Rocky Mountain Federation News, Vol 50, Issue 7 Page 1

Rocky Mountain Federation News

The official publication of the Rocky Mountain Federation of Mineralogical Societies, Inc. The RMFMS is a regional member of the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies, Inc. and is issued monthly (except June and July). It is a privilege of membership of the RMFMS and cannot be exchanged by the editor for individual club newsletters from other regional federations. www.rmfms.org

November 2019 Volume 50, Issue 7

Rocky Mountain Federation News, Vol 50, Issue 7 Page 2

Contents

From the Editor ................................................. 1

Affiliations ......................................................... 2

Letter from the President ................................. 3

ALAA “Recreational Rockhounding and Public Lands” ............................................................... 4

It is Time to Get All Club Entries Ready for RMFMS Contests ............................................... 5

Pezzottaite, Londonite & Rhodizite: More Pesky Cesium Minerals ............................................... 6

Upcoming Shows and Events .......................... 10

2019 RMFMS Board and Committees............. 12

Cover photo courtesy and copyright of Erin Delventhal of the San Juan County Gem and Mineral Society. “Collecting in the Sunshine no. 1 Adit, Blanchard Mine, New Mexico”.

From the Editor Please send us your Rockhounds of the Year. In the words of Mike Rowe, we need to celebrate all those “bloody do-gooders.”

I recommend taking a moment to visit the revamped RMFMS.org website. Our webmaster, Joel Johnstone, has been hard at work on it.

Please submit your contributions for the next issue by December 5th to rmfmseditor@gmail.com.

Heather Woods, PG

Affiliations

The Rocky Mountain Federation of Mineralogical Societies (RMFMS) is a member of the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies (AFMS).

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Letter from the President By Liz Thomas, RMFMS President

Well, This is the last newsletter article that I will have the privilege to write as the President of Rocky Mountain. I do want to say I have had the best two and a half years of my life. I have had the best people around me so if I make a mistake, and I did make mistakes, they were there to put me back together. I am most thankful for Richard Jaeger and Gene Maggard. They were always a phone call away to answer my many questions. But every person on the board and committees has been a blessing to me in many, many ways. I thank each of you.

It has been a very hard summer on me and my husband, Ben. We moved into a new house for many reasons but the most is for our health and many problems you get when you get older. I feel like I am home. But if it was not for my very best friend, Roberta Wagle, we would still be in the process of moving. She came every day to help pack, move everything especially the tons of rocks. We have a very nice shop that Ben has set up so he can work on all our rocks, make the wonderful flutes and much more. We moved in a twenty-foot shipping container on the side and it is the saw room. We have five saws going now. So, we are back in business doing what we love. I have put together some very nice necklaces and wire wrapped a little. So, we move forward in our life.

The next RMFMS President is Bob Regner. I hope everyone treats him half as good as you all have treated me. He will be in heaven with you all. He will do a great job. He and his lovely wife, Donna, live in Albuquerque New Mexico. He does a lot of rock hounding around his place. He has a little claim that he gets some really nice rocks out of. I do envy him because he is in a great place to do a lot of rock hounding.

I hope a lot of you attend the next RMFMS Conference in Big Piney, Wyoming. It is going to be great. They are going to host four field trips. I am so excited to go and find some really great stuff. Fossil Fish, Blue Forest Pet Wood, and much more. The following year will be a combination RMFMS and the AFMS in Sandy, Utah. They will offer many field trips also. Great show to attend. Then the year 2022 we will be in Boulder City, Nevada. Man, what a line up. I am so excited that we have so many clubs that want to host these shows and conferences. They are fun, you learn a lot, and you get to see a lot of old friends. What more could you ask for?

Please do not forget about the AFMS endowment auction. We need donations for the auction. Please contact Richard Jaeger if you want to donate something to the auction. Also do not forget to get your yearbooks ready to send in. It’s not hard to do and it is an honor to see what all the clubs have been doing. We only had two entries last year. I know we have lots of clubs, so I hope you each try to turn one in. They are not due until February 2020, so you have plenty of time to put it together. It is on the web site at AFMS. The rules and how to’s.

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I truly believe that everything that we do and everyone that we meet is put in our path for a purpose. There are no accidents; we're all teachers - if we're willing to pay attention to the lessons we learn, trust our positive instincts and not be afraid to take risks or wait for some miracle to come knocking at our door. In my life I've learned that true happiness comes from giving. Helping others along the way makes you evaluate who you are. I think that love is what we're all searching for. I haven't come across anyone who didn't become a better person through love.

Thank you, Liz Thomas RMFMS President

ALAA “Recreational Rockhounding and Public Lands”

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It is Time to Get All Club Entries Ready for RMFMS Contests By DeLane Cox, All American Club Award Chair

You know what time it is??? It is getting close to time for all of our RMFMS clubs to get their entries ready for the wonderful Federation contests for this year!

And, of course, I am publicizing the All American Club Award entries. This is the one where your club puts together a scrapbook of all your club activities for the year, using the AFMS entry form as a guideline, and then submitting it to the Rocky Mountain Federation chair. The deadline for this year’s entries is February 1, 2020. After all entries are judged for the RMFMS, the top three entries will be forwarded to the American Federation chair for judging in that contest.

The 2019 entry form will be on the American Federation website soon, but in the meantime, use the 2018 form that is posted. The rules are not changing this year.

So, what exactly is a Club scrapbook, or yearbook, and why should a club have one? Every club does things throughout the year, from January through December. Hopefully, these activities are fulfilling your club’s Mission Statement. Mission Statements are the statement in your By-Laws (and should be on your website) of what your club’s goals are in meeting the needs of its members. The Mission Statement should look at the ways the club plans its programs for the year and sets goals to fulfil these plans.

So, the scrapbook is a compilation of pictures, newspaper clippings, and lists of people and ways the club is helping members learn more about the lapidary and geology fields. Whether it is through field trips, your junior rockhounds program, programs to civic or youth groups, letters written to state and national officials in support or in non-support of state and federal laws and regulations that will affect rockhounds….all add up to the quality program your club is giving to members and community.

One of the best things that comes out of such an active program for your club is the influx of new members you are going to get. And every club needs to have a steady supply of new members to keep the club alive.

So, who in your club is putting together your club scrapbook? Who will be submitting that information to the RFMSM contest? By the way, this is not a “Contest” in the strictest sense of the word. Actually, every entry is judged against itself. The AFMS put together a format several years ago of things a great club should be doing during the year, and that is what the AFMS Entry Form covers. These are the guidelines used for judging an entry. So, an entry starts with 100 points, and then points are deducted from that number when a topic is not completely covered.

Entries may be either actual scrapbooks with everything neatly arranged, or the entry can be in electronic form with all of the information and pictures on a disc. Either way is acceptable. Just be sure the AFMS format has been followed.

And be sure your entry is in before the February 1 deadline. I’m looking forward to seeing what YOUR club has done this year. My address can be found on the Officers and Committees page of the Newsletter.

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Pezzottaite, Londonite & Rhodizite: More Pesky Cesium Minerals By Mike Nelson, Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society, csrockguy@yahoo.com

The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know. Michael Legrand

I just about exhausted my knowledge on cesium with the Newsletter article on pollucite (November 2018). However, in further examining a list of minerals containing essential cesium, I looked through the back recesses of my mind and pulled out a couple of minerals in my collection! I remember purchasing both at a past Denver Show due to the rareness and red-orange color of pezzottaite, and the rareness and crystal shape of londonite-rhodizite. In addition, I thought it would be interesting to have these minerals containing cesium. Perhaps someday I would get around to building an atomic clock!

MinDat.com has listed 18 minerals containing essential cesium as a positively charged cation that combines with various negatively charged anions: sulfur (sulfide), oxygen (oxide), boron + oxygen (borate), phosphorus + oxygen (phosphate), arsenic + oxygen (arsenate), vanadium + oxygen (vanadate), silicon + oxygen (silicate). All 18 minerals are relatively uncommon with pollucite (a silicate) being the best known (and the major ore source of cesium) since it contains a maximum weight percentage of ~43% cesium. Pezzottaite ranges up to ~15% cesium by weight while londonite may hold ~8% cesium with less in rhodizite, a close relative. There are also minor traces of cesium in beryl (silicate; particularly the morganite variety), the evaporitic chlorides carnallite and sylvite, and perhaps others.

Pezzottaite is a member of the Beryl Group whose other representatives include: Beryl, beryllium-aluminum silicate; Indialite, magnesium-aluminum silicate and a dimorph of cordierite; Bazzite, beryllium-scandium-aluminum silicate; Stoppaniite, iron+++ dominant analog of beryl. Pezzottaite was first discovered in ~2002 in Madagascar by rockhounds who thought it was a red beryl variety (bixbite) while gemcutters called it raspberry stone or raspberry beryl. It was displayed/sold at the spring 2003

Tucson Gem and Mineral Show and created much buzz. After discovering the presence of cesium in the mineral, a new moniker was awarded—cesium beryl. But finally, mineralogists noted: 1) the presence of lithium in the mineral now giving the formula of Cs(Be2Li)Al2Si6O18; 2) that beryl is prismatic and Hexagonal (Mineral System) while pezzottaite is Trigonal (Mineral System); and 3) the Refractive Index of pezzottaite (1.60-1.62) is higher than beryl (1.56-1.59) (Laurs and others, 2003).

This diagram shows the crystal faces m, d, c of a pezzottaite crystal. Photo courtesy of Laurs and others (2003).

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Regardless of exact name and chemical formula, gemologists jumped on the chance to facet an exciting new red to pink mineral. Although pezzottaite is generally a mineral for collectors, a few good pezzottaite specimens are suitable for faceting and some gem dealers have beautiful cut stones. In addition, less transparent specimens are cut and polished into cabochons.

Pezzottaite is a hard mineral at ~8.0 (Mohs), has a vitreous luster in raspberry-red to pink colors, a white streak, and ranges from translucent to transparent in clarity. The mineral exhibits conchoidal fracturing and is brittle and will fracture; therefore, faceted or cabbed specimens might be

better off as a pendant rather than mounted in a ring (where it might get smacked). Pezzottaite is also one of these minerals that may exhibit a “cat’s eye effect” and that magic line movement in the stone is due to the alignment of fluid-filled inclusions (rather than to a mineral such as rutile).

Pezzottaite is a mineral of cesium-rich, pegmatitic granites and is usually found as isolated crystals in vugs. Collecting localities are scarce and pezzottaite is only recorded from: 1) the Sakavalana pegmatite near Ambatovita, Madagascar, where Laurs and others (2003) believed it formed when pollucite was corroded and released cesium into late-stage pegmatite formation; 2) the Deva mine and Dara-i-Pech pegmatite field, Kunar Province, Afghanistan (Panzer and others, 2010); and 3) near Molo, in the Momeik area of the Mogok district, Burma (Devourd and Devidal, 2007).

Pezzottaite (P) embedded in Albite (A), with Tourmaline Group (T). Collected Sakavalana pegmatite near Ambatovia, Madagascar. Width of specimen ~1.9 cm.

Pezzottaite crystal from above specimen (flipped 180 degrees). Note crystal faces m, d and c as diagrammed on specimen from Laurs and others (2003).

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Londonite is a nifty looking mineral crystal in my collection that seems to rank third on the list of weight-percent of cesium, coming in at ~8%. However, there is a small problem. It is almost impossible to visually identify the borate minerals londonite (dominated by cesium and including rubidium) from the potassium-dominated rhodizite; they are in a solid solution series: (Cs,K,Rb)Al4Be4(B,Be)12O28 to (K,Cs)Al4Be4(B,Be)12O28.

So, londonite is the cesium analog of rhodizite and “specimens from Madagascar [as mine is] without analysis should be labelled as londonite—rhodizite series. Many crystals contain complex patchy zones of both londonite and rhodizite which are only visible by back-scattered electron imaging” (MinDat.org).

Most specimens of londonite-rhodizite were referred to as rhodizite until 2001 when Simmons and others declared that the cesium rich variety

would be separated out and named londonite. But even today, 17 years later, most of the crystals at the rock and mineral shows from Madagascar are marketed as rhodizite. The rubidium quantity in londonite is low and seems absent from rhodizite. The following phase diagram shows the distribution of cesium, potassium and rubidium in londonite-rhodizite.

Londonite-rhodizite belongs to the Isometric Crystal System and often occurs as nice individual crystals that are mostly dodecahedrons. Specimens are usually vitreous, hard (~8.0, Mohs), with pale colors of yellow and white ranging to colorless, mostly translucent but rather transparent if colorless, a white streak, brittle, and with a conchoidal fracture.

Both rhodizite and londonite seem to occur in more highly evolved pegmatites, often in miarolitic cavities. Like pezzottaite, collecting localities for londonite-rhodizite are few and far between, mostly in Madagascar, the Type Locality in Russia, one questionable site in England, and rhodizite in the Animikie Red Ace pegmatite in Florence County, Wisconsin.

Plot of representative compositions of Madagascar rhodizite and londonite in terms of K (Potassium), Rb (Rubidium), and Ce (Cesium). Diagram from Simmons and others, 2001.

Left : It is difficult to tell this is a mounted specimen of a dodecahedron crystal of londonite-rhodizite from Madagascar. Width of crystal as oriented ~6 mm.

Right: Diagram (Public Domain) of a 12 sided dodecahedron crystal.

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References Cited Bradley. D.C., A.D. McCauley and L.L Stillings, 2010, Mineral-deposit model for lithium-cesium-tantalum

pegmatites: Chapter O in Mineral Deposit Models for Resource Assessment: USGS Scientific Investigations Report 2010-5070-0.

Devouard, B., Devidal, J.L., 2007, Pezzottaite from Myanmar: Gems & Gemology, v 43, no. 1.

Hawthorne, F.C., Cooper, M.A., Simmons, W.B., Falster, A.U., Laurs, B.M., Armbruster, T., Rossman, G.R., Peretti, A., Günter, D., Grobéty, B., 2004, Pezzottaite Cs(Be2Li)Al2Si6O18 A spectacular new beryl-group mineral from the Sakavalana pegmatite, Fianarantsoa Province, Madagascar. Mineralogical Record: v. 35, no.5.

Laurs, B.M, W.B. Simmons, G.R. Rossman, E.P. Quinn, S.F. McClure, A. Peretti, T. Armbruster, F.C. Hawthorne, A.U. Falster, D. Günther, M.A. Cooper, and B. Grobéty, 2003, Pezzottaite from Ambatovita, Madagascar: A New Gem Mineral: Gems and Geology, v. 39, no. 4.

London, D., 2008, Pegmatites: The Canadian Mineralogist Special Publication 10.

Panzer. G., M. Graft, D. de Ligny, M. Boudeulle, and B. Champagon, 2010, Luminescent centres in pezzottaite, CsBe2LiAl2Si6O18 : European Journal Mineralogy, v. 22.

Simmons, W. B.; Pezzotta, F.; Falster, A.U. and Webber, K. L., 2001, Londonite, a new mineral species: The Cs-dominant analogue of Rhodizite from the Antandrokomby granitic pegmatite, Madagascar: Canadian Mineralogist v 39.

Postscript I have spent a large amount of time reading scientific articles pertaining to this short article. As stated before, I am merely an ole rockhound and am nothing close to a mineralogist or petrologist. But, learning is a real joy to me and I certainly appreciate the many resources available, especially Pete Modreski from the USGS in Denver who explained the ideas behind the term "highly evolved pegmatites" (highly enriched in any or all of the light, or volatile, or high-field-strength elements).

LONDONITE, RHODIZITE, PEZZOTTAITE, THE NAMES: Minerals are named in a variety of ways; today many/most are named after well-known mineralogists, for example bobjonesite after the Senior Editor of Rocks and Gems. All proposed names must be approved by the International Mineralogical Association (https://ima-mineralogy.org/). Londonite was named after Dr. David London, a major contributor to our understanding of pegmatites. Pezzottaite honors Federico Pezzatta, a petrologist who has extensively studied pegmatites in Madagascar. Rhodizite was given this name back in 1834 when a worker, G. Rose, tried to identify this new mineral from the Ural Mountains by using a flame test and/or blowpipe flame test (see Newsletter article on pollucite). The resulting red color in the flame test was used to name the mineral (Greek, rhodizein, rose colored (MinDat). However, the red indicated the presence of lithium, an element later found to be absent from rhodizite. But, lithium was present in the accompanying matrix and evidently contaminated the sample. However, the name stuck (Simmons and others, 2001).

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps on learning stays young. H. Ford

Rocky Mountain Federation News, Vol 50, Issue 7 Page 10

Upcoming Shows and Events

November 16 – 17, 2019; Apache Junction Rock and Gem Club’s Third Annual Fall Jewelry, Gem & Rock Show; Saturday 9am-5pm and Sunday 10am-4pm; Admission $3 adults, $1 students with ID, 12 and under free with adult; Skyline High School, 845 South Crismon Road, Mesa, Arizona. Jewelry, gem, bead, rock, slab & fossil dealers; lapidary equipment and supplies; gem-tree making activity for all ages; silent auction; door prizes; grand raffle; wheel of rocks; and more. For more info visit ajrockclub.com.

November 30 – December 1, 2019; Wickenburg Gem and Mineral Show; Saturday 9am-5pm and Sunday 10am-4pm; Admission Free; Hassayampa Elementary School, 251 South Tegner Street, Wickenburg, AZ. Over 40 vendors, best rock contest, raffle, door prizes, kid’s area, silent auction. For more info visit wickenburggms.org.

December 6 – 8, 2019; El Paso Mineral & Gem Society’s Annual Show; Friday and Saturday 10am-6pm, Sunday 10am-5pm; Admission and Parking Free; El Maida Shrine, 6331 Alabama Street, El Paso, TX. Cabochons, fossils, crystals, jewelry, designers and more. For more info check El Paso Mineral & Gem Society on Facebook or www.epmgs.com.

December 13 – 15, 2019; Flatirons Mineral Club’s Annual Show and Model Railroad Show; Friday through Sunday 10am-5pm; Admission $8 daily, discounted 3-day passes available; Boulder County Fairgrounds, 9595 Nelson Road, Longmont, CO. Come and see dazzling minerals and gems (and) complete model railroad layouts and hobby supplies available as stocking stuffers for the holidays. For more info check Flatirons Mineral Club on Facebook.

January 10 – 12, 2019; Gila County Gem & Mineral Society’s 63rd Annual Gila County Gem & Mineral Show; (See flyer page 11); Friday and Saturday 9am-5pm, Sunday 10am-4pm; Admission $5 per couple, $3 per person, students and children free; Gila County Fairgrounds, 900 Fairgrounds Rd, Globe, AZ. Fossil dig, lots of children’s activities, demonstrators, vendors, lapidary equipment/tools, displays, door prizes, and much more. For more info: Jodi Brewster (623) 810-9780 or Jerry Kastener (520) 401-6715.

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2019 RMFMS Board and Committees

President Liz Thomas mygemsrock@gmail.com Vice President Bob Regner rnregner@aol.com Secretary Wayne Cox waynec3@earthlink.net Treasurer Gene Maggard gandpmaggard@gmail.com Historian Cinda Kunkler cindakunkler@att.net Past President Diane Weir dcweir@cableone.net Past President Richard Jaeger rjgrsci@aol.com Arizona State Director Jodi Brewster aznvstatedirector@gmail.com Colorado State Director Kathy Honda Katherine.honda@ucdenver.edu Kansas State Director Bill Smith beetlebill@kanokla.net New Mexico/Texas State Director

Dr. Robert Carlson illegitimusnoncarborundum@inbox.com

North Dakota State Director Russ Oliger roliger@bektel.com Oklahoma/Arkansas State Director

Ceclia Evans mail@omgs-minerals.org

South Dakota/Nebraska State Director

Sony Hemscher sony2755@hotmail.com

Wyoming State Director Stan Strike wydir@wsmgs.org Utah State Director Tom Burchard roxhund@aol.com AFMS All American Club of the Year

Delane Cox delanec3@earthlink.net

AFMS Club Rockhound of the Year

Sheri Johnson sherisrocks89121@gmail.com

Boundaries Bill Smith beetlebill@kanokla.net Club Publications Linda Jaeger ljgralg@aol.com Convention Management Richard Jaeger rjgrsci@aol.com Credentials Janet Smith beetlebill@kanokla.net Directory Kay Waterman kay.waterman@cox.net Editor Heather Woods rmfmseditor@gmail.com Finance Wayne Cox Waynec3@earthlink.net Flourescent Technical Pete Modreski pmodreski@aol.com Fossil Technical Roger Burkhalter rjb@ou.edu Gold Pan Award Judy Beck lkbeckfam@gmail.com Gold Pan Award Richard Jaeger rjgrsci@aol.com Gold Pan Award (chair) Bob Carlson illegitimusnoncarborundum@inbox.com Insurance Gene Maggard gandpmaggard@gmail.com International Relations Mike Nelson csrockguy@yahoo.com Junior Programs Terri Harris seeingeagle@comcast.cnet Lapidary Technical Bill Smith beetlebill@kanokla.net Long-Range Planning Richard Jaeger rjgrsci@aol.com Long-Range Planning Bill Smith beetlebill@kanokla.net Long-Range Planning (chair) Judy Beck lkbeckfam@gmail.com

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Mineralogy Technical Pete Modreski pmodreski@aol.com Name Badges Richard Jaeger rjgrsci@aol.com Nominations Judy Beck lkbeckfam@gmail.com Nominations (chair) Richard Jaeger rjgrsci@aol.com Nominations Diane Wier Parliamentarian Gene Maggard gandpmaggard@gmail.com Program Library Gene & Peggy Maggard gandpmaggard@gmail.com Programs Contest Gene Maggard gandpmaggard@gmail.com Public Relations Delane Cox Delanec3@earthlink.net Ribbons Peggy Sue Moore moorepeggysue@gmail.com RMFMS Show Chairman Gail Walker gawalkeraz@cableone.net Safety Scholarship Richard Jaeger rjgrsci@aol.com Stationary Robert Carlson illegitimusnoncarborundum@inbox.com Supplies Finis Riggs Lanariggs63@yahoo.com Trophies Robert Carlson illegitimusnoncarborundum@inbox.com Webmaster Joel Johnstone joel@johnstonedesigns.com Webmaster Contest Jennifer Gerring jgerring@gmail.com PLAC Arizona Dr. Alex Schauss Aschauss@email.arizona.edu PLAC Colorado/Nebraska/ North Dakota

Mike Nelson csrockguy@yahoo.com

PLAC Kansas Jared Kyner Jskyner79@gmail.com PLAC New Mexico/Texas Mel Stairs mels@swcp.com PLAC North Dakota Mike Nelson csrockguy@yahoo.com PLAC Oklahoma/Arkansas Stan Nowak Snowak48@yahoo.com PLAC South Dakota Brandon Nelson Nelson.bc80@gmail.com PLAC Utah/Nevada Jack Johnson J4x4jj@comcast.net PLAC Wyoming Richard Gerow rgwizzard@wyoming.com Uniform Rules Leon Reeder (chair)

Lee Whitebay Jay Bowman Roger Burkhalter Dr. Robert Carlson Paul Otto

Leonreeder47@ yahoo.com lwhitebay@poncacity.net bjb@wildblue.net rjb@wildblue.net illegitimusnoncarborundum@inbox.com mineralspecimens@hotmail.com