Jewel Tunnel Imports is a leading wholesale distributor of minerals, crystals, fossils, tumbled stones and many different kinds of lapidary items like balls, eggs, jewelry etc. made from different minerals. They have a warehouse in excess of 10,000 sq. feet full of mineral related natural history items, perhaps the largest of its kind in the United States.

Historically Jewel Tunnel Imports has had limited open house parties for mineralogically and geologically oriented groups like the Gem & Mineral Council of the Los Angeles County Museum or the geology department of the California State University at Los Angeles. These open houses, never more than three or four a year offer a chance for groups to buy minerals and crystals at wholesale prices +10% and to learn something about the wholesale gem and mineral business. The 10% surcharge is to cover the costs of refreshments.

The owner of Jewel Tunnel (Rock Currier) is also interested in learning about new sources of mineral specimens and has been known to buy and trade such items. He is a micromounter and always interesting in trading for good micromount material not represented in his collection.

The map on the following page shows the location of Jewel Tunnel Imports.

SHOW EXHIBITS

I know this has been said many times, but it is worth repeating. The Pasadena show is run by the MSSC members for the members. Enclosed in this Bulletin are instructions and forms on exhibiting at the show. The theme is California Minerals. I know many of you have great collections. This is the time to show them off.

COLLECTOR’S NOTES
The Darwin Antimony Mine
by Walt Margerum

In May 2001, I visited the Darwin Antimony Mine located just North of Darwin in Inyo County. The GPS coordinates are N 36° 19.037’ ; W 117° 36.249’. The mine can be reached via a dirt road that leaves the Darwin road about one mile north of town. The minerals listed as coming from the mine are cervantite, senarmontite, stibnite, stibiconite, and valentinite. The shafts are inaccessible, but there is material available on the dumps and as float on the hills. I was able to collect stibnite, stibiconite, valentinite, and possibly cervantite. The most common minerals are stibnite and stibiconite. The stibnite is crystalline, but is not terminated and is imbedded in a limestone matrix. The stibiconite replaces the stibnite, and is pale yellow to dull white. I have one specimen with small micro sized translucent yellow material that may be cervantite. The valentinite occurs as translucent to opaque white sprays.

The following description of the mine was taken from California Division of Mines Special Report 51 Economic Geology of the Darwin Quadrangle Inyo County, California, by Hall and Mackevett published in 1958.

The Darwin Antimony mine is in the Darwin Hills. 2 miles north of Darwin in sec. 2, T. 19 S., R. 40 13. The mine is on one of three unpatented claims located in 1942 by F. E. Groover of Balboa, Calif. The production of antimony from the mine is reported by Norman and Stewart (1951, p. 29) as, "50 to 100 tons of ore assaying more than 30 percent antimony." The workings consist of shafts, drifts, and crosscuts totaling 550 feet. The lower shaft, reported by Norman and Stewart (1951, p. 29) to be 100 feet deep with 50 feet of crosscuts east and west from the bottom, is inaccessible. The shaft has an inclination of 65°W. The upper or main shaft, about 350 feet due north and 68 feet higher at the collar, is 150 feet deep and has an inclination of 65° in a S. 78° W. direction. At the 100-foot level, 12-foot drifts extend north and south from the shaft. At the bottom of the shaft, 50-foot drifts extend north and south. From the south end of the south drift, crosscuts extend 50 feet west and 30 feet east. A stope in the east crosscut produced all the antimony ore shipped from the mine. The Darwin Antimony mine area is underlain by thin bedded medium-gray limestone of the lower member of the Keeler Canyon formation of Pennsylvanian and Permian age, which is about 1,000 feet thick, in the vicinity of the mine. Bedding in the Keeler Canyon formation is overturned. It strikes north at the main shaft and dips 62° to 65° W. The limestone is sheared and fractured near the main shaft, and limonite and calcite fill many of the fractures. A bedding-plane fault that strikes north and dips 65° W. is exposed in the main shaft. It is cut off by the Darwin tear fault at the position of the lower shaft.

Ore in the Darwin Antimony mine is localized along the bedding-plane fault exposed in the main shaft. The fault is traceable along strike for about 1,000 feet. Stibnite is exposed intermittently at the surface and in the underground workings over a strike length of about 120 feet near the main shaft and probably was in the lower shaft 350 feet farther south. The vein consists of stibnite with minor secondary antimony minerals in sheared limestone. Limonite and calcite are the chief gangue minerals. The vein ranges in thickness from a few inches to about 3 feet. All the ore was mined from a stope in the footwall between the 100- and 150-foot levels about 40 feet south of the main shaft. Small discontinuous seams and pods of stibnite less than an inch thick are exposed in the north drifts on the 100- and 150-foot levels.

Many other bedding-plane faults, also having a north strike, are exposed in the west crosscut, but are not mineralized. Several faults with approximate N. 60° E. strikes and steep northwest dips intersect the main northtrending fault in the east crosscut of the 150-foot level and are mineralized at some of these intersections.

At least three shallow prospect pits were cut into the vein at the surface not more than 100 feet north of the main shaft, but no ore was produced from them.

MINUTES OF THE September 2001 MEETING

The meeting convened at 7:48 PM, as everyone was playing with the computers that had been set up with mineralogical web sites researched by Walt and Carolyn.

The President stated that there were no field trips on the horizon, so that topic was passed over. He reminded everyone to pick up a copy of the MSSC roster, copies of which were available that evening.

 ANNOUNCEMENTS

George Rossman won the first Dana Award, and a full discussion of why he earned such a distinction is prominently displayed on the MSSC website.

The show in December still needs volunteers to make it work, so everyone was reminded, even though they’ve heard it before, to sign up to help in whatever way they can. All were encouraged to take more flyers -- Jim carries stacks of them to each meeting -- so that we get maximum exposure to ensure a great turnout this year. As this is our primary means of advertisement, it is critical to the success of the event that we all get the word out via the flyers -- be creative! The status at this point is that the Main Hall has been sold out (vendor space, that is), but the annex is still available. Display forms are still available -- there will be forms on the web site soon, if not already. Please be sure to fill them out and return them to Jim, who says “Expect to see a lot of California displays” this year. It was noted that the USGS Division of Mines has requested a dealer contract.

Jim Schlegel announced that he is NOT responding to emails for the interim (that is, until the show is over). He has no email account, and if you get any email purporting to be from him, it is NOT, and you might consider automatically deleting it, as it could be a virus-laden email. Be especially suspicious of “exe” files or long subject lines or fragmented portions of show files/docs.

A correction was offered to the Board of Director minutes, which stated that this year would be the farewell show for ROCKSMITHS. In fact, the farewell tour is NEXT year.
Remember that the Open House at Rock Currier’s (details on MSSC website) is OCTOBER 13th.

Finally, there were a couple mineral shows announced:

Searles Lake, on October 13 & 14, 2001, in Trona, CA: web address is www1.1wvisp.com/tronagemclub, or call Bonnie Fairchild at 760/372-5356 for info.
Whittier mineral show, October 20 & 21, 2001, being held at the Whittier Masonic Temple at 7604 Greenleaf Avenue.

Golden, Colorado mineral show on November 9-11, 2001. Web address www.mineralshow.com

Following the announcements, the regular portion of the meeting was adjourned, so that everyone could grab a computer and play with the sites that Walt and Carolyn compiled, and that Walt set up into an Excel Sheet format, which allowed us to go directly to the sites listed, as well as having a hard copy to take home. Thanks Walt and Carolyn!

Respectfully submitted by Reece Michaelson for the Secretary

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

OCTOBER

3-7 Joshua Tree, CA Sportsmans Club
Sportsmans Hall , 6225 Sunburst Avenue
Hours: Sat 8-5 Sun 8-3
Gary Palmer (760) 366-3430
e-mail: sportsmansclub@thegrid.net
web http://www.thegrid.net/sportsmansclub

3-7 Fallbrook, CA Fallbrook Gem and Mineral Society
Fallbrook Mineral Museum, 260 Rocky Crest Road

FALL FESTIVAL OF GEMS
The Fallbrook Gem and Mineral Society kicks off Earth Sciences Week on Sunday, October 7, 2001 with a Fall Festival of Gems - and minerals and fossils – at the Society’s museum in Fallbrook, California. The Festival will be open from 10 AM to 4 PM. The Fallbrook Mineral Museum is located at 260 Rocky Crest Road, telephone 760-723-1728. Parking and admission is free

The day’s events will include gem, mineral and fossil education displays in the Museum, sale of rough cutting material, slabs and specimens from the Museum’s duplicates, demonstrations of lapidary techniques, dealers, and opportunity drawings for fabulous specimens. Demonstrations will include working with beads, wire wrap techniques, forming spheres and geode sawing.

Inquiries may be addressed to the FGMS at Box 62, Fallbrook, CA 92088. General Chairman is Karen Dawes at 760-723-2774. Dealer inquiries may be made to Bob Lowrie at 760-728-0846 or Dick Mayer at 760-439-7462.
For more information see the Fallbrook Gem and Mineral Societies Website (http://fgms.home.att.net).

13-14 Trona, CA Searles Lake Gem and Mineral Society
Gem and Mineral Building, 13337 Main Street
Hours: Sat 8-5 Sun 8-4
Bonnie Fairchild (760) 372-5356
web http://www1.iwvisp.com/tronagemclub/tronagemclub.html

20-21; Santa Rosa, CA Santa Rosa Mineral and Gem Society
Veteran's Memorial Auditorium, 1351 Maple Avenue
Hours: Sat 10-6; Sun 10-5
Bonnie Wood (707) 869-9385
email: steekue@ap.net 

20-21; Whittier, CA Whittier Gem and Mineral Society
Whittier Masonic Temple, 7604 Greenleaf Ave.
Hours: 10-5 both days
Jay Valle (626) 934-9764