Congratulations, AmGuy, you identified the green crystal.  It is diopside!  And, you are being to learn me pretty well, young Grasshopper!  The small crystals are something rare and unusual, and since most of my minerals have a story about them, this one does, too.

I've decided to not wait until tonight to divulge the identity of the minerals, so here is a rather lengthy story about it:

The mystery mineral was collected at the abandoned Tungsten Reef Mine (Exposed Reef Mine; Sitric Mine), Carr Canyon, Huachuca Mountains, Hereford District, Cochise Co., AZ (Mindat.com's complete locality data) in July 1973. 

I worked as the lead primate keeper (before I transferred to the reptile department) at the Atlanta Zoo in 1973 and my best friend, Bern, and I decided to go to Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico to collect reptiles for the zoo and our personal collections.  Bern was a lead keeper in the reptile department and we went all over the SE to hunt for reptiles and amphibians, so this would be our first foray out west.

We secured permits from Arizona to collect species on their protected list; mostly rare rattlesnakes and the Gila monster.  Our main target species were the Ridge-nosed rattlesnake, Green Rock rattlesnake, and the Twin-spotted rattlesnakes, as well as the striking colored Arizona Mountain kingsnake.  These snakes lived on various mountain ranges in southern Arizona in what are known as "life zones."  The higher you go in the mountains the more water there is and the vegetation becomes lusher.  Each elevation range had its own plant species, as well as rattlesnake species.  Our destination was the 5,000 - 7,500 elevation range, with short jaunts to 8,500+ ft. 

As we approached our destination in Carr Canyon, I had noticed warning signs about mine shafts in the immediate area.  These signs jogged my memory, and I recalled reading about the Reef Tungsten Mine in one of my references prior to the trip.  As soon as we stopped, I grabbed several snake bags, my trusty snake hook, and canteen of water, then took off to explore the old mine workings and look for snakes.  My interest in rocks and minerals was still with me, although it had been years since I did any specific collecting, spending most of my time looking for reptiles.  But, here I was in the heart of mining country, from old copper mines, gold mines, to tungsten mines.  Needless to say I returned home three weeks later with a large snake bag full of minerals, and two boxes of reptiles and amphibians.

So, the mystery specimen consists of green (chrome) diopside crystals with micro stolzite crystals, and quartz in copper ore.  When I first found the specimen I thought the green crystals were epidote, and that was how I had the specimen labeled in my collection until I photographed it last year.  I examined the specimen with a magnifying glass before I took pictures and noticed that the green crystals were not epidote based on crystal form, and the overall appearance did not look right. 

I, also, noticed the small orange crystals for the first time.  It took me several days to finally locate enough reference data to determine that they were likely Stolzite, but since I did not do any real tests other than crystal habit and color, they could be something else.   The historic occurrence of Stolzite from the Reef Tungsten Mine, exactly area where I collected the specimen, leads me to think that is what the crystals are.

Other minerals I collected at the Reef Mine  include quartz crystals (rock crystal and milky in vugs, and small elestial clusters), argentiferous galena (gold and silver were mined here in addition to tungsten ore), limonite, chalcopyrite, malachite, and minor azurite.

Here is one of the main references I used to determine the identity of the Stolzite:

Palache, C.   1941.  Crystallographic Notes: Cahnite, Stolzite, Zincite, Ultrabasite.  American Mineralogist, Vol 26, pages 429-436.

Here is an excerpt from the reference.  This reference had a nice drawing of the crystal structure of Stolzite from the Reef Mine, but I could not insert it into the post.

Reef Mine, Huachuca Mts., south of Tombstone, Arizona. The stolzite crystals are implanted on the walls of angular cavities in vein quartz from which sulphides have been weathered out. Elsewhere the vein contains scheelite, as well as galena, chalcopyrite, pyrite and limonite. The vein was originally worked for free gold, but the tungsten content is now the main value.

So, there you have it.  I will try to be less windy in future posts, but I have not relayed this story to anyone since I collected the specimen in 1973.

Peace,

Dennis

Great story Dennis.  The story behind how each specimen came into our possession can be priceless.  Thanks for sharing.

Oh I like this game!

It's amazing how much better you all are at mineral identification than 99% of the geologists I know. When in doubt, we just take it to the lab.

So here's some easy ones for you guys to guess. (No cheating to the people who creep on my facebook!)





As you can see, my minerals are generally in situ, and not nearly as beautiful as the ones you all collect.

Well the bottom one looks like andradite garnets? but a little difficult to see.  The first picture I'm still clueless.

Lawsonite!??    Are all the pictures you posted the same mineral?

Good stuff Melissa, and welcome to the board!
I look forward to seeing some fieldtrip reports from your neck
of the woods, and more of these quizzes would be fine, too!
It's a great way to learn, and boy howdy there's no shortage
of need there.

I'm going to have to guess Aragonite for the first pic and
will agree with Dennis on Pyrite for the second.

Joe


Allright, scratch Aragonite. Now it looks like Calcite.

The first one is zoisite, and the second (and third) ones are lawsonite. These pictures were taken from a recent trip to Syros, Greece. It was a part of the island called "lawsonite point".

Interesting that you should mention aragonite. Here is the same lawsonite-blueshist interbedded with aragonite (light color).



Nice to meet you all, by the way! Great forum Scott!

Yes, that was fun.  Once again, great pictures.  That last one can be a post card!