News Nuggets

Newsletter of the Albuquerque Gem & Mineral Club

Volume 49 Number 2

Calling this event a "Show" is a gross over simplification. We should call it the Tucson Shows or the Tucson Extravaganza or the TUCSON PHENOMENON (my favorite)! And for me it really did go from alexandrites to zircons because I bought some of both of these (alas only one alexandrite, but I looked at a lot of them). Those of you who haven’t been there, YET, probably think that it is like any other gem and mineral show but bigger. Wrong! First of all there were actually 37 sanctioned shows going on from late January until February 17^th. Some are retail shows, others are wholesale only, a few are wholesale ONLY, and some are mixed. Some shows are mineral and/or fossil oriented, many are geared to loose gemstones and finished jewelry, and some are too eclectic to pigeon-hole. Just

What are they like? Well, to get the idea across, I’ll describe a couple of them.

The Inn Suites consists of a main building and 7 outer buildings surrounded by green lawns, palm trees, and orange trees. The entrances to the rooms are directly from the lawns so you can easily stroll from room to room. You walk into one and are surrounded by fossils, mainly ammonites. The next room may have all kinds and sizes (and prices) of tourmalines. Next is a room of Russian meteorites and some cutting rough. One room farther and you are gazing at tables full of familiar looking stuff. Why, it is all NM material, mainly from the Hansonburg mines! So you look up at the proprietor and recognize Tom Massis grinning at your confusion. After a bout of serious jaw-boning, you go on to sample many other rooms and eventually realize that almost every room/dealer in this place is oriented around some mineral/fossil theme such as micros, ammonites, localities, particular mines, one mineral

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President/Editor- Orlando Garcia

home phone: 345-0520

e-mail: jabog@rt66.com

Past President- Jim Winchell

home phone: 831-6135

cell: 401-4111

e-mail: galleryofminerals@home.com

VP-Programs - Grant Kuck

home phone: 323-1520

VP-Field Trips- Kimberly Richie

home phone: 296-8847

home phone:

e-mail: RayDeMark@aol.com

VP-Special Events- Hank Miller

home phone: 255-7218

e-mail: rgmhgm2@quest.net

e-mail: beepbeep59@hotmail.com

Treasurer- Lloyd Keller

Home phone: 889-9357

Ad Hoc Board- Paul Hlava

home phone: 255-5478

e-mail: pfhlava@sandia.gov

Show Chair- Sallie Estill –

home phone: 792-8328

e-mail: atomic-cleaning@worldnet.att.net

Club Historian: Tom Katonak

Home phone: 898-5592

e-mail: tkatonak@macconnect.com

Jr. Club: Carl Johnson

home phone: 344-3178

The Club Newsletter; News Nuggets exists to assist the membership in communications and to provide information on club activities. Contributions from all members are welcome on any information that will promote club activities or that would be of interest to club members. News Nuggets is scheduled to be mailed prior to the monthly meeting. Mail news, articles or comments to: Orlando Garcia 1028 Solar Rd. NW, Albuquerque, NM 87107. E-mail: jabog@rt66.com

The Albuquerque Gem & Mineral Club was organized on January 22, 1944. The club is a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement and enjoyment of the Earth Sciences and associated subjects. Its primary purpose is the exchange of information and the furtherance of knowledge of Mineralogy, Fossils, Geology, Rock Cutting and Gem Faceting and to stimulate interest in the development of these studies.

All Meetings are held at the NM Museum of Natural History. The general meeting is held on the 4^th Monday of the month at 7:30 pm The Junior Club meets at 6:45pm prior to the general meeting. The public is welcome to both meetings. Board of Directors meetings are held at 7:30 pm on the first Monday of each month. (Call for location).

All memberships are family memberships and can include all members of the household. Dues are $20. Send checks to the AGMC, P.O. Box 13718, Albuquerque, NM 87192 or pay the Membership Chair at the monthly meeting.

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species, one phenomenon (fluorescence), et hoc genus omne. There is some jewelry (mainly in the ballroom and off the lobby) to be had here but it definitely takes a back seat. There were 148 dealers at this show.

(Orlando asked for about a half a page and I’m already there. Let me describe one more show and I’ll try to add more next month. Let me pick a very different setting.)

At the Kino Sports Complex was the Tucson Electric Park Gem & Mineral Show (I kid you not!) which consisted of one big pavilion, 21 smaller tents, and 56 dealers. Many of the tents housed one company like Graves or Lortone (both sell lapidary equipment). When I got there on Tuesday evening, most of the small tents were closed but the pavilion was open so in I went. This one was like a flea market. In addition to huge displays for Kent’s Tools and Alpha Supply (they sell display, storage, and selling supplies) there were booths selling slave beads, oriental rugs, furs, jewelry, décor, and swords! I got some plastic bags from Alpha at half the usual price (they came in late and missed most of the buyers). I also got myself a present. Perhaps I’ll

bring this claymore to the next AGMC Meeting for show and tell!

Enough for now! Oh. About those alexandrites and zircons – they’ll have to wait a bit.

- Paul Hlava 020218

My impressions of Tucson 2002 are somewhat fragmented and certainly incomplete this year. This was due to a very erratic schedule on my part. With these limitations presented, I will, however offer the following observations and comments.

The main show at the convention center seemed up to par with previous shows in most regards but the exhibits and displays were certainly a cut above those from last year. The theme of "African Minerals" gave plenty of opportunity for organizations and individuals to display minerals from some of the world’s premier mineral locations. Of course minerals from Tsumb, Namibia were everywhere and what could possibly top the azurites, diptases and cerussites from the world’s foremost mineral location? There were also displays from other locations as well. The Smithsonian presented a number of outstanding specimens from Art Montgomery’s collection including two incredible

wulfenites from the Red Cloud mine in Arizona.

While the "main show" at the Tucson Convention Center lasted only four days (February 14 – 17), there were several outlying shows at various hotels, which began at least two weeks before the main show.

One of the "hot" minerals at the show at the Executive Inn this year was unusual hematite and hematite pseudos after magnetite (martite) from the Chubot province in Patagonia, Argentina. The hematite appears to be twinned in a manner resulting in prismatic (square in cross section) skeletal crystals with sparkling micro crystals coating the surface. The martite crystals are octahedrons up to 1 ½" forming in clusters and also coated with sparkling micro hematites. The best pieces were grabbed up early with the prices in the $200-300.00 range for the better small cabinet pieces.

Vanadinite from Mibladen, Morocco was everywhere this year (also last year). The quantity of material available seems to have had a moderating effect on the prices fortunately. Superb specimens could be acquired for $50.00 to $300.00. These vanadinites are without doubt the finest this old world has produced to date. If you do not have a Mibladen vanadinite in your collection, now is the time to

acquire one. They are simply fantastic.

An incredible find of carollite (copper, cobalt, nickel sulfide) was recently made in Congo (formerly Zaire, Belgian Congo and so on). Specimens from this find are undoubtedly the best ever recovered. The xtals on display were up to two inches across (octahedrons, dodecahedrons and combinations), silver-colored with an absolutely mirror-like luster. Once again, these xtals were the top-of-the-line and were rapidly grabbed up by collectors seeking the "best" for their collections.

The prices for Chinese and Russian minerals seem to have moderated somewhat this year. Absolutely superb specimens of scheelite from China and pyrrhotite from Dahlnegorsk, Russia were available at prices that are probably one-fifth of those asked five to ten years ago. Keep in mind that these are the best that exist of these species.

All in all, I would have to say that the variety, quality and quantity of mineral specimens at Tucson this year was excellent. With the volume of Russian, Chinese, Afghan, Pakistani, Indian, Moroccan and other world wide sources of minerals on the market, it is truly a great time to be collecting minerals.

- Ray DeMark

Well, the Tucson shows have come and gone already and it’s time to put the finishing touches on preparations for our club show in March. Remember that volunteers get into the show for free on the day they work the show. Members who aren’t volunteers still have to pay to enter. Kimberly still needs 6 volunteers for the admissions table. Gwen needs help with the pre-show dinner. Call Sallie Estill if you just want to help and aren’t sure what she needs for you to do. We still need mineral donations for the silent auctions. Call Dave Moats if you have specimens to donate.

This year’s show is at a new location and we need everybody’s help to make it a success. Remember, this is our only fund raising event of the year. It basically lets us give two $1,000.00 scholarships, two $75.00 science fair prizes and runs the club for another year. Volunteer, bring a friend to the show, or come alone, but please come. Who knows, you might have some fun.

- Orlando

Orlando opened our meeting tonight with an introduction of guests one of which included Stephanie Bell, our club’s 1996-97 $500 scholarship winner at N.M. Tech. It was announced that Hank Miller is looking for a couple of volunteers to help judge this year’s Science Fair on Friday, March 15^th. Ray went over some of the plans for a projected field trip on February 23^rd to the Mineral Museum at Tech. and a potential March 30^th trip to the Mayflower Mine on Socorro Peak that he is trying to get permission to conduct with the State Mining Geologist. Sallie passed around sign-up sheets for various job categories needing volunteer workers in our upcoming March show. Set-up will take place on Thursday, March 21^st and we will need lots of help.

The pre-show dinner, to be held later that night, will be coordinated again by Gwen Poe, who is recovering nicely from her accident that occurred just hours prior to our Christmas dinner. We are all wishing her a speedy recovery. Sallie and Paul are having no problem finding dealers who want to be invited to our show as calls are coming in

from all over the country. We have 20 major dealers and many minor dealers attending. Steve and Nancy Attaway with Paul Hlava designed, photographed, and had printed thousands of attractive mineral postcards advertising our show that will be mailed by our club, as well as the invited dealers, to potential customers. Samples were passed out to attending members. We were reminded by Loyd Keller that this year’s dues are due now if you want to continue to be informed and involved in our club’s happenings.

Scott Wilson, a long time contributing fellow member and one of last years Co-Field Trip Chairmen, was introduced as our speaker for the night. With a Doctorate in Electrical Engineering from U.N.M. and owner of his own company he has found the time and had the chemistry background and knowledge to present us with a very interesting talk entitled "Opal Synthesis". The process he used (don’t do this at home boys and girls) is not recommended for the uninformed or neophyte as it is very dangerous due to the high flammability of the materials and the dangerous fumes that can cause serious burns and eye and respiratory damage. He preformed this process on his back porch with all the right safety procedures and special

equipment. His talk covered: 1) what is opal, 2) how opal forms in nature, 3) lab growth of opal, 4) results of lab grown opal, and 5) related technologies. We learned that opal is a three dimensional diffracting array of spheres composed of hydrated silica achieved in the optical wavelength of the spectrum by a crystal-like lattice of these spheres thru spacing and uniformity of the lattice in accordance with Bragg’s Law. The sphere’s packing is face centered cubic with faults, twins and dislocations just like a crystal. These spheres are only about 1/100 the diameter of a hair. Naturally occurring opal will have trace elements of sodium, calcium, potassium and aluminum but synthetic opal will show trace elements of titanium, phosphorus and others. The diameter of these hydrated silica spheres controls the color we see in the opal, which can be a combination, or single color of red and green or green and blue but very rarely (and expensive) red and blue. In nature in order to form opal it takes about 100ppm silica sol, dissolved from a host rock at about 25^oC in slightly acid waters, then an evaporation rate that takes about one million years. Only a high quality lattice with all uniform spheres will yield precious opal. So Scott’s trick was to try and do a similar process in less than a million years! Well, since

obtaining these silica spheres is very expensive if purchased he elected to use one of several available methods to make his own. Using a base rather than an acid to accomplish this he found was the most effective. A little "hocus-pocus" with TEOS or tetra-ethyl-ortho-siloxane, a centrifuge, and ethanol and then hoping everything doesn’t "gel" until the end of the experiment by controlling the ph, temperature, motion and chemistry does the job. The size of the spheres is controlled by an ammonia-water ratio at room temperatures, ammonia being used as a catalyst. A trick he found of using an ultrasonic cleaner to redisperse the material by partial immersion, rather than manually stirring, allowed him to get the right density and allowed sedimentation to occur under silicone oil, producing good color in a few days. Trying to harden the product by furnace fusing at 200^oC-600^oC resulted in lost color and mechanical strength, maybe due to thermal breakdown of the oil. The whole process, start to finish, took about a month. A related technology is in optical bandgap materials used to make transistors based on light! This technology is still in early stages of development. Scott brought an example of opal he made for us to examine under a microscope. It is apparently very easy to distinguish natural opal from man-

made opal if you know what to look for. He said you should never put opal in oil and some you can immerse in water and some you can’t without damaging it.

Gwen Poe thanks everyone for the prayers said in her behalf at the Christmas dinner and was thankful that the surgeon had to operate only once. A call was put out for someone to bring refreshments for our meeting next month and we will need people each month thru November to fulfull this task. Orlando is now e-mailing the News Nuggets to about 100 members and is responsible for bringing our club into the computer world, saving the club dollars in doing so. A break for refreshments, door prizes and mineral sales followed the evening’s presentation. Thank you Tom and Linda Katonak for bringing all those great minerals for us to drool over, like that $1800, museum quality azurite specimen from China or the large specimen with large crystals of orpiment and some that I might even afford to buy. Thank you Mike Potts for all the nice giveaway hexoctahedral fluorite crystals with quartz crystals from the Blanchard Claims and botryoidal psilomelane and hairy hollandite from the Socorro area you brought for us to pick over. A big thank you from all of us goes to Jan and Bob Burrows for their large donation of money to buy

minerals for our show’s silent auction.

Whow! What? You weren’t here?! Look at all the good stuff you missed out on! The meeting was adjourned at 8:50 pm.

Dave Moats

Secretary

Did you know your Club awards two US Savings Bonds for outstanding projects related to earth sciences at the Northwest Regional Science Fair.  Well we do and on the afternoon of March 15, 2002 we will be selecting this years deserving winners.  They will receive their awards and display their projects at the April general meeting and you can be part of it all.  We are looking for volunteers to serve as judges on behalf of the Club.

Being a judge is fun, educational, and rewarding! You will be working with veteran judges from the Club that know the ropes, talking with kids that restore your faith in America's youth, and receive free snacks and refreshments to boot. 

So do your self a favor and contact me, Hank Miller, at the February Club meeting, by phone 255-7218, or e-mail rgmhgm2@qwest.net and help

the AGMC encourage local students to continue their interest in geology.  See you at the Science Fair.

Hank Miller

Special Events

WHERE: The Mineral Museum at New Mexico Tech in Socorro

WHEN: Feb. 23, 2002 Saturday

TIME: 9:00 AM

MEET: Macy Center parking lot

DIRECTIONS:I-25 south from Albuquerque, approximately 70 miles. Take the first Socorro exit #150. Turn right at the second traffic light, Bullock Blvd. After 3 or 4 stop signs you enter the college property. Macy Center is on the right. We will meet there and then proceed to the museum.

Around noon we’ll migrate to Socorro Springs Brewery & Restaurant for lunch. Depending on the weather we may then be able to make a collecting stop, which is yet to be determined.

Kimberly Richie

Please pay your 2002 club dues by the end of February. The club membership list is updated in March.

Treasures of the Earth EXPO 2002

DEALERS and CLUB MEMBERS may sell their personal mineral specimens during any of the silent auctions held at the show.

You will be allotted a six-foot by thirty-inch table space for the auctions in which you participate. You may auction as many or as few specimens as you wish, but be aware that crowding the specimens shows them poorly. There will be approximately nine silent auctions during the show, each consisting of thirteen tables. Each auction will officially start at a prescheduled time and last less than an hour.

YOUR COST for an auction table is 20% of your gross sales or $20 – WHICHEVER IS GREATER. For example, if you sell $100 or less during any given auction, your fee to the club for the table is $20 – even if you collect no money! If you sell more than $100, your fee is 20% of your total sales.

CLUB MEMBERS will be responsible for setting up their own items for sale and collecting the money (and paying the club) at the end of the auction.

DEALERS may ask a club member to represent their interest and arrange the auction display and collect the money.

THE CLUB WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR DISPLAYING OR COLLECTING FOR INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS OR DEALERS.

IF YOU WISH TO PARTICIPATE:

This should be a fun way for the club to make money while giving the dealers another avenue for profitability. It also allows club members to earn some cash for those unwanted specimens that are too good to give away. You can then go spend that cash with the dealers for new stuff!

The Game Plan – I will describe a mineral and you have to guess/decipher/research the name of the mineral and the answers to the other questions asked about uses, history, notable facts, etc. I expect the Top Guns in the club to be able to guess the name off the top of their heads. The learners will need a reference book or two. You will benefit most if you do not ask others for the answers but work it out for yourselves. When you have decided on the name you can compare notes with others or wait for the answers to be announced at the meetings or published in the News Nuggets. Good luck and have fun.

a carbonate of vivid blue color. Monoclinic with a vitreous luster, 2 perfect and one fair cleavage, transparent to translucent, H 3.5 – 4, G 3.77. Effervesces in dilute HCl. Found in the oxidized zone of primary sulfide ore bodies.

What is the name of the mineral?

What is the origin of the name?

What is the metal in the mineral?

What is the mineral used for?

Localities – (Just list the famous ones)

--NM –

--USA –

--World –

What is the name of the mineral? Minrecordite

What is the origin of the name? Named for the magazine

What is the metal in the mineral? Zinc (as well as the necessary Calcium)

What is the mineral used for? Nothing other than as a collectable.

Localities – (Just list the famous ones)

--NM – NONE

--USA – NONE

--World – Tsumeb, Namibia

Paul Hlava 020207

The pre-show dinner is given by the club with the dealers as our guests. The club will provide the meat, bread, dessert, and punch also: table service for guests & forgets.

Members should bring a dish to share, either a casserole, vegetable, salad, or dessert dish,table service, andserving utensils.

Cost $3 per Adult member.

Show set-up: 9am on Thursday

The club provides donuts, coffee, and lunch.

We Need help with tables, decorations, coffee, donuts.

Talk to Gwen Poe at the February meeting if you can help with these preparations.

Grant has several irons in the fire for this month’s program. Which one will end up on our plate this month has not been determined yet. Grant hasn’t ever let us down for a speaker, so come see what he comes up with.

Last Name__________________________ Renewal from 2001? Y N

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Junior Member Names: 1.___________________age______

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3.___________________age______

If this is a renewal, is the News Nuggets going to the proper address? Y N

Mailing Address:______________________

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State: _______ ZIP + 4: _______-_____

Phone: (_____) _____-______ Please include. This is only for club use and not for any other purpose

e-mail Address: _____________________________

Annual Dues: $20.00 per family.

Send this form and check to:

February 25: Kuck’s Choice. Come see what Grant comes up with for this

month’s program.

The Albuquerque Gem & Mineral Club meets on the 4^th Monday of every month except December. All meetings are held at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Sciences. The meeting begins at 7:30 PM. There will be a short business meeting prior to the evening’s talk, which begins at approximately 8 PM.

Refreshments and door prizes will follow immediately after the talk. We have the room till 10:00 PM.

School Arts Building

New Mexico State Fairgrounds