Monthly Archives: March 2014

Hallelujah Rockhounding

This sign leads to some awesome rock picking.

Some of the best rock pickin around.

My last blog mentioned Black Hat Trading in Deming, New Mexico. It is owned and operated by the Searcy Family, Jan, James and Jess. When we were in Quartzsite Bonnie talked with him and was intrigued because he said that he takes people out on field trips in the area, so she carefully kept the business card in case we came through the area again.

So, indeed we find ourselves in Deming, and we lucked out to come just when the Deming Rockhound Roundup was held. While we talked at the Black Hat Trading booth, he invited us to go over to his store and told me where to look for some agate I was after. I was lured by the promise of old Luna Agate. The Luna Agate turned out to be blue agate, not quite what I was after, but that didn’t matter, because I found lots of other stuff, including Fun!

Old buckets buried in the sand burrs. I hear that Angelic Note that is played when the heavens open up.

HALLELUJAH!!!!!

North of Deming, on Silver City Highway, you might overlook this if you didn’t know to look for it. As soon as you pull in the driveway the curiosity begins. The front of the shop is surrounded by crates that hold assorted local agates and rocks from the Big Diggins, Fluorite Hill, Baker Ranch, and other agate-rich hunting grounds. Of course there are lots of petrified wood, and assorted rhyolites including the local banded rhyolite bedrock. I was encouraged to “Go out back and check the buckets.” Certain buckets were off-limits, but when I went and took a look, the Hallelujah Chorus played in my head. I would rather hunt a bunch of old dirty buckets than take a chance at unfamiliar hunting grounds. (Besides, I have a bad leg…) Now let me tell you, I know these buckets had been sitting there for 2-3 years, because when I tried to move one, the bucket would disintegrate from UV deterioration. The buckets were filled with leaves and had sunk into the ground 2-3 inches. Hundreds of 5 gallon buckets, everywhere you looked, made this a roll of the dice as to which one to dig through. Rocks purchased from old collections were brought back and left in rows in the sand burr-infested grounds, waiting for future work. I kept an eye open for snakes, rodents, and unwelcome spiders before I stuck my hand in the buckets. Many of these were so dirty I couldn’t tell what they were until I sprayed them with water.

One bucket to set on is a good idea.

My cursory search produced some great cutting and jewelry making material, both from local sources and around the world. Since this was old material I expected to find some quality local rocks that were picked up many years ago before I was not disappointed when I found some nice banded agate from the Big Diggings, some bryzoa material, colorful petrified wood and chrysocolla. I was overwhelmed by the amount of stuff, and the good quality. I had one bucket to sit on, one to sort into as I moved down through the buckets in front of me and another for the rocks I wanted to purchase. I had lots of fun, but I limited myself to one bucket to go home with me. When you have already been to Quartzsite, Tucson, Deming’s Rockhound Roundup, the RV is pretty loaded.

I was not in the market, but if you wanted to buy a big rock for your rock garden, wow, this would be a fun place to shop. Bonnie asked what time of year to come back to see their flowers in bloom, as this was clearly not the peak season for this, but May-June would be great. Meantime while I was digging through dirty buckets Bonnie was studying and shopping inside where they had an extensive bead room, and lots of kumihimo supplies and other bead findings. And they do classes on several beading topics, so it sounds like an inviting place to spend a while!

If you are in that area, go to Black Hat Trading. This is the kind of rock shop that a TV network might visit if they were doing a reality show on “Rockin’ Rock Shops”, with a family of rockhounds, an old timer, a shop full of equipment, outside piles to explore and a store full of treasures. Can it get any better?

Rockhound Roundup-Deming NM

Sparse crowds seen upon opening.

Slab Tubs are always worth a look.

Outside tables were loaded with rocks.

I love Amazonite.

Black Hat Trading's display.

A display featuring a large, rare, Keswick Agate from Iowa.

I love this picture. "How do you make spheres Mr.?").

Rare Earth Treasures. Jeff Anderson has great Agates.

Dwarves Earth Treasures. Jeff Anderson has great Agates.

The Deming Gem & Mineral Society’s 49th Annual Rockhound Roundup opened this morning. Guided field trips began at 8am with hunts at Big Diggings, Baker Ranch, and Fluorite Ridge. The Gem and Mineral Show is at the SW New Mexico Fairgrounds with vendors both inside two permanent fair buildings and outside on the grounds. Vendors sold rough rock, slabs, cabs, beads, jewelry, machinery and other assorted rock-related items. We leisurely browsed the entire show and found a few slabs and rough rocks from which I will make handcrafted jewelry.

Crowd was low, but should pick up for the weekend. There were some great displays sponsored by club members. We had a pleasant time chatting with vendors and learning from veteran rock hounds. One gentleman from whom I purchased slabs said he had been cutting rock since 1946. I don’t think too many people can say that! We saw our friend and fellow club member Jeff Anderson, his business Dwarves Earth Treasures focuses on agates, and seemed to be the busiest booth in the outside area, with a large assortment of agates.

Bonnie bought some pieces of a new stone, Jessite Agate which was recently featured in Lapidary Journal. I talked with a fellow who said he has been cutting stone since 1947. How many people can claim that? i got a few slabs from him. As you might expect several vendors featured turquoise and chrysocolla from this area, and some folks had some very nice jewelry made with them which we admired. I loved a chunk of red dinosaur bone, but passed on it since I have a good supply. A local dealer that we have seen in Quartzsite and Tucson (Black Hat Trading) had one of the biggest displays, and he encouraged us to visit his business before we leave town.

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The Rockhound Roundup in a few hours and we really enjoyed the warm New Mexico weather. While we were there a friend sent us a picture of his truck and the snowbanks on either side dwarfing it. Perhaps we will never go home to Michigan! Next weekend is another rock show in Albequerque, and since we are headed that way, can we stand another rock show? Duh…

Pima Mine Tour

Giant Pima Mine with mill complex in background

Eighteen miles south of Tucson near the town of Sahuarita is the giant Pima copper mine. Currently the mine is 2.5 miles long by 1.5 miles wide and approximately 1200 feet deep. Each bench within the mine is 40 feet high. In 2012 the mine produced 134.3 million pounds of copper, in concentrate.

The Pima Mine is part of the Mission Complex of mines.

Unlike the mines in the Copper Country of Michigan where large solid masses of native copper where the norm, the copper in the Pima mine is microscopic and is extracted from the ore by crushing the rock four times in ball mills which resemble large rock tumblers and the copper ore is crushed by steel balls within the tumblers for copper extraction, until it is a dust-like concentrate. When the metal is extracted the remaining crushed rock is hauled away to huge waste piles and the copper concentrate is sent by truck to a mill in El Paso where copper plates are formed. Also in this concentrate is small amounts of gold, silver and molybdenum. Enough of these minerals are extracted to pay the almost $2 million electric bill each month!

Floating Copper??

Pine Oil made the Ball Mill smell squeaky clean.

Giant Ball Mills crush the copper bearing ore in three stages.

Blast hole drills.

I love this stuff from the Ray Mine.

Giant dump trucks look small in the distance.

Giant dump trucks that are so big they need to be brought in in parts and assembled onsite work up and down the ledges within the pit. After being loaded with copper ore by a gigantic electric crane the copper ore is transported to the onsite Ball Mill building. When the pit is so massive and deep when you look at the trucks from the top, they appear to be very small, but standing next to them, you would see that one tire is around 12 feet tall.

We saw a large area within the mine where drills were working to make holes for explosives. Each day between noon and three explosives are set off in the mine. Their job is to lift the ground up and then settle right back down, loosening the ground so that the giant shovels can do their work. The reserve life of the Mission Mine which includes the Pima Mine is 2033.

No harsh chemicals are used at this mine. This fact is stressed by the tour guide. Some mild acid is used, but the extraction of copper concentrate takes place in giant open vats where the copper floats to the top and is skimmed off and dried to form the copper concentrate. How does copper float in water? The answer is old technology used in washing miner’s clothes! A wash lady discovered that by adding pine oil to the soap the tiny bubbles would float to the top with attached dirt from the miner’s dirty clothes. The mine uses this same technology using pine oil to float copper to the top, skim it, and the oil is recirculated to combine and rise again.

ASARCO (American Smelting and Refining Company) Grupo Mexico obviously the company started out as an American owned company but was bought out by Grupo Mexico. They have been producing copper for over 100 years. Beside the Mission Mine complex the company also owns the Silver Bell and the Ray Open Pit Mines in Arizona.

From a rockhound standpoint other interesting copper related minerals are occasionally found in the Pima and other mines of Arizona. Those include malachite, azurite, cuprite, chalcopyrite, some other arsenides, and rare earth minerals. It seems unusual to me that the Arizona mines have slightly different associated minerals than Michigan mines. Datolite, Chlorastrolite, Mohawkite, and Prehnite are distinctive to Michigan mines.

If you get a chance and are in the Tucson area, this is an interesting and inexpensive tour to take.