Hi mineral friends!
We enjoyed our first collecting trip of the season inside Lead Mountain Mine adit near Barstow on Oct 28, 2023.
The day started chilly and windy in the morning but warmed up nicely later. The cars made it to the mine parking pad despite deterioration since the last time we were there. The non-SUV car was marginal on the last segment of the road.
In the adit, I showed the participants the weathering galena pods with red cinnabar spots and yellow mimetite.
Then everybody spread out and collected either baryte blades or hemimorphite. Many people used UV torches to look for the best material.
The microscopic examination after the trip showed that both me and Gregor collected baryte blades covered with black coronadite and gemmy red goethite. No more micro willemite has been detected again so far.
On the way back after the trip, some people stopped to explore the Copper Prospect. We took great care to avoid the deep shaft that swallowed a dog several years ago on another trip. I collected nice micros: yellow-green conichalcite, dark green duftite, and blue agardite-Y needles.
Instead of returning to Barstow, we went to the north of Lead Mountain and checked out the old borax mine area. We found celestine crystals and cotton ball ulexite on shale.
MarekC