The 1,034th meeting of
The Mineralogical Society
of
Southern California
MSSC ZOOM PRESENTATION
Program: From Gold to Lead: the Mineral Riches of
Leadhills-Wanlockhead Mining District, Scotland
presented by: Dr. Nathalie Brandes
Friday, January 10, 2025 at 7:30 pm.
See program notes below
Visitors are always welcome
About us…
The MSSC is a member of the California Federation of Mineralogical Societies and is dedicated to the dissemination of general knowledge of the mineralogical and related earth sciences through the study of mineral specimens. We are a scientific non-profit organization that actively supports those endeavors through public outreach, field study and related programs.
For more information info@mineralsocal.org
Join us for our 2025 Banquet. Note, the banquet is POSTPONED DUE TO FIRES,
Click here for details and payment options.
Members….Action Needed! Protect your hobby.
CFMS Electronic Communication: Update on National Monument proposals from Ruth Hildago
“There is a push for President Biden to declare two monuments in Southern California, the Chuckwalla National Monument (660,000 acres) and the Kw’tsan National Monument (390,000 acres). The lands within the proposed monuments include well known collecting sites such as the Hauser Geode Beds and Chuckwalla collecting sites and the Dumortierotie, kyanite, petrified wood/palm collecting sites respectively.
A bill to establish the Chuckwalla National Monument was just introduced last year, https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/4132/text.
There isn’t even legislation for the Kw’tsan National Monument. It was proposed along with another monument, the Sattitla National Monument in NorCal, via a joint resolution, SJR-17 was revised to focus on Sattitla National Monument and it unfortunately PASSED. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SJR17.
As you can see from the map below, these two Monuments would close a huge swath of land to our hobby.
Write your reps and ask them to oppose these proposed monuments. The time to act is NOW.
Key points: Explain you’re a Recreational Rock and Mineral Collector, aka Rockhound and are concerned a Presidential Proclamation would close the lands within the footprint of the monuments to Recreational Rock and Mineral Collecting. These Monuments were proposed within the last year, with little to no input from local Stakeholders. A Proclamation would be premature. Designation of huge swaths of land was never the intent of The Antiquities Act. Creating these huge monuments totally over 1 million acres would be an abuse of the Antiquities Act.
Pink is the proposed Chuckwalla National Monument. Right below it in blue/green outline is the proposed Kw’tsan National Monument.”
Please copy the attached pdf and send a letter of opposition to your legislators!
Find your reps here:
https://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/
https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member
Can’t hurt to include the White House too: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact
Notice of July 29, 2023 regarding Mojave Trails National Monument. Reprinted with permission from San Diego Mineral & Gem Society. Great commentary in the notice by its author, Lisbet Thorensen, SDMG’s Public Lands Representative. Thank You, SDMG and Lisbet. Angie Guzman, MSSC President. Please click here to read article and commentary.
Program Notes: Friday, January 10, 2025 at 7:30, join us for “From Gold to Lead: the Mineral Riches of Leadhills-Wanlockhead Mining District, Scotland” Presented by Dr. Nathalie Brandes
Leadhills and Wanlockhead, straddle the border of South Lanarkshire and Dumfries and Galloway on the north slope of the Lowther Hills. The rugged hills reveal piles of waste rock, adits and shafts, and deep gullies of 500-year-old hushes from the area’s long mining history.
Leadhills–Wanlockhead is the largest and most productive lead-zinc deposit in Scotland. About 70 veins occur in an 8 km2 area. Ore veins are hosted by the intensely fractured and faulted Portpatrick Formation and are confined to an area between the Leadhills Fault to the northwest and the Fardingmullach Fault to the southeast.
Nathalie Brandes grew up studying geology from a very early age traveling around the world with her geologist father. She earned her BS and MS in geology at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (New Mexico Tech). After working at the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, she pursued her doctoral studies at Michigan Technological University. She has taught at Michigan Tech, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, before accepting a position as Professor of Geosciences at Lonestar College- Montgomery, a community college in Texas, where she has been teaching for the past nineteen years. Nathalie’s current research focuses on ancient mining techniques as well as the history and geology of classic mineral localities.
SPECIAL ZOOM MEETING NOTICE
MSSC members will be automatically on the invite list each month.
Non Members, you must request to attend the MSSC zoom meeting every month. Email our Speakers chair, Carolyn Seitz at speakers@mineralsocal.org no later than the Thursday before the scheduled meeting Please include “ZOOM Meeting” in the subject line of your response. We will send you the meeting link.
Upcoming Events
all events, except field trips are via ZOOM
- January 10, 2025: Dr. Nathalie Brandes on “From Gold to Lead”
- February 14, 2025: Joan Karrie on “Orbicular Granite from New Mexico
- March 14, 2025: Dr. Chris Stefano: TBD
- Board Meeting, Sunday January 12, 2025 at 1:00 pm, all are welcome to attend
- Annual Banquet: January 19, 2025- Silent Auction donations are requested.
The MSSC is pleased to offer the updated 2023 edition of Bob Pedersen’s X- Dana