Rocks & Minerals

ISSN: 0035-7529 (Print) 1940-1191 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vram20

Chips from the Quarry

Marie Huizing

To cite this article: Marie Huizing (2017) Chips from the Quarry, Rocks & Minerals, 92:3, 213-217,
DOI: 10.1080/00357529.2017.1283657

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00357529.2017.1283657

Published online: 11 Apr 2017.

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 Chips from the Quarry

N
EW COLUMN: Weve had
a Whos Who in Mineral
Names column since it was
introduced by the late Dr. Richard S.
Mitchell in the January/February 1979

Photo courtesy Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

issue. So weve learned (and continue
to learn) a lot about the people who
have minerals named for them. But
many species are named after places, so
with this issue we begin The Where in

Photo courtesy Allison Megaw.

Mineral Names, a companion column
to Whos Who. Consulting Editor Dr.
Bruce Cairncross gets us started with
a look at the NChwaning mine in the
Kalahari manganese field, South Af-
rica, type locality for nchwaningite. Peter K. M. Megaw, recipient of the 2017 Anthony Tony R. Kampf, recipient of
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Thayer Lindsley Award. the 2016 Carnegie Mineralogical Award.

DESERVING OF RECOGNITION:
Peter K. M. Megaw, of Tucson, Arizona
(and also a consulting editor of Rocks
& Minerals), received the 2017 Thayer
Lindsley Award from the Prospectors
& Developers Association of Canada
on 7 March at the groups Awards Gala
in Toronto.
Dr. Megaw, a professional geologist
and cofounder of MAG Silver, made a
blind discovery, known as the Juani-
cipio silver deposit, containing more
than 200 million ounces of silver. The
discovery resulted from an under-
standing of structural controls and
mineral zoning patterns of epithermal
vein systems and persistent application
of field-based exploration methods.
The deposit was in the 500-kilometer-
long Fresnillo epithermal belt in Mex-
ico and led to renewed exploration of
the region and the finding of a further
600 million ounces of silver.
River, King County, Washington, pub- The 2016 Carnegie Mineralogi-
lished in the November/December cal Award: Dr. Anthony Tony R.
issue, pages 498517. The announce- Kampf was honored as recipient of
ment was made during the awards ban- the Carnegie Mineralogical Award for
quet and program at the Tucson Gem 2016. Kampf has spent his entire forty-
and Mineral Show, this year held on year professional career at the Natu-
11 February. In addition to the Award ral History Museum of Los Angeles
of Merit given to the authors, the County, serving more than thirty-four
magazine received a grant of $200 in years as a curator (thirty-one as head of
their names. As in the past, the check the Mineral Sciences Department) and
was deposited in the Rocks & Minerals the past six years as curator emeritus.
Color Fund account. We thank FM for During his time as curator, he guided
this significant annual recognition and the museums Mineral Sciences De-
congratulate the authors on being cho- partment to national and international
sen for this honor. prominence in the areas of exhibition,

AND THE TUCSON WINNERS

ARE: The years end brings with it the
selection of recipients for several an-
nual awards in the field of mineralogy,
three of which were presented in Tuc-
son this past February.
The 2016 Best Paper Award: The
Friends of Mineralogy (FM) named co-
Jeff Scovil photo.

authors Rick Dillhoff and Joe George

as winners of the Best Paper in Rocks
& Minerals for 2016 for their article Joe George (left) and Rick Dillhoff, authors of the article that won Best Paper Award
titled The Purple Hope Claims, Green in Rocks & Minerals for 2016, in front of their Tucson display depicting pages from the
Ridge, Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie article as well as speciments illustrated in it.

Volume 92, May/June 2017 213

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 collections, public programming, and
research.
His first major assignment at the
museum was the final planning and in-
stallation of the Gem and Mineral Hall,
which opened in 1978 and still ranks as
one of the best in the country. Kampf
oversaw a nearly tenfold increase in
size and a significant increase in impor-
tance of the museums gem and mineral
collection, principally by bringing in
major donations and making impor-
tant purchases. He established an effec-
tive support group and provided exten-
sive public programming, including the
planning and leading of many gem and
mineral tours all over the world (Bra-
zil, Burma, Greenland, Kenya, Mada-
gascar, Morocco, Namibia, Russia, Sri
Lanka, South Africa, and Tanzania).
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Kampf has consistently provided a
high level of service to the amateur and
professional mineral communities. He
has been a consulting editor of Rocks &
Minerals (since 1980), Gems & Gemol-
ogy (since 1981), American Mineralo-
gist (19921995), Mineralogical Record
(since 1995), and Mineralogical Maga-
zine (since 2015). He has served on the
board of directors of The Mineralogical
Record, Inc. since 1983. He has been a
member of the Society of Mineral Mu-
seum Professionals (and its predecessor
the Mineral Museums Advisory Coun-
cil) since 1977, serving as a member of
its board for most of that time. He has
been a member of the Friends of Min-
eralogy since 1972, serving on its board
of directors from 1978 to 1994, as vice
president in 1980 and president in 1981
and 1982. He served as U.S. delegate
to the IMA Commission on Museums
from 1992 to 2008 and since 2008 has
served as U.S. delegate to the Commis-
sion on New Minerals, Nomenclature
and Classifications.
Kampf has authored more than 320
publications and has about 30 more
awaiting publication. Nearly 200 of
these are from the past ten years, and
Discover the new way of
Collection Management
the vast majority are peer-reviewed sci-
entific papers. His research is mostly
in the areas of descriptive mineral-
ogy, crystal chemistry, and structural
crystallography, focusing on the char-
acterization of new or inadequately
described minerals. He has now de-
scribed 185 new mineral species.
Kampf is the thirtieth winner of the
annual award, which recognizes out-
standing contributions in mineralogi-
cal preservation, conservation, and ed-
ucation that match the ideals advanced
in the Carnegie Museum of Natural
Historys Hillman Hall of Minerals and
Gems. Established in 1987, the award is
underwritten by the Hillman Founda-
tion. It was presented to Kampf at the
banquet and program at the February
Tucson Gem and Mineral Show.
The 2017 Pinch Medal: Dr. Peter
Tarassoff, of Beaconsfield, Quebec,
Canada, was selected as the 2017 re-
cipient of the biennial Pinch Medal of
the Mineralogical Association of Can-
ada for his considerable and sustained
contributions to the science of mineral-
ogy. The medal was established to rec-
ognize such contributions by members
of the collector-dealer community;
this marks the ninth time it has been
awarded.
Tarassoff has made it his lifelong
goal to document the geology and min-
eralogy of Mont Saint-Hilaire (MSH).
In fact, he has committed the past fifty
years to this endeavor. Of the more
than four hundred mineral species
found there, he was the first person to
identify at least thirty-five. In addition,
his collecting and subsequent exami-
nations have resulted in his discover-
ing twelve new species from not only
MSH, but also other alkaline localities.
In 1980 the new species petarasite was
named after him.
Tarassoff s dedication to systematic
collecting, curating of his own collec-
tion, and keeping an archive of detailed
historical and scientific information
Free account: www.colido.de
Photo courtesy Mineralogical Association of Canada.
Peter Tarassoff, recipient of the biennial
2017 Pinch Medal.
has been of great benefit to the min-
eral sciences community worldwide.
Researchers have benefitted from his
generosity in providing specimens and
information for their studies. He has
also written and coauthored articles in
scientific and popular mineralogical
publications.
In addition, for the past fourteen
years Tarassoff has volunteered at the
Redpath Museum (at McGill Univer-
sity in Montreal) where he has helped
to completely renew the mineral exhib-
its and reorganize the mineral collec-
tion. As honorary curator of mineral-
ogy, he has written a scientific guide to
the mineral gallery. (Editors note: He
has written an illustrated article on the
museum that will be published in an
upcoming issue of Rocks & Minerals.)
Tarassoff s legacy, spanning more
than five decades, serves as an inspira-
tion for future generations. The medal
was presented during the Saturday eve-
ning awards banquet and program of
the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show.
The American Mineral Heritage
Award: The American Mineral Heri-
tage Award was established by the Min-
Volume 92, May/June 2017 215
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 eralogical Record in 2012 to recognize
a field collector whose personal discov-
eries in the Americas have contributed
most significantly to the cumulative
heritage of aesthetic and/or scientific
mineral specimens preserved in muse-
ums and private collections worldwide.
A panel of fifteen prominent mineral
collectors, museum curators, and min-
eral dealers, under the direction of
panel chairman Gene Meieran, chose
Stanley Lee Esbenshade, well-known
Tucson, Arizona, mineral collector and
dealer, as this years recipient of the
award.
Esbenshade earned his bachelors
degree in geology from Ohio State Uni-
versity in 1978. The core of his inter-
est has always been, and still is, field
collecting. His early days of collecting
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were in the limestone quarries of Ohio,
Michigan, and Indiana: localities such
as Clay Center, Auglaize quarry, Pugh
quarry, and Sylvania, Ohio, were among
his favorite haunts. Maybee, Michigan,
and North Vernon and Pleasant Ridge,
Indiana, were also visited frequently.
On one of his first trips to Arizona with
Neal Pfaff, Curt van Sciver acted as a
guide to the Red Cloud and Rowley
mines, where Esbenshade was intro-
duced to the use of the Cobra drill and
explosives to collect minerals.
His first real commercial mineral
dig took place when Sandy Ludlum and
John Medici hired him to assist in their
Spruce-claims project in Washington
State. There he met Bob Jackson, and
they subsequently worked the Spruce
claims for six years and also a project
on Denny Mountain.
In Arizona Esbenshade frequented
many of the classic localities such as
the Red Cloud mine, the Rowley mine,
the Old Yuma mine, the Silver Bill/
Defiance mines, the Glove mine, and
Bisbee, along with many other smaller
mines and lesser-known localities. In
1984 he started working at the Morenci
mine initially under contract for
Wayne Thompson and has been at it
for about thirty years. Esbenshade sub-
sequently obtained a contract to mine
for specimens at the Chino and Tyrone
mines, which are still operating today.
During this time he had opportunities
to work at or visit many other localities
updates. The first of these updates was
given as the presentation Whats New
in Michigan Minerals? by George
Robinson (speaker) and Shawn Carl-
son at the 2009 Rochester Mineral-
ogical Symposium. The second update
was released as an online eBook in
2013, again by Robinson and Carlson.
Photo courtesy the Mineralogical Record.
The next update is in preparation.
Current authors Carlson and Olds
are most interested in hearing from
collectors and researchers who may
be aware of mineral species new to
Michigan but not yet reported in the
scientific literature. Also of interest
Stanley L. Esbenshade, recipient of the are new collecting localities for long-
2017 American Mineral Heritage Award. established species. Finally, there are
several counties in Michigans Lower
including Ajo and Washington Camp Peninsula for which no minerals have
in Arizona, the Himalaya mine in Cali- ever been officially reported. Although
fornia, the Sweet Home mine in Colo- these areas may not offer the best min-
rado, the Book Cliffs in Colorado, the eral collecting, certainly some minerals
Elk Creek area in South Dakota, and must occur there, and it would be nice
Petersen Mountain in Nevada. He also to hear from residents of these counties
collected at Cave-in-Rock, Illinois, the so that they may be included.
Viburnum Trend in Missouri, and the Those wishing to contribute infor-
Elmwood mines in Tennessee, while mation should contact Travis A. Olds at
also making numerous trips to Mex- the University of Notre Dame at tolds@
ico to buy and collect at various small nd.edu, or Shawn M. Carlson in Crys-
mines as well as at Mapimi and the tal Falls, Michigan, at shawncarlson@
Navidad mine in Durango. In addition, hotmail.com.
he has collected at the Rogerley mine in
England and at the famous Solnhofen ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: The Hous-
quarry in Germany. ton Gem and Mineral Society, in mem-
The award was presented to Esben- ory of Arthur E. Smith, and the Cincin-
shade at the Fine Mineral Shows Sun- nati Mineral Society underwrote color
day evening program, 5 February, at costs associated with the Connoisseurs
the Westward Look Resort in Tucson. Choice column. Laura Delano of LLD
Productions, Inc., did the same for the
CALL FOR DATA: Authors Shawn Museum Notes column. Donors to the
Carlson and Travis Olds invite the Color Fund and to the Dallas Sympo-
collecting and research communities siums benefit auction, held in August
to contribute news and new informa- 2016, contributed toward color in the
tion about Michigan minerals to the remaining articles. All are thanked
next Mineralogy of Michigan Update, for partnering with Rocks & Minerals
tentatively scheduled for release as a to enhance the publication with color
monograph in 2018. The first edition photographs.
was written by E. Wm. Heinrich and
published as Bulletin 6 by the Michi-
gan Department of Natural Resources,
Geological Survey Division, in 1976.
The second edition was authored by
Back Issues
George Robinson at the Seaman Min-
eral Museum in 2004. Since then, how- Available
ever, the discovery of mineral species
new to Michigan has significantly esca- www.rocksandminerals.org
lated, creating a need for more frequent
Volume 92, May/June 2017 217