| The
Indian Mountain area in eastern Alabama and western Georgia is a great
source of excellent phosphate microminerals. Open pit iron ore mines
were first operated here starting in the mid-1800's and all have since
ceased operations. The ore consisted of limonite with some hematite
present and was between 46-61% metallic iron. The impurities in this
ore body allowed for the secondary development of abundant phosphate microminerals.
COLLECTING: limonite, hematite, goethite, psilomelane. Microminerals include the following: churchite, cacoxenite, beraunite, dufrenite, kidwellite, rockbridgeite, strengite, and wavellite. |
Bright Yellow cacoxenites of radiating fibrous masses. |
Close-up view of the cacoxenite. |
cacoxenite |
Light purple prisms of strengite crystals on black fibrous crusts of rockbridgeite! |
More prisms of strengite crystals on black fibrous crusts of rockbridgeite |
|
by Dr. David Babulski Mineral collector, micromounter, and Master technical instructor (Photos were taken with a monocular microscope at 20x) (Film is Kodak Royal Gold 200 color print film.) (Light source is a filtered xenon miniature lamp.) (Exposure is 1-2 seconds.) |
