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Let's Rock => Mineral Specimens => Topic started by: irockhound on April 30, 2019, 09:10:03 PM

Title: Tourmaline Ball
Post by: irockhound on April 30, 2019, 09:10:03 PM
My Brother in Law kept telling me he had Quartz on his property and he thought he must have Gold.  Kept wanting me to come check for Gold.  I told him being in San Diego County more apt to have Tourmaline.  This Easter he says I finally brought you a stone to check out and was hoping it was still an indicator of Gold.  He walks in with this Tourmaline growth on the side of Quartz in and almost ball like growth.  I told him I still don't think he has Gold and I didn't think there is any correlation between Tourmaline and Gold BUT he he wants to give me an awesome birthday or Christmas gift the Tourmaline Ball is beautiful so he handed it to me and said it's yours.  I keep kicking these things up with the tractor.   I love this piece.  Crystals are large and terminated on both sides.  Sort of reminds me of how Quartz Gwindles grow in alpine environments.  Is the growth of this style uncommon?  It is obviously beautiful.  It's about 5.5 inches or so.
Title: Re: Tourmaline Ball
Post by: gemfeller on April 30, 2019, 10:15:38 PM
Your images are a bit too large for my monitor but from what I can see it doesn't look like tourmaline.  I'd like a better view but the crystal shapes in the partial images I see are different than tourmaline.  It's possibly schorl tourmaline --I'm not sure what else it could be but I'll check my books.

As for tourmaline being an indicator of gold, I don't think that's true.  I've never heard of any important gold being produced in the Pala District, where tourmaline occurs in large pegmatite dikes.  It's a very interesting specimen and I'm by no means a mineralogist but I've handled and cut quite a bit of tourmaline and am pretty familiar with what it looks like. Of course I could be wrong because crystals can occur in unusual habits.
Title: Re: Tourmaline Ball
Post by: irockhound on May 01, 2019, 12:00:39 AM
Oh this is definitely Schorl Tourmaline.  I told him the black is normally worthless other than display since it is too brittle and does not cut well.  Like I mentioned to him I don't think he has Gold and that I have never heard an association between the two.  Yeah now if he had walked in with a colored Tourmaline you wouldn't be reading about this here but in the news!  I was just taken with the shape and size, I find it quite pretty.  On the image size I drop them to 200 dpi and scale to 800 pixel on long edge and then save them at a compression that brings them under 160k or at most a little over.
Title: Re: Tourmaline Ball
Post by: hummingbirdstones on May 01, 2019, 06:44:48 AM
That's very cool!  It looks like schorl to me.  We went up to the De Soto mine a couple of years ago with our club to go through tailings and all the way up the "road" there were giant schorl tourmalines.  The road was too narrow and scary to get out to dig one out, but they were awesome looking.  The De Soto was a copper mine.
Title: Re: Tourmaline Ball
Post by: gemfeller on May 01, 2019, 11:05:30 AM
OK - I'm wrong.  I'm glad you have such an interesting specimen.  I hope you find something much more valuable on your property.

I don't know why I can't see your whole images on my monitor.  I'm in the woods when it comes to matters like that. 

Is your property located in the Pala Mining District? 
Title: Re: Tourmaline Ball
Post by: irockhound on May 01, 2019, 07:04:34 PM
Not my property it is my Brother in law's.  He was the one who told me he thought he had Gold on his property.  Sorry for the confusion, I was quoting him and should have used Quotation marks.  In reading it I can see now that it looked like I was talking about my property.  So bad on my part.  I have corrected the first line
Title: Re: Tourmaline Ball
Post by: southerly on May 02, 2019, 02:39:13 AM
Very nice, there is a market for well crystallised schorl tourmaline, that aggregated crystal shape is common in schol and dravite tourmaline, known locally here as "grenade" shape, as they look like hand-grenades. Be well worth going and having a look.
Title: Re: Tourmaline Ball
Post by: lithicbeads on May 02, 2019, 08:30:57 AM
I've read about the history of that district and it does not include gold. Lots of interesting gemstones but people had to travel to the Mohave to prospect for gold.
Title: Re: Tourmaline Ball
Post by: Ryaly2dogs on May 06, 2019, 04:33:02 PM
That is a great specimen of schorl and feldspar, probably Cleavlandite.  I have done the drive and spent the money multiple times at Himalaya an OceanView mines around San Diego to go through their tailings for hours and hours and found nothing as nice as what you have.
Title: Re: Tourmaline Ball
Post by: irockhound on May 06, 2019, 06:46:51 PM
I did the Ocean View once and it was okay.  Haven't done the Himalaya since they truck the dirt to the lake.  I did go when Chris first opened the actual dumps and man we scored then.  My friend pulled one from under the dump road that was about a nickel in Diameter and 5 and a half inches long and bi-color.  I entered it in the county fair for him the next day and he won first place lol.  Got a lot of great smaller Tourmalines that day too.