[Rockhounds] Benotite Gem Mine - and mineral fiction

[jaybates]

My memory failed me. Actually the stories behind the names are sometimes
more interesting than the minerals themselves.
----- Original Message -----
From: Nathan Martin <rocknate at gmail.com>
To: Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem collectors
<rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2007 4:10 AM
Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] Benotite Gem Mine - and mineral fiction


> Jay,
> Your information is incorrect.  The real story is well documented in Min.
> Record volume 8, number 6, pp.453-456, and it has always fascinated me.  I
> recommend the entire issue to anyone interested in the minerals of San
> Benito County, CA. I'll repeat a bit of it here.
> As many of you know, the benitoite, neptunite and joaquinite often require
> acid etching to expose them from the natrolite-filled veins.  Now to quote
> from MR:
>
> "In 1957 Francis T. Jones found in the acid baths single blades or small
> clusters of a mineral not previously recognized from the mine.  The amount
> of material was sufficient to determine that it was a new mineral but
> insufficient to fully characterize it for description.  The renewed mining
> activity by W.C. Forrest and Elvis Gray uncovered a huge block of the
veined
> blue-schist in 1970, from which many superb specimens of neptunite have
been
> recovered.  On a few of these specimens numerous rosettes of the new
mineral
> were exposed by the acid treatment.  This paper describes this new
mineral,
> for which the name jonesite is proposed in recognition of the discovery
and
> early work by Francis T. Jones of Berkeley, California."
>
> Bob Jones has many well-deserved honors, but jonesite is not one of them.
> My admiration goes to Francis Jones who had the inquisitiveness to wonder
> about some tiny crystals found in the bottom of an acid bath!
>
> About 8 to 10 years ago, in preparation for a collecting trip to the area
I
> bought a number of specimens from Mineralogical Research Co. just so I
could
> see what they looked like  One of them was a specimen of containing
several
> clusters of jonesite.  I doubt that I paid more than $10 for it.
>
> best regards,
> Nate Martin
> Lexington, MA
>
> On 4/10/07, jaybates <jaybates at rcn.com> wrote:
> >
> > Actually I think it was named after Bob Jones the editor of Rock and Gem
> > who
> > I think may have found it first..
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Grant Johnston <roughrock at gmail.com >
> > To: Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem collectors
> > <rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
> > Sent: Monday, April 09, 2007 6:56 PM
> > Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] Benotite Gem Mine - and mineral fiction
> >
> >
> > > On 4/8/07, Kreigh Tomaszewski <Kreigh at tomaszewski.net> wrote:
> > > > Grant,
> > > >
> > > > I liked your description of dandelion fluff. I have a specimen of
> > > > jonesite from Trinity Minerals. With a good lens you can see the
> > crystal
> > > > stucture and termination. Jonesite is a great rare micro.
> > >
> > > It was not real exciting looking, not like those giant gypsum Crystal
> > > in the Cave of Swords in Mexico. However, if Jonesite is the rarest
> > > mineral from the Gem Mine and is not supposed to exist in association
> > > with benitoite then those specimens  have a different type of
> > > excitement.
> > >
> > > And giving it such a common name -- Jonesite --is kind of an oxymoron.
> > > Unfortunatly, it's to small and expensive to interest me.
> > >
> > > Grant
> > > --
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