as of 2016) although new findings are always possible from both quarries.
The Aris phonolite, encased within Komas schists, belongs to a volcanic complex located mostly on the property of Regenstein 32 farm. One of the Aris phonolite features is the multitude of miarolitic cavities, the walls of which are covered by micro-crystals. Miaroles (or miarolitic cavities, vesicles) are spherical cavities or bugs with dimensions ranging between 1 and 8 cm; some voids exceptionally reach 20 cm. The cavities are surrounded by white-coloured alteration halos that contain larger, more euhedral aegirine and sanidine crystals than the greenish-grey phonolitic groundmass.”

~ Kolitsch U, Blaß G, Jahn S, Cámara F, von Bezing L, Wartha R, Tremmel G, Sturla M, Cerea P, Skebo M, & Ciriotti M (2016) “Aris - Mineralogy of the famous alkaline phonolite”. Associazione Micromineralogica Italiana, Cremona (Italy)
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ciriotti-Marco/publication/306361470_Aris_-_Mineralogy_of_the_famous_alkaline_phonolite/links/5903558f0f7e9bc0d58d6d8f/Aris-Mineralogy-of-the-famous-alkaline-phonolite.pdf?origin=publication_detail