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Contacts : y.dain@wanadoo.fr




New special issue of the magazine Le Regne Mineral: LA VILLEDER - Morbihan - France - DEC. 2001 by Y. DAIN (Mineral Webzine), E Gloaguen (Armorique Mineraux) and magazine staff

Content : cassiterite, beryl, quartz, Arsenopyrite,....A book about one of the most famous mine in France !!



Y. DAIN - Webmaster of Mineral Webzine.



Nouvelles du Quebec - Canada

Pour ce qui est du Quebec ce fût un été médiocre en découverte, au MSH l'exploitation de la pierre cornéenne a été plus importante que celui de la syenite et dans ce secteur il n'y a pas de pegmatite, il est à noter que la famille Poudrette produit depuis peu non seulement le gravier à base de syénite mais la cornéenne ( horfel) pour la production de pierre fine dans la conception de bardaux d'asphalte pour les toitures de maison. La quantité de cornéenne sur place assure une production pour une dizaine d'années. Pour ce qui est la fermeture de la mine Jeffrey à Asbestos, maintenant vu que la récolte de chrysotile se fait sous terre. La companie n'entretien que les chemins pour accéder au tunnel. En Outaouais la mine Otter Lake qui produit les plus gros cristaux d,apatite au monde est sans activité depuis le décès de Jerry Van Velthuisen les activité devarit reprendre des le règlement de la succession.

Parcontre tous les collectionneurs attendent la renaissance de la mine d'OKA située sur la rive nord de Montréal. La première mine du nom de ST-Laurence Columbium à OKA fût fermé depuis des dizaines d'années mais quelques uns connaissaient un autre site ou quelques travaux en surface avait eue lieu mais sans plus. Il y a maintenant un an qu'une nouvelle compagnie veut reprendre les activités dans ce nouveau secteur et selon les dernières nouvelles il ne manque que le permis du gouvernement et tout commence dans ce nouveau site car la première mine est remplie d'eau, de vieilles voitures sans parler de cadavres de plongeurs téméraires. Ce site a fourni au collectionneur de magnifique spécimen de pyrochlore de couleur brun rougeatre atteignant jusqu'à 2 cm de large ! Il y a aussi de la calcite avec de la fluorescence très forte de couleur rose jusqu'à rouge selon le niveau de rayon UV. Les minéraux associés sont le pyroxène, la chlorite en forme de livrets noir verdâtre, de l'apatite en tâches jaunatre ou en petits crystaux de la magnétite, pyrite et aussi il ne faut oublié les superbes cubes de perovskite et un nouveau mineral dérivé de ce dernier qui ne peut ce distinguer qu'avec une analyse chimiques, la Latrappite.

C'est avec ces futur travaux sur ce site près de l'ancienne mine qu'il est possible d'imaginer tout les nouveaux minéraux qui nous attendent paisiblement sous terre. Vite que le printemps revienne faire fondre la neige, malheureusement les décision du gouvernement prennent souvent plus de temps que les saisons. C'est à suivre!



D. Contois - Quebec Mineral.


Nouvelles découvertes en Bretagne - France

Ces deux dernières années, des prospecteurs de la rérion de Bégard en Bretagne ont mis à jour de superbes spécimens d'améthyste. Certains échantillons présentent de petits cristaux de galène centimètriques. Cette association donne des pièces de toute beautée !!


Quartz var. Amethyst (32 x 10 cm)- Begard - Brittany
From my collection


Galena (1 cm XX)on Quartz var. Amethyst - Begard - Brittany
From my collection

Y. DAIN - Webmaster of Mineral Webzine.




Hello fellow Mineral Collectors!

I wanted to let you know of some recent activity on the mineralogy front in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Over this summer, I've been doing alot of collecting with some good friends of mine in and around the Black Hills. Mainly concentrating on the pegmatites, we've discovered a few minerals new to South Dakota. We're still gathering information on some of these minerals, but the results are nevertheless exciting.

From a pegmatite near Keystone the rare phosphate ERNSTITE has been found. It's been tested by SEM, however an XRD test will tell us more. Ernstite, from what I gather, has been found in few others localities: Erongo Mountains, Namibia, St. John's quarry in South Australia, pegmatites of Lavre de Ilha, Taquaral, MG, Brazil and La Vaquita pegmatite Chacabuco Dept., San Luis Prov., Argentina.

Ernstite, is formed by the oxidation of eosphorite. The Ernstite we found was located in altered triphylite and associated with siderite, ludlamite, vivianite and a host of others in a partially oxidized zone of the nodule. This find yielded several specimens which can be described as yellow-brown acicular, radiating crystals less than 1mm in size.

Associated with the Ernstite, is another rare phosphate, called SCHOONERITE. This too has been microprobed and must be XRD tested. The Schoonerite, looks like strunzite, but is light green, brown to bronzy and forms hairlike micro crystals much like strunzite. This find would also be a new mineral for South Dakota. Sphalerite was also spotted in the boulder in which the triphylite nodule was found, which was probably the source of zinc in the chemical makeup of Schoonerite.

We're still pulling this one apart, since we feel that whitmoreite, olmsteadite, and other rare secondary phosphates should be in the system. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, in the western Black Hills, a relatively unknown locality exist. Here, several superb micro cerrusites were found in association with hemimorphite (white, acicular), wulfenite, descloizite, and fluorite. This deposit has good potential since galena is common, the matrix is very vuggy, and only the surface has been scratched. The wulfenite, albeit ugly, is commonly frosted over by drusy quartz like the Finch mine in Arizona. The wulfenite also forms dipyramidal and thick tabular crystals a little like Los Lamentos. The fluorite is light purple, form modified cubes and is often etched. Alot of work needs to be done here.

In the Northern Black Hills, at the Wharf mine, I recently sent in several micro minerals for analysis by SEM. Turns out, I've been hanging onto some pharmacosiderite, aluminocopiapite (new to SD), and meurigite (also new to SD) from the non-oxidized "blue ore" zone deep in the gold deposit. The Wharf mine is still operating and is located in the upper and middle members of the Deadwood formation, a silty to shaley, dolomitic and interbedded sandstone intruded by Tertiary monzonite dikes.

Tom and Vicki Loomis
Dakota Matrix Minerals
605-342-9063
3519 Sequoia Place
Rapid City, SD 57702
http://www.dakotamatrix.com
dakotamatrix@home.com



Exposition sur les diamants - MNHN - Paris du 10 mars au 15 juillet

Certainement la plus belle exposition jamais réalisée sur le thème du diamant; A voir absolument si vous passez par Paris.
Les plus beaux diamants bruts ou taillés, les plus belles parures, bref, tout sur le diamant !!!


Vous ne devez pas ratés non plus le numéro spécial du Règne Minéral sur le diamant :



Recent news from Norway

LIERNE
Good quartz findings in the well known "Glassberget", Lierne, Central Norway. Smoky quartz with crystals up to 20x10 cm. Aggregates up to one x one meter all covered with xls of average size 3 - 6 cm. Samples are still available for purchase or swap.
contact the finder: mailto:lars@geosystems.no

OPPDAL
New finding of the rare axinite group member; TINZENITE Brown crystals embedded in serpentinite matrix.
contact the finder: mailto:htaagvol@online.no

Schorl crystals, short prismatic with nice termination.

LØKKEN VERK
New finding of the rare sulfate CHARLESITE from Løkken Verk, Central Norway. In the same sample it was analyzed a substance equivalent to Carborundum; MOISSANITE. This may be of human occurrence since the sample was found near to an old melting plant

HITRA/FRØYA Tunnel
From this tunnel collectors have found nice yellow lustrous Ankerite, sometimes in combination with perfect octahedral Sphalerite var. Cleophane As microscopic aggregates; golden yellow Goethite.

ORKANGER
Quartz of mainly Tessin form where found this spring in a quarry at the border between Old gneisses and the Trondeim field volcanic greenstones. Crystals up to 35x15x10 cm where found. Also rather large Calcites and feldspar minerals as Adularia. In the same quarry a few nice tiny Titanites could be found.



Rockhunting in Denmark

As for minerals there isn´t much to look for in Denmark. A few years ago some very nice crystals of Gypsum were found in Oelst, Jutland. You might find amber on the beaches if you are lucky. Besides we have a lot of rocks, brought from Sweden and Norway during the Ice Ages.
As for fossils the possiblities are much more exciting.
In Jutland the islands of Fur and Mors are interesting. Here you can find moclay with fossils. In Nederby on Fur there is a fine museum. Gram, in the southern part of Jutland, is an interesting place,with a fine museum on Gram Castle.
In Copenhagen you mustn`t miss the Geological Museum with a very fine Greenlandish collection, among other interesting things. South of Copenhagen you find Karlstrup Kalkgrav (limequarry), worth a visit. Further south, east of Store Heddinge, you see the white cliffs of Stevns with layers of chalk from Upper Maastrichtien and bryozochalk from Danien. Take care ! You might get some of the cliff on your head. Further south, very much worth a visit, is Fakse Kalkbrud (Chalk Quarry) where a lot of interesting fossils have been found. And you shouldn`t miss the breathtaking landscape of the cliffs of Möen.

Karen Oestergaard,
Boegebakken 21, 3000 Helsingoer
Denmark


News finds of 2000 in Italy


In Tuscany there were two nice finds during last Spring:
1- Elba island in a place near Rio Marina a good vug with Ilvaite XX on hedembergite and quartz . The ilvaites XX range from 1 cm to 8 -10 cm with good termination , about 10 flats of this material was recovered.
2- Monte Amiata Area - this area is rich of many abandoned mines and some of those mine where famous for good cinnabar samples that were collected many years ago during workings. A lucky tuscany collectors found a good vug and was able to recover nice "strawberries" of cinnabar spread on lenticular calcite XX . Those XX aggregate of cinnabar reach 1-2 cm and are exceptional for Italian collectors.

In Lombardia a g ood pocket was discovered in the abandoned Flourite mine of Zogno , and someone collected several loose XX and aggregate of dark purple color up to 5-8 cm edge.
Another exceptional find took place last summer in The Adamello natural park area. There aren't many informations about it but some lucky collectors was able to find a lithium pegmatite vein and to collect good sample with ortoclase and Smoky quartz , with elbaite up to 1-2 cm and pink lepidolite XX , maybe we will discover more about during this year.

Val d'Aosta . Last Summer a big smoky quartz pocket was found in the Italian side of M.te Bianco - Dente del Gigante arond 3000m . This pocket was abot 3 m long 1 m wide with very nice quartz samples in it.

Those in my opinion were the most significant finds (I know about) of year 2000 in Italy

Giovanni from Webminerals : webminerals@libero.it

Huge Natural Crystals Found in Cave - Mexico you can find the artiocle at the address bellow :

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20010205/crystals.html

By Michael Ray Taylor, Discovery News