The Mineral Newsletter Meeting: January 23 Time: 7:45 p.m. Long Branch Nature Center, 625 S. Carlin Springs Rd., Arlington, VA 22204 Volume 58, No. 1 January 2017 Explore our Website! January Meeting Program: Unfinished Business and Mineral/Rock Giveaway In this issue … Mineral of the month: Zincite ........................ p. 2 January program details ................................. p. 3 The Prez Sez .................................................... p. 4 Club meeting and Holiday Party ..................... p. 4 Remembering Fred Schaefermeyer ................ p. 5 Schaefermeyer Scholarship Fund ................... p. 6 Field trip opportunities ................................... p. 7 Online sources for rockhounds ....................... p. 8 Fluororichterite? Not so fast .......................... p. 8 Smithsonian Mineral Gallery. Photo: Penland. EFMLS: Wildacres in May ............................... p. 9 AFMS: Safety tip—Watch for toxics ............... p. 10 Newsletter issues ............................................ p. 10 Humor ............................................................. p. 11 Bench tip: Drilling a stone ............................... p. 12 Deadline for Submissions Gold and diamond: Things in common ........... p. 12 February 1 Pyrophyllite ..................................................... p. 13 Please make your submission by the 1st of the month! Submis- Enhanced, heated, treated … fake? ................ p. 14 sions received later might go into a later newsletter. Upcoming events ............................................ p. 15 Mineral of the Month Zincite by Sue Marcus Happy New Year! Zincite is synonymous with Franklin, NJ, as exem- plified by the lovely crystal on the cover. But if you Northern Virginia Mineral Club think this mineral is always red, look at the brownish- members, green synthetic crystal below. The chemical formula of zincite is zinc oxide (ZnO), Please join your club officers for dinner at the Olive but iron and manganese (Fe and Mn, respectively) are Garden on January 23 at 6 p.m. usually significant components of the mineral materi- Olive Garden, Baileys Cross Roads (across from Sky- al. The red color comes from traces of Fe and Mn in the crystal structure. That’s why the purer synthetic line Towers), 3548 South Jefferson St. (intersecting material does not have that feature. Leesburg Pike), Falls Church, VA Phone: 703-671-7507 Although Archibald Bruce originally identified the mineral as zinc oxide in 1810, it did not receive the Reservations are under Ti Meredith, Vice-President, name “zincite” until Wilhelm Karl von Haidinger NVMC. Please RSVP to me at [email protected]. bestowed the moniker in 1845. Minerals usually re- tain the earliest name published for them, but for un- known reasons zincite was called “sterlingite” by usually too fractured, opaque, or both to make attrac- Francis Alger in 1944. Another name, used by Henry tive cut stones. James Brooke and William Hallowes Miller, was “spartalite.” With the odd and unexplained exception of the Rus- sian fumerole, zincite forms in metamorphic rocks Today, the International Mineralogical Association that are rich in zinc, iron, and manganese. Though (IMA) officially sanctions mineral names, usually zincite is rarely fluorescent, Mindat reports that at following publication of a physical and chemical de- least some yellow zincite from the Sterling Mine flu- scription in a peer-reviewed journal. Zincite, the oresces yellow-green under shortwave ultraviolet name for zinc oxide, was grandfathered into the IMA light. list of minerals. Zincite commonly occurs as small patches of red— The major occurrences of zincite are Franklin and rather like dark blood stains—in the Franklin marble, Sterling Hill in New Jersey. Natural zincite is also although it may occur as cleaved or scaly masses up found in slag heaps from mines in Poland, a country to several inches in diameter. Crystals are rare, and that also produces synthetic zincite. Mindat notes that well-formed crystals showing many faces (like the synthetic zincite crystals are commonly available for one on the cover) are very rare. In the Franklin– sale, although I personally have not seen them. Sterling Hill deposits, zincite adds color to the black The Mindat photos of zincite show natural specimens franklinite, white calcite, and beige-to-brown willem- from New Jersey, with one very odd exception: tiny ite. Dark red massive specimens may look like works (less than 1-mm) crys- of art, with swirls or sharp lines of zincite crossing tals from an arsenic- the white marble. rich fumerole—an ig- Zinc, the metal, is used as a protective coating for neous source—in west- other metals, for example galvanized pails. It is used ern Russia. in chemicals and medicines and is alloyed with cop- Zincite has yielded fac- per to make brass. The Franklin–Sterling Hill zincite eted gemstones, usually deposits are the only ones ever known to have been from synthetic material. mined for zinc; willemite and franklinite also provid- Natural specimens are ed zine ore from these mines. Zincite is not found in sufficient quantities to be ore-grade elsewhere. Synthetic zincite. Source: Wikipedia. The Mineral Newsletter January 2017 2 Technical details (source mostly Mindat): Secretary ................. David MacLean Chemical formula .... ZnO Treasurer ................ Open—volunteers needed! Crystal form ............. hexagonal Rick Reiber has been NVMC Treasurer for over 10 Hardness .................. 4 years and is due for a break. If you don’t want to Density ..................... 5.64-5.68 g/cm3 (measured) serve full time as Treasurer, please consider becom- Color ........................ usually deep or dark red, to slightly ing co-Treasurer. Rick will help you learn the ropes. purplish red Scholarships Streak ....................... yellowish-orange Cleavage .................. one good cleavage, one fair parting We also need to approve $250 grants for 2016 from the Fred C. Schaefermeyer Scholarship Fund. (For Fracture .................... conchoidal more on Fred Schaefermeyer and the club scholarship Luster ....................... resinous to subadamantine fund, see the articles beginning on page 5 below.) An interesting note from Wikipedia: Nominated are: Both natural and synthetic zincite crystals are Carlin Green ............ by Julia Nord (GMU) significant for their early use as semiconductor Austin Matthews ..... by Lance Kearns (JMU) crystal detectors in the early development of We will also consider the following nominations for crystal radios before the advent of vacuum tubes. 2017: As an early radio detector it was used in conjunc- tion with another mineral, galena, and this device Noah Fleischer ........ by Lance Kearns (JMU) was known as the cat’s-whisker detector. Grant Colup ............. by Lance Kearns (JMU) Sources 2016 Club Show Gemdat.org. 2016. Zincite. We will go over the NVMC show at GMU last No- Mindat. 2016. Zincite. vember. We will present awards for volunteers; report Minerals.net. 2016. The mineral zincite. on show results, including proceeds for the Schae- N.a. 2012. The Sterling Hill Mining Museum. Og- fermeyer Scholarship Fund; and discuss show-related densburg, NJ. successes and areas with room for improvement, giv- Wikipedia. 2016. Zincite. ing everyone a chance to make comments and sug- gestions. Budget/Upcoming Events Unfinished Business and We will also report on the status of our club budget Mineral/Rock Giveaway and go over the 2017 calendar of events to prepare for January 23 Program the coming year and make sure the right events go by Ti Meredith, Vice-President into the club newsletter. Newsletter Issues Because we didn’t have a quorum at As part of discussing the year to come, we will raise the December NVMC meeting and Holiday Party, the issues related to our newsletter, including mailing club could not make decisions on matters of pressing paper copies and participating in the annual newslet- concern. Therefore, we will dispense with our usual ter contest. President Bob Cooke has outlined the is- program and devote the January meeting to resolving sues below on page 9. Please come prepared to dis- unfinished business. But we will also have an infor- cuss! mal exchange—a Mineral/Rock Giveaway! Mineral/Rock Giveaway Club Officers Do you have minerals and other items related to our Outstanding items of business include electing club hobby that you no longer want or need? Here’s an officers. Nominated are: opportunity to clean house! Bring whatever you have President ................ Bob Cooke and put it up for grabs. Then check out what others Vice-President ....... Ti Meredith have brought and take home whatever you like! The Mineral Newsletter January 2017 3 The Prez Sez meeting. Instead, they proceeded straight to the annu- al Holiday Party. by Bob Cooke, President Secretary David MacLean is currently in Hungary, visiting relatives over the holidays. His synopsis of As the presses are about to close for this the Holiday Party will appear in the February news- edition of The Mineral Newsletter, I’ve letter. just read confirmation from Secretary Da- vid MacLean that we did not have a quor- um at the December meeting. Therefore, elections for club officers were not held. I guess my term of office has been extended for at least another month until we can have another attempt at elections. The January club meeting will be a Giveaway Con- test: Whoever leaves with the most stuff—wins! The club is donating over a dozen flats of rocks and min-