Winter Mineral Sales in Colorado--Tourmaline, Rubies, Emeralds and more!

I purchased a number of Gems from Dr Tourmaline (John) and these are a few I added to my collection

Getting quality gems at good prices takes a bit of effort.  I've been trying to broaden my collection as everything in my cabinet is blue/green amazonite and black quartz. Going to mineral and rock stores to purchase and/or trade specimens is a tough and expensive way to build a collection.  Merchants often purchase their material for rock-bottom prices (pun intended) and then bump everything up more than 200% (they claim overhead costs are killing them).  As an example, I traded $240 worth of mineral specimens for a very nice green tourmaline at a rock show valued at $240.  I was offered $80 by one dealer and $100 by another.  I passed by these offers and finally settled for a merchant offering $200 cash.  Cash is more desirable than rocks. I felt I got a reasonable deal, but haggling over prices and hustling around town to local dealers is not my idea of time well spent. I've gone to local mineral shows and they seem more eager to deal, but there are few large shows in Colorado during the winter. I’ve been looking on the internet for specimens but everything seems ridiculously overpriced, faked, or has other issues. I can’t believe the number of blurry pictures people put up on the internet and then ask $100+ for something you can hardly see. Another option could be putting up a site to trade or sell minerals, but there would be a large effort associated with setting up and maintaining an on-line store.  I prefer to remain a hobbyist. 

Collector's best rhodochrosite (my opinion)

A friend of mine, said he knew of a gentlemen who was selling some of his seconds from home and was willing to discount especially if you purchased minerals in bulk (by the flat).  I decided to give it a try and loaded up a couple flats of trade material and headed north with Austin to Denver.  I’ve always been a fan of tourmaline, topaz, and aquamarine but have never had the wherewithal to purchase mineral specimens other than those that I need a microscope to view.  John, the seller, was willing to take mineral trades and cash. Because I am overstocked in quartz, amazonite, goethite, and fluorite (local crystals from my claim), I thought I might bring some trade material along and see if I could get some nibbles.  John seemed amiable enough and quite cordial. The first order of business was taking in his collection. Tourmaline after tourmaline after tourmaline.  Incredible!  Then there were the rubies, emeralds, rhodochrosite, aquamarine, topaz, and much more! 

Overwhelming--one shelf of tourmaline in two chock-filled display cabinets!

I wondered what his seconds would look like as his favorites could grace any mineral museum I’ve ever been to.  John's seconds exceeded my expectations and they would most likely be firsts to many collectors including myself.  While John seemed partial to my mineral oddities, he was also willing to pop on smokies, but only if they were of exceptional quality.  I quickly picked out a flat of topaz while my friend went for some tourmaline.  John accepted some of my crystal specimens in trade and I made up the difference with cash. My friend, who drove me to John's house, is fairly new to collecting but made some smart purchases and deals with John.  We both got nice discounts for purchasing entire flats.  Shortly after we left we traded a few specimens with each other so that we both had some topaz and pink tourmaline.  I got 16 topaz, the largest sherry colored weighing in at 1600+ carats, as well as a few other minerals I couldn’t resist. My friend walked away with about 30 pink and 5 blue/green tourmaline.  I’ve had various opportunities before and let them get away as I was not willing to drop so much cash for gems, but this deal was too good to pass up. I guess time will tell whether I have buyer's remorse (probably not). I've already unloaded a couple of the more expensive topaz and now have plenty of topaz to add to my collection as well as a few other fantastic gems at a very moderate cost.

Deer near seller's house say goodbye but please come again (haha)

My favorite purchased aquamarine!

.

Highly Prized Plates of Crystals at Lake George, CO--The Wintergreen Pocket

Double trouble for hidden crystals

The weather warmed up and so we beat feet back to the pegmatite on our claim that we were working on in the previous post. (Dec 2017). We weren't sure we’d be able to do much until spring but a thaw made the roads passable and softened up the ground enough to make the site workable for a final season ending visit. The vug we worked on this day was a continuation of the pocket Bob found in the previous post.  As the initial pocket nearly pinched out we noted there was still plenty of quartz in the hill with a well-formed pegmatite showing the way up and into the hill.  After Bob mucked out the debris in the pocket he quickly went to work checking the sides and bottom of the old pocket.  A number of crystal faces were still poking out of the pegmatite on the right side of the old pocket and quartz shards were visible straight ahead into the hillside.  The quartz had taken a turn from smoky to orangey grey which we took as a sign that the pocket might continue forward.  We normally follow quartz shards until they end or disappear into regular granite so Bob followed these brittle quartz shards forward for well over a foot into the hillside.

The other good indicator to press ahead was an occasional quartz crystal uphill amongst the shards of quartz.  The quartz debris field  began to expand outward and an orange/brown clay began to become more prevalent--the pocket was opening up again!  A fairly large smoky showed itself and so we knew more was yet to come!

Solid 6"+ Smoky was a sign of things to come!

Bob carefully worked the new pocket as I spent time helping remove debris. I had tried to dig through a layer of icy ground nearby but the ice was over a foot deep which made digging anything other than a preexisting site problematic. I decided my time would be best spent helping Bob muck and check out the debris for straggler crystals. Bob's pocket, nearly 4 feet down, continued to widen out as smoky quartz, amazonite crystals and clay filled the bottom of the pocket. We also found a few pseudomorphs at the bottom of this pocket but fortunately they were few and far between.  We've had too many pockets this summer filled with pseudomorphs of goethite or limonite after siderite or some other carbonate.  These pseudomorphs seemingly grow on everything and are somewhat unsightly (See 9/1/17 post "Pseudomorph Sunday"). Fortunately this pocket was in a different area and pseudomorphs were nearly nonexistent. As Bob continued to dig into the hill crystal plates became evident along the sides of the pocket and the real fun begins... at least for me!

After a few hours of digging Bob decided he needed a break and sent me in to take a turn.

First combo I pulled out today... things are looking good!

Working a crystal pocket can be tiring as care must be taken at every step of the process, careful probing to minimize damage during crystal extraction is extremely important. Soon I too was pulling out 4+” smokys and amazonite plates.  This time some of the amazonite plates also had smoky quartz crystals attached. It is the combination of smoky quartz crystals and blue/green amazonite on matrix that many collectors deem highly prized. The value of crystals and crystal plates is determined by completeness, size, surface luster, color and internal gemminess as well as location.  This pocket had it all with very gemmy smokys and exceptionally colored amazonite--highly prized!

These specimens came from the same pocket. The gemminess in the smoky is apparent and both crystals have good luster

We try to pack shards found near plates together with the plates as you can often use a piece of a broken off crystal or two to repair a plate and really bring the plate to life.

These nice combos just keep coming out!

I continued to dig for an hour or so but decided to stop when I ran into a very large combination plate.  I couldn’t tell if it was one large smoky and amazonite plate or not but decided that Bob should have the privilege of pulling this out.  This is the first time I’ve ever self-eliminated myself from a pocket but it just didn’t seem right to be working on the best plate in the pocket when it was Bob’s discovery. I also didn’t want to be the cause for any potential damage during the removal of the megaplate. This was a one in a million pocket or at least one in a thousand :-)  Below is a view into the pocket. While the megaplate was the colossal find there were many exceptional combinations of amazonite and smoky quartz crystals on matrix down in the clay to the left of the big plate, underneath it and behind the plate.  Some of these crystals may have broken off the plate or be entirely separate entities but we'll have to sort that out when we clean the specimens.  At this time we are pulling specimens and trying to keep them together.

I shied away from digging out the megaplate and decided this was a project for Bob as it bulged out of the pocket wall

After a half hour or so of carefully scraping, probing and lightly prying along the perimeter of the megaplate it shifted and out it came.  The plate was in two pieces but may fit together or may just be two separate plates which we’ll check more closely after some initial cleaning.  Bob continued to dig after the megaplate was removed and found many 2-4 inch smokies as well as several fine amazonite crystals behind the plate.  As the dig continued the plates ended but the quartz continued up the hill and appeared to be heading slowly up to the surface towards a tree near an old dig.  Bob's dig is now about 5 feet down into the ground but he needs to do some considerable shoring up to make the pocket safe for additional crystal removal or he'll be 6ft under ;-).  As Bob packed up another 75lbs of crystals and made two trips to his vehicle overloaded with crystals I went back in the pit to clean out the bottom.

Some of the 75 lbs of crystals Bob carefully wrapped and lugged back to his truck

I found a few small crystals but the large pieces of quartz in the sidewall in front of me still looked promising.  The dig is 7 ft long, 5 ft deep and a narrow 2ft wide. The amazonite plates have ended and only small quartz crystals were being harvested at day's end.  Day 3 on this pocket was spent mucking out the debris, and double-checking the sides and bottom of the excavation. It didn't take long this day for Bob to dig right into a wall of granite ending the pocket.  There is still a quartz streamer running up the hill and seemingly rising to the surface but it is void of crystals (Definitely a project for next year). Finally we remediated the area by burying any telltale shards and filling in this former world-class pocket. We found a few nice crystals this last day but the ice in the ground was too deep to do any further prospecting in the area. After filling the dig we are now ready for a long winter of cleaning and fitting crystals!  I asked Bob what he was going to call this super pocket and he decided since we found it during meteorological winter and it had very desireable blue/green crystals that it would be referred to as the Wintergreen pocket.  Aptly named in my opinion.

Before and After... 12cm high, smoky is 8.5cm (cleaned using soap & water, scrubbing, phosphoric acid and neutralizing)

So here is a short movie of one of the fine amazonite plates... enjoy!

More partially cleaned and fitted crystals... a whole winter's worth of fun!  These pictures were taken inside with not the greatest of lighting, but you get the idea--World-Class Pocket!

This specimen is nearly ready, maybe a small fit or two, a little trimming and a final cleaning

Minimal damage to this plate with a 6" smoky as the focal point on a bed of amazonite--still needs a bit of cleaning

3" Smoky with amazonite and additional smoky, the smoky on the right was a perfect fit

Still some cleaning and TLC required but I think this is best of pocket (no major damage) 2-4" Smokies are nearly ding-free!

Partially cleaned with a lot of crystal refitting to work on. Mother Nature beat this one up pretty bad. :-(

.