News Nuggets
Newsletter of the Albuquerque Gem & Mineral Club
Volume 49 Number 6
We have a couple of events coming up on us real fast. The first one is the summer picnic in July. Kimberly has more information in her article this month. Sign up sheets will be available at the June 24 meeting.
Secondly…Start thinking about the State Fair folks! This year the fair runs from September 6-22, and we will be manning a club table in the Creative Arts building again this year. Signups for that event will begin in July. Volunteers get free parking and admission and get to have some fun talking to people about the club. We need specimen donations for giveaways to kids. Please look through your small ‘extras’ and start bringing them to Hank Miller in preparation for the fair. Specimens (or tumbled stones) should be small enough to fit in a 2"x3" zip lock bag.
I still need somebody to bring the club ice chest and Ice to the general meeting for the rest of this year. -Orlando
AFMS Scholarship Foundation
The Dare Devil is a salmon colored cubic zirconia weighing almost 6,000 carats. Cut by members of the Intermountain Faceters Guild, it is believed that this is the largest faceted CZ to date. Salmon in color, the stone flashes red, orange, purple, green and yellow. It is truly awesome.
Donated to the AFMS Scholarship Foundation, the Dare Devil is being raffled with all proceeds going to the Foundation for use in future scholarship grants. Tickets are $5 each or 5 for $20. Drawing for the stone will occur at the AFMS Convention on July 20, 2002. You need not be present to win.
To obtain your tickets and help the Scholarship Foundation, send your check, payable to "AFMS Scholarship Foundation" along with a stamped, self-addressed envelope to: (Ticket requests must be received by July 10, 2002.)
Jon Spunaugle
1000 SE 144th Ct
Vancouver, WA 988687033
Officers 2001
President/Editor- Orlando Garcia, home phone: 345-0520, e-mail: jabog02@msn.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
VP-Field Trips- Ray DeMark, e-mail: RayDeMark@aol.com
VP-Special Events- Hank Miller, home phone: 255-7218, e-mail: rgmhgm2@quest.net
Secretary/Historian- Dave Moats, home phone: 892-8163, 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
Meeting & Show Hotline: 890-0948
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: jabog02@msn.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 4th 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.
President’s Message
We will be publishing a membership list, which we are trying to have available by the June 24 meeting. This list will only give each member’s name, telephone number and e-mail address. It is only for internal club use. Occasionally we do have to set up a phone tree if an event is cancelled or postponed.
If you do not want any information placed on the membership list (except your name) please call Gwen Poe at 247-1533 by noon on June 24.
- Orlando
Upcoming Shows
Durango, CO July 12-14, Four Corners Gem & Mineral Club, 50th Annual Show
Flagstaff, AZ July 19-21, American Gem & Mineral Show
Buena Vista, CO Aug. 9-11, Annual Contintail
Silver City, NM Aug. 31- Sept. 2, Grant County Gem & Mineral Society 19th Annual Show
Denver, CO Sept. 13-15, 35th Annual Denver Gem & Mineral Show
AGMC GENERAL MEETING
20May02
Orlando opened the meeting announcing the need for refreshment volunteers for the months of July and November then had the nine guests and new members introduce themselves. A member brought up a problem of not having received his News Nuggets for the last several months and an ensuing discussion commenced as to why. One of the reasons brought out was the fact that our club has not had a Membership Chairman for the last several years to keep our records straight. Gwen Poe generously volunteered to take on this responsibility. Thank you Gwen for supporting our other volunteers in an effort to help run our Club’s operation smoothly and efficiently. The past month’s Board of Directors and Show Meeting minutes were made available to those interested in seeing what is going on behind the scenes by those volunteers. Ray DeMark was thanked by Mike Potts for taking the Club to the Dictator Mine, which was an exceptional field trip for fluorescent minerals comparable to the famous Franklin/Sterling Hill area in New Jersey. At night, using the fluorescent light on the dump made the ground glow as though we were walking on a hot lava flow! One tunnel of the mine lit up in bright, vibrant colors of red, green and blue! Mike has a hat that was left behind by someone on that trip and a mineral left under one of the chairs at the April meeting. Identify them correctly and you get them back! As of tonight Ray had not received final approval for us to go to the Cunningham Gold Mine (formally the Ortiz Mine), on the first of June yet the last time he talked to those in charge everything seemed to be on track. Expect to find scheelite (orange crystals that fluoresce a brilliant blue), rosettes of hematite and highly modified pyrite crystals. The company may allow this trip as a promotion of their reclamation efforts. Paul has stated that this area has been mined three times; first as veins, than as placer deposits and finally heat leaching of sandstone breccia and pyrite yielding 0.05 ounces of gold per ton of ore which works out to 0.85 cents per pound of ore mined! On the morning of June first, Todd Brown, Club member and owner and operator of a Cerrillos rock shop and museum, will be leading us into a turquoise mine near Cerrillos where he has requested no hammers. There are plans to turn this place into a park for all to see the real thing in situ. You can pick up all the big nuggets on the floor you can find however!
Grant introduced tonight’s speaker as none other than our own longtime, contributing member, Ray DeMark, self described tongue in cheek "famous author and world renown geologist". Having spent about 8 years in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and returning to New Mexico only about a year ago, Ray got to explore and learn much of the geology and mineralogy of the area. Being an avid micromineral collector and photographer of microminerals, he was able to share with us some of his mineral treasures from the "U.P." Underground access in that part of the country is almost nonexistent. Most mining was done as open pit. If there is an underground mine like the Quincy Mine, which was one of the deepest at about 12,000 feet, they are now flooded like the Quincy is to about l,000 feet of the surface. In Michigan’s Upper Peninsula the mining activity can be divided into the Iron Country and the Copper Country, with both getting their start in the l840’s. With copper being the best known mineral from this area, Ray would feature the less well known and rarer minerals in his slide show and talk tonight. Unlike collecting in the southwestern U.S. where it is easy to see and find exposed rock, the U.P. of Michigan has mostly overgrown mines with large trees and other vegetation
plus much of the year is covered with snow and ice, making access difficult. Also the geologic environment is different from that of the southwestern United States in that there is a not extensive occurrence of mineral oxidation. This makes it unique because most of the world’s copper ore is found combined with other elements. We were treated to photography of colorful and wonderfully crystallized minerals from dozens of mines. Some of these crystallized minerals are rare, like seamanite (a manganese oxide, borate, phosphate) first found in the l920’s in the Chicagoan mine, Iron Co., Mich. and never found again until the last couple of years, or crystals of tenorite usually found as a pitch black material, or domeykite crystals (a copper arsenide), and McFallite a rare manganese mineral found in only two locations in the world! We learned that the mineralogy of the U.P. of Mich. is indeed extensive and varied, a veritable treasure chest of minerals, and would be an excellent place to spend some time indulging in our avocation. One might want to first visit the famous Seaman Mineral Museum at Michigan Tech. to see what the best of the best might look like from this area. Thanks Ray for presenting us with a very enjoyable presentation.
Dave Moats, Secretary
RECORD OF BOARD ACTIONS
MOTIONS 2002
Motion #1 by Sallie Estill: to accept Loyd’s corrected ledger for 2001.
APPROVED, unanimously.
Motion #2: to accept Loyd’s Profit and Loss Statement.
APPROVED, unanimously.
Motion #3 by Hank Miller: to sign a rental contract for both the Flower and School Arts Buildings at the State Fairgrounds for our March show.
APPROVED, unanimously.
Motion #4 by Dave Moats: to accept the show budget as written.
APPROVED, unanimously.
Motion #5 by Sallie Estill: to purchase, for $130, the Black Light Fluorescent Display Box that Mike Potts purchased in Tucson.
APPROVED, 4 yes, 3 no – with 3 not voting/abstaining.
Motion #6 by Paul Hlava: proposed that the Show dates for 2003 would be March 21, 22, 23rd.
APPROVED, unanimously.
Motion #7 by Paul Hlava: as an interim proposal, we will hold the 2003 Show at the same School Arts and Flower Buildings of the State Fair Grounds.
APPROVED, unanimously.
Motion #8 by Loyd Keller: to renew our Certificate of Deposits, coming due in May, for a period of 6 months.
APPROVED, unanimously.
Motion #9 by Ray DeMark: to take $2000 of the Show’s profits and add onto the $3000 CD coming due on 5/l/02 for a reinvestment of $5000.
APPROVED, unanimously.
MOTION #10 was made by Ray DeMark to nominate Paul Hlava as the 2003 Show Chairman.
APPROVED, unanimously.
MOTION #ll was made by Orlando to renew our membership with the Convention & Visitors Bureau and pay the $237 fee which is due by l Jul 2002.
APPROVED, unanimously.
A NOTE FROM THE HISTORIAN
This year, we have made a major push to bring the AGMC historical files into the "electronic age". Up until the present, club archives have been kept only as paper records. So we have lots of photographs, news clippings, newsletters and other documents, many of which are mounted in scrapbooks, going back to the early days of the organization. In total, the paper records of the AGMC amount to about six linear feet of material.
The problem with paper records is that they are very vulnerable to loss or damage. Most of the documents could not be replaced if they were destroyed by fire or flood. So this year we have begun to archive computer file copies of AGMC documents starting with the present and working backward in time. For example, we have the last two years of the News Nuggets stored electronically. In total, we now have over 550 separate electronic documents. Multiple copies of these files are now stored on separate computers in different locations to guard against the loss of the records. The AGMC files can be written to CD-ROM discs and if any of you are interested in browsing through the collection, I will be glad to generate a CD for you. The goal is to eventually have all the archives stored electronically, but this is a long-term project.
If any of you have scanners with optical character recognition (OCR) software – and a few minutes a week to help out, I could use your help scanning AGMC documents for the electronic archive. Call me at 898-5592 and I’ll get you started.
Also, the club is in need of a sturdy four-drawer legal size file cabinet to house the paper documents. If you have one you’re not using, please consider donating it to the club.
Tom Katonak
AGMC Historian
Mt. Chalchihuitl/Cunningham Hill Mine
Field Trip Report
Forty-five AGMC club members joined up at 9:00 a.m. on the first of June at the Casa Grande Trading Post in Cerrillos, NM for what proved to be a very interesting field trip. Todd Brown, who owns the trading post and the Turquoise Mining Museum graciously agreed to guide our group to some of the famous turquoise mines in the Cerrillos area. We consolidated vehicles and drove to the remains of the Cash Entry mine (lead-silver). From there we hiked up hill (moderately strenuous) on the east flank of the historically important Mt. Chalchihuitl to view the incredibly extensive turquoise excavations that Paleo-Indians conducted in the region for hundreds of years. Mt. Chalchihuitl is the site of the most extensive prehistoric mining operations on the American continent.1 Turquoise from this area has been traced south to Mexico City and Mayan cities and from California to Arkansas. We also entered some modern (1920s-1930s) underground workings in the area. Only very thin seams of turquoise were noted in the Tertiary monzonite porphyry hosting the veins. From Mt. Chalchihuitl we headed back to the Casa Grande Trading Post for a leisurely lunch and unguided tours of the Turquoise Mining Museum.
We sallied forth at 12:45 p.m. to be at the Cunningham Hill mine gate at 1:00 p.m. LAC Minerals (USA) LLC had granted us permission to visit the mine and collect minerals in the pit. The collecting site was in the upper portion of the open pit. This required us to pile collectors in a minimum number of vehicles to prevent gridlock. The mine had been operated by Gold Fields Corporation from 1980 to 1986. The pit was driven into a gold-bearing breccia pipe containing broken and silicified sandstone/quartzite. Most of the gold was very finely disseminated in the abundant pyrite in the ore body. Scheelite was the most sought-after mineral and John Scully collected the finest specimens that I observed. Additional specimens were found by other collectors but, overall,
the scheelite was somewhat sparse. Jerry Simmons recovered some nice specimens of hematitefrom a large boulder and most club members picked up some of the complex pyrite crystals. We departed the pit and mine around 4:30 p.m. accompanied by a thunderstorm! Unfortunately, the rain never made it west of the Sandias. See you in Questa on the 22nd.
Ray