Crystalized gold from Round Mountainmine. Size 6.8 cm. Spirifer collection.　　Imagine going to the Tucson Gemand Mineral show, and seeing some newgolds from a mine you have never heardof. They are leafy specimens with bright,shiny, yellow gold and hints of octahedralcrystals on the edges. The specimens arepretty and inexpensive, and you have tohave one. Then you return to Tucson thenext year and see more golds from thesame mine with even better ..

　　In total, over 400 specimens werecollected, with sperrylite crystals rangingin size from under 1 to 15 mm andranging in quality from poor to excellent.SPERRYLITE　　Sperrylite from the Broken Hammerzone occurs as isolated, mostly complete,well-formed, euhedral crystals with bright silver-white, highly reflectivecrystal faces. All were found encased inmatrix and later exposed mechanically.Sperrylite crystal in chalcopyrite, crystal 1.3 cm wide..

MINERALIZATIONOF THE BROKEN HAMMER ZONE　　The Broken Hammer zone Cu-Ni-PGE deposit is located approximately 17km north of Val Caron in Wisner Townshipand 30 km north of Sudbury.The de-posit also lies 1.3 km north of the presentexposure of the SIC footwall contact.General view of the specimen and closeup of the sperrylite crystal in breccia matrix. Crystal 1.5 cm wide. Wallbridge specimen. M. Bainbridge photos.Sperrylite-rich specimen, the bigges..

　　A spectacular find of sperrylite crystalswas made in 2011 at the BrokenHammer zone near Sudbury, Ontario,Canada. Fine crystals as large as 15 mmwere recovered from surface exposures.　　The Broken Hammer zone is a platinumgroup element-copper-nickel deposit,located in the Sudbury region, thatis currently being considered for minedevelopment by Wallbridge Mining CompanyLimited. It’s interesting to note thatin a mining camp as old and as ..

　One of the first specimens collected from 2010 pocket, before and after some cleaning; size 29 cm, the longest crystals up to 5 cm. A. Wright photo.SPECIMENS FROM 2010 POCKET　　There were around 350 collectorgrade specimens recovered from the2010 Pocket, not counting the many loosesingle crystals found in the detritus at the bottom of the pocket. These specimensrange in size from thumbnail tovery large cabinet. The color of the crocoitefrom th..

Crocoite, 8.7 cm high. Gobin specimen. J. Scovil photo.　　It has been reported that only around20% of this pocket was actually recoveredintact and the rest was destroyedduring the process of extraction. It isunknown exactly how many specimensthis pocket produced but it would probablybe in the hundreds rather thanthe thousands. Of those producedonly a very small percentage were inthe upper echelon of mineral specimens.High quality crocoite specim..

Footwall pocket found before the discovery of 2010 Pocket. Intense weathering causedspecimens to fall apart, leaving mostly single crystals. A. Wright photo.　　DundasiteAlthough not forming in spectacularspecimens, dundasite is highly valued from the Adelaide mine as it is the typelocality for this mineral. Locally abundant,it occurs as small, spheroidal clustersbuilt of acicular crystals. Thespheroids can reach 1 cm in diameter,but are typicall..

Crocoite from “2010 Pocket”,10.1 cm high. Gobin specimen.　　The “2010 Pocket” produced a number ofworld-class specimens with great colorand exceptional crystal size. Crocoitesfrom this find are surely among theworld’s best.Following is the first writtenaccount of this recent find.DUNDAS AREA – WORLD PRIME PRODUCEROF CROCOITE SPECIMENS　　There are two crocoite producingregions in the Western Tasmania, theHeazl..

　　Mumbai, a city more familiar to mostWesterners, lies 285 km away to thewest-south-west. Momin Akhada is lo-cated in an area which depends on waterfor irrigation sourced from wells excavatedin the solid basalt and, becausethese wells last only for a few years, newones have to be “dug” on a continuousbasis. But while there are dozens of suchwells in the vicinity of the village, thevast majority of them do not producepockets and, eve..

　　When volcanic eruptions occur andlava is released onto the earth’s surface, burgeoningconstruction industry and thebasalts of the Deccan Traps are ideal forthe purpose. This is why there are somany quarries around virtually everycity or large town in the state and, ofcourse, these quarries are a majorsource of specimen minerals. Surprisingly,however, some of the most importantmineral finds have been made during the digging of wells, rat..