Pinal Gem and Mineral Society

(pinalgemandmineralsociety.org)

NewsletterVolume 3, Number 2, February 2017

Meeting Wednesday, February 15

"Doug’s Lapidary Program"

By Doug Duffy

The next meeting of the gem and mineral society will be on Wednesday, February 15, 2017 at 7 PM. Our speaker will be Doug Duffy. Doug has a long history of teaching lapidary and silversmithing. He taught classes at the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum for 19 years until it closed in 2011 and has continued to teach at the Phoenix Center for the Arts, North Mountain Visitor Center, and at his home studio. He is bringing many samples of his work for show and tell. Doug has been a member and officer of many of the lapidary and mineral clubs in Arizona and has been collecting in Arizona for many years. Don’t miss this interesting and informative program.

Doug at work

The Pinal Geology and Mineral Museum will be open at 6 PM for anyone who would like to come early and see the Museum. We are constantly adding new things. Everyone is welcome.

Mineral of the Month

We will have a short description of a mineral at the meeting each month to help new collectors with learning to identify minerals.

Mineral of the Month for February is malachite.It is a copper carbonate and can usually be identified by the green color that varies from a bright green to a dark green. It is soluble in dilute acid which will help to separate it from other green copper minerals. Malachite crystals are found, but it is commonly massive, botryoidal, fibrous, or banded.

Malachite is one of the most common oxidized copper minerals and is found in every county in Arizona. Almost every copper deposit will have some malachite present. It is usually found with azurite, and is commonly a replacement (pseudomorph) of azurite. Arizona has many localities with great malachite specimens but none come close to Bisbee in quantity or quality. The Copper Queen mine was started on a large mass of almost pure malachite over 100 feet thick and 65 feet in diameter. Museums and collections world wide have specimens of malachite from Bisbee, Arizona.

Malachite, Planet Mine, Mohave County, Arizona Malachite, Bisbee, Arizona, Jeff Scovil photograph

Marc Fleischer photograph