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Denver
Spring Show and Dreamtime
Mine
Dig, 24-30 Apr, 2009- Teller County, Colorado |
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This year, I once again traveled to
Denver, Colorado, for the bi-annual Holiday Inn show. Afterwards,
I drove over to the Lake George area to visit my friends Quentin and
Anita, owners of the Dreamtime mine. Quintin and I mined for 4
days and found an array of superb quality crystallized Goethites, with
amazing associations of Onegite, Amazonite, Fluorite and
Smoky Quartz. |
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My friend Maria talks
about her adventures in Thailand and India!
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And BOOM! Big
plates of superb Goethite crystals begin to come out!
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A good patch of red clay, filled
with feldspar and Goethite crystals!
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More Amazonite
crystals and Goethite sprays show in the pocket-
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A nice Amazonite
crystal!
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And then Quentin
scores a KILLER! How about an Amazonite-Goethite Combo
plate! These are amazingly rare, and what a beauty!
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28 Apr- Another
day, and another very cool Goethite/Feldspar pocket! How
many Goethite crystal sprays can YOU find in these pictures!?
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This pocket
produced over 50 great specimens of Goethite, 2 with attached
Feldspar crystals, and some showing nice Onegites!
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These pieces
will clean up to be very beautiful specimens! It only
takes a few days to soak the pocket mud off the Goethites
and then they will be very lustrous and showy! |
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Superlatives
cannot accurately describe how I felt when I found this piece!
I call it the
"Onegite Sun". The largest amethystine/citrine colored Onegite on the specimen is a hair under 2.5cm(!) long, 1.5cm wide, and double-terminated, floating in crystals of Goethite! The full radial spray of Goethite crystals on top formed around a Calcite crystal that has since been dissolved away by nature, leaving the unusual crystal-shaped cast hole at the center- WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Onegite is a popular variety of Goethite-included Quartz famous from the Pike's Peak Batholith area, name after the original discovery point at Lake Onega, Russia |
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More beautiful
Goethites, fresh out of the pocket!
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29 Apr- And the best is yet
to come!
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Wow!!! What a RARE Sight, indeed!
Today, we opened up an AMAZING pocket containing
large (up to 10cm!) Fluorite cubes, and re-healed crystal sections,
partially overgrown with superb-quality Goethite sprays!
But that wasn't all! Top-quality Onegite-Goethite cabinet plates and superb Goethite/Smoky Quartz associations intermingled with other specimens of beautiful Feldspar crystal plates to 20 cm across! |
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A 7cm Fluorite
cube can be seen here, partially coated with Goethite crystals.
Smoky Quartz and Feldspar crystals can also be seen-
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The large,
triangular shaped pocket measured
about 50x35x25cm (~20x14x10 inches) |
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After
removing a very large (20cm plate) of Feldspar crystals, I found
an amazing specimen consisting of a radial Goethite crystal
spray growing off of the termination of a tabular, double-terminated
smoky quartz crystal! Here's a pic of the piece still
in the pocket, located near the center of the view, being protected
under the
large Feldspar crystal plate- |
And the amazing
piece
after recovery! |
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Another KILLER
Goethite-Smoky Quartz specimen in the pocket,
ready to be extracted- |
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One minute
it was there and bountiful, and then the next moment... it
was gone... The pegmatites vanished as quickly as they
appeared, and it was over... Now it's time to fill in
and reclaim the hole-
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The only
thing left from this once amazing pegmatite swarm are the
specimens, photos and fond memories.
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We played
around on the walls a bit more, looking for signs of pegmatite,
but nothing else showed to the end-
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All gone,
bye-bye!
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Right about
the time we moved to a new spot, to work more in a previously
existing mine pit, Quentin's girlfriend Anita came by the
mine to visit and collect-
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Right away
she opened a pocket!
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It produced
some nice Feldspars, but not much else. It goes to show
that not every pocket produces great specimens, but they are
still fun to dig!
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Quentin was
so happy,
he positively glowed! |
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In another
part of the pit, we exposed another interesting looking pegmatite
dike-
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Pink Orthoclase
Feldspars encased blocks of massive Smoky Quartz
in this well-defined pegmatite dike- |
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A few nice
Fluorites and some Feldspar plates were found before it, too,
pinched out-
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Long Shadows
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30 Apr-
The next day, Quentin gave me a tour of a monster pocket
he found last year that measured almost 30-feet long!
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It was
an adventure just climbing inside
the enormous mouth of this pocket! |
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This giant
cavern produced killer interpenetration-twinned Fluorite
cubes to 5cm and very large plates of Quartz and Smoky Quartz
crystals-
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After the
pocket tour, we went back to mining. This time, we
found some very nice, GEM clear, Smoky Quartz crystals to
15cm (6 inches) long.
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Quentin
generously gave this cool doubly-terminated specimen
to me! Thanks Q! |
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Then, it
came time to reclaim this old pit, too. Quentin was
smart and had previously stockpiled his topsoil. When it
came time to fill it all in, he then put the topsoil back
on top, so
re-vegetation occurs fastest! |
Quentin's
other old, reclaimed/graded mine pits have turned completely
invisible with regrowth and duff coverage in just a few
years. In fact new plants thrive in the
freshly tilled soil! |
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Time to
do the deed,
my 1100 mile driving day home! Here's a nice pic of Glenwood Canyon, Colorado- |
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Off into
the sunset I go!
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I will have beautiful, freshly-mined Goethite specimens for sale soon on my web site! Stay Tuned! E-MAIL SCOTT |