Geodes are among our favorite spheres because they have wonderful crystal pockets that sparkle and glitter.

Amethyst geode spheres are among the most popular because they offer remarkable pockets with gemmy, deep purple crystals. The openings can span wide open to gentle slits, some with tunnels that let light in from the back.

Agate geodes can be equally extraordinary. Both for their unique patterned exteriors and their amazing interiors. Silver gray, cream, gold, white or even black on the outside, they have either clear crystal quartz, white quartz or druzy inside. Druzy features very fine miniscule, almost granulated crystals. Most of the time druzy is grey, white or even lavendar light amethyst.) But druzy can be especially fun when it comes in unusual colors. Madagascar Ocean Jasper has a lot of dark hunter green druzy; we have a Dryhead agate from Montana with plum colored druzy. Our most recent find is a black agate geode with black druzy!

A wonderful and interesting form of agate geode are those called Dugway Geodes from Utah.  They are similar to septarian nodules on the exterior, only brownish/blue in color. The crystal pockets are white.

Septarians are probably the most ubiquitous of geodes today. Their yellow calcite interior crystals are striking against their brown and yellow matrix.

Celestite geodes are also beautiful and colorful. While their exteriors are rather ordinary, the interiors boast incredible lovely baby blue crystals—many of them an inch or more long.

Among our most prized geodes are the Herkimer diamonds. These brown matrix spheres have vugs with large individual crystals of Herkimer diamond visible beneath the surface.

In the past couple of years, geodes of Peruvian pyrites have come on the market. They have “waterfalls” of pyrite cubes spraying out from the center of open spheres.
 

GUEST COLUMNIST:
Randy Lord
Randy and his associates mine Whitesail Opal in the back country of British Columbia, Canada.

When you first stumble across an outcrop of basalt- hosted precious opal in the alpine of northern BC it is seldom recognizable unless you have the eyes of an eagle or the peregrine falcons that fly overhead.  Sometimes it is flashes of red, green or blue fire against the black back-ground that catch your eye. Standing proud on the weathered surface, these opal grains tell you to get on your hands and knees and look closer.  That the precious opal flashes with color after 10,000 years of glaciation and 10 months of snow cover each year tells you that this is no ordinary opal adventure.

We are exploring and trenching 7000 feet up on a flank of the Whitesail Mountains in northwest British Columbia. The Northern Lights claim is located 90 air miles south of Houston, BC. Access is by helicopter. It’s one of the few alpine locations in the world where precious opal can be found. Paying attention to the task at hand can often prove difficult when blizzards and howling winds are trying to knock you down.  Our extremely short weather window lasts from late July to early September and snow can fall anytime. Frozen fingers and toes are the price paid for BFDs (bug free days). We have only been scratching this property with hand tools, but finding visible precious opal in surface outcrops over a 5 sq km area has captured our attention.

Volcanic hosted opal deposits are believed to be associated with hydro-thermal activity. At the Northern Lights claim, precious opal occurs most commonly as open space fillings in the matrix and vesicles of clasts in the volcanic debris flows. Common opal of all colors, many types of agates and even one agate with a line of precious opal inside are all found in close proximity. Geological theory does not explain how one vesicle can be filled with bright precious opal, the adjacent one empty and the occasional empty vesicle shows an inside surface that flashes with precious fire.

The types of opal we find range from nodules similar to Mexican material, thin seams in matrix that resemble Queensland boulder opal, and matrix opal that has the appearance of Honduran opal crossed with dinosaur bone.  The clarity ranges from transparent to opaque with color intensity that varies from good to very brilliant.  The color spectrum of this opal covers the entire rainbow.

An amazing dacite dike was the site of the original discovery of precious opal in the Whitesail range. This prominent vertical feature stands  20 feet tall and 3 feet wide in places where it cuts through the opalized country rocks. It has been named the Great Wall by the prospectors, as it snakes across the property in a distinctive spine.

Permanent snowpack covers much of the terrain. Tenacious alpine plants cover any marginally, habitable ground so outcrops and exposure of bedrock are minimal on the top. With a flat glaciated top and various colored layers, our best description is that it resembles a chocolate cake. Precious opal in nodules, seams and as matrix hosted material has been found in over 20 places, but safely trenching or extracting material is a different matter.

Our first trench was named Zona Rosa for the red color of the basalt. It proved an exercise in the excavate-and-tumble method of mining. Luckily a flat bench 100 yards below stopped the boulders on their downward journey.  The experience of tumbling stove-sized boulders weighing hundreds of pounds down a snowfield onto a flat is not soon forgotten.  We would send boulders the size of automobiles skidding down a 1000 feet of snowfield often to have them land within an easy walk from camp. This type of opal mining is not for the faint of heart.

Prospecting for precious opal in an alpine environment presents peculiar challenges and conditions. As access is by helicopter, we have had to rely on hand tools and portable gas powered saws and drills.  We use a wheelbarrow and an alpine rickshaw outfitted with mountain bike wheels for moving loads. These have proven very efficient and this season we flew a small excavator in to assist with trenching.

As we dug, we encountered precious opal matrix material at the bottom of the trench. So we were encouraged to trench some distance away. Our hopes were realized as precious opal bearing material kept coming out of every hole we dug. But of course, as can be anticipated, our 30 day season ended with another snowstorm.

British Columbia has a wealth of mineral resources and because of its ruggedness much of the province has remained unexplored or prospected. That precious opal deposits occur in BC is relatively unknown, but recent discoveries are about to change that.

Note: Spheres to You carries amazing Whitesail Opal spheres from this claim.

TUSCON
REPORT
We made our annual pilgrimage to Quartzsite and Tucson, Arizona, this January/February and here’s a brief report on the great new treasures.
*Black Tourmaline (Schorl)—A brand new find from Zambia. Glassy.
*Rubellite—Unbelievable cherry red gemstone spheres from The Congo.
*Lavendar Quartz—Our hunting for these proved successful!
*Lavendar Fluorite—Lovely, delicate and pastel.
*Titanium Treated Agate Geodes—Spectacular rainbow colors outside and in.
*Iolite—An amazing black/blue pearlescence.
*Sunstone—Arresting peach sunstone from India.
*Pink Moss Agate—From South Africa.
*Pulsite—Black matrix with gold metallic dots.
* Rich Blue Chalcedony with Golden Jasper accents—Turkish gem quality chalcedony.
*Black and White Agate—Lines, ribbons, bull’s eyes—outrageous patterns.
*California and Russian Blue Jades—Blue on blue.
*Scapolite—Navy blue & white, from Canada.
*Green Goldstone—Sparkles to match the blue & gold versions.
*Mookaite—Multicolored and larger than we’ve seen before.
*Included Quartz—Real odd stuff! Spores, tiny points, crystal cubes, parallel & intersecting planes.
*Chinese Chartreuse Serpentine—Like bright limes, some with ribbons of quartz.
 

Living Legend
Minerals are often named after the person who initially discovered them and made known the discovery. Sid Pieters, a rock shop owner and miner in Windhoek, Namibia, (formerly Southwest Africa) a few years back located the first specimens of what became known worldwide as Pietersite.
In Africa, this blue/black mineral exhibits a stunning chatoyancy resulting from inclusions in jasper that have psuedo-morphed from asbestos. Pieters also owns a tourmaline claim and, despite being in his 80s, still works in his shop, greeting customers and introducing them to Namibia’s unique minerals.
 

Email Us!
Don’t forget to give us your email address, so we can alert you about beautiful new spheres. If you’ve changed your email address, let us know, too…
spheres@iswest.com
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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