A five gallon bucket of Pyrite! |
| GLENDON FIELD TRIP REPORT On Saturday, October 20, 2007, Georgia Mineral Society, along with other clubs, was invited to participate once again in a trip to the pyrophylite mine owned by Standard Mineral Company at Glendon, North Carolina; our purpose was to collect pyrite and fluorite crystals. For Atlantans the trip up there is a long one, but the reward is always worth the drive. There were somewhere between 80-100 rockhounds in attendance on a beautiful day; they came from as near as just down the road and from as far away as Ontario. No one brought out any monster-sized cubes, but everyone seemed to be happy with the large number of smaller cubes they collected. My husband Mickey found a vein in a level area, a “road” for heavy equipment in the quarry, and soon we were digging out a multitude of cubes from the matrix. We were soon joined by others who settled in at different points along the vein. There were varying degrees of success related to location on the vein, but everyone was finding cubes there as well as all over the quarry. GMS member Dylan Porter had a very good day hunting fluorite crystals in the quartz. He got a bucketful of goodies which he showed off at our last general meeting. He was able to find both green and purple fluorite crystals. We had a great four hours in the quarry. To those who have not gone on this field trip before, I highly recommend that you attend. You will not be disappointed. Our thanks go out to the wonderful folks at Standard Mineral, both those who allowed access and those who spent their Saturday checking us in and keeping an eye on things. It was a terrific day! Lizabeth McClain GMS Executive Vice President - Membership |
GMS member, Matt Cecil of Jacksonville, FL. |
The kids always find the best specimens with the least amount of work!  |
Fluorite specimen from the Glendon quarry! |
Metal detectors were a definite help as witnessed by this Forsyth Gem & Mineral Club (Winston-Salem, NC) member's very large pyrite cube.  |
Betty Callahan, a mineral collector from Virginia and a GMS member . She was working the tailing piles with her rock hammer and look what she found! |
Mineral collector who removed this specimen from the quarry floor! Location found with a metal detector. |
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Photograph
- Mike Streeter
Mike Streeter's Pyrite Crystal with an Honorable Mention to George Poolin's Metal Detector |
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| Matrix pictures... |