Minerals-2

INTRODUCTION

The Northern Pennine Orefield hasbeen for many centuries an importantsource of lead, industrial fluorite, and, toa lesser extent, zinc, iron, and bariumores. The earliest records of mining datefrom the 12th century, with the high pointof lead mining occurring in the 18th and19th centuries, followed by a rise influorspar production during the late 19ththrough late 20th centuries. Mineral spec-imens have long been a byproduct ofthese mining operations. Known locallyas “bonnie bits,” they have been broughtfrom the mines as curiosities by miners,and can stil be seen decorating someyards and walls in the dale.

The Weardale area is particularlynoted for the production of many exqui-

site, well-crystallized specimens of fluo-rite which exhibit a strong daylightfluorescence. Fluorite specimens fromWeardale mines now grace most majormineral collections world-wide.

By the early 1990s, large-scale com-mercial mining was in serious declinethroughout theWeardale area along withthe rest of the UK. As a result, the supplyof crystallized mineral specimens for thecollectors’ market as a byproduct of min-ing has largely ceased. Those that domake it to market these days are for themost part recovered by weekend collec-tors using hand tools or recycled out ofold collections. The one notable excep-tion to this has been the Rogerley Mine.First discovered by local mineral collec-tors around 1970, the Rogerley Mine hasproduced a more-or-less steady stream

of fluorite specimens over the past40 years. To this day, the Rogerley isunique as it is the only mine in the UKthat has been developed solely for the re-covery of crystallized mineral speci-mens.

M I N E R A L SI S S U E # 2 T H E C O L L E C T O R S N E W S P A P E R 2 0 1 1

www.SpiriferMinerals.com

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Editors:

Tomasz Praszkier (Poland)Scott Werschky (USA)

Associated photographer:

Jeff Scovil (USA)

Contact:

[email protected]

Rogerley Mine, UK– mining for fluoritesJesse FISHER

Fluorite, 7 cm high, from Blue Bell Pocket,Rogerley mine. Photographed in daylight.Spirifer collection.

INTRODUCTION

Strzegom (Lower Silesia, Poland) isa classic European locality famous forpegmatites, which host collector-qualitycrystals growing in miarolitic cavities.Pegmatites occur here in Carboniferousage granite intrusions. Pockets occur fre-quently, but the vast majority of themlack quality specimens. There are over40 active quarries in the area, and withsuch a large amount of mining it is amaz-ing that good pockets are found onlyonce or twice a year. The pockets vary insize from a few centimeters to a few me-ters, and crystal size can vary corre-spondingly. Smoky quartz crystals canreach 1 m in length, and high quality flu-orite crystals are known up to 20 cm!

In April 2009, one of the SpiriferGeological Society members who lives inStrzegom town noticed an interestingpegmatite body in one of the quarries(Wekom II, near Kostrza). AndrzejKorzekwa is a mineral fanatic, and im-mediately started exploring the peg-matite, finding several small cavities.He was able to collect 2 very good qual-ity fluorites (see first photo on page 10)in addition to many feldspars, epidotes,stilbites, and quartz specimens. Unfor-tunately, this part of the quarry wasabandoned soon after discovery of the

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In this issue also:

Collector interview:Jolyon Ralph (UK)

This time our inteview is againwith a very famous person – the cre-ator of mindat.org – Jolyon Ralphfrom the UK. Jolyon is well known asa webmaster but not many peopleknow that he is a long time collectorwho has done a lot of field collecting...

Tomasz Praszkier (Minerals):Jolyon, as creator of the world’sbiggest mineral database – Min-dat.org, you are very well knownto most mineral collectors, miner-alogists, and museum curators.However, I don’t know how manypeople know that apart from beinga computer “geek”, you are also amineral collector who spends hisfree time field collecting in minesand quarries. Tell us how your in-terest in minerals started?

Jolyon Ralph: I was five years old,on a family holiday in Cornwall – thefirst holiday I can remember any-thing about. I was with my dad on thebeach at Tintagel and we were pick-ing up stones to skim across thewaves, but there were few stones thatwere the right shape. I picked up onelarger stone, and it had some ...

Read on page 17J.

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Andrzej’s Pocket– a great new find!Tomasz PRASZKIER

Fluorite with albite, microcline and stilbite, 6.5 cm wide. Fisher/Kureczka collection. Continiued on page 14

LOCATION AND GEOGRAPHY

The Rogerley Mine (54°44’16.75”N,1°59’3.16”W) is located in the easternportion of the Weardale district, CountyDurham, Northern England. Weardale(“dale” is the local name for a river val-ley) runs East-West, following the courseof the River Wear, beginning at the bor-der between the counties of Durham andCumbria near Alston Moor and continu-ing eastward for more than 30 kilome-ters, past the town of Wolsingham. Whilethe area was at one time heavilyforested, much of this was cleared cen-turies ago, and the region is now pre-dominantly open moorland divided bystone walls and the occasional stone cot-tage. Inhabited towns and villages, forthe most part, occupy the valley floor,and Stanhope is the center of commer-cial activity for the valley. Located a fewkilometers to the north of Stanhope isthe picturesque village of Rookhope,which was formerly the center of muchof the local mining activity.

The Rogerley Mine is situatedwithin an abandoned quarry of the samename, just east of the town of Stanhope.

The quarry was originally operated dur-ing the late 19th and early 20th centuriesas a source of limestone flux for localiron foundries that once operated in thearea. There is no evidence that thequarry was ever worked for lead orfluorspar, which were considered impu-rities in the limestone. When encoun-tered by the quarrymen, the galena andfluorite appear to have been discarded in

a series of old waste piles which are nowheavily overgrown on the south side ofthe quarry.

GEOLOGY AND MINERALIZATION

The mineral deposits of the NorthPennine Orefield are hosted by the Car-boniferous-age sedimentary rocks (lime-stones, sandstones, and shales) thatmake up the North Pennine Mountains inthis part of northern England. Locatednear the top of the sequence of sedimen-tary rocks is a unit known as the “GreatLimestone,” which has been found tocontain the majority of well-developedhorizontal, metasomatic replacements,known locally as “flats” in the Weardaleregion. Found within the Great Lime-stone are three horizons at which theflats typically occur. These are known asthe Low, Middle, and High Flats Hori-zons. The High Flats Horizon is usuallymost strongly mineralized of the threeand has historically been the source ofmuch of the high-quality fluorite speci-mens for which the Weardale area isknown.

The Rogerley Mine follows a seriesof vertical fracture-filled vein and asso-ciated metasomatic flats. These miner-alized zones are part of the NorthPennines Orefield, which is a typical Mis-sissippi Valley Type ore deposit. TheWeardale area appears to have been thecenter of mineralization in the orefield,spreading out into the adjacent areas ofTeesdale to the south, Allendale andNorthumberland to the north, and the Al-ston Moor region of Cumbria to the west.

The majority of the workings at theRogerley Mine are developed followingthe main vein, known as the GreenbankVein, which trends northward from itsexposure in the Rogerley Quarry. Themain adit of the underground mine hasbeen driven following the vein within theHigh Flats Horizon. While crystal-linedcavities occaisionally occur within thevein itself, the best quality specimenshave been found in the flats that canoccur on both the east and west sides ofthe vein at this horizon.

The mineralogy of both the flats andvein deposits is relatively simple, con-sisting of one or more generations of flu-orite plus or minus quartz and galena.Carbonates including calcite and sideriteare occasionally found. The host lime-stone in and around both the vein andflats is often strongly altered to an iron-rich gossan locally referred to as “iron-stone.” Pockets found in the vein areusually compact and discrete, where aspockets in the flats are actually an inter-connected series of lens-like cavitieslined with fluorite, quartz, and galena.Cavities in the flats are generally paral-

lel to the bedding and often partially orcompletely collapsed and invariablyfilled with a very thick, sticky mud thathas infiltrated the cavities, likely brought

in by meteoric waters subsequent to for-mation of the flats.

The habit of Rogerley fluorite isalways cubic, and crystals under 3 cmin size typically exhibit penetrationtwinning on [111], and are often quitetransparent. Crystals larger than 3cm are typically not twinned and aremostly opaque. Growth hillocks with fourvicinal faces are common on the cubefaces of twinned crystals and appearto emanate from the point where the

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Eastern Rogerley quarry, view from Ro-gerley mine. J. Gajowniczek photo.

Weardale landscape. J. Fisher photo.

UKIreland

London

Glasgow

Newcastle

Liverpool

Belfast

Dublin

2 km

WWeardaleeardale

Rookhope

St. John’s Chapel

StanhopeCowshill

Frosterley

Allenheads

Frazer’s Hush

Grooverake

Boltsburn

Heights

Cambokeels

EastgateGreenlaws

Blackdene

Burtree Pasture

Rogerley

areareaaAllenheads

Map of UK with location of Weardale area, and inset showing the Rogerley and other important Weardale mines.

Two views of the Rogerley mine’s loweradit. Upper photo circa 1970, Greenbankphoto archive. Lower photo 2010, J. Ga-jowniczek photo.Weardale landscape. J. Gajowniczek photo.

One of the many remains of mining activity in Weardale – ore carts in Allenheads,today used as decoration of garden. J. Gajowniczek photo.

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Western Rogerley Quarry. Sutcliff vein workings marked in yellow. J. Gajowniczek photo.

Working in Sutcliff vein. J. Gajowniczek photo.

Chollar of Rogerley mine adit in 2001. UKMV crew from right to left, Byron (�) (right),Dave (middle) and Lofty (left) at mine entrance. J. Fisher photo.

Cal Graeber (left) and Jesse Fisher (author) washing clay from one of the pockets. J.Gajowniczek photo.

Drilling and ready to blast! J. Fisher andR. Brandstetter photos.

Washing specimens. J. Fisher and J. Ga-jowniczek photos.

Inside the Rogerley mine maine adit. J.Gajowniczek photo.

Two photos of the same specimen from the Sutcliff vein. Freshly collected on left, andafter washing on right. J. Gajowniczek photo.

Early workings at the Rogerley mine –Mick Sutcliff working at the mine entrancein 1970’s. Greenbank archives photo.

Byron (�) trimming specimens at the mine. Only a miner would sit on a diamond chainsaw to get the best angle for cutting! J. Fisher photo.

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Black Sheep Pocket was named in honor of the local brewery. Photo curtisy of BlackSheep brewery.

Jesse and Jurgen working in the Black Sheep Pocket. R. Brandstetter photo.

Collecting in Black Sheep Pocket in the 2010. J. Gajowniczek photo.

Fluorites with galena from Black Sheep Pocket, left 12 cm high, right 7 cm high. UKMVspecimens. J. Fisher photos.

Early collecting in the Black Sheep Pocket, 1999. J. Fisher photo.

Back of the Black Sheep Pocket. J. Gajowniczek photo.Close-up of fluorites in the Black Sheep Pocket. J. Gajowniczek photo.

Fluorite crystals in situ in the Black Sheep Pocket. R. Brandstteter photo.

twin penetrates the cube face. The mostcommon color for Rogerley fluorite is adeep emerald green, and, to date, all thefluorite found in the flats has been of thiscolor. Fluorite crystals from vein pocketsare often a dark purple, though somepockets with various shades of greenand yellow have been found. Internalcolor zoning is rare though occasionalpale purple layers or core zones can beseen in crystals from the flats. Anom-

alous asymmetrical zones of pale yelloware sometimes seen in crystals from theflats.

Fluorite crystals from vein pockets(and occasionally from the flats) oftendisplay an internal cloudiness known tolocal collectors as “white centers”. Asthe name implies, these crystals arewhite and opaque in the center whilehaving gemmy transparent edges andcorners. It is not unusual to find speci-mens where one or several larger trans-parent fluorite crystals are surroundedby numerous smaller crystals, all withwhite centers. This internal cloudinessappears to be caused by numerous mi-croscopic void spaces within the crystal,but it is unclear whether these are agrowth feature or the result of a partialdissolution or etching of the fluorite.

Fluorite from the Rogerley (as wellas most other mines in the North Pen-nines) exhibits a notable color changebetween artificial and daylight illumina-tion, an effect known as daylight fluo-rescence. Both purple and green fluoriteshow pronounced blue overtones in di-rect or even indirect sunlight. This effectis likely caused by the ultra-violet (UV)

component of the daylight spectrum,which is largely absent in artificial light.The UV fluorescence of North Penninesfluorite is also exceptionally strong, par-ticularly under long-wave UV. It is saidthat studies of this material by SirGeorge Stokes in 1852 were the originalsource of the term fluorescence. It hasbeen known for some time that fluoritefrom this region contains elevated levelsof a number of rare-earth (Lanthanide-series) elements and it is likely that thisis the cause of the intense UV and day-light fluorescence.

HISTORY OF THE ROGERLEY MINE

Cumbria Miningand Mineral Company

The Cumbria Mining and MineralCompany (CMaMC) was formed in 1972by Lindsay and Patricia Greenbank, andMichael and Brenda Sutcliffe with the in-tention of mining mineral specimens on acommercial basis. The concept of oper-ating a mine solely for specimens wasquite novel in the UK at the time and wasnot taken seriously by governmentalmineral agents. After unsuccessful at-tempts to obtain leases on properties inboth Caldbeck Fells and Alston Moor, thepartnership obtained permission to ex-plore the previously unworked fluorite-bearing veins in the Rogerley Quarry.

Fluorite specimens were originallydiscovered along the base of the quarrywall around 1970 by mineral collectorRaymond Blackburn. He determinedthat the source of the specimens was aspot high up on the north face of thequarry, but, being somewhat adverse tohigh places, he did not attempt to collectat the actual source. Lindsay Green-bank, a well-known collector and dealerfrom Cumbria, was aware of the occur-rence, having purchased specimens fromMr. Blackburn. As he did not share Mr.Blackburn’s aversion to high places, heand partner Mick Sutcliffe began inves-tigating the occurrence by roping downfrom the top of the quarry. The source ofthe fluorite specimens was found to becavities in both a N-S trending vein ex-posed on the quarry wall and the flatsextending latterly from it. This vein issplit into two stringers separated byabout one meter as exposed on thequarry face, and has been named theGreenbank vein by Sir Kingsley Dunham,a noted authority on the geology andmineralogy of the region.

Leases for mineral rights were ob-tained from the mineral agents for theChurch Commissioners of England; tres-

pass rights were arranged with the locallandowner, and the mine was operatedon weekends for specimens over thecourse of the next 25 years. Work ini-tially focused on cavities that occur in

the High Flats Horizon near the top ofthe Great Limestone, the rock unit thatsupports the walls of the quarry. Duringthe early to mid 1970’s a bench around10 meters long was cut into the face ap-proximately 20 meters above the floor ofthe quarry, and three fluorite-producingzones were encountered.

A second vein, named the Sutcliffevein (54°44’27.06”N, 1°59’16.07”W), wasdiscovered on the face of a western ex-tension of the quarry 500 meters north-west of the Greenbank vein. A limitedamount of surface work was done on theSutcliffe vein during the mid 1970’s andsome good quality specimens of green

and purple fluorite were found. Access tothis outcrop was difficult to control, andhigh graders were a constant problem sowork was soon shifted back to the origi-nal location.

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One of East Crosscut pockets. R. Brandstetter photo.

Dipper Pocket. J. Fisher photo.

Group of fluorite crystals from Dipper po-cket, field view 9 cm. UKMV specimen. J.Fisher photo.

Freshly collected specimens from EastCrosscut. R. Brandstetter photo.

One of West Crosscut pockets photographed in May 2004. J. Fisher photo.

During the late 1970’s a cavity con-taining some exceptional bright greenfluorite was discovered near the surfacedirectly below the previously cut benchlevel on the Greenbank vein. Over thenext 18 months of only weekend work, anadit was driven northward for a distanceof about 20 meters in search of morefluorite at this level. Unfortunately, theadit proved barren for the rest of its

length and no work has been done theresince.

The focus of mining shifted back tothe upper level, and during the 1980’s anadit was driven northward into thequarry wall. Between 1982-1990, thepartnership was also engaged in a zincmining operation at Force Crag in Cum-bria, so work at the Rogerley was limitedto one or two weekends a month. During

this time a series of cavities along theadit produced a high volume of material,resulting in a steady cash flow for thecompany. Most of the fluorite specimensfound were large, opaque green crystals,some of which had smaller gemmy greencrystals on the surface. To the east ofthis section of the adit the fluorite crys-tals tended to become smaller and moretransparent, and some excellent quality

specimens were recovered. By the early1990’s the adit had been extended to alength of about 35 meters, but during thewinter of 1992-93 the area around theportal collapsed, requiring the betterpart of the next year to reopen.

UK Mining Ventures

Not long after reopening the upperadit, Lindsay contracted a serious ill-ness. While recovering, he was forced toconclude that the rigors of hard rockmining were a thing of the past. He wasin the process of closing the mine andselling off the equipment when the situa-tion came to the attention of a group ofAmerican collectors and dealers. Aftersuccessfully completing agreements tosecure mineral and trespass rights withthe various pertinent parties, equipmentwas purchased, and this group nowknown as UK Mining Ventures (UKMV)began mining for specimens in May of1999. The people involved with the proj-ect have varied a bit since inception, butthe core American crew of Cal andKerith Graeber, Jesse Fisher (author)and Fisher’s wife Joan Kureczka, andhead miner Byron Weege, assisted bylocal miner Dave Beadle, have workedthe mine each year, primarily duringsummer months.

Having been fallow for severalyears, the mine suffered natural deterio-ration along with occasional visits fromhigh graders leaving it in need of consid-erable rehabilitation. This process in-volved mucking out and re-timberingportions of the workings, re-layingthe track, re-building the stairs to theupper adit entrance, delivery of newequipment and hoisting to the mine siteby crane, and installing a steel plate se-curity door at the chollar. By mid-June,

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Crystallized gold from the Round Mountain mine, Nevada, USA. Size 5 cm. Miner’s Lunchbox specimen. J. Callen photo.

Miner ’s LunchboxR. Scott Werschky, www.minerslunchbox.com

5655 Riggins Court, Suite 15, Reno, Nevada 89502, USA

tel: +1 (775) 829-6881;e-mail: [email protected]

Specializing in high qualityspecimens for the discerning

collector, with extra focus oncrystalline and nugget goldfrom world-wide localities.

Emerald green fluorite from the West Crosscut, photographed in artificial light. 10 cm wide. UKMV specimen. J. Fisher photo.

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most of this had been accomplished andthe UKMV crew could begin mining forspecimens.

The finds of the first year far sur-passed expectations of everyone in-volved. What was initially expected to bea short collecting adventure quickly be-came a full-scale business of mining andselling specimens. Although productionhas varied a good bit from year to yearduring this time, it has been enough tokeep us coming back each year for more.

POCKETS

The Black Sheep Pocket Zone

Collecting during our first year fo-cused on an area of mineralization thatwas found half way between the mine en-trance and the end of the original adit, inthe area that was successfully worked

during the 1980’s by CMaMC. In an al-cove on the east side of the adit, greenfluorite was exposed in numerousstringers and pocket remnants. In earlyJune while stabilizing a promising sec-tion of the adit with some new timbering,we noticed a mud seam on the face of thealcove. As the mud was washed awayand a few slabs of rock were removedfrom the face, it became apparent thatthis was the opening of a fairly large cav-ity completely lined with green fluoritecrystals. The pocket proved to be an in-terconnected series of fluorite-lined so-lution cavities in the flats to the east ofthe vein, and extraction lasted throughthe better part of our first two years atthe mine. By the end of the first summerthis area, named the “Black SheepPocket” in honor of a local ale popularwith the crew, had been opened up to alength of approximately 5 meters, yield-

ing many more specimens than anyonecould have hoped for. The wallrock sur-rounding the cavities in this area of themine was highly silicified and collectingspecimens of any size was virtually im-possible without using a hydraulic-pow-ered diamond chain saw to cut them out.

While the finds of the first summerhad been largely a matter of “dumbluck”, the strategy for our second year(2000) was to access the mineralizedflats of the Black Sheep area by driving anew drift branching to the northeastfrom the main adit near the mine en-trance. This drift would theoretically in-tersect the flats near the rear of the firstyear’s productive zone and provide bet-ter access to the mineralized area. Tun-neling began in early June and themineralized area was reached in earlyJuly after driving approximately 15 me-ters of new drift. Collecting in this areacontinued through the summer, and inlate August the miners broke into the farend of the previous summer’s workings.Mineralization was highly developed inthis area, and fluorite-bearing cavitieswere often encountered at three or morelevels on the working face. During thecourse of the summer, many well crys-tallized specimens were collected, somehaving glassy, lustrous penetration twinsof green fluorite over 3 cm on edge.

During the third summer (2001),work was left off in the Black SheepPocket zone in favor of driving forwardon both the east and main adits. Afterdriving the new east adit through ahighly brecciated zone, an area of flatsto the northeast of the Black Sheep,

now know as the “Birthday Pocket”,was encountered. This area of flats pro-duced some very nice, and often largeplates covered with twinned green fluo-rite crystals. Unfortunately, many of thefluorite crystals from this area alsoshowed patches of incipient alteration.At about the same time, an eastwardextension of the Birthday Pocket wasfound as tunneling continued northward.This area was called “The Dipper”because the mineralized flats appeared

Dodgy Bugger Pocket, June 2006, about 2 meters across. J. Fisher photo.

Fluorite on quartz from Dodgy Bugger Pocket, 9 cm wide. UKMV specimen. J. Fisherphoto.

The Dodgy Bugger "potato" in the mine, and after extraction. Not all specimens get gla-morous names! J. Fisher photos.

Fluorite from the Dodgy Bugger Pocket. Same specimen photographed in artificial light (left) and daylight (right). J. Fisher photos.

Quartz pseudostalactite with fluorite andgalena from Dodgy Bugger Pocket, 10 cmhigh. UKMV specimen. J. Fisher photo.

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Fluorite on quartz from the Rat Hole Pocket, photographed in artificial light (upperphoto) and daylight, size of specimen 12 cm. UKMV specimen. J. Fisher photo.

Big fluorite crystals in situ in the Rat TailPocket. R. Brandstetter photo.

Fluorites in situ in the Rat Hole Pocket. R.Brandstetter photo.

Freshly collected fluorite from the Rat Hole Pocket with very strong blue daylight fluo-rescence, 12.5 cm wide. R. Brandstetter collection and photo.

Freshly collected specimen from the Rat Hole Pocket. R. Brandstetter photo.

Rat Hole Pocket. J. Fisher photo.

Fluorites in situ in the Rat Hole Pocket, note pocket clay. R. Brandstetter photo.

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Rat Tail Pocket. J. Fisher photo. Freshly collected specimens from Rat Tail Pocket. J. Fisher photo.

Superb specimen of fluorite with galena on white quartz from the Rat Tail Pocket, size 17 cm. UKMV specimen. J. Fisher photo.

Close-up of Rat Tail Pocket. J. Fisherphoto.

Fluorite from the Rat Tail Pocket, 5 cmwide. Rock Positive spec. J. Scovil photo.

Close-up of Jewell Box Pocket. J. Fisher photo.

Freshly collected specimens from the Jewell Box Pocket. J. Fisher photo.

Fluorite from the Rat Tail Pocket, 10 cm wide. UKMV specimen. J. Fisher photo.

Specimens from the Jewell Box Pocket with local beers for scale. J. Fisher photo.

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to dip into the floor of the adit. Thoughthe Dipper area was fairly well brec-ciated, only a small number of good-qual-ity specimens were collected between2001-2003.

During the summer of 2002 webegan another crosscut on the east sideof the adit to the north of the BlackSheep Pocket. This drift, known asthe “East Crosscut”, intersected thenorthern edge of the Black Sheep zone offlats. A few good specimens were foundin this crosscut, but generally the qual-ity did not justify spending much timeand money on expanding the drift. Dig-ging eventually intersected the northernedge of the Black Sheep Pocket, but dueto the dangerous and unstable nature ofthe back (roof) in this area, little mininghas been done since.

Simultaneous with driving the neweast adit, work was continued at the faceof the original adit driven by CMaMC.On mid-summer’s day (2001) a cavity in

one of the flats was discovered along themain adit, about 10 meters north of theoriginal Black Sheep Pocket opening.Specimens from this area, appropriatelynamed the “Solstice Pocket”, thoughnot numerous were of very high quality,showing very little delustering or corro-sion sometimes typical of fluorite fromother areas of the mine. This pocket wasessentially worked out by the end of the2001 season, and now marks the pointwhere the east adit loops back and re-joins the main adit.

The West Crosscut Pocket Zone

Late in the 2001 season an ex-ploratory drift heading west from themain adit opposite the Black SheepPocket was started to see if flats existedto the west of the main vein as well as tothe east. After a couple of blasts, greenfluorite specimens were found here aswell. This area is now known as the“West Crosscut” has proven to be themost productive area of flats yet found inthe mine. Unlike the Black Sheep zone tothe east, the area around the WestCrosscut has undergone extensive re-placement by iron carbonates ratherthan silica. These have oxidized creatinga heavily iron stained gossan-like matrixfor the fluorite in much of the area. Spec-imens from the West Crosscut are gen-erally of a higher quality than those fromthe Black Sheep zone, and the matrix ismore broken up, allowing easier extrac-tion by hand. Void spaces in the flatswere filled with a very sticky and tena-cious mud that required removal, andmade collecting a slow and very messyjob.

In the summer of 2002, a second en-trance to the West Crosscut area was

Superb specimen from the Jewell Box Pocket, size of specimen 15 cm. UKMV specimen. J. Fisher photo.

Blue Bell Pub from which the name wasgiven to one of the best pockets. J. Ga-jowniczek photo.

Blue Bell Pocket. J. Fisher photo.

Group of clean, emerald green (in artifi-cial light) crystals from the Jewell Box Po-cket, field of view 6 cm. Note growthhillock on main crystal. J. Fisher photo.

The same specimen from the Jewell Box Pocket on painting and photo, both in day-light. Painting: Water-colors and coloured pencils on paper, 2009, painted in naturalsize (1:1), © copyright by Hildegard Könighofer. R. Brandstetter collection and photo.

driven, just north of the 2001 adit. Col-lecting was done from both drifts andduring 2003 the two areas joined up,eventually forming a fairly large cham-ber that required timber support to keepthe roof in place. Production of speci-mens from the center of the West Cross-cut zone continued through the summerof 2004, and during that year a pocket,known as the “Corner Pocket”, was dis-covered at the northern edge of thiszone. The Corner Pocket, though not

large, produced a number of uniquespecimens for the mine. Most of the fluo-rite crystals were small and fairly lightgreen color, but the specimens had alate-stage coating of fine-grained quartzthat looked like a sparkling sugar cruston the fluorite.

The years 2005 and 2006 were rela-tively poor years for specimen produc-tion in the West Crosscut, and most ofthe material found was only of averagequality. During 2006 work focused on thesouthern area of the zone and onepocket, named the “Dodgy Bugger”,was encountered. The name comes fromthe fact that most of the good specimensin the pocket were on large, loose rocksin the roof of the pocket, making themdifficult and dangerous to collect. One re-markable specimen recovered from theDodgy Bugger was a large block of lime-stone, overgrown with white quartz andgreen fluorite crystals. The specimenweighed over 100 kg, but rather thanbreak it up we decided to get it out in onepiece. Our head miner Byron succeededin wrapping it first in plastic bubble-wrap and then sealing it with silver duct

tape. He also gave it a rope cradle withhandles, allowing us to carry it out of themine without damage. The final wrappedspecimen resembles a giant aluminumfoil-wrapped baked potato, and the un-fortunate specimen (still in the com-pany’s possession) has been referred toby the rather unglamorous name “ThePotato” ever since.

After two years of poor production(and low sales), we expected that 2007might be our last at the mine. Thingschanged fairly quickly, however. Whiledigging at what looked like the back endof the Dodgy Bugger Pocket, we brokeinto another pocket zone, which quicklyproduced a literal flood of specimens.The fluorite from this new pocket wasdifferent in habit than much of what wehad found previously in the West Cross-cut. Whereas small gemmy twinned fluo-rite crystals were the norm elsewhere,

the new pocket contained clusters oflarger, untwinned crystals, often on alayer of white quartz. Galena, commonelsewhere, was almost totally absenthere. After a few days of collecting, it be-came obvious that this pocket was actu-ally a long, narrow tube, lined withfluorite. Only one person could collect ata time and though the space was ratherconfined, an unstable roof was no longera problem. Over the next few months,this pocket, now named the “Rat Hole”,produced hundreds of good-quality spec-imens.

By the end of the 2007 collectingseason, the pocket had become too longand narrow to effectively work. It wasdecided that we would need to drive adrift along one side of the pocket the fol-lowing year in order to collect any fur-ther in the zone. Fortunately, at the endof 2007 another zone of flats was discov-ered at the head of the main adit, nowabout 200 meters in. This allowed us tocontinue collecting specimens in a newarea while driving a drift to reach theback of the Rat Hole. This drift was com-pleted in July 2009, and shortly after-ward an eastward extension of the RatHole was discovered. This pocket, knownas the “Rat Tail” was collected in Au-gust 2009 and again in June 2010.Though smaller than the Rat Hole, thefluorite from this pocket was generallymuch more gemmy and lustrous, and of adeeper, more saturated color. Unfortu-nately, the Rat Tail Pocket was very nearsurface at the face of the quarry and byJuly of 2010 it began to collapse and hadto be back-filled for safety.

The Jewel Box – Blue Bell PocketZone

While collecting in the West Cross-cut, we were also driving adit northwardalong the main vein in search of a new

area of mineralized flats. Over the firstseveral years we encountered a few in-teresting pockets along the main vein,but never anything that gave up much inthe way of quality specimens. In mid-July2007, after mucking out the debris fromyet another blast at the main face,we discovered a clay-filled pocket zonetrending eastward from the vein. Thepocket was pretty much collapsed andbrecciated, but produced some verynice specimens of flawless, deep greentwinned fluorite crystals. Many weredamaged due to pocket collapse, and theground was difficult to work owing toroof problems, but a few of the speci-mens collected here are perhaps thefinest yet found in the mine. In recogni-tion of this, the pocket was named “TheJewel Box”.

11R O G E R L E Y ( U K ) – M I N I N G . . .I S S U E # 2 M I N E R A L S

Specimen from Blue Bell Pocket, photographed in artificial light (upper photo) and day-ligh, size of specimen 15 cm. UKMV specimen. J. Fisher photo.

Specimens collected during a single day from the Blue Bell Pocket in June 2009. J. Fis-her photo.

Jurgen Margraf with specimens from theJewell Box Pocket. R. Brandstetter photo.

Blue Bell Pocket – note mud in the middle of pocket. J. Fisher photo.

Specimen from the Blue Bell Pocket pho-tographed in the front of Rogerley Mine,size of main crystal 3 cm. R. Brandstettercollection and photo.

Byron (�) collecting in the Crushed Zone.J. Fisher photo.

12 R O G E R L E Y ( U K ) – M I N I N G . . . M I N E R A L S I S S U E # 2

On what was literally the last day ofoperation before closing the mine for theseason, a specimen was collected fromthe Jewel Box Pocket that is undoubtedlythe best specimen – a 15 cm plate of deepgreen, transparent twinned crystals upto 4 cm in size (see photo on page 10) –we had ever recovered from the mine innine years of operation. Sadly, there wasno time left to work the pocket in searchof more as pick-up of our summer’s pro-duce for shipping back to California wasscheduled, and other commitments backhome were at hand. Given the potential

of the pocket, we quickly decided that areturn trip sometime during the fall wasin order. On the third weekend in No-vember the entire crew returned to ourrental cottage in upper Weardale inhopes of collecting more of the pocketprior to the Tucson show. Winter wasclosing in quickly, and the weather hadturned rainy and cold, but in four dayswe were able to excavate as much of thepocket as we could reach with handtools. All told, somewhere around 30high quality specimens came out, alongwith a fair amount of wholesale qualitymaterial. Needless to say, between thisand the tremendous output from the RatHole the previous summer, the 2008 Tuc-son show was one of our best!

The Jewel Box Pocket turned out tobe fairly small and was mostly finished

by July 2008. Right next to it we foundtheBlue Bell Pocket (named in honor ofour favorite local pub), which was quitesimilar to the Jewel Box, but a bit larger.Specimens were collected from the BlueBell Pocket in July and August 2008 andagain in June 2009, and many high-qual-ity specimens were recovered. Unfortu-nately, by July 2009 the Blue Bell Pocketwas largely finished as well. In late Julywe found a final small pocket at thenorth end of The Jewel Box – Blue BellPocket Zone. This became known as the“High Pocket” because we needed a lad-der to collect it, and, though small, it pro-duced one of the top specimens yet foundin the mine.

While this area of flats producedsome of the finest fluorite specimens yetfound at the Rogerley, it turned out to bemuch smaller than the West Crosscut.The final excavations of all these pock-ets measured no more than 30x5 meters.

While tunneling north along the veinpast the Blue Bell Pocket in August 2009,we found that the mineralized flats

shifted from the east to the west side ofthe vein. Unfortunately, a fault zone alsoparallels the west side of the vein in thisarea of the mine. Movement along thefault caused quite a bit of disruption tothe flats, and very few undamaged spec-imens were recovered. This area, knownas “The Crushed Zone”, contained flu-orite of a similar character to what wasfound in the Blue Bell Pocket, and wascollected during the summer of 2010. Un-fortunately, almost everything found inthis pocket zone was badly damaged,and very few top-quality specimens wererecovered.

Vein Pockets

While most of the fluorite specimensfound at the Rogerley have come fromthe metasomatic flats found on eitherside of the main vein, some pockets dooccur in the vein itself. Fluorite in thevien pockets is markedly different thanwhat has been found in the flats. Crys-tals are mostly untwinned and opaquebut much larger in size, ranging up to 8cm on edge. Dark purple is the most com-mon color though some pockets contain-ing green fluorite have been found aswell. The pockets are usually small, iso-

Jesse Fisher (author) holding a HighPocket fluorite which is one of the bestknown specimens from the Rogerleymine. See photo at right for detail.M. Alferova photo.

One of the best specimens collected from the Rogerley mine. It came from the High Pocket, size of the biggest twins about 4 cmwide. R. Brandstetter photo.

Perfect specimen from Blue Bell Pocket, 7 cm high. UKMV specimen. J. Fisher photo.

Specimen from the Blue Bell Pocket, 18 cm wide. I. Jones collection. J. Fisher photo.

13R O G E R L E Y ( U K ) – M I N I N G . . .I S S U E # 2 M I N E R A L S

lated in occurrence, and difficult to col-lect. The rock surrounding vein pocketsis a hard, dense ironstone and is usuallymuch less broken up than wall-rock inthe flats. As a result, it is often difficult,if not impossible, to extract the crystalson matrix without using explosives to

fracture the rock. Explosives are rarelykind to fluorite so the recovery rate ofspecimens from these pockets is usuallylow.

The largest vein pocket so far dis-covered was the “Weasel Pocket”,named for a former inhabitant (actuallya stoat) who was forced to vacate on veryshort notice. This pocket was collectedin 1999 and 2000 and produced a numberof large clusters of untwinned purple flu-orite crystals, some coated with whitefinely crystalline quartz. Unfortunately,the fluorite crystals were opaque andslightly corroded, except around theedges. Some of those coated with quartzwere fairly attractive, however.

During 2003 and 2004 a number ofvein pockets containing large, untwinnedgreen fluorite crystals were encounteredwhile driving drift. The pockets weregenerally small and tight, and only a fewdecent specimens were recovered. In2006, while driving an exploratory cross-cut eastward from the main adit, a long,narrow, tube-like pocket, appropriatelyknown as “The Tube”, was found. Muchof the pocket was lined with massivegalena, and several large, crudelyformed cuboctahedral galena crystalswere found. Several fluorite clusters ofan unusual pale green color with inter-nal purple layers associated with quartzwere also recovered from this pocket.

In July 2010 a fairly large pocketcontaining purple fluorite was foundnear the Crushed Zone flats. This pocket,simply referred to as “The PurplePocket”, was easier to collect than manyof this type as the pocket floor was de-tached from the surrounding rock. Alarge plate of fluorite crystals was recov-

ered, which is possibly the best purplefluorite specimen yet found at the mine.

CONCLUSIONS

It is fortunate for us mineral collec-tors that occasionally some folks likeLindsay and Mick are adventurousenough to put their time and money intosomething no one has done before – de-veloping a mine solely for mineral speci-mens rather than ore. It was alsofortunate for us in UKMV to have been inthe right place at the right time to takeover when they decided it was time to re-tire. During the past 12 years at theRogerley, we have driven over 200 me-ters of drift, found three sections of pro-ductive flats that yielded numerousindividual pockets, and collected a greatnumber of specimens. At the end of eachsummer we have sent home to Californiabetween 2000-3000 kilograms of materialthat is then cleaned, trimmed, and madeready for sale in hopes of raising enoughmoney to do it all again the next year. Aswith any mine, the top quality specimenshave been relatively few, and the vastmajority of what has been found is ofwholesale quality. The few best pieces,however, have been truly marvelous. It’snice to think that given enough time, en-ergy, and money, these things can still berecovered from the earth.

Mining is a lot like gambling – it’s agreat way to lose money. Fortunately (atleast for some of us), it is also a lot moreenjoyable than hanging out in casinos.Production from any mine is bound to beepisodic, and the Rogerley has been noexception. Some years we find enoughfluorite to pay our expenses and someyears we do not. On a couple occasionswe actually showed a profit (thanks tothe Blue Bell and Jewel Box pockets).This, of course, pleased the various taxcollectors to no end; they responded to ourgood fortune by demanding their share.

The summer of 2010 was not one ofour best. On top of a relatively poor har-vest from the mine, we lost our long-timepartner and head miner, Byron, to can-cer. When we packed up to go home atthe end of the summer, there was very lit-tle collectable fluorite showing in themine so we are now faced with need todrive more drift in hopes of finding a newzone of flats. Hopefully, this will happenbefore we run out of money.

For additional information andupdates on mining activities at theRogerley, please visit the UKMining Ven-tures web site at: www.ukminingven-tures.com

Jesse FISHERUK Mining Ventures, USA

e-mail: [email protected]

Big fluorite crystals in situ in one of the vein pockets. R. Brandstetter photo.

Huge fluorite crystal from a vein pocket, specimen 18 cm wide. UKMV specimen J. Fis-her photo.

One of small unnamed pockets. Field ofview about 15 cm wide. J. Gajowniczekphoto.

Fluorite crystals coated by quartz from avein pocket, 5 cm high. UKMV specimen.J. Fisher photo.

Huge fluorite crystals, freshly collected-from one of the vein pockets. R. Bran-dstetter photo.

Aragonite/calcite in Weasel Pocket. R.Brandstetter photo.

UKMV team with two visitors after hard day of work. Beck row from left – Byron Weege(�), Jesse Fisher, Cal Graeber, Joe and Dave Beadle. Front from left Jurgen Margraf andRobert Brandstetter (author of many photos in this article).

14 G R E A T N E W F I N D . . . M I N E R A L S I S S U E # 2

pegmatite, ending the chance to collectmore crystals. Andrzej was very, very pa-tient and waited for over a year untilmining operations resumed in the areaof the pegmatite. His patience was re-warded with the discovery of a fantasticpocket.

POCKETS

As is common in the Strzegom area,pockets in pegmatite bodies are fre-quently connected, or occur very close toone another. This is exactly the situationfor what we call “Andrzej’s Pocket”. In-cluding the miarolitic cavity discoveredin 2009, Andrzej’s Pocket is actually a se-ries of pockets within a 3 meter longzone occurring in a single pegmatitebody.

Quarry mining in the area of An-drzej’s Pocket encountered the secondcavity during the first week of Septem-ber 2010. The pocket was almost com-pletely destroyed by miners during theprocess of extracting granite blocks.Miners extract blocks in this quarry by aprocess of cutting the granite with hightemperature burners. The miners cutright through the pocket, and the major-ity of the crystals were destroyed bythermal shock when fire entered thepocket. When Andrzej came to thequarry, not much left from that cavity.The cavity was in one of the big blocksmined for tiles. The blocks are 2 x 2 x 4meters, and obviously impossible towork without proper equipment. Andrzejmade a deal with quarrymen working onthe hydraulic guillotine, which is used forbreaking granite into uniform blocks.The quarrymen moved the block, andsplit it open for Andrzej. Price for thatservice was… two cheap fruit wines.

Upon splitting the big block, Andrzejfound pieces of stilbite, feldspars, calcite,pink and violet fluorite, chlorite andsmoky quartz up to 10 cm. Overall size

of the pocket was about 80 x 20 x 60 cm,which turned out to be the largest cavityin the find! During careful removal of theburned leftovers, Andrzej extracted twogood quality specimens including a 4 cmoctahedral violet fluorite in associationwith quartz, calcite and stilbite.

A second cavity was discoveredabout one week later, and this time An-drzej was in the right place at the rightmoment. After the bad experience withlast pocket, he spent all of his free timein the quarry trying to control the situa-tion. Unfortunately, during opening ofthe second cavity which was not visiblefrom the outside, miners destroyed onenice specimen with feldspars, smokyquartz, and fluorite. The pocket was a lit-tle smaller than the previous one – about

70 x 40 x 30 cm – but it produced 6 verygood specimens with fluorites on matrix.Andrzej extracted them himself so theywere in good shape. The best of themcontained bluish albite, cream coloredmicrocline, and a bit of stilbite, with vio-let fluorites perched on top giving greatcolor contrast and aesthetics. The shapeof the fluorite crystals was distinctive(and rare for Strzegom) – resembling theso called "Aztec Pyramids" (due to com-plex parallel growth of second genera-tion fluorite on the earlier crystals).Fortunately workers did not price thesespecimens too high (because they weresmall pieces). The total “payment” wastwo bottles of vodka and about $100!

About 30 cm farther into the peg-matite, another cavity was hit. It wasonly 20 cm across, and mostly filled bystilbite. At first glance it didn’t look veryinteresting, but after careful examina-tion Andrzej found a very well formed,gem-clear, yellow-greenish beryl crystalwith perfect termination. While onlyabout 2 cm long, it can be stated that thisis the best heliodor, and maybe even thebest beryl crystal in general, known fromPoland.

In the next days, three more cavitieswere opened with sizes from 20 to 40 cm.They contained quartz, feldspar, stilbiteand fluorite, and produced 2 more goodquality specimens in addition to severallesser specimens. Miners asked in pay-ment for all of them a few beers and bot-tle of vodka… simple pleasures!

Soon after mining the last 3 pockets,quarrying operations moved to anotherarea in the mine. The pegmatite bodywas left still continuing in the wall. Hope-fully, miners will get back to this areasometime in the future – another test ofAndrzej’s patience!

SUMMARY

Overall, 6 cavities were discoveredand mined during a 10 day period. 11 re-ally good specimens of fluorite and otherminerals were collected along with anumber of middle quality specimens. Allof them together were purchased fromthe miners for a grand total of 2 bottlesof fruit wine, 2 bottles of good vodka,a few beers, one local vodka, and about$100 – you might call it good Slavicdeal!

The exceptional thing about thisfind is the fluorites. The “Aztec Pyramid”form is very unusual, and the fact thatthe fluorites occur on matrix is reallyspecial. Matrix specimens with fluoriteare extremely rare in Strzegom. It is alsounusual to find so many fluorites in sucha small area. The best pockets in the his-tory of the mine, even those as large as afew meters, usually only produce one ortwo good fluorites! Andrzej’s Pocket wastruly fantastic!

Tomasz PRASZKIERSpirifer Minerals, Poland

e-mail: [email protected]

Wekom II Quarry with giant crane usedfor transport of granite blocks and machi-nery. T. Praszkier photo.

Andrzej’s Pocket– a great new find at StrzegomTomasz PRASZKIER

Fluorite crystal from Andrzej’s Pocket collected during original discovery in 2009,5.5 cm wide. Spirifer collection. J. Scovil photo.

In situ open cavity with orange stilbite covering purple fluorites. Pocket is about 10 cm wide. K. Pietras photo.

Continiued from page 1

15G R E A T N E W F I N D . . .I S S U E # 2 M I N E R A L S

Fluorite with albite and microcline, 8.2 cm wide. Spirifer collection. J. Scovil photo.

Probably the best known beryl crystalfrom Poland, 2 cm high. Andrzej’s Pocket.Spirifer collection. G. Bijak photo.

Classic Strezgom paragensis – smoky quartz, albite and microcline, 4 cm high. An-drzej’s Pocket. J. Gajowniczek collection. J. Scovil photo.

One of cavities from described zone.A. Korzekwa photo.

Fluorite with albite and microcline from Andrzej’s Pocket, 12.5 cm wide. S. Werschkycollection. J. Scovil photo.

Quarry worker preparing to split one of the granite blocks in which pockets were found(pocket visible between backpack and miner’s boot). A. Korzekwa photo.

Photo of Wekom II Quarry. Andzrej's Pocket cavities are located right above the excava-tor as marked by the yellow arrow. A. Korzekwa photo.

16 A D S M I N E R A L S I S S U E # 2

Scovil PhotographyP.O. BOX 7773, Phoenix, AZ85011 Tel: +1 602 254 0735, Cell: +1 602 692 0944

E-mail: [email protected] www.scovilphoto.com

I travel the USA photographing collections at major shows and in private homesand businesses. I also visit European shows in Munich and Sainte-Marie-Aux-Mines. You can also send specimens to my studio. I work in digital (DSLR) andlarge format (4x5 film) photography for the web, advertising, publications,education and insurance. Contact me to discuss pricing and scheduling.

17C O L L E C T O R I N T E R V I E WI S S U E # 2 M I N E R A L S

This time our inteview is again witha very famous person – the creator ofmindat.org – Jolyon Ralph from the UK.Jolyon is well known as a webmaster butnot many people know that he is a longtime collector who has done a lot of fieldcollecting...

Tomasz Praszkier (Minerals): Jolyon,as creator of the world’s biggest min-eral database – Mindat.org, you arevery well known to most mineral col-lectors, mineralogists, and museumcurators. However, I don’t know howmany people know that apart frombeing a computer “geek”, you are alsoa mineral collector who spends hisfree time field collecting in mines andquarries. Tell us how your interest inminerals started?

Jolyon Ralph: I was five years old, ona family holiday in Cornwall – the firstholiday I can remember anything about.I was with my dad on the beach at Tin-tagel and we were picking up stones toskim across the waves, but there werefew stones that were the right shape.

I picked up one larger stone, and it hadsome crystals in it – and from then I washooked.

TP: Can you tell us about your firstspecimen?

JR: This first specimen, of iron-stainedquartz in slate, is poor by anyone’s stan-dards, but it’s important to me, and I’mdelighted that I still have it (specimen00001 in my collection). I re-examined itrecently, and it is full of tiny microanatase crystals as well!

TP: I know that the “old style” muse-ums were places you spent a lotof time in as a kid – which of thosemuseums were most important toyou?

JR: The two museums in London, next toeach other, the Geological Museum andthe Natural History Museum, were mytwo favourite places in the world. I wasfortunate to grow up in Wimbledon,which was a simple underground trainride from South Kensington where themuseums are, so often as a teenager I’dhead up to the museums on a saturdaymorning and spend the whole day roam-ing around.

It’s a terrible shame what has hap-pened to the old Geological Museum. Itwas taken over by the Natural HistoryMuseum in the 1990s and converted intothis dark and uninspiring building which

is a terrible step backwards from how itused to be.

My favourite part of the collectionswas of course the systematic gallery inthe Natural History Museum. But I alsohad a particular fondness for the Ludlamcollection, a collection of British miner-als arranged by region, displayed in the

Geological Museum. This collection is nolonger on display.

My other favourite place was the giftshop in the Geological Museum. As wellas the typical bulk minerals they had forsale, they had a whole selection of min-erals in small plastic boxes, most werecommon, but there were always inter-esting things to be found by huntingthrough – and my favourite find therewas a small legrandite from Mapimi,Mexico, on botryoidal mimetite, whichcost me around 50 pence.

TP: What kind of specimens do youcollect now?Which minerals are yourfavorite? Do you still have a favoritelocality?

JR: I collect all specimens from aroundthe world. I prefer small cabinet sizedpieces, but I have pieces ranging frommicroscopic grains to a large calcitegroup that takes two of us to lift, cur-rently hidden out of view behind the sofa.I have of course a particular passion forBritish minerals, especially Cornish, andespecially copper secondary minerals.But that is a terribly expensive passion,so I don’t get to add to my classic Cor-nish collection frequently – although I dohave some very nice pieces.

My favourite locality is probablyWheal Gorland in Cornwall – for theamazing liroconite and clinoclase speci-mens you know about, but also for myfavourite UK fluorite specimens, whichmost people have not seen.

TP:Howmany specimens do you havein your collection?

JR: I have probably around 3000-4000specimens (not everything is yet cata-

logued), of which probably ½ are self col-lected, in all size ranges. About 60% areBritish, the rest worldwide.

TP: Have you ever shown your collec-tion to the public? Are your specimenson display in cabinets at home, orhidden away in boxes?

JR: I do not often have visitors to see mycollection at home (very, very rarely!)because my place is quite small – but Ido have cabinets, I have one large dis-play cabinet that I’ve had since I was ateenager, and more recently I added fiveof the Ikea ‘Bertby’ DVD wall cabinets,which are now fitted with LED lightingstrips, they are great.

The only real public display of myminerals was when I competed in theCornish mineral competition at theHaywards Heath Mineral show in 2007.I did not win (nor was I expecting to), butit was nice to be able to put on a displaywith my collection.

Collector interview:Jolyon Ralph (UK)

Jolyon Ralph – “father” of mindat.org andmineral collector. K. Davydenko photo.

Jolyon in the famous locality Roughton Gill, Caldbeck Fells, UK. J. Gajowniczek photo.

Azurite crystal, 7 cm tall, from Tsumeb, Namibia. J. Ralph collection and photo.Jolyon working a pegmatite pocket atStrzegom, Poland. J. Gajowniczek photo.

918 C O L L E C T O R I N T E R V I E W M I N E R A L S I S S U E # 2

TP: When you have free time, wheredo you go for mineral collecting? Doyou have a favorite site? Most peoplehave a favorite self-collected speci-men. What is your favorite?

JR: I go wherever I can to collect! Thereare not many places within easy reach ofLondon, but one of my favourites is the

marcasite and pyrite locality at Dover –it’s a easy place to collect and some-where I often take friends and guests ifthey are in the UK and want to collect.

But for pure joy, I can’t beat collect-ing in Scotland, some of the places I havecollected at are simply stunning, you sitback, look around at the gloriousscenery (and hardly another person insight), and collect fine minerals at thesame time.

I have several specimens that arevery special to me. I have a wonderful

millerite from Wales, a very attractivewolframite with turquoise from theGunheath pit in Cornwall, and a beauti-ful fluorite group from West Pasturesmine in County Durham, all collectedin the 1990s. More recently, some beauti-ful sapphires in matrix from Scot-land, from another wonderful collectingtrip.

TP: Can you tell us more about thesapphire collecting trip to Scotland?

JR: Sapphires are found in severalplaces in Scotland, in different geologi-cal environments too. The famous largesapphires are from the Isle of Lewis, butcollecting there now is prohibited.An older locality for sapphire is the Isleof Mull, along with the type locality of thepink mineral mullite. In 2007 I went withmembers of my local mineral club, theSussex Mineral and Lapidary Society, tothe Mull to collect. The first few dayswere spent collecting rather uninspiringzeolite minerals (nowhere near as inter-esting as the items we had previouslycollected on trips to the Isle of Skye), buton the last day I wanted to go looking forsapphires on the southern side of the is-land.

No-one in the group had any ideawhere the locality was. The only infor-mation we had was from mindat, whichonly gave a vague region rather than aspecific place.

We drove to the area, parked,walked down to the beach where therewas plenty of rock exposure, and startedwalking. Some of us walked one direc-tion, others walked the opposite way. Wewere walking for some time, maybe anhour, without any sign of mineralization,it was basalt with very tiny vesicles, withwhite flakes in them. Nothing that lookeddifferent.

So, we decided to give up and gosomewhere else. At this point the path tothe road was not obvious, so we walkedfurther to try and find a gap through thevegetation to get a route back to thecars. And then, one of our group noticedone small outcrop of rock that looked dif-ferent. He went to examine it, and soonafter. “This looks different, it’s got bluebits in it!”

We then spent another hour break-ing apart this exposure, producing somefine specimens of matrix with flattenedbut deeply coloured sapphire crystals.They are too thin to facet but some areasof them are very gemmy.

Eventually, one by one, the othermembers of the group, fearing we hadgot lost, found us. Those sent by the restof the group to retrieve us themselveswere seduced by the sapphires andstayed to collect without returning backto tell the others where we were, until fi-nally the last of them realised what musthave happened and came looking for usall. Luckily there was enough sapphirefor us all.

TP: You travel around the world quitea lot, usually because of promotingmindat. Where are you planning to goin the next years for collecting?

JR: Sadly most of the places I visit I haveno opportunity to go collecting. This yearI have already been to Austria and Ari-zona, and have not collected at eitherplace. However, I have had some goodopportunities for example collectingred corundum north of Los Angeles lastyear. And this year I will of course be inPoland for the Mindat.org Conference,and we will be collecting some excellentminerals in Strzegom and other localitiesthere. I will also try to find some time todo some collecting in the UK as well.

TP: What is your “dream collectingtrip” which you would like to makesome day?

JR: For a long time I have dreamt of col-lecting at the Rapid Creek locality in theYukon, Canada. However, I’m told thatthe nasty biting insects and the nastierbiting grizzly bears can make it an un-

pleasant place to be. But still, I’d jump atthe chance to go if I can.

TP: You live in London and belong tothe local mineral clubs. Mineral col-lectors from the UK are known to have

a slightly different “style of collect-ing” than other collectors – can youtell us something about that?

JR: A large number of UK collectors onlycollect self-collected material, or onlybuy a tiny percentage of minerals com-pared to those they have collected them-selves – maybe to buy a better piece from

Prestigious medal of Mineralogical Society of America given to Jolyon Ralph in 2011.

Self collected millerite crystals up to 2.5 cm long. Markham Colliery, UK. J. Ralph col-lection and photo.

Jolyon in the mindat.org booth in Tucson 2011. J. Simonoff photo.

Shell of bivalve with rhodochrosite, 3.5cm tall. Kerch, Ukraine. J. Ralph collectionand photo.

Cuprite crystals, 2.5 cm tall. Rubtsovskoe,Russia. Collection and photo J. Ralph.

Jolyon in front of mineral cabinets in hisflat. J. Ralph photo.

a locality they have also collected from.But as with most countries there area wide range of collectors with differentinterests and styles. The UK has a veryactive micromineral and micromountingcommunity, for example.

TP: I know that you frequently travelto Hong Kong – can you tell us a littleabout collectors, collections and min-eral shows there?

JR: The Hong Kong Mineralogy Societyformed only a few years ago, and nowholds regular meetings and an annualmineral show. It’s still small compared toother countries, but it has enthusiasticmembers who arrange field trips both in-side Hong Kong and within mainlandChina. A new museum opened recently,the Steven Hui Geological Museum, partof Hong Kong University, entrance is freeand a visit is highly recommended forvisitors to the island.

TP: Coming back to mindat – not longago, mindat.org had its 10th birthday.Can you describe the history of the“birth” of mindat? I know that in factthis project is almost 20 years old...

JR: Yes, just like the British Queen, min-dat has two birthdays! I started the min-dat database on Christmas Day –December 25th 1993 (the official birth-day of the mindat project!) – I wanted adatabase for my own use, and foundnone of the commercial database sys-tems available at the time would supportdisplaying chemical formulas properly,so I wrote my own database system from

scratch in C code, and started enteringdata from my own collection, books andmagazines. In 1995 I created a new ver-sion for Windows 95 – but it still only haddata in it that I had entered myself. I dis-tributed early versions of this on the in-ternet, but this was discontinued in 1999.During late 2000, I converted some of theoriginal mindat code from C into PHP toturn it into a website, with the majoradvantage that people could add theirown information into the database. Thiswas launched on October 10th 2000(the official birthday of the mindat.orgwebsite)

TP: Can you give some numbers show-ing the size of mindat for people whodo not know it yet?

JR: We currently have over 218,000localities (with 668,000 mineral entrieslisted in them), over 350,000 photos,over 38,000 mineral names (4,500 arevalid minerals, the rest are varietalnames, synonyms, etc). We currentlyhave over 20,000 registered users andabout 280,000 unique visitors eachmonth, viewing around 7 million pages amonth. It’s a very busy web site!

TP: Mindat is growing constantly,with more and more new features allthe time. Can you tell us what newfeatures we can expect in the nearfuture?

JR: Well, I like to keep improving andextending mindat – there are manythings I am working on, and some ofthem may already be launched by thetime this article is printed – so insteadI will mention some of the more impor-tant areas I am working on. Firstly,we already have a test version of themindat catalogue system that allows youto catalogue your personal collectionwithin mindat. The advantages to thisare that you can access your personalcatalogue anywere. At a show wanting toknow if you have a species in your col-lection or not? Simply log into mindat onyour cellphone and search your cata-logue. You will of course be able to exportit for use on your own computer withoutneeding permanent internet access. Bydefault all catalogues are private –they’re only available to you. But this isalso being expanded to allow public cat-alogue options – and this has been re-quested by museums who want to maketheir catalogues browseable onlinewithin mindat.

A major plan for the future is tomake mindat multilingual, so that what-ever language you want to use, you canaccess mindat. You would still need tocontribute data in English (such as mine

descriptions) but you would be able tosearch, read about mineral properties,etc, in your native language.

TP: Can you tell us about any othermineral projects you working on?

JR: Minfind.com is another project Istarted because it was something Iwanted for my own use – it’s a search en-gine that indexes major mineral dealerwebsites and allows you to compareproducts from different dealers. I’m alsoworking on a similar project for cut gem-stones called collectorgems.com – butthis isn’t live yet! And on the subject ofgemstones, look out for an important an-nouncement at the Mindat Conferenceabout work that I have been doing re-cently regarding gemmological data-bases.

TP: Very soonwewill meet in LwówekÂlàski with the First InternationalMindat.org Conference – what areyour expectations for this event and

future plans for face-to-face meetingsof mindaters (not on-line meetings)?

JR: I’m very excited about the confer-ence. Not only is it a great sign that min-dat is “growing up” and able to organizeserious and popular events, it’s simplygoing to be a fantastic time. We will prob-ably not make any money from it, be-cause we are spending so much to do itright! We want this to be a memorableevent, and we wanted it to be affordable.The most important thing about ourhobby is the community of people in-volved, and this is a chance to celebratethis, for people to spend time together toenjoy each other’s company, to enjoy col-lecting great rocks, and to hopefullylearn some new things about mineralogytoo!

TP: Thank you very much for the in-terview and good luck to you andmindat!

Interview: April 2011

19C O L L E C T O R I N T E R V I E WI S S U E # 2 M I N E R A L S

Self collected fluorite from the Rogerley mine, UK. Size of specimen 8 cm tall. J. Ralphcollection and photo.

Crystallized native gold on quartz, 5 cmtall. Eagle Nest mine USA. J. Ralph collec-tion and photo.

Front page of mindat.org – famous“child” of Jolyon.

Jolyon (center), Rainer Bode (left) and Christina Bode (right) celebrating 10 years ofMindat at the Munich show October, 2010. S. Hamann/MINERALIEN-Welt photo.

Jolyon looking for fluorites in the Rogerlymine, UK. B. Jackson photo.

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Tom(SpirferMinerals)inTrepca,Kosovo.

J. Scovil photo.

Scott(Miner’sLunchbox)inJalgaonquarry,India.

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