FMF Minerals Gallery

2.JPG (Author: Scott LaBorde)

2.JPG

Another tessin habit crystal from the above fissure (Author: Scott LaBorde)

Another tessin habit crystal from

Calcite Moncure Quarry, Lee County, North Carolina, USA 7.5 x 3 x 2 cm (Author: Scott LaBorde)

Calcite Moncure Quarry, Lee County

Calcite Moncure Quarry, Lee County, North Carolina, USA 2.5 x 1 cm (Author: Scott LaBorde)

Calcite Moncure Quarry, Lee County

goethite pseudomorph after siderite Raleigh, NC 3 x 2 x 2 cm (Author: Scott LaBorde)

goethite pseudomo
Raleigh, NC

Here you can see the vertical fissure running perpendicular to the foliation. The layers of segregation quartz are visible -possibly the source of the silica that re-crystallized inside the fissure. Unless of course unless the fissures and the segregation were happening at the same time. (Author: Scott LaBorde)

Here you can see the vertical fiss

My best find at this location was this crystal. Joe was there when I uncovered the fissure containing it. It was quickly apparent that something good was going to come out of this fissure when while extracting the quartz it suddenly became glassy. It was as if the quartz exploded into crystals in a zone within the fissure. The sunlight now directly overhead reflected shiny faces on the nearly black quartz as it lay half buried in the ground. I saw one edge of the crystal above and knew immediately it was going to be killer. After quickly brushing the dirt off and holding it up in the sun Joe and I stared in awe. "Damn!", Joe exclaimed. This was a huge burst of motivation for us. Exhausted and drenched in sweat in the burning sun we suddenly found a second wind knowing that the surrounding area must contain more goodies. Joe exemplified this by promptly finding another fissure six feet away in which he extracted two or three nice crystals and some facet grade smoky quartz material. (Author: Scott LaBorde)

My best find at this location was

Quartz (smoky tessin habit) Wake County, Cary, North Carolina, USA 7 x 3 cm (Author: Scott LaBorde)

Quartz (smoky tessin habit) Wake C

Quartz (Tessin habit smoky quartz) Raleigh, North Carolina, USA 5 x 2.5 cm (Author: Scott LaBorde)

Quartz (Tessin habit smoky quartz)

reticulated rutile on a smoky quartz crystal (Author: Scott LaBorde)

reticulated rutile on a smoky quar

This was an unsually shaped crystal pulled from a fissure last year -- perhaps muzo, or just a slender tessin habit, or combination of. . . (Author: Scott LaBorde)

This was an unsually shaped crysta

We settled in at the lowest part of the construction site, a small bit of mica on the top layer of dirt prompted me to scrape the surface in search of a fissure beneath. Clank! My mattock scraped and ricocheted off of a large quartz filled fissure about 10cm in width. Further, scraping revealed the length of the fissure at roughly one meter. Excited, I commenced to excavating the fissure. Through the whole length of the fissure I found mainly garbage quartz until out of nowhere this crystal (above) popped out next to the mattock. Words can’t explain how it feels to find something this rare and beautiful, so I will have to leave it to you and your own experiences to relate. (Author: Scott LaBorde)

We settled in at
Clank! My mattoc