While recently digging scepter quartz crystals at the Desert Jewel Mine near Mule Creek, John Scully and I were given a tour and wonderful meal at the Royal Castle Claim. Hosting the event were the owners, Abram Harris and Mark Welch. After a visit to the discovery site of their renowned eighteen inch "Royal Castle Scepter Geode" (displayed at the Tucson Rock Show), we completed a tour of their more recent efforts. This included a pocket, located by Abram, large enough to crawl into. We next went to a newly opened twenty-four inch pocket which was opened but untouched. This was a real treat, seeing so many three to five inch scepters virtually untouched in a clean and pristine pocket.

After the tour, Abram served us a delightful meal of meatloaf, baked potatoes, and corn – all prepared in their solar cooker. The evening was perfectly completed with the four of us sitting in the shade of their wickiup looking at specimens and telling rock hounding stories. Then it was back to our own camp, which seemed meager and incomplete after visiting theirs.

Abram and Mark are living their dream pretty much as mountain men at this remote claim. Abram seems to cook most of the meals, and it turns out that his previous life, in the real world, was as a gourmet chef. Living in the wilderness and searching for the illusive museum quality pocket is more to their liking. While prohibited from setting up permanent shelters on forest land, their campsite of tents and a wickiup style kitchen and pantry seems fitting for them. The camp dogs, Horta and Scraggles, provide companionship and security from hi-graders and bears.

Arrangements and plans are currently in progress for the field trip and annual summer picnic July 26. The tentative site will be the "San Pedro Mine". Sign up sheets should be available at the next meeting.

The State Fair is also fast approaching. We will again be manning a club table in the Creative Arts Building. This is a fun and interesting event where we have an opportunity to meet many wonderful and interesting people. Hank Miller is in charge, and we need lots of volunteers to be successful. Please volunteer to spend a few hours at the table.

President - Orlando Garcia; Home phone: 345-0520; e-mail: jabog02@msn.com

VP-Programs - Grant Kuck; Home phone: 323-1520

VP-Field Trips - Kimberly Richie; Home phone: 296-8847

VP-Field Trips - Ray DeMark; Home phone: 822-8715; e-mail: RayDeMark@msn.com

Secretary/Historian - Dave Moats; Home phone: 892-8163; e-mail: beepbeep59@hotmail.com

Treasurer - Stephanie Bell; Home phone: 281-7192; e-mail: stephbell22@yahoo.com

Editor - Darlene Nelson; Home phone: 271-4694; e-mail: agmcnews@aol.com

VP-Special Events - Hank Miller; Home phone: 255-7218; e-mail: rgmhgm2@msn.com

Show Chair - Paul Hlava; home phone: 255-5478; e-mail: hpf1@quest.net

Membership - Donna Scott; Home phone: 934-6564; e-mail: dutchessofalb@aol.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 approximately one week prior to the monthly meeting. Mail news, articles or comments to: Darlene Nelson, 817 Sagebrush Trail, Albuquerque, NM 87123, or email to agmcnews@aol.com.

Last month I was premature in stating that the e-mail version of the News Nuggets would no longer be sent to individual e-mail addresses. We will continue to send you the newsletter by whichever method you currently receive it. If you have e-mail then PLEASE let us know and receive your newsletter by e-mail. Every hard copy we send costs about a buck. That means that $11.00 out of a $20.00 annual membership goes just for a hard copy; copying, paper, labels, and postage.

Gem & mineral clubs have traditionally exchanged newsletters to disseminate club news and information. The AGMC will no longer send hard copy newsletters to the clubs with whom we have historically exchanged such information. Our newsletters can be accessed through the Rocky Mountain Federation website at rmfms.org or through our own website at agmc.info .

Ted Korbin has accepted the position of ad hoc BOD member for the remainder of 2003. Ted and his family have been enthusiastic club members for about two years. Ted will be working on developing our junior program this year.

Welcome aboard, Ted.

There are some good informative gem and mineral shows coming up in our vicinity.

Carlsbad, NM – Carlsbad Gem & Mineral Show, Living Desert Zoo & Gardens State Park.

Flagstaff, AZ – Flagstaff Gem & Mineral Club

17^th Annual Show. Little America Hotel

Farmington, NM – Annual Freedom Days Gem & Mineral Show

Farmington Civic Center

Durango, CO – 4 Corners Gem & Mineral Show

La Plata County Fairgrounds

Buena Vista, CO – Contin-tail, Rock, Mineral, Bead & Jewelry Show. Rodeo Grounds.

(This is a big tailgaters show. There were 175 dealers last year, Ask for directions in Buena Vista. It wasn’t well marked last year)

Club Treasurer, Stephanie Bell, asked for information on sources of small Mexican geodes. She is looking for 100 to 200 specimens.

Ray and Kimberly gave us all information on the upcoming next couple of field trips. Ray brought in some samples of what we can expect to find at the Nakaye Mine in the southern Caballo Mountains. The exceptionally lustrous, blue colored fluorite is even more sensitive to light than that of Bingham’s. Ray said that the greenish spherically shaped barite crystals found at this location are a result of micro inclusions of pyrite as determined by Paul Hlava with his microprobe. Some of the calcite at this location is a clear transparent variety and a beautifully faceted specimen was in Ray’s display. Kimberly had available free samples of dolomite pseudomorphs after aragonite and goethite after pyrite that she collected on the last field trip for the 63 attending members and guests. Ray emphasized that for those who have never been to the Harding mine not to miss this up-coming trip. It is a nationally known location with lots of different and interesting material made even more interesting for those interested in fluorescent minerals. The Club’s UV light will be made available for those wanting to collect on the location at night. Ray and Kimberly will have all the details in another part of the newsletter. We were told that the Club Picnic will not be at the San Pedro mine this year and we’re working on a different location to be announced.

Grant introduced Tom Massis as tonight’s speaker with a short biographical sketch. We were informed

Tom was born and raised in upstate New York and came to New Mexico in 1961. He has been employed by Sandia National Labs for nearly 42 years and his work is in chemistry issues involving explosives. Tom and wife Loretta have three children and five grandchildren. He became interested in minerals in 1972 and became one of the principle mineral claim holders of the Mex-Tex and Royal Flush at Bingham in 1987. He’s been "exploiting" those claims for mineral specimens ever since.

His talk and slide show tonight he entitled "Minerals of Mex-Tex Group – Bingham New Mexico." He’s been accused of being in love with fluorite and been called "Fluorite Tom." The fabulous minerals we would see in the slides tonight were all collected by the claimants themselves. To find the pockets where these exceptional specimens were located took a lot of work and luck over the last 16 years. He gave this talk to our club eleven years ago and I am sure was just as well received then.

The Mex-Tex and Royal Flush claims are in two distinct areas on the boundary of the White Sands Missile Range in eastern Socorro County in the Hansonburg Mining District about one mile northeast of the Blanchard Claims that the club has visited many times. We were shown several location maps and photos taken from the claims in different directions. This is a world famous mineral area right here in our own back yard!

Mining has occurred in the district since the 1880s. The first claims to be developed in the area (Ora Blanchard Claims) were in 1901 in the flats below the mountains and in 1917 the Blanchard Claims were developed. Tonight he would talk mainly of the Upper Mex-Tex group and the Ora Tunnel in that area.

Tom said that prior to December 1947 there was no known activity here. On this date and into the late 40’s only road building and exploration to determine the extent of mineralization was occurring. From 1950-1958 the operation was owned by Erwin and Bishop as the Mex-Tex Mining Company. It was exploited mainly for barite for the oil drilling industry with little production of lead and no fluorite production over this time period. In 1959 the Atomic Mining Corp purchased the property and produced some product. The period from 1962 to the mid 1970’s is not well documented. In the mid 70’s the Western Grand Mining Co. took over ownership. Ray DeMark got wind of both these claims being available and filed a claim with B. Dickey and Tom Massis on Mother’s Day, 1987. Ever since then the claims have been exploited for mineral specimens for collectors and this will probably remain so in the future. Few specimens were salvaged from pre-1960’s mining operations and many fine irreplaceable mineral specimens were undoubtedly sacrificed to the crusher.

The deposits are in hydrothermal veins found in faults, breccia, and sheeted zones and between a shale zone and Pennsylvanian limestone formation. Veins and adjacent mineralized rock

often contain substantial open spaces and crystal-lined vugs. Fluorite, barite, galena, and quartz are the four main minerals that are in turn found in combinations with many other rarer minerals.

We were shown pictures of the Ora Tunnel and views from that area as well as the three adits of the Mex-Tex group in which 15 to 20 feet back into these, it is all caved in. There was a major cave-in here in 1991 that closed the last main underground workings where exceptional fluorite specimens had been found. In this area in 1995, seventy-five to eighty flats of spangolite plus much since then was collected along with a lot of rare phosphate minerals. Some of those phosphates are crandallite, libethenite, and crystallized turquoise. Tom probably has had many close calls while collecting and related one of these occasions while collecting under the "Steeple Area". Loretta, his wife, called out a warning and Tom agilely jumped aside just in time to be missed by a large boulder that had broken loose many feet above and fell just missing him. His son, while testing the use of a bulldozer, unearthed some nice amethyst crystals in the flats of this area. The types of quartz to be found are clear, amethystine and smokey. Quartz crystals seldom exceed 1 – 1½ inches and are found on large plates or masses. Tom told us of one pocket that was so productive that it was named the 4^th of July Pocket in 1989. Here they produced 75 to 100 large specimens up to 135 pounds without having to break one rock. They picked additional ones up in untold numbers and most of museum quality!

The galena is almost always found as simple cubes with an oxidation layer of

anglesite or cerusite and other minerals. The cracks on these galena crystals are caused by the density differences between the lead sulfide and the lead sulfate or lead carbonate. The fluorite comes in green and many shades of blue including the classic "Bingham" blues and "Naica" blue, and purple/maroon. The fluorite is found in many crystal forms including the unusual hexoctahedron (48 sides) that seems to be locally common.

Tom showed us about 1 ½ circular trays full of slides, representing dozens of pictures, which showed the spectacular "flowers" of the mineral kingdom. For instance, several outstanding pictures were of acicular cyanotrichite and spangolite wearing their deep blue and green colors. Some pictures with the many colors and patterns they evoked in my mind reminded me of what it might be like looking down from maybe 200 feet above upon the famous Bush Gardens in Tampa, Florida. One unusually nice hexoctahedral crystal of fluorite showed sharp angles between the faces. In several other pictures the mineral seemed to be levitating above the background with no visible means of support. They certainly have been doing their jobs however by titillating our visual senses. Tom noted that he and his son took about half of the pictures while the famous mineral photographer extraordinaire, Jeff Scovil, produced the others. Mr. Scovil is one of the leaders in photomicrography of minerals, fossils, gemstones and jewelry. Many pictures we saw tonight have been published in the Mineral Record along with an accompanying article in a recent issue.

Tom and Loretta brought a table full of large specimens from their personal collection for us to inspect and I can report they all passed inspection with an A+. We should all be so lucky to have just one such specimen in our own collections! Thanks Tom.

After answering questions the talk was over and at 8:50 p.m. We then broke for refreshments of some delicious cookies and drinks. Thanks Karen. Rex Nelson has generously volunteered his time to head up the refreshment committee duties. If he calls asking for assistance, please give him a hand. During this time we looked over the ten Door Prize specimens and purchased additional tickets. One that I didn’t win, (darn it) and tried to, was a blue specimen of dumortierite from Peru. Dana says it’s a basic aluminum borosilicate and I don’t have it in my collection and never heard of it before.

A little club history – members Bob and Jan Burrows have been AGMC members at least since the Jun92 Membership list was printed. They still actively support our club with their help, time and money at the many club functions.

Correction to the Apr03 NN General Meeting Minutes: He noted however that mineral deposits and caves often go together. He then concentrated his attention on two ore deposits – The Blanchard or Bingham mines of the Hansonburg district and the Copiapo jarosite mine.

Greetings Rock Fans!

The Nakaye Mine trip proved to be very productive and fun.
I was impressed with how green the area is - pecan orchards and planted fields of corn, alfalfa, and onions. Even the native plants looked healthy.

The first excitement came when a pick-up exited I-25 and stopped. Our meeting place was very close to the northbound on/or ramp. I noticed the hood was up, then a voice called, "Does anyone have any water? Our truck is on fire!" Could they have picked a better group to break down close to? NO! Suddenly there were four or five people running across the cattle guard with various amounts of water. It was a new Chevy p/u, but the alternator seized, overheated quickly, melting the belt, which shut it all down when it separated. The fire seemed to be confined to the alternator and was quickly doused. The couple lived locally and their son arrived soon and we returned to our vehicles. Shortly after this we left for the mine.

There were fifteen members in attendance, one who joined two months ago. The passenger cars made it ¾ of the distance. After parking them safely of the roadway, and with only a small detour, we arrived at the collecting site. There were several workings, with two tunnels close to the parking area and others just down the hill. We were all primed for blue fluorite and green barite. I was pleasantly surprised to find purple fluorite that had obviously been out in the sun for an extended period of time without suffering from the dreaded fading of color that the blue variety does.  The purple occurred in massive form and small crystals embedded in the host rock. There is plentiful calcite here, and probably is overlooked because there is so much.

My next surprise came the next day when the dirt came off and revealed that the prized green barite was present on three times the number of pieces than I thought I had collected!  The day had started with high clouds but by early afternoon they were gone and the temperature rose quickly. The "tunnel workers" were comfortable, but surface collecting became more challenging. It was a good trip and I'd like to see it added to the list of "return trip recommended"

Fifteen AGMC members met at the Garfield exit on I-25 for the field trip to the Nakaye mine in the Derry district of the southern Caballo mountains.

The road to the mine was generally good except for the last quarter mile that was uphill and very rocky. We consolidated into appropriate vehicles for the uphill climb, and some of the group decided to take the scenic route (unintended) and reached the mine site a little late. The mine area consists of a number of cuts, trenches, adits, and shafts, and club members were soon exploring all these areas. It’s nice to have some underground workings around on a hot day, and many took advantage of the situation as the temperature was in the low 90s. Very nice specimens of the pyrite included barite were collected from a dump and adit near the south end of the workings. The bat colony inhabiting the adit did not seem happy, however, with the AGMC invasion.

John Scully worked for three hours on some very hard limestone to retrieve some small, but very lustrous, blue and colorless fluorites from the adit. To my knowledge, no rattlesnakes were seen. Rex Nelson and John Scully were having so much fun they decided to stay overnight and look for the "mother lode" pocket.

Everyone got off the hill o.k., but Jim Westmoreland decided to check out the surrounding environs on his way back to the highway.

The field trip to the Nakaye mine on May 31 was great.  There was bright blue massive fluorite for us all to collect and nicely formed clusters of barite crystals up to 1/4 of an inch in length.  I also found a small cavity in one of the tunnels and took out a fabulous cluster of light blue, perfectly clear fluorite crystals.  Rex Nelson and I poked around late in the day in a tunnel to the North of the main area.  Rex found a long cavity running from the main tunnel and pulled out a very nice, grapefruit sized complex of barite right at its entrance.  This got us so excited that we decided to spend the night there.  Since we had planned to go to our scepter claim in the Gila outside of Mule Creek, we had all we needed to stay and work the newly found cavity.  After bidding goodbye to Ray DeMark and his companion John, Rex and I tore into the mouth of the cavity widening it to get farther back.  After two hours of hard work, we found ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. 

Late in the day, tired and dirty, we turned our attention to setting up camp.  A heavy wind had come up, so we decided to get off of the mountain and head for the green arroyo about two miles to the North.  On the way, we noticed another very large diggings up in the hills.  We got to the arroyo and set up camp under a huge lone hackberry tree.  Relaxing over a beer on a rocky wash in the arroyo, I kicked up a half of a geode and then a tumbled up piece of fluorite on matrix.  We are DEFINITELY planning to head back to that area for more in depth exploration. 

In the morning, serenaded by a mockingbird in the hackberry and the cries of quail all around us, we took off for Mule Creek.  Our outing there was excellent with some very nice specimens found.  (See also Rex's article about meeting our neighbors at their Royal Castle claim).

News Nuggets welcomes articles and stories from members. You may either give them to me at the meetings or email them to me at agmcnews@aol.com.

Our field trip this month will be to the famous Harding mine in Taos Co., New Mexico. The first significant mining in the area was conducted in the early 1920s for lepidolite (Roos 1926). In 1939, the world’s second and third largest crystals of Iceland spar (optical grade calcite) were found in the area, one measured 7’ x 8’ x 11’ and the other measured 8’ x 9’ x10’ (NM Bur. of Mines and Mineral Resources, Mineral Locality Leaflet 1). From 1942-1947, mining concentrated on recovery of microlite, as there was a critical need for a domestic source of tantalum (Jahns and Ewing, 1976). The mine was reborn once again in 1950 when beryl production from this one deposit was large enough to make New Mexico the nation’s largest beryl producing state. (Montgomery, 1951). This fact is even more remarkable when you consider that it was accomplished by the labor of one man (Flaudio Griego) with two helpers and a mule named Beryl!

Our plan is to meet at the intersection of NM 68 and NM 75 (east side) in the small village of Embudo. We will proceed as a group to the mine, which is roughly eight miles east of our meeting point. The last half mile of the road to the mine could be a bit rough for passenger cars depending on recent rains in the area. We will have a port-o-potty on site, but otherwise there is no winter or other facilities at the mine. Our intention is to stay at the mine until after dark in order to search for fluorescent minerals. The caretaker at the mine (Mr. Gilbert Griego) is allowing us to stay past the normal closing time (5:00 p.m.) and also will allow those interested to camp at the site. We must ensure not to abuse the exemptions to the rules granted to our club. Fluorescent minerals occurring at the Harding mine include apatite, eucryptite, and bityite. I will bring along a suite of minerals that occur at the Harding mine or in the vicinity to this month’s meeting. The geology of the Harding mine pegmatite will be discussed at the mine.

…dimes, quarters and half-dollars have notched edges, while pennies and nickels do not?

The U.S. mint began putting notches on the edges of coins containing gold and silver to discourage holders from shaving off small quantities of the precious metals. Dimes, quarters and half-dollars are notched because they used to contain silver. Pennies and nickels aren’t notched because the metals they contain are not valuable enough to shave

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 rare, silicate mineral found in pegmatites as an alteration of spodumene. Nicely formed crystals are not common but form trigonal prisms truncated by rhombohedra when present. Hardness = 6.5, Luster = Vitreous, Cleavage = 3(rhombohedral), poor, Fracture = conchoidal, Density ~ 2.67; Streak = white, Color = colorless or white, sometimes Fluoresces pink to cerise.

What is the name of the mineral?

What is the origin of the name?

What is the mineral used for?

What minerals might it be associated with?

--NM –

--USA –

--World –

What is the name of the mineral? Topaz

What is the origin of the name? Topasos (or Topazion) Island in the Red Sea. The name means "to seek" – the island is often obscured by mist.

What is the mineral used for? Jewelry

What minerals might it associated with? Quartz, alkali feldspars, muscovite, lepidolite, cassiterite, almandine-spessartine garnets, beryl, tourmaline, apatite, fluorite, etc.

--NM – Grants, Black Range Tin District

--USA – Topaz Mountain, Utah; Pike’s Peak in CO; San Diego CO., CA; Streeter, TX; Stoneham and Topsham, ME; Amelia, VA; Jefferson, SC

--World – Brazil, the Urals, Afghanistan, Saxony, Pakistan, China, …….

Jimmy Matlock from Magnet Cove, Arkansas, is trying to develop campgrounds at the Novaculite mine in Magnet Cove. He thought this would be an ideal situation for rockhounds because of the location and mineral availability in the area. With the accessibility to Little Rock and Mt. Ida and its crystal areas, and the minerals of Magnet Cove, this seems to be a great location to hold field trips. Anyone who might be interested is asked to contact Jimmy Matlock at microrockman@hotmail.com or telephone at (501)332-4401.

High Desert Gems (in Oregon) has acquired a new mining claim adjoining Dust Devil Mine. They have discovered outstanding blood red Sunstones. They are going to open it to the public for free digging, by appointment. Besides the red, there are green and schiller Sunstones. You can keep what you find and the company will do the hard rock digging with heavy equipment. They are encouraging rock clubs or anyone else interested.

For more information, contact Chris Rose, (775)772-7724.

AGMC operates under the umbrella of the Rocky Mountain Federation of Mineralogical Societies, Inc. Our club pays annual dues, and, in return, receives

several benefits for its members. What are the benefits?

First, we have access to a large library of educational and informative slides and videos. There is also a contest each year for new slide or video program with monetary prizes.

Secondly, we are protected by liability insurance. The federation liability insurance provides protection from suits brought against us by non-members (who might be injured because of our alleged negligence).

Thirdly, we and the other 6,500+ members (through the federation) have an effect on land use policy development and implementation. This is one of our most important purposes today to keep our lands open and accessible.

Information about the federation, a calendar of events, newsletter, contests, and articles can be obtained by visiting their website (www.rmfms.org).