Tourmalinated Quartz

 

 

Here is one for the crystal lovers. These crystals have 'hairs' of black tourmaline inclusions in them.

 

 

Tourmalinated Quartz

tourmaline hairs

tourmaline hairs

Notice the tourmaline hairs sticking out from the host rock.

 

 

     The specimens pictured came from the Cactus mine dumps. They are located just to the east of the old ghost town of Newhouse, NV. The dumps could be seen from the ghost town. You can drive right up to them, but you may want to use a high clearance vehicle, since it is dirt roads you that will be on.

    We just collected from the surface and did not do any digging into the huge piles of material. There are several types of minerals that will be found in these piles. Nice crystals of pyrite, chalcopyrite, quartz, and tourmaline (Black radial sprays, but nothing big).

    There is a lot of debris in the area, so you need to watch where you step and what you grab.

    When you find a nice shaped crystal of quartz, wipe it off and hold it up to the light and see if it has any hairs growing in it. The hairs are the tourmaline and the dark spots will be either pyrite or hematite. Some of the crystals have a heavy coating of hematite on them, but under the coating is a clear crystal. Although, the coating gives the crystals an interesting look, so you may wish to leave it on.

    If access is still available to the "Cactus Mine" (It looked like they were planning to reopen it.) you can find some well defined quartz crystals in the tailings, some of which have the "hairs" in them.

                     

 

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