Collecting Report, McDonald Mine June 22, 2013

Bittersweet report on McDonald Mine, for those of us that enjoyed going into the mine, it will come as a bit of a disappointment to see that it has been totally covered.
On a brighter note, for tourist and novice collectors the site has been turned into a spectacular collecting site that should draw many visitors.

Now the good stuff, for seasoned collectors. There are mineral crystals, you have to look till you find the location of a area where they have been dumped or pushed. Then concentrate in that area. It seemed to work for Ulli and myself, most of our finds came from three areas in a 4 to 6 foot radius.
I thought i would be reporting the usual small stuff, not the case, although most of the finds were made up of small crystals, both unusual and large crystals were found.
One of the hopefuls I have is a 5lb felspar that has a cap of calcite and a filled crevasse, crystals are visible in and on the edge of the calcite.
As always there’s the one that got away, my two best finds are still there, it was late and did not have hammer and chisel, one was a 2.5cm wide x 4cm very well formed may have been a titinite it was in a position that made it difficult to identify. The second was a 3×5 inch cluster of unknown black crystals most of the perfectly formed crystals were 1 to 2cm in length. I can only hope they are there when I return.
It was a better day than expected.
This site may turn out to be productive for all, for how long is anyones guess, we can only hope they turn the piles regularly.
Hope you enjoy the photos, 1 to 10 are Ulrike Kullik’s and the balance 11 to 18 are Robert Montgomery’s
We are going to need some help with identifying.