Friends of Mineralogy, Colorado Chapter

Newsletter – September 2012 Next meeting September 6th followed by November 15th, 2012 meeting at the Denver Museum of Nature

and Science 2001 Colorado Blvd., Denver, CO

Enter the museum via the staff/security entrance, to the left of the main entrance doors on the north side of the museum. Security staff will direct you to the Meeting Room

(Board meeting 6:30-7:30)

"Where have all the minerals gone?"

Marty Zinn will share his insight into today's market in fine mineral specimens, and why those of us in the average collector category never even see the best material! His presentation will include many slides illustrating an assortment of fine minerals, and of course, he will be

happy to answer questions and discuss the subject.

Martin Zinn Marty earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Colorado in 1964, then joined the Army Corps of Engineers and served a tour of duty in Viet Nam ending in 1966 Marty's serious field collecting adventures began when he and his wife Judy bought a property near Florissant, Colorado and mined it successfully for amazonite. He has collected brookite at Magnet Cove, Arkansas; wavellite at Mauldin Mountain; quartz in Arkansas; blue barite at Stoneham, Colorado; clear barite at Grand Junction, Colorado; quartz at Herkimer, New York; red beryl in the Wah Wah Mountains of Utah; topaz at Topaz Mountain, Utah; and tourmaline at the Himalaya mine, California. He has also been a major investor in Bryan Lees' amazingly successful specimen mining operation at the Sweet Home mine in Colorado.

During the 1970's Marty dabbled in mineral dealing on the side for a while, selling off excess specimens from the family collection at the Tucson Show, the Dallas Intergem Shows and other venues. In 1982 he gave up mineral dealing in order to start a new career as a show promoter under the company name of Martin Zinn Expositions LLC, and has earned his living that way ever since. He now manages shows at four locations every year in Tucson, three shows in Denver, one show in Springfield (Massachusetts) and two shows in Costa Mesa (California), as well as managing his family's petroleum and natural gas properties in Texas, from his new offices in Bernalillo, New Mexico (P.O. Box 665, 87004). Edited from Mineralogical Record WILSON, W.E. (1999) Collector profile: Martin Zinn III. Mineralogical Record, 30, 311-316.

All are invited to attend! If you need more information or directions, please contact Pete Modreski, chapter president,

pmodreski@usgs.gov or 303-202-4766

2012 FMCC Board of Directors: 2011 Chairpersons:

President, Pete Modreski , 303-202-4766 Vice-President, Jim Hurlbut, 303-757-0283 Treasurer, Lou Conti, 303-797-3205 Secretary, Alan Keimig, alan.keimig@gmail.com Co Secretary, Norma Keimig 303-755-9604 Director, Bill Chirnside (2012), 303-989-8748 Director, Larry Havens (2013), 303-757-6577 Director, Don Bray (2013), 303-681-3646

Membership/Hospitality Preservation, Jeff Self and Donna Ware Program, Pete Modreski, 303-202-4766 Editor, Bill Hutchinson, 303-452-9009 Liaison for DMNS, Alan Keimig 303-755-9604

NOTICE!!!! Members are invited to assist at the Denver Gem and Mineral Show. We need to staff our FM Free Mineral Identification Booth at the show; you may contact Pete Modreski to volunteer. In addition two other requests for help; for both of which, please contact Pete Modreski: (1) Dr. Andrew Sicree, of State College, PA, is once again coming to the Denver Show to host a "Minerals That Do Things" demonstration booth for kids. Andrew would be very appreciative of having several volunteers to help demonstrate mineral properties at the booth, any time during the 3 days of the show, so he does not have to beat the booth himself every minute, during the whole show! To offer your help you may contact Andrew directly at sicree@verizon.net or, Pete Modreski. (2) Pete would also invites volunteers to help at the adjacent "Kids Corner" booth at the show, sponsored by the USGS. There, we will have hands-on earthquake demonstrations, rocks and minerals to see, touch, and ask questions about, and it will be the place where kids return a "Treasure Hunt" question-and-answer sheet after looking at the show exhibits, to receive a gemstone prize. Volunteers should please contact Pete, at pmodreski@usgs.gov or 303-202-4766. Thankyou!

From the editor; Another summer has come and gone, some of us were lucky enough to be able to go and field collect, others may have found some treasures at the summer shows but all of us have hopefully enjoyed our interest in mineralogy. The Camp of the Miner

As the moon rises and the campfire slowly burns itself out, a hard day of digging is done. The body exhausted, the mind in deep contemplation; friends share the moment without speaking a word. The earth gives up its treasures slowly and not without its own payment. Blood and sweat often accompany a good find and the adrenalin and excitement fade as you finish your last morsel of supper, your last sip of coffee, your last thoughts of the day. Sleep crawls into your eyes and a hard cold ground sounds as good as a down bed as aching bodies must rest to repeat the day tomorrow. All are hopeful for another good day.

Minerals have their own scale of perfection and pockets of crystals not inches apart might show little resemblance to each other just to frustrate the eager miner. A perfect crystal sitting next to the general fare of the area. What hand lends itself to such whimsical alterations. Pressure, temperature and chemistry all play havoc with our simple seemingly static lab experiments of growing crystals. Why isn't the mountain pouring forth its bounty? The dreams at night dance around similar questions as your subconscious tries to figure out where to dig next. So many dry holes, so many poorly developed cavities, diminishing and disappearing pegmatite and ore veins, read the geology and then read it again. Each hole offers its little mystery of its origin. Enough holes dug and soon a picture might arise...then again maybe not. Such is the night of a prospector/miner/mineral collector camped out in the wilderness hoping for the next great find, the latest discovery or.....just please, NOT to get skunked once again. William Hutchinson 2012

Colorado School of Mines (CSM) Geology Museum Musings

Join Us in Golden, Colorado!

The Colorado School of Mines Geology Museum (CSMGM) invites all geophiles in town for the Denver Gem and Mineral Show to attend our Annual Open House on Wednesday, September 12 from 6 to 9 pm. Come look at our displays and visit with our Museum Advisory Council members, Student Aides, volunteers, Friends of the CSMGM, and browse our Gift Shop. Every year we change-out approximately 20% of our exhibits, so that our returning guests will have new things to see. This year, we have new exhibits from Kerith Graeber (Mexican specimens), Les Presmyk (Arizona copper minerals), John Haney (American turquoise), Marty Zinn (copper minerals), Stephen Neely (Elmwood Mine specimens), Morgan Sonsthagen (Chinese snuff bottles), Harold Taylor (petrified wood), Tom Hughes (self-collected specimens), and Colorado barite specimens from many local collectors. Other changes have reshaped our fossil, micromount, and rare earth displays. As always, our gala offers free hors d’oeuvres, a cash bar, and a silent auction. The Colorado School of Mines String Quartet will provide fine music to accompany fine rocks. Stop in and schmooze with your friends. Cordially, Bruce Geller, Director Colorado School of Mines Geology Museum Golden, Colorado 303-273-3815 NEW MINERALS for 2012:

February 2012

A new mineral discovered in the Mammoth-St. Anthony mine in Arizona has been named georgerobinsonite. The mineral is named after George W. Robinson, professor of mineralogy and curator of Michigan Tech's A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum. It is a lead chromate—a salt of chromic acid—that occurs as minute, transparent, orange-red crystals on cerussite, another lead carbonate and secondary lead mineral.

June 2012

Scientists at the University of Arizona have identified two new minerals from the Wessels Mine, Kalahari Manganese Field, in north central South Africa. The material was produced in 2011, while miners searched for the well-known gem sugilite from this locality.

The first of the new minerals is scottyite, named in honor of Michael M. “Scotty” Scott, the first CEO of Apple Computer and gem collector extraordinaire. Scottyite forms millimetric masses of cobalt-blue color without cleavage. It has the chemical formula BaCu2Si2O7, and orthorhombic symmetry. The synthetic equivalent of scottyite has unusual magnetic properties, which makes it interesting to semiconductor researchers. (Before Apple, Scott was director of manufacturing at National Semiconductor.) More information and photographs are available at RRUFF. See also our 2005 profile of Scott’s collection at Palagems.com. Scottyite is associated with the second new mineral, lavinskyite, a lithium copper silicate related to plancheite. The name honors Dr. Robert M. “Rob” Lavinsky, proprietor of the mineral superstore The Arkenstone. Lavinskyite forms blue, bright acicular crystals, in association with scottyite, richterite, and pectolite. More information and photographs are available at RRUFF.

Photo from Rruff Project showing lavinskyite with wesselsite and scottyite

http://www.mindat.org/photo-474318.html

The International Mineralogical Association just approved the new mineral appellations in June 2012. Congratulations!

July 2012

The Allende meteorite that exploded over the skies of Mexico in 1969 is the source of a newly discovered mineral, panguite. More than 40 years after crashing to Earth, this meteorite is still a spring of information — a previously unknown mineral embedded in it was recently identified by scientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Named panguite, the mineral is a new form of titanium oxide. The name comes from Pan Gu, “the giant from ancient Chinese mythology who established the world by separating yin from yang to create the earth and the sky.” A study about this new discovery, and the properties of the new mineral, will be published in the July issue of the journal American Mineralogist.Additional authors on the paper, “Panguite, (Ti4+,Sc,Al,Mg,Zr,Ca)1.8O3, a new ultra-refractory titania mineral from the Allende meteorite: Synchrotron micro-diffraction and EBSD,” are John R. Beckett, senior research scientist at Caltech; Oliver Tschauner from the University of Nevada–Las Vegas; and Wenjun Liu from the Argonne National Laboratory. The study was supported through grants from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, and NASA’s Office of Space Science.

MINERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Sat., Sep. 8, 9 a.m. - 3 p.m., monthly Dinosaur Discovery Day at Dinosaur Ridge, Morrison CO, featuring Geologic Hazards and Preparedness. Wed., Sept. 12, CSM Geology Museum Annual Open House, Reception, and Silent Auction held during the week of the Denver Gem and Mineral Show; 6 to 9 p.m. at the Colorado School of Mines Geology Museum, 13th and Maple Streets, Golden. All are invited! Sept 12-16, Colorado Mineral and Fossil Show, at the Ramada Plaza Hotel (formerly the Holiday Inn), 4849 Bannock St, Denver (frontage road on west side of I-25, north of I-70); free parking and admission, many mineral dealers; see http://www.mzexpos.com/colorado_fall.htm Many of the dealers will be open as early as Sept. 8. This and several other "satellite shows" take place during the week of the Denver Gem and Mineral Show. Sept. 8-16, Denver Coliseum Mineral Show; another "satellite" show of dealers in "minerals, fossils, dinosaurs, gems, jewelry, gold, meteorites"; free admission and parking; 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily; 4600 Humboldt St., Denver CO 80216; from I-70, exit 275B at Brighton Blvd; outside tents open Sept. 8-16, tents and Coliseum open Sept. 12-16; see http://coliseumshow.com/ Fri.-Sun., Sept. 14-16, Denver Gem and Mineral Show, Denver Merchandise Mart, I-25 at 58th Ave., Denver CO; featured theme will be Copper Minerals. The second-largest gem and mineral show in the U.S. Combined with the Colorado Fossil Expo in the same building complex; a wholesale-only jewelry trade show also takes place in another section of the complex. Dealers, museum displays, lectures, club exhibits, and gold panning; public welcome (admission charge; adults $6, Seniors/Teens $4, children under 13 free with an adult); free parking. See http://www.denvermineralshow.com/ Sept. 14-16, Colorado Fossil Expo; 50 dealers specializing in fossils, meteorites, amber, petrified wood and related items; special paleontological exhibits. Held in conjunction with the Denver Gem & Mineral Show (single admission fee applies to both shows) at the Denver Merchandise Mart Plaza Annex, 451 E. 58th Ave., Denver, CO 80216. Sat., Oct. 13, 9 a.m. - 3 p.m., last Dinosaur Discovery Day of the year at Dinosaur Ridge, Morrison CO. Featuring Girl Scout “Rocks and Roles” activity day. See www.dinoridge.org for more info. ****************************************** Peter J. Modreski U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado Public Relations and Educational Outreach tel. 303-202-4766, fax 303-202-4742 email pmodreski@usgs.gov SCIENCE FOR A CHANGING WORLD http://www.usgs.gov http://ask.usgs.gov ******************************************

Meeting Dates for 2012

The dates for our 2012 meetings will be Sep 6th, Nov 15th. Membership in FMCC and National FM is $13 for 2012. Payment by check can be sent to our Treasurer or any Board member. Your newsletter editor encourages all FMCC members to send your email address so that you will receive

the newsletter electronically. The email version of the newsletter is in color; the paper version will have

none. Please send your email address to Editor Bill Hutchinson at wmhutchi5@q.com. Also if you only

want a paper newsletter but are presently receiving an email newsletter, please let your editor know.

Friends of Mineralogy–Colorado Chapter

P.O. Box 5276

Golden, CO 80401-5276