TWENTY YEARS IN MINERALS

A special edition of the UK Journal of Mines and Minerals celebrating our 21st issue.

In 2001 we celebrate the twenty-first issue of the UK Journal of Mines and Minerals wth a backward look at the last twenty years in minerals. In the following pages, developments in collections-related mineralogy are charted, focussing on collectors and collecting, museums with mineral collections, mineral-related societies, and topographic mineralogy in Britain and Ireland. We describe and illustrate (in four separate articles) some of the important specimen discoveries in the British Isles in the past 20 years. The volume of text in these articles grew rapidly until it exceeded the compass of a single issue. We have therefore decided to publish them over two issues. The first two articles, which describe Scotland and Ireland, appear here in issue 21, while the remainder will be published in issue 22. To be included in one of the descriptive articles, a discovery must be of importance for the quality of the specimens (taking their geological or geographical context into account) or for their rarity.

Diligent exporation over the last 20 years has produced remarkable specimens, particularly in remote and isolated areas of Britain. The photo above shows climber-collector Mike Wood examining a vesicular Tertiary basalt on the west coast of the Durinish pennisula, Isle of Skye. What he will do if he does find a large and remarkable specimen is not at all obvious! Photo: David Green.

Twenty Years in Minerals:
SCOTLAND

David I. Green
J. Gordon Todd

The past 20 years have seen a renaissance in Scottish mineralogy. Collectors have invested time and energy exploring, particularly in the Highlands, and a dedicated few have spent their leisure time seeking out the classic localities described in the nineteenth century by the doyen of Scottish mineralogists Matthew Forster Heddle. Scotland has occupied the attention of professional mineralogists, who have mapped many deposits containing both precious and base metals. The national museum has been actively field collecting at important localities, and several new mineral species have been described. In all, a great deal that is unusual, new and remarkable has been discovered.

Moonen Bay has produced some of the finest apophyllite found in the British Isles. Many specimens came from a single cavity discovered by Mike Wood in 1993. This pale green apophyllite, 15 mm in length, on fibrous mesolite, is from this cavity. Photo: David Green.

Twenty Years in Minerals:
IRELAND

David I. Green
Stephen Moreton

Ireland is undoubtedly the most mineralogically neglected of the areas described in these reviews, and yet it shelters many of the most intriguing mineral localities in the British Isles. Nowhere is there greater potential for the enthusiastic collector-mineralogist to make important discoveries. It is probably fair to say that there are only a handful of dedicated collectors of Irish minerals. As a result there are very few important Irish mineral collections, held either privately or in institutions. Hopefully, this situation will be remedied in the twenty first century.

A fine 50 mm tall galena specimen from the Mogul Mines, Silvermines, Co. Tipperary, which shows rounded cubo-octahedral crystals with gemmy yellow sphalerite in massive pyritic matrix. It was purchased from an unknown miner by Richard Barstow, and has a coveted Barstow white label indicating that it was part of his personal collection. Photo: David Green.

Filiform Pyrite from the Prince Edward Mine, Dolgellau Gold-Belt, Gwynedd

John S. Mason
Ken W. Williamson

Complex aggregates of filiform pyrite have been found during a recent sampling program undertaken by Cambrian Goldfields Ltd at Prince Edward Mine, Gwynedd. Their occurrence is though to be related to remobilisation of vein pyrite emplaced during the Rhobell Fawr volcanic episode by aggressive Variscan hydrothermal fluids.

Filiform pyrite aggregate ca. 0.3 mm across collected by JSM from Prince Edward Mine, Gwynedd. SEM Photo by Mike Rothwell.