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Rogerley Mine Specimens For Sale |
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Rogerley Mine Specimens For Sale |
Page Updated February 19, 2012
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The following is a small selection of specimens currently available for sale. We are largely sold out of retail-quality specimens from previous years so what is currently presented is entirely from the 2011 mining season. The scale coin with all specimens is a British 2 Pence, 2.6 cm (1 inch) across, about the size of a US quarter. I have tried to get the color balance of these specimens as close to natural as possible, but fluorite is notoriously difficult to photograph properly. Color balance can also vary between different computer monitors. If anything, they will probably look even better in the flesh. They've promised me so. Please contact us if there is something specific you are looking for. Before ordering, please see our terms and conditions on the "Ordering" page. |
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New Specimens from 2011 The 2011 mining season finished in late August, and the majority of our harvest is currently wending its way toward California in a shipping container. We expect it to arrive late September of early October and will then be cleaned, trimmed and made ready for sale. This process is usually completed sometime during November. We did mail a couple boxes of specimens back home before departing England, and the first of these has now been cleaned and made ready for public consumption. This past mining season was a bit of a gamble. When we left the mine at the end of the 2010 season, not only had we lost our long time miner and friend Byron, but for the first time in our tenure at the mine, there was virtually no collectable fluorite showing in the mine. What we were faced with upon returning this year was the need to drive tunnel in hopes that a new area of mineralized flats would turn up. During the first half of the season we literally scraped the walls of the West Cross Cut to recover anything previously overlooked, and uncovered a small pocket in the East Cross Cut along the northern edge of the old Black Sheep pocket zone. We even found a box containing several wrapped specimens in our tool shed one day while cleaning the place up. They're obviously from the West Cross Cut but no one knows who put them there or when they were found. Fortunately, during mid-July, after driving about 20 meters of new tunnel we found a new pocket zone to the west side of the main vein. This area, named "Penny's Pocket" in honor of Aussie friend Penny Williamson who was visiting at the time of discovery, was difficult to work because of bad ground, but during late July and August yielded some fairly good material. Most specimens came out as large plates that required the pruchase of a new and larger trim-saw in order to reduce them to managable sizes. Posted below is a selection of specimens from the pocket, along with a nice older bit that recently came back to us. |
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Specimen 11-016. A cluster of sharp, deep green, twinned fluorite crystals up to 1.8 cm on edge on ironstone matrix. Very good luster and well-developed vicinal faces on the main crystals. Nice specimen. 8x5x3 cm overall size. From Penny's Pocket, August 2011. Price: $850.00 US |
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Specimen 10-042. A cluster of sharp, lustrous, untwinned purple fluorite crystals up to 4 cm on edge, with minor quartz. Purple pockets occur only in the vein at the Rogerley, not in the flats, and are difficult to extract without breaking up the fluorite. in 2010 we actually found one that gave a few good specimens. 8x8x5 cm overall size. Price: $175.00 US |
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Specimen 09-056. A mound of sharp, green fluorite crystals on limestone matrix. Set amongst numerous small untwinned crystals is a larger, transparent, twinned crystal, 2.5 cm on edge. Very nice specimen without damage. 7x6x6 cm overall size. From the Blue Bell Pocket, 2009. Price: $475.00 US |
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Specimen MS-326. A cluster of sharp, lustrous, twinned purple fluorite crystals up to 2 cm on edge, with minor quartz overgrowth from the Sutcliffe Vein. The specimen was collected circa 1975 by Lindsay and Mick from an exposure in the West Rogerley Quarry. Very good condition. 7x6x6 cm overall size. Price: $325.00 US |
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Specimen 11-001. A cluster of sharp, lustrous, twinned fluorite crystals up to 3.0 cm on edge, on limestone matrix. Many of the larger fluorites are completely transparent and very gemmy. A few spots of contact along the edges, otherwise a lovely specimen. 13x8x6 cm overall size. From Penny's Pocket, August 2011. Price: $1650.00 US Reserved |