Number 70 March 2017 The Russell Society is a society of amateur and professional mineralogists which encourages the study, recording and conservation of mineralogical sites and material. Registered Charity No. 803308 The Russell Society Website www.russellsoc.org
So Much
From
So Few
Clicks!
The Russell Society Website has been changed & updated. Be sure to check it out! RUSSELL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
Russell Society Newsletter Number 70 March 2017
CONTENTS: Page No
Society Health and Safety Policy ...... 2
Editorial ...... 3
From the President ...... 4
Society Notices 2017 ASM Weekend: Venue change and last chance to book ...... 6 Proposed Branch Restructuring - Consultation ...... 6 The 2016 Bakewell Scavenger Hunt ...... 7 Auction of an ink and watercolour painting ...... 7 Analytical Time Available to Members ...... 8 Member has Cornish cuprite specimens for disposal ...... 8 Maisemore 2017: Initial Notification ...... 8
News Items Mineralogical Society of America open access publications ...... 10 UK Mining News...... 10 The World’s deepest mines ...... 12 Researching mineral sites - the modern way ...... 13 Popular Oxford mineral shows to continue under new management 13 “Iron in Wales” workshop at the National Museum of Wales ...... 13 Handling “asbestiform” materials ...... 14 Wanlockhead and Leadhills: Collecting permissions ...... 15 Former RS President receives new Marsh mineralogy award ...... 16 Mineral Shows in 2017 ...... 17
Short Reports and Papers Mournes Mercury Mystery ...... 18 Thoughts from the Museum: A Natural History Museum Update ...... 19 Correction: “Prince of Wales Gold Mine” ...... 20
Branch Meeting and Field Trip Reports ...... 21 - 32
ISSUE NO. 70 - Page 1 - March 2017 RUSSELL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
The Russell Society Health and Safety Policy:
Adopted by Council 2015.
• It is the policy of the Russell Society, so far as is reasonably practicable, to ensure that health and safety issues as applicable to the Society have been and will be properly addressed.
• All members of the Society are to take reasonable steps for the H&S of themselves and others who may be affected by their acts or omissions.
• All members of the Society are to co-operate with the Society, so far as is reasonably practicable, to enable the Society to comply with any duty or requirement imposed on it.
• In the event of an accident or injury members of the Society should seek the appropriate medical attention and notify Society officials who will properly document all details.
• Any member of the Society can bring to the attention of Society officials any suggestions or ideas which could improve safety and prevent accidents.
One of the aims of the Russell Society is to encourage the study, recording and conservation of mineralogical sites and material. Among the various activities undertaken in pursuit of this aim, members make many field visits to sites around the country and attend many lectures and other indoor meetings. The Russell Society promotes a high degree of responsibility amongst its members in the achievement of its aims, especially with regard to Health and Safety (H&S) matters.
It has A Health and Safety Policy A Field Leaders Indemnity Form A Risk Assessment Form An Incident Report Form A Guide to Good Practice A Field Visit Check List
These documents are to encourage enjoyable and interesting visits and meetings that are educational, involve conservation and recording, and are incident free. They also show the responsible attitude that the Russell Society and its members have to health and safety issues.
The Society holds Public Liability Insurance with a limit of Indemnity of £5,000,000 (extended to include Member to Member) and Personal Accident Insurance with Zurich Municipal under Policy No: XAO-122015-4493.
H&S Review 2015
The views and opinions expressed in this Newsletter are those of its correspondents, and are not necessarily agreed with or shared by the Editors, the Council, the Russell Society or its Members. The accuracy of submissions is the responsibility of the authors or Society branches and will not necessarily be checked by the Editor for validity.
ISSUE NO. 70 - Page 2 - March 2017 RUSSELL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
“Editorial”
As yet another New Year begins to speed past us at the usual frenetic rate (Happy New Year to everyone, by the way) I find myself thinking the same sort of thoughts I have every year at this time: “How can it be March already?”, “What happened to last year?”, “Did I miss anything important?” and “I wonder what this year will bring”. One thing it certainly brings for all of us in the Russell Society is the opportunity to get involved in a lot of mineral related activities. The lists of proposed field trips, meetings and other activities offer you a wide variety of choices. Please make an effort to take advantage of some of these and participate in the activities. Go field collecting, attend meetings, visit museums, go to mineral shows and generally involve yourselves with the “mineral scene”. A healthy Society needs active members if it is to remain healthy.
We are already bearing down fast on the Russell Society’s major event of the year, the Annual Society Meeting (ASM), which incorporates the AGM. This will be held this year in North Wales; not in Tal-y-bont as originally intended but in the seaside town of Llandudno. This change was forced on the organisers in the Northwest Branch at a rather late stage by “circumstances beyond their control” and they have performed admirably to get everything set up in a new venue at such short notice. You should have received notification and full details of this already but you will find location and contact details in the following pages. Anyone who has attended an ASM weekend will tell you what a great experience they are. If you have never attended one this would be a good starting point. It is still possible to register for the event and I’m sure you would have a great time. Go on – give yourself a treat!
In terms of what else you will find in this issue of your Newsletter, I would like to start with something you will not find. For almost the first time since I took over as editor in 2011 this issue does not begin with an obituary. Nevertheless, I think that a lot of people were saddened to hear at the end of last year that Paul Lowe had died suddenly. Paul was well-known to many RS members as an active mineral dealer and as the instigator and organiser of the Oxford mineral shows. It is at least good to know that the Oxford shows will continue for the foreseeable future. Details on this and dates of future shows can be found later in this issue.
There are, as usual, a number of field trip reports, some of which had to be held over from the last issue due to lack of space. I know that a lot of members enjoy reading these and, again as usual, the current crop bear witness to the fact that you can still find interesting minerals in this country if you look in the right places. One of them also points out the advantages of taking other types of equipment (in addition to hammers and chisels) on to mine dumps. In the short reports section you will find an interesting account of native mercury turning up in an Irish river and an insider’s perspective on recent events and future plans in the Natural History Museum’s Mineralogy Group. The News Items section contains the usual eclectic mix, including mining updates (still lots of activity in various parts of the UK) and an addition to the list of “creative things to do with a drone”. A “late-breaking” item reports a significant honour awarded to a former Russell Society President. I hope you find at least some of it interesting and possibly thought provoking.
On a slight tangent - I would like to take a couple of lines here to say a heartfelt “thank you” to my faithful proof-readers (Fank Ince and Roy Starkey) who pore over my drafts and offer numerous helpful suggestions for correction and improvement. They definitely contribute largely to the quality of the final product. Clearly any errors and omissions in that final product are entirely down to me!
I know that I say this every time – and I know that you (in general) sigh deeply, raise your eyebrows and carry on with living your lives. However, that doesn’t stop me asking. I still rely quite heavily on a small number of people for the articles and other information that makes up each succeeding Newsletter. It really would be good if a few more people could be persuaded to pass on to the rest of the membership some of the interesting and potentially useful information that they must surely have come across during the preceding months (“Geologically or mineralogically interesting places I visited while on holiday”? “Interesting rocks or minerals I found/acquired”? “New activity at the mine/quarry down the road”? “Developments in my local museum?” etc.). Just the basic idea and a little factual information would be enough to get us started. Come on – give it a try.
In any event, enjoy your Newsletter and have a good year in 2017.
Michael Doel
ISSUE NO. 70 - Page 3 - March 2017 RUSSELL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
From the President:
Well the time has almost come for me to stand down as President. It is hard for me to believe that it was nearly four years ago that I took on the role, but I can truly say that it has been a rewarding and enjoyable experience. At present I have no confirmed successor, but I firmly believe it would be wrong for me to continue - it is always good to have a change in leadership in order to present new ideas and philosophies.
It is important to remember that our society is for amateurs and professionals alike and that the president need not be from a professional background. Indeed many of our most knowledgeable members are those whose interest in mineralogy began, like mine, from a hobby. Whoever steps forward into this role will be given my utmost support and I hope that all of our members will support them too.
During my time as President the Society has continued to produce its excellent publications in the form of the Journal and Newsletter. It has provided countless field trips to sites of interest around England and Wales and although membership numbers have not increased I still believe that our membership base remains strong in a changing world where virtually every society is struggling to increase numbers.
The success of the Russell Society has never been down to one individual, but is the work of a team of members: from those on Council to the individual branch committees around the country. We should all be grateful to those who give freely of their time in organising all of the things we use and cherish within our Society, from publications to meetings and field trips.
In recent years the number of members attending branch events has declined markedly, but attendance on field trips has remained strong. The drop in numbers at meetings could be for a host of reasons such as travel costs, competing interests in people’s time, an ageing (less mobile) membership, or just that some members simply have no interest in attending group events.
Related to this, two of our branches have been struggling to fill key committee positions. Further within this newsletter you will notice that I talk of a consultation over the proposed merger of several branches. This is in response to the dwindling level of activity within these two branches. I would like to praise the remaining committee members for their continued efforts in trying to maintain the branches, but sadly the requirements set out in our constitution are no longer being fulfilled. I welcome the thoughts of members on my proposals which will be discussed in detail at our national AGM, but the essential thing to remember is that any member can attend any meeting organised by any branch.
Of particular concern to me is the apparent disinterest in members attending regular branch meetings. The rising influence of social media and the world-wide-web are now more noticeable than ever. Whereas in the past the main form of communication between enthusiasts would have been face to face at meetings, people now have the option of communicating directly and instantly through social media. There are no travel costs and often no ties. Many forums are available online for those interested in mineralogy to discuss minerals and localities, and some good information can be obtained. However, I believe that social media is one of the biggest threats to societies in general.
The reasons for this are many and varied. The younger generation have been brought up in a world where information is available free, on demand, at the click of a button. Because of this expectation, children now get frustrated at the slightest delay in information appearing on the screen. I can still remember patiently waiting 20 minutes to load a computer game by tape only for it to get jammed just before the end. Our generation of children would have lost interest long before this – probably after the first minute! I think that this same expectation is being driven forward by the rise of social media.
Social media does, undoubtedly, provide some benefits, but it also has some fundamental flaws. Conversations now more often take place via text on a screen rather than face to face – although talking face-to-face on screen is an option I don’t believe that many mineralogists currently do this. From a mineralogical perspective, information circulated can rapidly get into the hands of those who would seek to exploit mineral sites for commercial gain thus spoiling it for everyone. Often amateur mineralogists will naïvely advertise new discoveries only to find out that when they next visit a locality that it has been plundered. The free nature of these groups has to some extent led to a resentment of having to pay to be a member of a larger official society. Or, much worse, societies like ours are viewed as elitist which is most certainly not the case. As a consequence, less people join societies and therefore there is less face-to-face contact.
My experience of various platforms of social media is that they rarely attract, or introduce, new audiences, but merely
ISSUE NO. 70 - Page 4 - March 2017 RUSSELL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER serve as an outlet for those who already have an interest in the subject. Many people now tell me that twitter is a good way of sending information to those you know (or who follow you), but that the information does not spread through to new audiences. Therefore, we need to think carefully about how we advertise ourselves. I still believe that the best outlet for advertising is at mineral shows where those attending already have the foundations in place for an interest in mineralogy. Social media should be in addition to, rather than a replacement of, traditional societies.
Thankfully there is one thing that social media cannot replace – field trips. This I see as a major selling point for our Society and something which we need to prioritise and highlight. They are also one of the best ways to meet and interact with new members from all backgrounds.
Before I sign off, I would like to thank the dedicated team of Society officers, past and present, for their excellent work in running our Society effectively and efficiently during my time as President.
Tom Cotterell
And now ....
For no better reason than that I have a little “spare” space .....
Two beautiful micro examples of British anatase - very small but very beautiful.
Courtesy of David Green.
Editor.
Anatase from Tanygrisiau, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd, Wales. David Green photo. Reproduced with permission.
Anatase from Cligga Head, Perrazabuloe, Cornwall, England. David Green photo. Reproduced with permission.
ISSUE NO. 70 - Page 5 - March 2017 RUSSELL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER SOCIETY NOTICES
The 2017 Russell Society ASM Weekend.
The Society’s ASM weekend is always the main event of the year, providing an opportunity for members from all branches to get together in a convivial atmosphere. Those of you who have attended previous meetings know how pleasant, interesting and rewarding they are. Those of you who have not done so have missed a lot.
This is a last minute reminder for anyone who has not yet booked their place for this year’s event which is being hosted by the North-West Branch from Friday 21st to Sunday 23rd of April. As many of you will know the organizers have had to revise their plans owing to a problem with the original venue. However that is all sorted out now and we are set to go ahead.
The venue for the AGM itself and the associated programme of talks and activities is the St George’s Hotel, Llandudno, LL30 2LG while the accommodation (and the meeting dinner) is at the County Hotel, Llandudno, LL30 1BD just a little way along the Promenade. The weekend will deliver the usual heady mixture of socialising, talks and discussions, mineral swapping and trading and of course a programme of museum visits and field trips. Further information can be obtained from Christine and Harry Critchley on 01204 694345 or [email protected]. Members are asked to book their own accommodation, either at the County Hotel (which offers a discounted rate for Russell Society attendees) or elsewhere among the range of accommodation available in the Llandudno area.
It is still not too late to sign up for this year’s meeting - why The St Georges Hotel, Llandudno, one of the venues for the not treat yourself to a weekend in Llandudno? You won’t 2017 ASM Weekend. regret it!
Editor.
Proposed Branch Restructuring – Consultation.
Many of you will be aware that both the South-Eastern and Northern branches have been without a full committee for a number of years. Under the terms of our constitution (Clause 26.2) the Branch Committee must hold a minimum of two meetings per year, one of which can include the Branch AGM. It is clear that for the South-Eastern and Northern branches that this has not been happening due to committee positions being unfilled.
This position is undesirable and therefore I have been in discussions with the South-Eastern and Northern branches to find a solution. The proposal which I have put forward and which has been communicated to those branches which will be directly affected by this is as follows:
- Merge the Northern and North-Western branches to create one branch covering the whole of Northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. - Merge the Southern and South-Eastern branches to create one branch covering the counties previously allocated to those two branches.
Although it is nice to be associated with, and feel part of, a specific branch, it should be remembered that members are not restricted to the activities of their own branch. Members are able to attend meetings and field trips arranged by any branch.
Should members of the affected branches have any other suggestions or proposals including the possibility of members filling the committee positions and continuing the existing branch setup then I welcome these. This proposal will be discussed and voted on at our National AGM in North Wales on Saturday 22 April 2017.
Tom Cotterell
ISSUE NO. 70 - Page 6 - March 2017 RUSSELL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER Russell Society Scavenger Hunt: Bakewell Rock Exchange, 8th October 2016.
The Bakewell Rock Exchange is often described as ‘the UK’s best loved mineral show’ and features dealers from around the UK and Europe gathering in the heart of England’s Peak District National Park. The show is organised by the Peak Lapidary and Mineral Society and is now in its 36th year. This year there were about 70 different stalls exhibiting a variety of rocks, minerals, fossils and gemstones, there is something for everyone, from the specialist to those on a family day out. Free and plentiful parking and a cafe on site also helps.
It did not take long for the Scavenger Hunt Prizes to be displayed on the table provided, and then the question pieces were taken around the main hall for the ‘Scavengers’ to find. Many thanks are due to all the table holders who found room for a ‘hunt piece’. This year there was an early entry ticket for the Saturday (£5 for two days) giving enthusiasts the option of a 08:00 start, with the general admission starting at 10:00 as usual (£2 per day or £3 for two days). Soon after 10:00 the first ‘Scavengers’ arrived and were very enthusiastic about the hunt. The questions are not a test (each answer being on the card with the specimen) making it a true hunt. Several found the majority of the boxes first time round the hall; but others were proving to be tricky!! In the end, twenty-six of the ‘Scavengers’ gained full marks and chose three prizes. Ten ‘Scavengers’ had ten correct answers and were invited to choose two prizes. Nine ‘Scavengers’ were unable to find all the clues, mainly due to time restrictions set by parents, and chose a lucky dip prize.
Well done to all Scavengers. Prizes varied from mineral lucky dip, mineral specimens, and mineral books and guides. All the prizes used this year had been donated by members (Neil Hubbard, Roy Starkey, Oneta Wilson, Alan Dyer, Chris Jewson, Michael Doel, Frank Bouweraerts and Harry Critchley). Many thanks to all the donors of prizes, without you the hunt would not be possible.
Christine Critchley.
Auction of an Ink and Watercolour Painting by the Late Peter Braithwaite.
Sally King has generously donated a magnificent pen and watercolour painting by the late Peter Braithwaite for auction at the forthcoming Society AGM weekend. The picture is a copy (not exact) of a painting which formerly hung in the boardroom of Consolidated Goldfields and was later purchased by Leicestershire Museums (where it now resides). The painting is thought to represent the scene at the famous Earl Ferrers’ lead mines at Dimminsdale, Staunton Harold, Leicestershire and has been the subject of some considerable debate and a couple of published papers. The copy was commissioned by Bob King because of his considerable interest in the locality.
Detail of the painting.
The picture is mounted in a varnished pine frame, measuring The complete painting in its frame. 52 x 49.5 cm, and the visible image area of the painting is about 36 x 32 cm.
If you are unable to attend the AGM weekend, postal bids will be accepted. Please send you bid in a sealed envelope to Roy Starkey, 15 Warwick Avenue, Bromsgrove, Worcs. B60 2AH, or by email to [email protected] to arrive not later than Sunday 16th April. In the event that a postal bidder is successful, the picture may be collected from Bromsgrove
ISSUE NO. 70 - Page 7 - March 2017 RUSSELL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER at a mutually convenient date, or delivered by hand via the collector network. A reserve price of £50 has been set to ensure that we reach a realistic price for this very desirable item.
Roy Starkey
Analytical Time Available to Society Members
The Society has decided to allocate funds to allow members to get some of their unidentified minerals analysed. Analytical time is available for specimens to be analysed using SEM-EDS and XRD at Cardiff University and National Museum Cardiff respectively.
Members are encouraged to contact me in the first instance to discuss the most appropriate method of analysis. Inevitably both methods will involve destructive analysis, but the quantity involved should be extremely small. Details such as the amount of material available for testing will be taken into account because preparation time needs to be kept to a minimum. At present this offer will be for a maximum of two analyses per member and due to the costs up to a maximum of twenty analyses in total. Members will be encouraged to be present during the analysis.
Members using this facility are requested to use their analytical data to publish their results within either the newsletter or, if appropriate, the journal. This need not be a full scientific article, but just a simple description of their sample and what it turns out to be. Perhaps even a short note on the experience of having a specimen identified. I look forward to hearing from interested members.
Tom Cotterell
RS Member Has Cornish Cuprite Specimens for Disposal.
Russell Society member Andy Robb (SW Branch) writes: I have available for disposal 12 very fine, hand sized specimens of Cornish chalcocite and associated minerals along with 13 smaller specimens of similar material. A list detailing these fine specimens is available on request. The specimens “would be suited to the advanced collector” as the late Richard Barstow might have said and the prices are, as always down to negotiation.
Anyone interested in these specimens should contact Andy at Erskine Cottage, Church Road, Madron, Penzance, TR20 8SW or by phone on 01736 331380 after 6:00 p.m.
Editor.
Maisemore in 2017.
The “Maisemore Event” has become one of the recurring highlights of the year. These all-day events, organised jointly between the Wales & West Branch of the Russell Society and the Cheltenham Mineral & Geological Society provide an interesting combination of talks, displays, swapping opportunities - and excellent catering!
The 2017 Maisemore get together will take place at Maisemore Village Hall, Gloucestershire, GL2 8JE on 22nd October. Teas and coffees will be available from 10:00 with the main meeting commencing at 10:30. As in previous years we hope to have a number of displays relating to the lecture topics as well as some freebies and swaps.
Final confirmation of the speakers and their topics will be in the next Newsletter. A buffet lunch will be served between the morning and afternoon talks.
I hope you will put the date in your diary and join us on 22nd October. Please let me know (Marashean@talktalk. net, 01452 618015) if you are planning to come as we are limited to a maximum of 60 attendees.
Marashean Parker A popular venue. The Village Hall at Maisemore.
ISSUE NO. 70 - Page 8 - March 2017 RUSSELL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER NEWS ITEMS:
Mineralogical Society of America and Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland Open-Access Publications.
We often find ourselves, for various reasons, trying to find electronic versions of parts of books or papers from the scientific literature on assorted aspects of mineralogy. Despite the often heard assertion that “everything’s on the internet now” this can often be quite difficult. I have never found a completely one-stop-shop solution to this but if you sometimes have the same problem you might be interested in a visit to the website of the Mineralogical Society of America (MSA), specifically to this page: http://www.minsocam.org/msa/openaccess_publications/
On it the MSA maintains a free on-line collection of interesting and useful literature. This includes a number of downloadable and very up to date “how to do it” guides on mineralogical technique such as: a) “The Guide to Thin Section Microscopy” by Raith et al. (2012). “This liberally illustrated guidebook provides a concise overview on the basics of polarized-light microscopy and its application to thin-section-based mineralogical and petrographic analysis.” b) “Double Trouble: Navigating Birefringence” by Skalwold and Bassett. (2015) “Optical mineralogy has many fascinating though often complex concepts which underlie common effects observed in minerals and lapidary specimens fashioned from them. Doubling of images such as seen through a calcite rhomb is perhaps one of the most readily observed of these properties and could well have been one put to use centuries ago in a very practical way”.
It also contains major books like “Carbon in Earth” by Robert Hazen et al, 2013. (698 pages!) which is a product of the Deep Carbon Observatory, a 10-year international research effort dedicated to achieving “transformational understanding of the chemical and biological roles of carbon in Earth.” This massive research undertaking was mentioned in an article on Dr. Hazen’s Deep Carbon Observatory in issue 68 of this Newsletter in 2016.
The site also provides access to full versions of every paper published in the MSA’s flagship journal the American Mineralogist between 1916 and 1999. Additional publications are added to the site from time to time as they are made available by either the author, a funding organization, or MSA itself. It’s well worth a look.
Don’t forget that, on this side of the Atlantic, the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland maintains a similar archive of pdf versions of every publication in the Mineralogical Magazine from 1876 to 1999. You can find it at: http:// www.minersoc.org/pages/Archive-MM/TOC/main.htm.
Taken together these sites provide access to a seriously large number of publications. Happy reading!
Editor.
UK Mining News. a) Drakelands Mine (Hemerdon) Presses On. In the last quarter of 2016 Wolf Minerals reported a number of encouraging developments from its open pit tungsten mine near Plymouth (formerly Hemerdon Bal). These include “good progress” in both the mine and its associated mining waste facility with “record volumes” of material being extracted.
There have clearly been initial “issues” in the processing plant but the company reports that these are now well understood and that an improvement plan has been put in place. This is already showing results in terms of improved throughput and recovery and record levels of production. Approval has now been given for 24 hour production seven days a week at the processing plant. This is expected to enable the production of some 20% more tungsten and tin at reduced unit costs.
The current weakness in the world tungsten price has clearly prompted the company management to take steps to strengthen their financial position. A restructuring of debt has been agreed with major lenders and shareholders, with
ISSUE NO. 70 - Page 10 - March 2017 RUSSELL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER some payments being deferred until 2018. Also, additional working capital will be injected into the business to enable focus to be maintained on developing the mine “to reach its true potential”. b) Cononish Gold Mine Sells First Scottish Gold. The gold mine at Cononish near Tyndrum in central Scotland has struggled to obtain sufficient finance to allow resumption of major mining activity and has also been challenged to meet stringent environmental and landscape tests set by the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park
However, it has now produced its first purified gold. Last year, processing of some of the 2,400 tonnes of stockpiled ore, enabled a “first pouring” of purified, commercially mined “Scottish Gold”. Scotgold, the company which owns the mine, estimates that it could produce some 198,000 ounces of gold – possibly worth nearly £200 million – along with perhaps 1 million ounces of silver. Scotgold’s CEO, Richard Gray, explained that during the initial trials it was intended to produce about 1,000 ounces of gold. The major objective being to get “Scottish Gold” into the hands of the jewellery trade in order for them to “Rounds” from the first gold ever commercially mined in Scotland. assess it and begin to build up the Scottish brand. Reproduced by permission of Scotgold Resources. It is expected that it will be particularly in demand for items like engagement and wedding rings.
Some of the gold from the initial “pouring” was fabricated into a series of “rounds”, each of which weighed one ounce and was stamped with the Scottish Gold Mark of the stag’s head and bore a unique serial number corresponding to a chain of custody system certified by the Edinburgh Assay Office. In November 2016 these were successfully sold at a sealed- bid auction in Edinburgh in which they realised an average price of £4,557 per ounce (compared to the “spot price” at the time of £952). Richard Gray expressed himself as happy with the result but noted that “the most important thing is to raise people’s awareness of Scottish gold and to highlight the fact that more gold sales are coming”. c) Possible New Life at South Crofty? Over the years we have heard about many proposals to resuscitate the tin mining industry in Cornwall, but all have been scuppered by the poor price of tin on the world market. The latest such attempt, centred on the South Crofty Mine at Pool, has at least shown encouraging progress of late.
The mine’s new owners, the Canadian-owned Strongbow Exploration, have commissioned a preliminary economic assessment of the mine, the results of which should be known in 2017, and has set in train a programme of analysis of the mine water to support an application to the Environment Agency for a “discharge permit” which would enable them to begin de-watering the mine – an exercise that would probably occupy 18-24 months. It is anticipated that it will be eminently possible to process the mine water and reduce its metal content sufficiently to allow water to be discharged into local rivers. Similar processing operations have been going on at the nearby former Wheal Jane Mine since 2000.
Still to be put in place is the estimated £100 million it will cost View of Robinson’s Shaft at South Crofty Mine. to bring the mine to production again. Strongbow is apparently Reproduced under Wikimedia Creative Commons considering a London stock market listing in an attempt to capitalise Licence. on perceived local investor interest. There is clearly a long way to go yet. We shall see! d) Brighter News for the Proposed North York Moors Potash Mine?
Potash miners in the northeast of England (actual and potential) have not been having an easy time of late. The long established Boulby Mine has had a number of problems, including a substantial downgrading of their estimates
ISSUE NO. 70 - Page 11 - March 2017 RUSSELL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER of economic potash reserves, and the proposed new polyhalite mine in the North York Moors National Park faced a long battle to get approval for its plans (finally granted last year) which include a 23 mile underground conveyor system to take the product directly to the port at Teesside.
However the latter mine has recently received good news which makes the outcome of the whole exercise more secure. Sirius Minerals, which is driving the polyhalite project announced toward the end of last year that they have managed to secure £1 billion of financing for their operation. This was raised through the issue of new shares and convertible bonds and is intended to fund the Schematic diagram of the proposed new polyhalite mine. first stages of construction, including shaft sinking. It is Reproduced by permission of York Potash. estimated that, in total, the new mine would require roughly £2 billion and 5 years to construct.
The mine will eventually have two 1500 metre (4921 feet) deep shafts, the main production shaft and a service shaft. Construction of these will be a major project in itself. Once fully on-line it is estimated that it will initially produce some 10 million tonnes per year of polyhalite before moving into a second phase which will double production to 20 million tonnes a year. It will be interesting to watch as this saga unfolds during 2017 and beyond.
I am grateful to Roy Starkey for bringing some of the above information to my notice.
Editor.
The World’s Deepest Mines.
The previous item mentioned the potash mines, actual and proposed, in the northeast of England. We have often noted in these pages that the potash mine at Boulby in North Yorkshire is one of the deepest in Europe and the new North York Moors mine will be of a similar depth. The potash beds mined there extend to about 1500 metres (4920 ft) below surface. Those of us who have been lucky enough to visit Boulby can vouch that it is certainly a long way down.
In fact the deepest mine in Europe is the 16th shaft of the uranium mines in Příbram, Czech Republic at 1,838 metres (6,030 ft) and the second is Bergwerk Saar in Saarland, Germany at 1,750 metres (5,740 ft). However, even these depths tend to pale into relative insignificance when we look at the world’s deepest mines. Eight of the Deepest mine in the World. M’poneng Gold Mine in S. Africa. ten deepest mines in the world are sunk on the gold belt Reproduced under Wikimedia Creative Commons Licence. of South Africa, while the remaining two - Kidd Creek and Creighton - are both base metal mines located in Ontario, Canada.
Rank: Mine: Location: Product: Depth: (Metres)
1. M’poneng Mine West Wits Region, South Africa Gold >4000 2. Tau Tona Mine West Wits Region, South Africa Gold 3900 3. Savuka Mine West Wits Region, South Africa Gold 3700 4. Driefontein Mine Carletonville, South Africa Gold 3400 5. Kusasalethu Mine Carletonville, South Africa Gold 3270 6. Moab Khotsong Mine Vaal River, South Africa Gold 3090
ISSUE NO. 70 - Page 12 - March 2017 RUSSELL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
7. South Deep Mine Johannesburg, South Africa Gold 2990 8. Kidd Creek Mine Timmins, Ontario, Canada Copper-Zinc 2920 9. Great Noligwa Mine Vaal River, South Africa Gold 2600 10. Creighton Mine Sudbury, Ontario, Canada Nickel 2500
Some of this data is a few years old and a few of these mines may actually be a little deeper now – they tend to keep on digging. However, 4000 metres is roughly 13,000 feet – which is a seriously deep hole in anyone’s book. For comparison that’s roughly 13 times the height of the Shard in London or about 3 times the height of Ben Nevis. The deepest mines can have temperatures in the working areas that rise to life-threatening levels. Air conditioning equipment reduces the ambient temperatures from 55 °C or more down to a more tolerable 28 °C. The rock face temperatures can be in excess of 60 °C.
Editor.
Researching Mineral Sites – The Modern Way.
Most of us will, at one time or another, have tried to dig up information about an old or obscure mine or mineral occurrence. This might arise out of a simple desire to know where it is or a degree of historical interest, or it might reflect the “collector mind-set” that says “I wonder if there is still anything there and if it might be worth a visit”. In the past this often meant a long, laborious process involving visits to libraries and poring over old maps – followed by a lot of wasted journeys. Modern technologies and the widespread availability of unimaginable quantities of data have made this a lot easier. However, I fancy that many of us do still not fully appreciate what it is possible to do these days - or make sufficient use of it.
A recent posting on Mindat by Barry Flannery, an Irish collector, gives a particularly good summary of how it’s done these days. See: http://www.mindat.org/a/drones. Apart from the old six inch maps, which still seem to be an essential part of the procedure, Barry makes use of aerial photography, satellite images, Google Streetview, a camera drone and cunning software to investigate an old and essentially forgotten mine site. All you “locality-seekers” take note! Thanks to Roy Starkey for drawing this Mindat posting to my attention.
Editor.
Popular Oxford Mineral Shows to continue under new management.
Back in 1993 (is it really that long ago!?) the Cornish mineral dealer and businessman Paul Lowe instigated a series of mineral shows in the beautiful city of Oxford. These quickly became a popular fixture in the UK mineral show calendar. Paul’s sad and untimely death last year left a hole in several areas of the mineral world and there was initially uncertainty as to whether the Oxford shows could or would be maintained.
Happily it has been announced that the organisation and running of the shows has been taken over by a triumvirate consisting of Sara Giller (Crystal Vine), Colleen Thomson (Thomson Minerals) and Ross Whittaker. These are all well known names in the UK mineral community and it seems the event is in good hands. The new organisers say that they will keep everything about the shows as it was, at least for the time being. The dates for this years shows and the contact point for further information are given in the table on page 17.
Editor. The Oxford Mineral Shows: Consistently popular with collectors. “Iron in Wales” – Workshop at the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff. Sunday th8 January 2017. Tutor – Tom Cotterell.
This was a really excellent event, attended by about fifteen members, and followed the format of similar workshops organised by Tom over the past year or so. Members gathered at the front entrance of the Museum ready for opening time and were then escorted to the Geology Department meeting room for welcome cup of coffee and introductory chat.
ISSUE NO. 70 - Page 13 - March 2017 RUSSELL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER Tom had selected a representative suite of specimens, from the National Collection, to illustrate the different modes of occurrence of iron minerals across Wales, and these were laid out for examination in a number of display cases and drawers. The workshop kicked-off with an interesting illustrated presentation by Tom outlining the three main geological settings for iron mineralisation in Wales – Ordovician oolitic ironstones; Carboniferous clay ironstones and Carboniferous
RS members examining specimens after the talk. Hands-on practical time at the workshop.
Limestone-hosted iron ores. The history of production, dating from the Middle Ages was traced, and some fascinating statistics highlighted, for example the marked decline in output from 180,000 Tons in 1612 to a meagre 17,350 Tons in 1740, due largely to the impact of deforestation on the availability of fuel to smelt the ore.
Tom took us on a virtual tour of Wales, highlighting various key localities and mines to illustrate particular points and styles of mineralisation, and we all learnt a lot about the history, geology and mineralisation associated with what many collectors might consider to be a rather dull group of minerals - think again! The next workshop is scheduled for 5th February, and will look at lead and zinc in Wales – but you’ll have missed it by the time you read this report! All in all this was a really enjoyable and informative event, and was nicely rounded off with lunch in the Museum cafeteria before everyone made their way home. Well done Tom, and thanks a lot.
Roy Starkey
Handling “Asbestiform” Minerals.
We all know about “asbestos” – or we tend to think we do. It is a term which looms large these days in a number of areas of life, partly as a result of the prevalence in earlier years of asbestos-containing building materials. This was a result of the highly desirable insulating properties (both electrical and thermal) of the mineral. Its other, hazardous properties, which result from its fibrous nature, only became apparent much later. It is now well-known and accepted that inhalation of asbestos fibres causes fatal respiratory diseases of the lungs and chest lining and the material is generally classified as “very toxic”, with most countries having stringent legislation in place to control the use of asbestos, particularly in the workplace.
We have all seen or heard stories of people affected by asbestos and also the complex and expensive decontamination exercises that can result from “traces of asbestos” being detected in a building. It is clearly very unpleasant stuff and the hazards it poses have implications that extend into the world of mineral collection and study. A paper published last year by a group of UK museum Curators deals in some detail with the problem from that point of view. See Horak et al (2016). This points out, for example, that “asbestos” is actually an “omnibus” term which embraces a series of fibrous “asbestiform” minerals including some you might not have thought of, such as: actinolite, anthophyllite, chrysotile, erionite, grunerite, rchterite, riebeckite, tremolite and winchite. although not all of these species are specified in current UK legislation.
The authors deal at some length with the problems and responsibilities faced by those in charge of large public mineral collections – which makes for somewhat scary reading. They conclude, for example, that the hazard posed by a museum’s holdings of asbestiform minerals is likely to exceed that posed by the radioactive materials which they hold. Recommendations on the management of asbestiform material include outright disposal (in accordance with hazardous waste regulations), encapsulation, sealing specimens within airtight Perspex boxes or, at the most basic level, enclosing specimens and their trays within stout, sealable plastic bags.
ISSUE NO. 70 - Page 14 - March 2017 RUSSELL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
Specimen of chrysotile asbestos, showing the fibrous Specimen of the zeolite mineral erionite. Perhaps not the nature and the ease with which fibres can detach. first thing you think of when “asbestos” is mentioned Picture reproduced under the terms of Wikimedia Picture reproduced under the terms of Wikimedia Commons Licence. Commons Licence. We as individual, private mineral collectors – while not faced with the level of problem confronting these professionals - clearly need to take note and try to ensure that any such minerals in our collections are contained as much as possible to prevent release of dangerous fibres and to prevent others coming into contact with them. We all need to think about this.
Horak, J. Faithfull, J. Price, M. and Davidson, P. (2016) Journal of Natural Science Collections. 3, 51-61. See pdf version at: http://www.geocurator.org/pubs/images%20and%20docs/Asbestiform%20Minerals.pdf
Editor.
Permissions to Collect at Leadhills & Wanlockhead.
The mines of the famous and historic lead mining area around the villages of Leadhills and Wanlockhead in southwest Scotland have long been famous as a source of unusual secondary lead minerals, such as the well known and highly desirable “triumvirate” of lead sulphate carbonate polymorphs: leadhillite, susannite and macphersonite. There has always been a lot of interest in collecting in this area but the matter of permissions and how to obtain them, along with the subject of “collecting codes” has given rise to much discussion and some confusion. Recently a Russell Society member, Jon Evans, has been in touch with the Buccleuch Estate concerning access to sites and collecting. He reports the following statements from them:
“Some mine dumps and including the smelter site at Meadowfoot (This is an SSSI and no digging is allowed) located within the Wanlock valley are assigned as sites of scientific or historic importance and as such the collection of minerals or indeed the movement of surface materials is forbidden. The precise area where collecting is forbidden is available on the internet and specifically from the Dumfries & Galloway Council website”.
“Not all of the mine dumps are covered by these restrictions and collecting is therefore permitted with permission from the Buccleuch Estate. The Buccleuch Estates are willing for the Museum of Lead Mining to give such permission on their behalf in order to manage the mining remains and control the amount of digging/remediation. Buccleuch Estate also hope that responsible collectors will make a suitable donation to the museum in return for guidance on where to collect”. Specimen of pyromorphite with cerussite and minor “The museum in return welcomes responsible collectors caledonite (7.5 x 5.4 cm) from Leadhills. and we look forward to sharing experiences and improving Rob Lavinsky photo. Reproduced under the terms of our records”. Wikimedia Commons Licence.
ISSUE NO. 70 - Page 15 - March 2017 RUSSELL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
“We cannot speak for the Leadhills mine dumps situated on the Hopetoun Estate but we understand that there is a similar ban on collecting without permission from the land owner”.
Members should be aware of these conditions and take them into account when planning any trips to the area. They should also – of course – take care to collect responsibly without damaging the environment or doing anything that might “queer the pitch” for later collectors.
Editor’s Note: Jon Evans is a trustee of the Wanlockhead Lead Mining Museum and is keen to expand the range of activities associated with the Museum. You can find more information about the Museum at www.leadminingmuseum.co.uk The Dumfries & Galloway Council website can be found at http://www.dumgal.gov.uk/ The impressive lists of minerals reported from the Leadhills and Wanlockhead mines can be found on Mindat.
Former Russell Society President Receives New Marsh Award for Mineralogy.
At the beginning of February I attended a ceremony in the Flett Lecture Theatre of the Natural History Museum in London. At this event the 2016 “Marsh Awards” for mineralogy and palaeontology were presented. These awards were created by Brian Marsh, OBE, the President of the Marsh Christian Trust, who wanted to find a way to recognise the efforts of “unsung heroes and heroines” who have devoted time and effort to “improving the world and our knowledge of it”. The Trust, which was established in 1981, now offers awards across many fields of activity with more than 150 individuals and groups being recognised in 2015. It works through a number of Partner Organisations (including charities such as the Refugee Council and Mind as well as organisations like The Royal Opera House, the Royal Horticultural Society and many others) which each submit a short-list of worthy award winners to a judging panel which makes the final decision. In the case of these two awards, the Partner Organisation is the Natural History Museum (NHM).
The award for palaeontology has been running for 8 years now but this was the first year that the award for mineralogy had been presented. It sought to identify people who had contributed significantly to the promotion of mineralogy either in the UK or abroad. Contributions could include such things as popular publications, websites, collecting and donation of natural history specimens to museums, superb preparation or conservation of specimens in public collections or artistic or technical innovations.
The event began with a talk by Professor Sara Russell, who is Head of the Division of Mineral and Planetary Sciences at the NHM and a researcher in meteoritics and early solar system processes, on the subject of “The Origin of the Solar System”. This was followed by the announcement of the winners and presentation of the awards by Mr. Marsh. The two winners, who each received a certificate and £1000, were Dr. William Blows, for palaeontology and Roy Starkey for mineralogy. Dr. Blows is a Lecturer in Applied Biological Sciences at St Bartholomew School of Nursing, City University, London. He is also an international expert on dinosaur palaeontology, famous for discovering a number of dinosaur skeletons in the UK. Roy Starkey, who is a long time member and former President of the Russell Society, is very well known to many of us. Introducing the award, Mr. Marsh particularly noted Roy’s many publications, his role in instigating the British Micromount Society and his long history of providing self- collected specimens to museums around the country.
After the ceremony there was a wine reception – much enjoyed by Roy Starkey with his Award certificate all – and a chance to talk to various NHM staff as well as Mr. Marsh, and Mr. Brian Marsh. who is obviously very committed to the Award scheme and keen to see it expanded further. All present agreed that the 2016 awards had been awarded to very good and worthy winners. The Award for Mineralogy will now be awarded on an annual basis and there will be a call for nominations for the 2017 Award later in the year. Information on the Marsh Christian Trust and the Marsh Awards can be found at http://www. marshchristiantrust.org/.
Editor.
ISSUE NO. 70 - Page 16 - March 2017 RUSSELL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER - - - - Organiser/Site for Information: http://www.oxfordshow.co.uk/ http://www.bolognamineralshow.com/ http://www.rasny.org/minsymp/ http://www.rockygems.com/colorado-min eral--fossil-spring-show-2017.html http://www.minerant.org/minerant.html http://www.oxfordshow.co.uk/ http://www.mzexpos.com/ http://www.freiberger-mineralienfreunde. de/mineralienboersen.html Don Edwards, 01433 620304. www. leyburnfair.co.uk http://www.sainte-marie-mineral.com/ an_index.php http://www.oxfordshow.co.uk/ http://www.mzexpos.com/ http://www.sotonminfoss.org.uk/smfss how.htm http://www.rockygems.com/colorado-min eral--fossil-spring-show-2017.html http://www.denvermineralshow.com/ http://www.rockexchange.org.uk/the-rock- exchange-2014 http://www.mineralientage.com http://www.mzexpos.com/ http://www.sussexmineralandlapidarysoci ety.org.uk/Home/Show http://www.oxfordshow.co.uk/ http://www.rockngem.co.uk/ - Antwerp, Denver, Ave. Denver, Ave. Denver Colo Avenue, Airport, 175 Jefferson Road Location: Exeter Hall, Kidlington, Oxford. UK. OX5 1AB Gino Cervi, 2, 40033 Casalecchio di Arena, Via UNIPOL Reno, Bologna, Italy. Radisson Hotel Rochester New Yprk Rochester, The Crown Plaza Hotel. 15500 E 40th CO 80239 Rijswijcklaan 191, 2020 Antwerp Expo, Jan Van Belgium. Exeter Hall, Kidlington, Oxford, UK. OX5 1AB Ana, California, Airport, Santa Holiday Inn, Orange County USA Huebnerhalle, Dörnerzaunstrasse, D-09599 Freiberg, Saxony, Germany. Auctioneers, Harmby Road, Tennants The Garden Rooms, Leyburn, DL8 5SG. Alsace, France. St Marie aux Mines, Exeter Hall, Kidlington, Oxford, UK. OX5 1AB Better Living Centre, Springfield, Massachussetts, U.S.A. Hampshire, UK. Community Centre, Lyndhurst, Lyndhurst SO43 7NY The Crown Plaza Hotel. 15500 E 40th CO 80239 Denver Mart Expo Hall, 451 East 58th rado, USA. Lady Manners School, Bakewell, Derbyshire, UK. DE45 1JA Fair Centre, Munchen-Riem, Munich, Germany. Trade Ana, California, Airport, Santa Holiday Inn, Orange County USA Sussex, UK. RH16 3DN Clare Hall, Haywards Heath, West Exeter Hall, Kidlington, Oxford, UK. OX5 1AB Locations Various MINERAL SHOWS IN 2017 MINERAL Event: Oxford Mineral Show Bologna Mineral Show Rochester Mineralogical Symposium Colorado Spring Mineral & Fossil Show “Minerant” Antwerp mineral Show, Oxford Mineral Show Coast Spring Gem & Mineral West Show International Freiberg Mineral Show Mineral & Fossil Fair Yorkshire Exposition Internationale Mineral & Gem Oxford Mineral Show East Coast Gem, Mineral & Fossil Show Hampshire Mineral Show Colorado Fall Mineral & Fossil Show Denver Mineral Show Bakewell Rock Exchange Munich Mineralientage Coast Fall Gem & Mineral Show West Sussex Mineral Show Oxford Mineral Show Rock ‘n Gem Shows Date: 12 March 2017 10-12 March 2017 20-23 April 2017 08-16 April 2017 06-07 May 2017 07 May 2017 19-21 May 2017 13 May 2017 27-28 May 2017 22-25 June 2017 23 July 2017 August 2017 11-13 02 September 2017 08-16 September 2017 15-17 September 2017 14-15 October 2017 27-29 October 2017 10-12 November 2017 18 November 2017 03 December 2017 Dates in 2017 Various
ISSUE NO. 70 - Page 17 - March 2017 RUSSELL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER SHORT REPORTS & PAPERS.
Mournes Mercury Mystery.
We associate mercury – the metallic element, not the planet – with analogue thermometers, dental amalgams, fluorescent lights, and pollution in Developing Countries. Worldwide, over 10 million artisan gold miners sluice and pan river sediment for gold, many using mercury to separate fine gold from the sediment. With heating the mercury vaporizes allowing recovery of the solid gold, and the escaped mercury causes fish toxicity downstream. But finding droplets of the silvery liquid in the heart of the Mourne Mountains was unexpected.
The surprise finding in March 2016 was in a panned concentrate – the handful of dark-coloured sand comprising dense minerals extracted from several hundred kilograms of river sediment. Collection of the sample was part of a research study on metallic minerals in the Mournes by the author and Richard Warner. We are particularly interested in the tin oxide mineral, cassiterite. The Mournes is one of the few areas in Ireland where cassiterite is relatively common in stream sediment, and we are investigating whether Bronze Age people might have exploited this resource to obtain tin to alloy with copper and make bronze. The stream that we were sampling, a tributary of the Trassey River north of Slieve Bearnagh, flows past one of the few known occurrences in Ireland of cassiterite-bearing bedrock mineralization, and some cassiterite does indeed occur in the panned concentrate. The upper reaches of the Trassey River in the Mourne Mountains. Picture reproduced under the terms of Wikimedia So much for tin, but where did the mercury come from? Commons Licence. Did someone break their mercury thermometer, or lose their amalgam fillings in the river? Unlikely. Were ancient prospectors using mercury to recover gold from the sediment? Unlikely – there is no gold in this part of the Mournes, although alluvial gold occurs in the Hilltown area. Could the mercury have come from the local rock? Possibly – but mercury is not found in granite-associated mineralization elsewhere in the world.
Instead we think the answer lies with another geological resource exploited in the Mournes in the not-too-distant past. One hundred years ago, granite quarrying for kerbstones and building material was a major industry and there were several workings in the Trassey valley. An old-fashioned mercury fulminate detonator. Highly effective but also highly unstable. Around this time, mercury fulminate Hg(CNO)2 was widely used as a primary explosive in granite quarrying. Picture reproduced under the terms of Wikimedia Commons Licence The wide application of dynamite was only possible because Hg(CNO)2 guaranteed a safe ignition. For this purpose it is now replaced by lead azide which is more stable during storage. Upstream of our panning site a quarry track adjoins the river and maybe some mercury fulminate escaped into the river during quarrying operations. Over the years the unstable fulminate decomposed, releasing metallic mercury by a reaction such as:
Hg(CNO)2 → 2 CO + N2 + Hg.
Mercury’s high density (over 13 times as heavy as water) ensured that the droplets remained close to where the fulminate had entered the river, to be recovered fortuitously in our panned concentrate.
Mournes Mercury Mystery unmasked? If you can contribute to this theory, or have an alternative suggestion, we would be very happy to hear from you.
Norman Moles University of Brighton
ISSUE NO. 70 - Page 18 - March 2017 RUSSELL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
Thoughts from the Museum - A Natural History Museum Update.
The last 4 years and particularly the last 12 months have been a significant time of change for the NHM so I’m taking this opportunity to start a small column in the Newsletter that keeps the Russell Society community aware of what is going on, who to contact, any exciting new exhibits or donations and what the plans for the future may hold for the mineral collection at the NHM.
As I hope this is my first instalment of many updates – let’s start with the current staff structure of the minerals bit of museum. Tedious, but useful if you want to get in touch or give an opinion. A few years ago, the Mineralogy Department ceased to be an individual department and was merged with palaeontology to form an Earth Sciences Department with a single Head, meaning, the traditional term of ‘Keeper’ was consigned to history. Currently, that position has four year tenure and is held by ore deposits researcher Professor Richard Herrington. Sitting below the Head of Earth Sciences Department is the Head of Earth Sciences Collections, Dr Caroline Smith and then we find a broad split between researchers and curators. The research and curation is spread across the different disciplines of what was once the old departments of Palaeontology and Mineralogy. It’s worth pointing out that the researchers don’t contribute to the curation or management of the collection, therefore even though the department looks quite large in terms of staff numbers, there are currently only two individuals who have curation duties of the 180,000+ specimen mineral collection as part of their role, Mike Rumsey (Senior Curator in Charge of Mineral and Planetary Sciences) and Robin Hansen (Curator, Gems and Minerals).
For those who know the museum and its staff, it’s clear that the minerals team has lost a couple of people recently. After an incredible innings of 44 years in public service, mineral curator, footballer and history of geology enthusiast Peter Tandy retired. The loss of Peter’s knowledge cuts deep, all museums work best with good succession planning and a lot of oral history is passed from curator to curator. Peter’s tenure, starting in 1971, is one of the longest and I’ve been lucky to have learnt much from him… indeed, I know that I will still be extracting little bits of information every now and then when he pops in to play for the NHM football team!
It was with great sadness this year that we lost Bob Symes; as Keeper in the 1990’s and prior to that a rare breed of researcher/curator/educator his contribution to the NHM and mineralogy in the UK was huge, although there are now only a few people left who were at the museum when Bob was employed or popped in as a visitor, his influence was great and he will be missed. It was great to see many old friends and faces from the NHM at the fantastic commemorative event co-organised by the Russell Society.
Finally, the NHM also waved goodbye to Alan Hart – who has taken a new role as the CEO of the Gemmological Association of the UK. Alan started at the museum aged 16 in 1981 and with 34 years of experience, just like Peter, his knowledge of the collection and enthusiasm to increase the exposure of NHM mineral collection to larger international stage through trips to Tucson and Munich will be traits we will now endeavour to continue.
We saw the extremely unusual instance this year of the mineral gallery being closed for a couple of months. I sincerely hope that this did catch any one out, it was publicised on the internet – but I appreciate that we don’t always check these things before heading out. The gallery was closed due to building work outside the entrance, so rest assured it was nothing to do with a change in the gallery or anything relating to the mineral collection. It’s rare that we can work in the gallery because of the ever present public – so trying to make the most of this time, the curation team was successful in a bid for money to purchase new stands and blocks to help better display the individual specimens in the case-tops and performed a thorough clean of many of the cases. Please do come and take a look, specimens are now oriented better for the species and points of interest. There is still more to do, but with over Robin Hansen cleaning the displays during the recent 12,000 specimens on display any changes have to come little- closure. by-little when opportunities like this come up. Several hundred Photo copyright: Mike Rumsey. Reproduced by permis- new specimens were added to the collection, comprising sion of the Trustees of the Natural History Museum specimens of scientific interest, aesthetic specimens for
ISSUE NO. 70 - Page 19 - March 2017 RUSSELL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER display and a few of historic or geographic interest. As ever the curation team has to bid for funding for new purchases and we had some success in this area but it’s never enough! So I am extremely grateful for those who have donated specimens to the collection or helped us through enabling further or reduced price purchases.
I would like to thank personally the follow individuals, businesses and institutions (in alphabetical order) for their contributions, via donation toward the collection over the past 18 months; John Betterton, Sheilagh Bridges, Greg Edgecomb, Georges Favreau, Mark Feinglos, Fine Art Minerals, Simon Harrison, Alan Hart, Neil Hubbard, John Jaszczak, Anatoly Kasatkin, Frank Keutsch, Roy Kristiansen, Simon Kocher, Ed Loye, Mark Mauthner, Marco Marchesini, Sami Maki, Mellish Family, Peter Megaw, Pala International, Spirifer Minerals, Deborah Roman, Russian Minerals, Oleg Siidra, Mal Southwood, Roy Starkey, Adam Stephens, Brent Thorne, Anna Vymasilova, University of Aberdeen, University of Liege, and Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
Our long term volunteers Austin Woodbridge, John Crocker and Adam Stephens have been invaluable throughout the year and their continued help really enables us to do that little bit extra with some of our collections. So this is a public thank you to them too! In particular the work that Austin and John have done on piecing together some of the history of the Ludlam Collection that once formed much of the display at the old Museum of Practical geology is fantastic – I hope that we will be in a position to write a long illustrated article for the Russell Society on this next year or late this year.
I won’t go into too many other specific projects for my first update, so I’ll end with a few words about The Ostro Stone. Earlier this year we were able to secure a long term loan of one of the grandest hidden treasures of the gemmological world and we had some TV and national newspaper coverage regarding this. The Ostro Stone is a colour enhanced (treated) deep blue topaz from Minas Gerais in Brazil; it was mined and cut in the 1970’s and until now has spent its entire time in a secret vault in London and has never been on public display. It weighs in at a little over 9,300 carats, so that’s nearly 2 Kilograms and is very nearly flawless. It is the largest cut topaz of its kind currently known about and on the scale of the world’s largest gems; it ranks in amongst the biggest. The largest probably being a naturally coloured pale yellow topaz some 31,000 carats, although its hard to determine if this really is the world’s largest ‘gem’ as the term can be somewhat subjective depending on who you talk to! Nevertheless, The Ostro Stone is of world class significance and it’s a fantastic addition to the public display at the museum. We’ve been able to locate it in its own bespoke display case at the front of the mineral gallery – the shock of blue that members of the public see when walking past the entrance is a fantastic draw to get more people, especially those not familiar with mineralogy and gemmology into the gallery and I hope that they will then learn a thing or two and find the wonderful systematic gallery inspiring. Please do come and have a look at the new addition, but don’t worry it will be here for many years so there’s no rush.
If you are planning a visit to the NHM in the next year, it is of note that the central hall, now called the ‘Hintze Hall’, is currently closed for refurbishment. As you have probably seen in the media, Dippy’s time is up and the hall is being completely changed, there will still be a display The “Ostro Topaz”. A spectacular addition to the of minerals (albeit a newly designed one) on one of the balconies. Museum’s displays. Throughout this time of construction the mineral gallery remains open, Photo copyright: Mike Rumsey. Reproduced by but the route to get to it is not as simple as it once was – signage or our permission of the Trustees of the Natural History front of house team should help you get there! Museum.
Mike Rumsey.
Correction: Article in RS Newsletter No. 69. Page 20. September 2016.
In my recent article “Prince of Wales Gold Mine. How much trust do you put in a label?” I recorded several specimens as having been sent to “J. Nader (University of Aston) for microprobe work in 1985”. It has been pointed out to me that this is J. Naden and not J. Nader. The microprobe data was published in: Naden, J. 1988. Gold mineralisation in the Caledonides of the British Isles with reference to the Dolgellau Gold Belt and the Southern Uplands of Scotland. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Aston.
Tom Cotterell.
ISSUE NO. 70 - Page 20 - March 2017 RUSSELL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
Branch Meeting and Field Trip Reports Sunday 12th June 2016. Wales and West Branch Visit to the Banks Family Geological Collection at Hergest Croft, Kington, Herefordshire. Leader: Tom Cotterell. Reporter: Roy Starkey.
This visit, by a group of 11 members, had been arranged by Steve Plant and Tom Cotterell. Our hosts for the day were Heather Pegg (Archivist), and Robert Williams (a volunteer at Hergest Croft). We gathered in the The Studio, a spacious room at the side of the main house, which houses the library and the natural history collections. Heather gave us a brief overview of the family history, estate and the collections.
The first Banks came from Kent where they had an estate at Boyce Hall. Richard Banks (1791–1871) arrived in Kington in 1814 and bought a half-share in a legal practice owned by James Davies. In 1817, Banks married Esther the daughter of Davies’ brother, William. James Davies was also involved in banking and industrial speculation, and amassed a considerable fortune. On his death, that fortune was inherited by Banks who had three sons one of whom, Richard William Banks (1819-1891), eventually inherited the Kington and Radnorshire Bank, Ridgebourne House, and the land on which Hergest Croft was later built.
R.W. Banks was a distinguished geologist and amateur archaeologist. He moved to Ridgebourne, just along the road, in 1857. His son, William Hartland Banks (1867-1930), was Hergest Croft, the long-time home of the Banks family. also a keen natural historian and, in 1894, married Dorothy Alford (1865–1937), a talented scholar who had read Natural Sciences at Girton College, Cambridge. W.H. Banks began to build Hergest Croft in 1895. The gardens have been developed over several generations of the Banks family and are now a noted botanical attraction (Banks, 1996).
It is, as yet, unclear who assembled the geological collections. The natural assumption has always been that the whole collection was the work of R.W. Banks who was a contemporary of Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, and whose field work, and specimens collected by him and others, contributed to Murchison’s magnum opus “Siluria” (Murchison, 1854). However, the mineral and rock collections contain many specimens accompanied by dealer labels which can be dated as post-1890. Examples include: Francis Henry Butler labels in the ‘systematic’ igneous rock collection upon which his address is given as “Brompton Rd., London” (see comments in Cooper, 2006 – “Robbing the Sparry Garniture: a 200-year History of British Mineral Dealers” – relating to the various premises used by Butler); George L. English & Co. labels are associated with many mineral specimens. The address printed on these labels “No. 64 East 12th Street, New York” was used by George English from 1893-1898 (http://www.minrec.org/ labels.asp?page=3&colid=319) therefore also pointing to a date of acquisition subsequent to the death of R.W. Banks.
Other mineral specimens are accompanied by handwritten labels indicating acquisition dates long after the death of R.W. Banks. These include a specimen labelled as “Dec 8th 1894 Vesuvius” another, No. 419, is labelled as “Kongsrold Norway 1908”, also “Puy du Dome 1910” and No. 496 is “Sulphur A drawer from the mineral collection - one among many. Girgenti Sicily Mar. 1911”.
Another line of evidence is the tray labels which accompany most of the mineral specimens. These labels bear a ‘Dana’ number. Dana is a well-known mineralogical reference book that groups minerals based on their composition and structure. The Dana numbers on the Banks specimen labels are consistent with the sixth edition published in 1892. All of this evidence suggests that somebody was working on, and adding to, the collection during the latest part of the 19th and early into the 20th century. Logically this points to either William Hartland Banks or his wife, Dorothy Banks, or
ISSUE NO. 70 - Page 21 - March 2017 RUSSELL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER perhaps both.
Another clue lies with a note written on the label of one of the fossil specimens - a complete Llandeilo Flags trilobite - recording “Given by Mrs Oliver to C.F. Bickmore about 1890 – returned to me Jan 1st 1930”. W.H. Banks died during 1930 and so would have still been alive to see the return of the specimen, but Dorothy is known to have had a much more active role in collecting objects of natural history having herself assembled a large systematic collection of British shells. She died in 1937 and would have had much longer to write the label remarking on the return of the trilobite specimen.
It therefore appears that the Banks family geological collections are the combined work of several generations. It might also Splendid specimen of of brookite on quartz and albite, be possible that R.W. Banks was not the first member of the almost certainly from Fron Oleu, Prenteg, Gwynedd. family to collect geological specimens - a distinct set of ‘older’ Specimen is 50mm across. handwritten labels in a drawer of ‘unidentified’ specimens have the appearance of being early 19th century. If this is the case then the collection could have been commenced by Richard Banks. Much work still remains to be done in researching the history of the collection.
The collection contains a beautifully curated, and very comprehensive, suite of rocks, a selection of minerals from worldwide localities, and an excellent palaeontological collection including brachiopods, orthocones, tentaculites, corals, gastropods, serpulites, early fish and starfish. Many of these are from the Bradnor and Hergest area, and others from farther afield.
Heather and Robert enabled us to view a selection of drawers from the collections. The photos give some idea of the breadth of the specimens and quality of curation which has stood the test of time over more than 100 years. The undoubted “star of the show” was a fine specimen of brookite, unprovenanced, but almost certainly from the classic British locality of Fron Oleu, Prenteg in Gwynedd.
Finally the party spent a short time enjoying the beautiful gardens in gorgeous warm sunshine, a dramatic change from the overcast and wet weather which had greeted us in the morning. Our thanks go to Heather Pegg and Robert Williams, and the staff of the tea-room, for a most interesting and enjoyable visit. Fossils from the collection include a number of type All photos are reproduced by permission of the Hergest Trust, specimens, and examples of the eurypterid Pterygotus Registered Charity Number 1010301. You can find full details banksii from Bradnor. about visiting the house and gardens at www.hergest.co.uk.
References: Banks, W.L. (1996) W. H. Banks and the making of Hergest Croft Gardens. Radnorshire Society Transactions, Vol. 66, 59-74. Cooper, M.P. (2006) Robbing the Sparry Garniture: a 200-year History of British Mineral Dealers. Mineralogical Record, Inc. Murchison, Sir R.I. (1854) Siluria: The history of the oldest known rocks containing organic remains, with a brief sketch of the distribution of gold over the Earth. John Murray.
Saturday 18th June 2016. Southern Branch Visit to Cavendish Mill, Stoney Middleton, Derbyshire. [SK 205 752]. Leader: Chris Finch, Reporter: Ken Hodge
On a cold, overcast morning 11 members met up in the visitors’ car park at the Mill. The Duty Manager had advised us that the hopper to the plant was being loaded with material and that we should be careful when moving around the stock piles which contained material from the Mill Dam Mine at Great Hucklow.
ISSUE NO. 70 - Page 22 - March 2017 RUSSELL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
One pile was fairly clean which led to easier collecting whereas the second pile was being moved by a front loader containing a large amount of the usual Derbyshire “mud”. On the “clean” pile there were plenty of boulders of dense calcite and fluorite vein material but crystal lined vugs were fairly scattered and not too easy to find. However , everyone managed to find a reasonable amount of material and bags were full, the minerals found included:- fluorite, calcite, baryte, galena, smithsonite and wulfenite.
A very satisfying five hours was spent collecting, our thanks for permission to collect go to British Fluorspar, to Chris Large the Plant Manager and to Mick Ryder the Duty Manager. Deep blue fluorite cubes with calcite. FoV 60mm.
Saturday 25th June 2016. Central Branch visit to Old Cliffe Hill Quarry, Stanton-under-Bardon, Leicestershire [Entrance: SK 4759 1025]. Leader and Reporter: Frank Ince.
We congregated in the quarry car park, signed our indemnity form and met Sam Hewitt (our host for the morning). Suitably booted and suited in full PPE, we stood on the south-eastern rim of the quarry for a quick description of the local geology. The upper 5–6 benches on the right hand third of the photograph (below) have exposed the late Precambrian volcaniclastic rocks of the Bradgate Formation that dip to the southwest and some of the bedding planes contain Precambrian fossils (see below). The remaining two thirds of the quarry exploits the somewhat-later Precambrian igneous rocks of the South Charnwood Diorite: an important source of high-quality railway ballast, aggregate, etc. Overlying the Precambrian rocks, and filling wadis in the Triassic land surface, are the Triassic Mercia Mudstones (Ince, 2011).
Panoramic view of the Cliffe Hill Quarry workings.
We decided to visit the volcaniclastics first and Sam drove us all to a suitable location (near SK 4755 1082) where a reasonably large pile of blasted rock provided meagre amounts of copper mineralisation. Most of us found tight joints in the volcaniclastics containing malachite and chrysocolla associated with cuprite (not as euhedral crystals) and shiny dark-grey copper sulphides (possibly chalcocite or djurleite). Chris (Finch) came across an interesting boulder with a variegated green to yellowish green and brown coating. The green components were mainly chrysocolla after malachite; although one of my pieces has some groups of unaltered emerald green acicular malachite crystals and very small amounts of a colourless tabular mineral that looks suspiciously like baryte. The yellowish green and brown coatings (again now largely chrysocolla) looked like other samples of these coatings that have been found in the past and the assumption was that ours had also been vanadates; however, given the paucity of material, it will be difficult to decide if the original material had been vésigniéite (most likely?), volborthite, tangeite, or even pascoite. This area also provided some specimens of palygorskite; a reasonably common mineral that has formed close to the Precambrian-Triassic unconformity. After walking down to the next bench (near SK 4767 1074), we found a few veins with some inferior colourless quartz crystals and dark green chlorite.
ISSUE NO. 70 - Page 23 - March 2017 RUSSELL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER Dennis McVey (Charnia Research Group and Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society) had joined our party as a visitor. Dennis and Mike (Howe) were particularly interested in the possibility of locating any bedding planes in the volcaniclastics that might contain Precambrian (Ediacaran) fossils; the quarry is an important palaeontological site and the type locality for Cyclomedusa cliffi (Boynton and Ford, 1995). Whilst the steeply-dipping bedding planes were obvious in the area around the locations mentioned above, those that we were able to investigate did not appear to show any evidence of Ediacaran biota.
Sam transported us all to the bottom level (near SK 4745 1063) where we were definitely in the diorite. Minerals were not easy to find; the most common being veins of green epidote and some massive cream calcite containing a few crystal-lined cavities. Neil (Hubbard) found a slickenslided vein that contained grey to blue coatings of what has always been described as tourmaline in the dravite–schorl series (King, 1973). Bob noted that his sample had been identified by Deans and was similar to material that Deans had described from Foyers (on the west side of Loch Ness) as “pale blue magnesian tourmaline, intermediate in composition between dravite and schorl” (Deans et al., 1971); although it was also described as “blue fibrous magnesio-riebeckite (crocidolite)” by Garson et al. (1984; unfortunately, I didn’t come across this reference when writing my 2011 article). There was some discussion about these coatings and it may be that they should be re-analysed. Our final stop was close to the primary crusher (near SK 4722 1050) in the hope that we would be close to the Precambrian-Triassic unconformity with its potential for more copper-vanadium mineralisation. This was not the case; although there were a few quartz–chlorite–pyrite–carbonate veins in the diorite that contained micaceous hematite, some dark brown laths of goethite (see Ince, 2011) and a few of the cavities in the carbonate component of the veins were lined with small orange-brown rhombs of dolomite.
Sam took us all back to the quarry car park and he was warmly thanked by everyone for his efforts to ensure that we visited the most promising-looking parts of the quarry. We would also like to thank Paul Campion (Quarry Manager) and Midland Quarry Products for permission to visit the quarry.
References Boynton, H.E. and Ford, T.D. (1995). Ediacaran fossils from the Precambrian (Charnian Supergroup) of Charnwood Forest, Leicestershire, England. Mercian Geologist, 13, 165–183. Deans, T., Garson, M.S. and Coats, J.S. (1971). Fenite-type soda metasomatism in the Great Glen, Scotland. Nature (Physical Science), 234, 145–147. Garson, M.S., Coats, J.S., Rock, N.M.S. and Deans, T. (1984). Fenites, breccia dykes, albitites, and carbonatitic veins near the Great Glen Fault, Inverness, Scotland. Journal of the Geological Society, 141, 711–732. Ince, F. (2011). The mineralogy of the area around Markfield, Leicestershire. Journal of the Russell Society, 14, 32–44. King, R.J. (1973). The mineralogy of Leicestershire. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Leicester.
Saturday 25th June 2016. North West Branch Visit to Lady’s Rake Mine [NY 806 341] and Pike Law [NY 901 314] Open Cuts, County Durham. Leader & Reporter: Ian Dossett.
Lady’s Rake SSSI lies within the Harwood valley which is structurally dominated by the Teesdale Fault, which is one of the major faults of the Alston Block. The mine is situated on the Teesdale-Winterhush Vein which is believed to be a coalescence of the separate Teesdale and Winterhush veins of the Cow Green area to the south. These veins lie within the barium zone of mineralization.
The valley is cut into the Yoredale beds of the Alston Group into which the Whin Sill has been intruded underneath the mine workings. The mine records record that the major Teesdale fault in the mine is occupied by a 4m wide Whin dyke. The unusual magnetite rock with nickel minerals is regarded as a skarn resulting from the metamorphism of the Jew Limestone and thus predating the main North Pennine lead-zinc-fluorine mineralisation. Material from these dumps is thus of great importance in genetical studies of the orefield.
The aim of this part of the day was to try and find examples of the nickel bearing minerals that have been identified in the past. These are reputedly best found by seeking magnetite rich rock with very pale green annabergite staining.
Seven members of the Russell Society met just outside the Lady’s Rake Mine area. After the initial briefing we walked the short distance to the dumps adjacent to the stream, where material has been found in the past
After much searching John Davidson found a respectable sample of a few centimetres square showing pale coppery pink metallic flakes of niccolite inside. A couple of smaller examples were also found but the sought after material was sparse. Also observed were minor examples of galena, sphalerite, magnetite, pyrite, baryte and calcite. All of interest to
ISSUE NO. 70 - Page 24 - March 2017 RUSSELL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER see. In addition a few small ironstone nodules were apparent some of which contained silvery white pyrite but no obvious nickel minerals
After a quick lunch back at the cars, we travelled down the valley to try and locate and photograph the Small White Orchid reported a few years ago in a particular spot in the meadows. The first stop was to check in with the wife of the farmer who had given permission for the visit. To get to the exact spot required the use of a GPS as the locality is very small as was the orchid sought. Unfortunately there was no sign of it but we did see excellent examples of the Northern Marsh, Early Purple, Heath Spotted, Common Spotted and Fragrant orchids.
Five of us drove the few miles to Pike Law (SSSI) opencast workings and after a little searching found the deep open cut where remnants of the vein walls are still visible. The The Small White Orchid (L) which was not seen on this trip Pikes Law Old Vein trends roughly east west predominately and the Fragrant Orchid (R) which was. in the Great Limestone. This locality is a typical example of oxidised inner (fluorite) zone mineralisation within the Northern Pennine Orefield and has provided good examples of cerussite and anglesite in the past.
Various search techniques were employed by us, from tracing the vein walls and the dislodged waste material below them, turning over boulders on the scree slopes to scraping the surface of the trimmings on the open cut floor. Between them this produced representative samples of blue and yellow fluorite and what looked like coatings of aragonite. Most of the material was severely weather damaged but did show what potentially had been extracted in the past. No examples of cerussite or anglesite were noted on the day but may become apparent after further examination at home. Overall an interesting day with a few samples to study.
We would particularly like to thank Lynda Currie of the Raby Estate for her facilitating the obtaining of permission from Lord Barnard to visit the sites, Sally Hopkins of Natural England for their approvals to collect a few representative samples from these SSSI’s for our own study, and for her assistance with the Raby Estate and the farmer for the orchid locality.
Saturday 27th June 2016. Northern Branch Visit to Workings on Feldom Vein, near Richmond, North Yorkshire. [NZ 119 041] Leader and Reporter: Steve Warren.
Feldom Vein lies at the western edge of the Richmond – Middleton Tyas mineralised area, which was worked for copper, mainly during the 18th and 19th centuries. The vein extends for approximately 1km and has been worked by a series of shallow shafts and a level driven from a valley at its western edge. Wadge et al (1982) briefly mention the vein, indicating that it carried copper and lead, with the tips showing galena, chalcopyrite, baryte, calcite and oxidation products.
The slight hitch in looking at the vein is that it lies within the Feldom Ranges, an area that has been used for live firing by the Army since World War One. Fortunately we were granted permission to inspect the vein on a non-firing day. One of the conditions of our visit was that there should be no digging into the dumps, given the potential for unexploded ordnance.
Three members turned up on a bright and windy day. Our host, Warrant Officer 1 Martin Robson MBE, ran through the safety issues and allowed us to drive onto the ranges. Other reports on the vein suggested that little would be found on dumps to the east of Feldom Lane (the main access track into the ranges) with more potential in the valley of Feldon Gill at the western end of the vein. We decided to check the eastern part of the workings first with the intention of building to a crescendo of collecting in the valley.
Mineralisation was visible as soon as we stepped out of our cars, with chalcopyrite and malachite on limestone block surfaces at trackside dumps [NZ 1195 0418]. Peter Clarke found a richer block of chalcopyrite and malachite at [NZ 1200 0419]. Moving further east, along the shallow shaft workings, Keith Lee found a very rich block of baryte with chalcopyrite and malachite (Figure 1) at [NZ 1217 0427]. A small but rich piece of azurite on limestone (Figure 2)
ISSUE NO. 70 - Page 25 - March 2017 RUSSELL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
Fig. 1. Baryte block with chalcopyrite and malachite. Fig. 2. Specimen of azurite on limestone. was found at [NZ 1224 0428] amongst part of the tips that had been turned over in a demolition practice area. Some very twisted pieces of thick metal demonstrated what 2.5kg of high explosive charge can do (thoughts of “You’re only supposed to blow the ****** doors off” came to mind). The tips became progressively more grassed over further east so we retraced our steps, quite pleased that we had found relatively rich mineralisation along the part of the vein where we least expected it.
After lunch we headed down the valley to inspect the workings in Feldon Gill. Well, that was the plan, until one of our party realised that his keys were now locked in his car. Following the ‘all for one etc.’ motto, those of us still with our keys carried on whilst the unfortunate member walked off searching for a phone signal! We soon found what looked like an old shaft and an adit working, with a small tip running down the eastern side of the valley. No sign of mineralisation was evident in the tip and no signs of dressing areas were seen, suggesting that the drive onto the western end of the vein might have been speculative and unsuccessful. We searched up and down the valley for other signs of working and whilst calcite and baryte mineralisation was found in some limestone screes south of the adit no evidence of copper or lead was seen.
Thankfully the member without keys has a very helpful wife, who drove out with a spare set. Otherwise, one wonders whether Army demolition experts would have seen it as an unexpected treat.
We are very grateful to the Army for granting us permission to visit the ranges and for Martin Robson’s kind help in looking after us on the day.
References: Wedge A. J. et al (1982). Mineral Reconnaissance Programme Report No. 54, Copper Mineralisation near Middleton Teas, North Yorkshire, Institute of Geological Sciences.
Saturday 2nd July 2016. Southern Branch Visit to Stancombe Lane Quarry, Flax Bourton, Bristol. [ST 504 681] Leader: Chris Finch. Reporter: Clive Minker.
A bright day looked down on this reporter and his wife waiting in a car park that was destined not to get any fuller than it had been when we first arrived some 30 minutes earlier. However, a few frantic phone calls soon revealed we had not driven far enough up and had to travel further down the quarry road where the remaining six collectors had been waiting for us. Although we were both the first and last to arrive, there was still time for a quick cup of tea and discussion on explosives including developments in storage, transport and application before setting off at around 09:10.
Courtney, the Production Supervisor, drove us in two groups to the very top level (Level A) accompanied by the Trainee Manager, Kyle who was to observe our visit. Walking to the end and then back along this level revealed very little mineralisation, with the odd token specimen wrapped just for fun. Examining the brown and reddish rocks, while descending along the ramp to Level B, revealed pockets filled with fine mud-like material but no crystals. Level B itself was equally void of collectibles and so we descended to Level C and all that changed.
It was here, amongst a collection of manageable boulders, that the group was able to spend most of its quarrying time harvesting colourful calcites in varying sizes and degrees of sparkle. For some, the abundance meant being
ISSUE NO. 70 - Page 26 - March 2017 RUSSELL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER able to choose specimens according to their “wow (factor) to weight ratio” in order to keep rucksack loading to an acceptable level whilst others only retrieved a few specimens despite the abundance.
While collecting was at its height, a returning vehicle rescued Kyle from his duties but not before he was plied with several typical specimens. Collecting continued and the “wow to weight ratio” worked well for most people until Chris announced he could arrange a pickup at the end of the trip. At this point a sudden downwards trend in the ratio occurred, however, it did mean that some collectors, after having lunch, could now continue their descent with empty bags and focus on filling them back up again on the next level.
The dark grey rock on Level D has that characteristic hydrocarbon Vug containing two growths of calcite crystals. smell when split. It was in this rock that small cavities, containing FOV = 70 mm. calcite and or dolomite with small fluorites, were sought but with little success. Although many large boulders provided plenty of places to search, it was felt that a rock breaker - lying dormant by the boulders - could have been put to better use. However, entertainment was at hand in the form of rock music, coming from behind a wood at the top of the quarry, which made sure everyone was kept alert in the warm afternoon sunshine and the loud rush of jet engines certainly got everyone’s attention as the Red Arrows flew in “V” formation directly overhead. It transpired they had been at Yeovilton air show.
The short walk back to the car park took us by a loader operated by Kevin, the older brother of Courtney. He was mixing topsoil with compost and dust from the crusher for places such as sports venues. Back at the offices, Kevin drove a few of us back to retrieve our spoils at Level C and the trip concluded at around 14:15. Minerals reported included calcite (some crystals were etched and contained inclusions), dolomite, baryte, one or two fluorite cubes to 2mm and possibly a spray to 7 mm of selenite on calcite.
Our thanks to Neil the Quarry Manager, to Tarmac and to Courtney, Kevin and Kyle and the rest of the quarry team for their continued support and a special thanks to the RAF for organising the fly past.
Saturday 16th July 2016. Central Branch Visit to Bardon Hill Quarry, Coalville, Leics. [SK 455 132] Leader and reporter: Frank Ince.
Our party of 14 were gathered in the visitor’s car park and were met by Eddie Bailey and Ian Briggs. Following his talk about the quarry last year, it was good to meet Eddie again; he was our host (and driver) for the morning. After a check of our PPE (all OK), we had a safety talk and a short introduction to the quarry. We had hoped to visit the new extension to the quarry on the south side of Bardon Hill; unfortunately, Eddie felt that there was too much heavy machinery about (later in the year, or next year it should be fine). We all piled into a remarkably clean minibus and wended our way through the plant and down into the quarry with Eddie pointing out interesting geological features.
On Level 15 we visited the south face (two benches below the area mentioned in last year’s report); however, on this occasion there was not a lot to be found. We moved down to Level 16 (the lowest working level, 30 m above OD) and found a pile of relatively new blasted rock (around SK 4554 1299); whilst it was mainly epidotised andesite, it did produce some pink chalcedony and small amounts of malachite. Elsewhere on Level 16 the chalcedony appeared to be filling voids in a breccia and there were also small patches of baryte, malachite and even smaller amounts of vanadates. A Russell Society hole-cramming competition with Steve Warren doing most of the work and Chris Finch looking Having seen a passing digger, we had a ‘group’ discussion remarkably happy.
ISSUE NO. 70 - Page 27 - March 2017 RUSSELL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER and Eddie contacted Stuart Simpson to arrange for said digger to meet us on Level 15 where a couple of excavations were made (around SK 4559 1277). After destroying the bund (it was reconstructed later!), some loose rock was brought out from the base of the face and a few metres to the west a hole was dug in the quarry floor. These excavations exposed the remnants of veins that contained mainly white to colourless quartz, cream to brown, euhedral rhombs of dolomite (to 2 mm, some with a marked sheen) and small sprays of a grey-green acicular mineral that appears to be epidote. There were also small amounts of calcite, baryte, manganese oxides (some as acicular pyrolusite(?) and some as arborescent dendrites), goethite and patches of a blue mineral that Neil (Hubbard) thought might be riebeckite (in the past this has been called tourmaline var. dravite-schorl).
We would like to thank Aggregate Industries for granting us permission to visit the quarry; particularly Eddie Bailey and Stuart Simpson.
Saturday 6th August 2016. Central Branch Visit to Breedon Hill Quarry, Breedon on the Hill, Leicestershire. [SK 498 230] Leader: Neil Hubbard. Reporter: Roy Starkey.
Once again we were treated to a warm sunny day as a group of Central Branch members gathered in the visitors’ car park at Breedon Hill Quarry. We were welcomed by our friend Stuart Shrimpton, the Quarry Manager. The quarry is presently not working and is used as a storage location for aggregates from other sources. This means that the available exposures are rather inaccessible and overgrown faces, with the prospects for interesting finds diminishing with each visit. A good overview of the geology of the quarry was provided by Steve Critchley in his report for last year’s visit (Newsletter 68) and so will not be repeated here.
The attentions of the group were focussed in two principal areas – the old bay below the hilltop church where galena, baryte and wulfenite have been found on previous visits, and the eastern face towards the northern end of the quarry. Paradoxically, Chris Finch and Steve King stayed behind on the area of more-recently excavated dolostone in the southern part of the quarry, and were seen to be expending considerable effort and time in the heat of the sun, to the bemusement of the rest of the party. The conversations went something along the lines of “…well, if it is Chris up there he MUST be finding something good!” Eventually, Chris and Steve made their way down into the main quarry and joined the group on the eastern face. “What were you finding?” asked everyone – “nothing really” said Steve!
The main excitement was the re-opening of the ‘Briscoe- Millett copper deposit’, last operated in August 2015. This famous occurrence had latterly produced huge quantities of calcite crystals dusted with small green sprays of malachite, and chalcopyrite crystals (now largely goethite). It had previously been thought that sufficient of this material had been recovered to satisfy all foreseeable needs, but the team were emphatically enthusiastic that more was required, and perhaps this time THE definitive specimen might be secured. Working at the face. Removing specimens from the Much work was done and energy expended, but to the “copper deposit”. onlookers it seemed that not much of real quality came out. Meanwhile, over in the “wulfenite area” Neal Hubbard and a few others were working diligently to tease-out the occasional lump of galena, which was carefully scrutinised for any sign of wulfenite or cerussite.
At the end of the morning, Stuart very kindly ferried us, our gear and specimens up the slope and back to the car park. Our thanks go to Breedon Aggregates for allowing us access to the quarry, and to Stuart for giving up his Saturday morning to look after us.
Saturday 13th to Sunday 14th August 2016. Wales and West Branch Visit to the Hafren Forest, Llanidloes, Mid-Wales. Leader and Reporter: Steve Plant.
The Russell Society (W&W) organised a trip for members to investigate and record the mineralogy of three old lead/
ISSUE NO. 70 - Page 28 - March 2017 RUSSELL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER copper mines within the Hafren Forest, situated to the north-west of Llanidloes, mid-Wales. Special permission from Natural Resources Wales was given to allow vehicular access to all the mine sites. The mines included in this survey were Sigenlas [SN 8660 8395], Nantyreira (Snowbrook) [SN 8265 8732], and Nantmelyn [SN 8615 8763].
Sigenlas, [SN 8660 8395] & [SN 8625 8390]. This mine is situated at the headwaters of the Nant Llechwedd-ddu stream within a valley bottom with the steep-sided hill, Fuches, rising to the south and Drum Maen to the north. Historically very little is known about this mine. Bick (1977) provides the only detailed account. O.T. Jones (1922) records the existence of 3 lodes, one of which strikes approximately NE-SW, another converges on this lode from a westerly direction and there is evidence of a third lode connecting the two. The Sigenlas Mine site exposed by forestry work. The mine was being worked prior to 1708 (Bick, 1977) for lead and copper ores. Further development took place in the 19th century when the mine was being worked by Lambert, Gibson & Co. In the 1860’s the lead lode in the 12 fathom level was yielding up to 1.5 tonnes lead ore per fathom. The main dressing floors were situated towards the western part of the sett where a rotary rake, two machine jiggers, and a crushing mill had been erected. The waterwheel was found to be under-powered and unable to perform the dual task of pumping and crushing. Ore returns for the mine are incomplete - 11 tonnes lead ore were returned in 1866 and 20 tonnes in 1868. There are no statistics available for any copper ore that may have been mined.
Fortunately, almost the whole site at Sigenlas is exposed due to tree-felling activities. This enabled the RS to study the site in detail. The main dressing floor dumps are still (unfortunately) forested by conifers which makes site difficult of access. On flat ground adjacent to the lower adit [SN 8625 8390] are the remnants of a wall constructed of local blocks of slate mudstone, this is probably part of the crushing mill. No obvious exposure of tip was available for examination, some loose rocks by the track-side yielded sparse mineralisation comprising galena, chalcopyrite, ferroan dolomite and trace pyromorphite coatings. The main site was well exposed although most of the tips are covered by vegetation to varying degrees, although all the trees have now been removed. Site features can still be seen when compared against the historical ordnance survey map of 1906. No access to underground mine workings is possible, all adits have been run-in and shafts are choked with debris, only examination of spoil tips, trackways and surface erosion was possible.
Mineralogy. The main mineralisation that occurs at Sigenlas is in the form of galena and chalcopyrite within quartz-rich breccias. Minerals recorded: bayldonite (not recorded on this trip), cerussite, chalcopyrite, covellite, dolomite (Fe), galena, linarite, malachite, pyromorphite, quartz.
Nantyreira (Snowbrook) Mine [SN 8265 8732].
The Nantyreira Mine main workings. Complex interpenetrating crystals of chalcopyrite set in a matrix of ferroan dolomite and quartz. FOV 2 cm.
ISSUE NO. 70 - Page 29 - March 2017 RUSSELL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER Nantyreira is remotely situated at an altitude of approx. 500 metres towards the head of the Nantyreira stream and lying on the eastern slopes of Plynlimon. The mine is of some antiquity and carbon dating of excavated charcoal fragments have produced an age of between about 2000 and 1500 B.C. (Timberlake, 1990). The earliest workings are revealed by a large opencut through which the stream now passes with further widening and rock removal in the much later nineteenth century re-working of the site. The dominant feature of the site is the remains of the waterwheel pit and site of the crusher constructed in the 1860’s. Lead ore was returned in the years 1859, 1860,1879,1880,1882 & 1883 after which the mine closed. A total output of 161 tonnes of lead ore is recorded. No production of copper ore was recorded despite its abundance on the spoil tips. The mineralised lode system trends N-S and cuts the upper grit beds of the lower Van formation, trials suggest a WSW-ENE lode further upstream.
Mineralogy. Lead/copper ores occur here within gritstones. Some secondary alteration has taken place to yield a variety of supergene minerals, albeit, in small quantities. The following minerals have been reported from here: aragonite, aurichalcite, calcite, cerussite, chalcopyrite, cuprite (not recorded on this trip), dolomite (Fe), galena, linarite, malachite, pyromorphite, quartz, sphalerite, tenorite (not recorded on this trip).
Nantmelyn Mine [SN 8615 8763]. The mine was worked by the Company of Mine Adventurers and a report from 1708 describes the workings to comprise a level 110 metres in length on which three shafts had been sunk. The lode was said to be 30cms wide. Copper and lead
The Nantmelyn Mine site beside the track. Cerussite with partial alteration to linarite. FOV 2 cm. ore were present in the vein which strikes east-west through the Van and Gwestyn formations. The Severn Copper and Silver-Lead mines company took over the workings in 1854 and ceasing production in 1879. Lead ore returns amounted to 59 tonnes and copper ore 43 tonnes.
Today, the site is overwhelmed by forestry except for some waste tips adjacent to the forestry track, parts of which are made up of mine waste. Nantmelyn Mine was worked for copper/lead ores. The ores have undergone extensive alteration to form a suite of copper and lead supergene minerals.
Mineralogy. The following minerals have been noted from this locality: anglesite, brochantite, caledonite, cerussite, chalcopyrite, dolomite (Fe), galena, hydrocerussite, linarite, malachite, pyrite, quartz.
Acknowledgements. Thanks go to Sarah Hurford of Natural Resources Wales for arranging access to the Hafren Forest, Bill Bagley of the mid-Wales Geological Society for giving me the initial impetus to visit the mines and for subsequent field work and to Lynda Garfield and David Wellings for assistance in the field and some of the photographs.
References. Bick, D.E. (1977). The old metal mines of Mid-Wales, part 4, West Montgomeryshire, the Pound House, Newent, Glos. Jones, O.T. (1922). Lead and zinc. The mining district of north Cardiganshire and West Montgomeryshire. Memoirs of the Geological Survey, Special reports on the mineral resources of Great Britain, Volume 20. Timberlake, S. (1990). Excavations at Parys Mountain & Nantyreira, in Crew, P., and Crew, S, (Eds). Early mining in the British Isles. Plas Tan y Bwlch. Occasional Paper 1, Maentwrog.
ISSUE NO. 70 - Page 30 - March 2017 RUSSELL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER Saturday 1st October 2016. South West Branch Visit to Ting Tang Mine, Gwennap, Cornwall. (SW 7275 4090). Leader: Ian Soper. Reporter: David Ifold.
Eight members of the South West Branch joined the bi- annual trip to the dumps of Ting Tang Mine. This well picked over site still continues to reward those who have the patience to search carefully. On this occasion, one member brought along help in the form of a pressure washer; another member a Geiger counter.
Ian Soper had treated himself to a Sealey PW 1712 portable pressure washer originally designed for the mountain bike fraternity. This gave Ian a big advantage as it exposed the colour of minerals not normally visible. Although this device incorporates a battery it has a socket to enable connection to a spare car battery so all day use is possible. I took along a Geiger counter which identified almost a dozen targets. No radioactive minerals were initially visible to me and some remained obscured by clays until taken home for careful cleaning. I took away one sample of soil and grit which eventually revealed detached meta-zeunerite crystals.
All members went away pleased with the day’s collecting saying they would be happy to return. The minerals found Ian Soper demonstrating the pressure washer to on this occasion included phamacosiderite, scorodite, meta- Nigel Hoppe. zeunerite, azurite, liskeardite and olivenite.
November 2016. Russell Society Visit to the Lapworth Museum of Geology, Birmingham.
In November 2016 a group of 19 RS members and their guests enjoyed a private visit to the recently re-opened Lapworth Museum of Geology on the campus of the University of Birmingham. With many of the attendees having set out very early on a frosty morning, the welcome from Jon Clatworthy, the Museum’s Director (and from “Roary” the resident dinosaur) got the event off to a great start. The coffee, tea and up-market biscuits were also much appreciated.
The visit began with a presentation from Jon in the museum’s new Education Room telling the story of the museum and the fight to secure its future. From a rather gloomy looking Edwardian brick building had sprung a visitor attraction fit for the future: modern, clean, bright and inviting. Remarkably, this project only began in 2014 with the cost of nearly £3 million being met by the Heritage Lottery Fund and generous donations by the Birmingham University Alumni Association and other various other bodies and individuals. It had been no easy task to secure the funding or to bring the project to fruition but the determination, vision and sheer hard graft of a few key individuals made it happen.
After Jon’s presentation, Roy Starkey (a member of the project team and the driving force behind the new Mineral Wealth Gallery) took us through the story of the new displays. The design and the final choice of specimens was a painstaking process. Large sheets of paper were rolled out onto the floor and specimens artfully arranged, at full scale, to replicate the planned cabinet layouts. Much discussion and deliberation ensued; specimens were moved (or removed), more discussion and pondering followed with further shuffling around of specimens – but eventually it all came together onto one impressive gallery.
Appetites whetted by Roy’s overview, the group then headed off to explore the museum for themselves. There is not room in this article to go through all the treasures on show but among the highlights in the Mineral Wealth The RS group meeting “Roary” the Museum’s dinosaur. Gallery was “The Bragge Cabinet” which is a beautifully
ISSUE NO. 70 - Page 31 - March 2017 RUSSELL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER inlaid cabinet containing polished agates and other specimens. The mineral displays feature a good selection of specimens from world-wide localities and include themed cases on British fluorite, the West Cumbrian iron mines and the Shropshire lead mines, with the latter showcasing some particularly fine examples.
However, it was not just the public-facing elements of the Museum that had enjoyed a revamp. The stores had also been refitted and reorganised and, by splitting the group in two, everyone was able to have lunch (polishing off the rest of the posh biscuits), to have a chat with Jon and to visit the refurbished stores area. It was great to be able to see some of the reserve material from the Matthew Boulton, Parsey and gemstone collections.
In the context of a museum, it is seldom possible to strike the right balance between information and entertainment. If the emphasis is on endless buttons for children to press and things that make a noise, then it is unlikely to win over the more serious visitor. Conversely, if it is simply row after row of objects, however well labelled and attractive in themselves, it is likely to have less appeal to family groups. A modern visitor attraction must find ways to make itself relevant to the widest possible audience and I think that the Lapworth has achieved this pretty well. Unlike many other museums it is open every day – and it’s free. Overall, the museum offers a first class experience and a visit is strongly recommended. For further information see: http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/facilities/lapworth-museum/index.aspx.
Susan Tyzack.
And Finally! Another empty space means an opportunity to show you a couple more small and beautiful specimens.
Thanks, once more, to David Green.
Analcime on calcite from Croft Quarry, Leicestershire. Former Mick Cooper specimen. David Green photo. Reproduced with permission.
Andradite from Coatsgate Quarry, Moffat, Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland. David Green photo. Reproduced with permission.
ISSUE NO. 70 - Page 32 - March 2017