MSA Monthly Meeting - September 16 2021

MSA MEETING PROGRAM & PLACE

Franciscan Renewal Center, (Piper Hall),

September 16th, 2021 @ 7.30 pm Arizona time

Limited to (50) member Seating.

Masks Required.

"Quartz – Another Mineral Arizona Should Be Famous For”
Presented by Mr. Les Presmyk

SEPTEMBER meeting is on 3rd Thursday and will be first in person meeting at FRC since 2020 pandemic. 

* RSVP required as seating limited to (50) members

* Masks required

* No refreshments

MEETING will be In-Person and Zoom.

The MSA September 16th program will be presented by our own Mr. Les Presmyk, "Quartz – Another Mineral Arizona Should Be Famous For.”

When a collector is asked to name five or ten mineral species from Arizona, azurite, malachite, copper, vanadinite and wulfenite will probably top the list.  Quartz might make the top ten list but only if there are a few die-hard Arizona collectors and lapidarists helping to sway the vote.  On the cutting and polishing side of the hobby, Arizona’s fire agates, gem silica, ang its multitude of agate and jasper localities are well known.  Of course, this list would not be complete with the inclusion of Four Peaks amethyst, which is some of the best in the world. 

Some of Arizona’s specimen quartz localities are the result of its long mining history.  Sparkly, drusy quartz crystals covering chrysocolla, along with quartz colored by chrysocolla and pseudomorphs have been produced from the Old Dominion Mine (Globe), the Live Oak Mine (Miami), the Ray Mine (Kearny) and the Bagdad Mine (Bagdad).  Interestingly, these combinations are rare to non-existent from the great mines of Ajo, Morenci and Bisbee.

Then, there are the number of Arizona’s quartz localities recovered as the result of collectors working the areas for specimens.  These include Date Creek Ranch, the Fat Jack Claim near Crown King, the Huachuca Mountains south of Sierra Vista, Diamond Point northeast of Payson, the Stanley Butte area on the San Carlos Apache Tribe Reservation, and the Washington Camp/Duquesne localities in southern Arizona, to name a few.  These localities have produced fine scepters, Japan-Law twins, amethyst, smoky quartz and even lustrous, clear and amethyst crystals that rival the famous Herkimer, New York crystals.

As an aside, the 2023 Tucson Show theme will be Silica and this will give us an opportunity to show the rest of the collecting world the quality of Arizona quartz specimens.  

Quartz (Japan-Law twins), Washington Camp, Santa Cruz County, Arizona; Jeff Scovil Photo.

Quartz var Amethyst, Date Creek Ranch, Yavapai County, Arizona; Jeff Scovil Photo.