November 2015 Program Information
November 2015 Program
Scott Duresky gave a wonderful talk and slide presentation on “The Historic Rutherford Mine – Pegmatite #2”.Scott talked to us about the Rutherford Mine, one of the most interesting pegmatite mines in Virginia (now closed).
The mine was opened in 1873 and was officially closed in 1986. Several minerals were mined there, with worldwide uses.
Many samples from this mine are rare or unique. He had some beautiful samples for us to see which included:
- Cleavelandite
- Fluorite
- Spessartine
- Microlite
- Greenish gray quartz.
Scott gave out door prizes of some of his samples as well.
Additional information about the locality can be found on the Mindat site or in this reproduction of a Journal of the Mineralogical Society of America article. Images of materials collected from the site and of the mine can be accessed here.
On an email from Scott, he thanked the club for allowing him to present and said:
“The first thing I wanted to share with you is that my presentation contained excerpts from a comprehensive study that, when completed in March and presented to the Micro Mineralogists of the National Capital Area, will be the most complete of its kind since the mid-1990's; that survey will be freely available to anyone who requests it.”
The club looks forward to hearing more from Scott, and those of you that missed his presentation will have an opportunity to meet him in December.