Ryerson Hill Mining Association

We humans are liquid crystals.
You are composed of 84 minerals, 23 elements, and 8 gallons of water distributed among 38 billion cells.
You have been built out of nothing by the spare parts of the earth that you have consumed, according to a set of instructions hidden in a double propeller and small enough to be carried by a s***m.
You are made of recycled butterflies, plants, rocks, streams, firewood, wolf skins and shark teeth decomposed into their smallest parts and reconstructed into the most complex living being on our planet.
"You're not living on earth, you're the earth."
Author unknown

is thrilled. Now to do some more excavating. Thank You Ed Domit.

Beauty of winter pics

I am so very pleased to announce a very important find at Ryerson Hill Quarry. This find is significant.

Brookite was found in the study area this month and confirmed by xrd analysis at the Maine Gem and Mineral Museum by Alexander U. Falster.

This completes the triumvirate of possible TiO2 minerals.... Brookite, Anatase, Rutile. This is the 1st occurrence in Oxford pegmatite and the Northeast. Plus only the 3rd occurrence in the United States and 5th or 6th in the World.

There is a lot more to come from this find as it helps clarify even more what happened at Ryerson. Alexander U. Falster, Dr. Skip Simmons, and I will be working to produce a manuscript or article for journal or other publication. There is no date or timeline for that as it will be a complex process.

I want to say that this find takes so much weight off of my shoulders and truly makes me proud. Despite the shenanigans of "planted brookite" the studying went on and the process continued to be done right. That resulted in stress and took away a lot of fun of studying. However, science won and in the end hard work with dedication proved to be what was needed.

This "Ryerson" brookite was found in situ and there is more than one piece as well. The scan is very clean and the elemental composition matches the minerals in and around the Molly Pocket.

This is a truly exciting find of brookite, anatase, and rutile. Largest anatase crystal in Northeast and comparable to all of North Americas anatase crystal finds. The three TiO2 now add importance to understanding and science with the rarity of the occurrence.

I am proud, excited, thankful, relieved, and very much looking forward to the journey ahead on this project.

Here are a few images of material from the Molly Pocket from 6-1-22 that were shared in the presentation. I would love to share the presentation here but no way to share a powerpoint here.

I would love to share more but until I know what is going to be used for publication, this is all I can share.

Enjoy....

Yesterday the Ryerson Hill presentation at the Rochester Mineral Symposium was a great success. It was very well received around the world.

Many kudos on the study and the integrity of it. The integrity of Ryerson doing it right, right from the start.

A few comments…
“
Phenomenal presentation at Rochester. The stuff legends are built on.
Anatase:stellar.
Brookite: unforgettable!
Delivery: Impeccable.”

“It was excellent. ——— called and told me how impressed he was with your talk”

Here is a picture of Al and I with the Big Three Anatase. Felt great to finally share this amazing find.

Did you miss the presentation? Well, you can see at the NEMA conference in May at Sunday River, right here in Maine.

I added a new mineral from my study. Todorokite to put Ryerson at 101.

50th Rochester Mineralogical Symposium
Time to Register for RMS 2023!
Join us April 21-23, 2023
* Please share this email with friends and family *
Hello RMS Family!
We are delighted to invite you to the 50th Rochester Mineralogical Symposium, the eRMS 2023. The 50th RMS will be online with the same format as last year, Friday evening April 21, Saturday April 22 and Sunday April 23. We have great speakers – the full program is below.
The 50th RMS will be the final Rochester Mineralogical Symposium, and we hope you will all join us!
Our January poll to all of you regarding the cost of attending an in-person RMS resulted in a very high response rate – we had more responses than we had attendees at our last in-person RMS, with almost all regular in-person attendees responding. The final vote result was an overwhelming number against and few in favor.
Our decision about the future has not been easy. It’s not where we started and it's obviously not what we hoped for. We completely understand the poll responses – dividing the real cost over our people means each of us would have to pay a lot to make it happen again. Our economic deal with the Radisson was so good and so far out of step with what a contemporary event of this kind costs. Of course other issues have also been considered too, but the loss of the Radisson is the one that has undone us.
As you'll expect, this decision has involved many discussions. We've talked about alternatives. We will elaborate a little at the RMS, but in summary, many of our RMS family feel the potential alternatives are not at all as inspiring as the real, in-person RMS. Any event that could follow would not be the same kind of event as the one we've all loved over the years – it would be much diminished.
The RMS was founded specifically as an event intended to bring together enthusiastic collectors, curators, professionals and dealers – to meet, to interact, to share – in the Thursday-Sunday format that was initiated at RMS 2 in 1974 and continued annually through RMS 46 in 2019. We won’t be able to do that again. That is what was most special to many of the people who have made the RMS all that it is and has been in Rochester: a full cross-section of mineral world people gathering over minerals and socially, meeting and getting to know each other as new mineral friends, and then reconnecting annually as good friends.
We’ve done our best to keep the spirit of the RMS alive and well online and thanks to all of you, this has been an excellent chapter in the history of the RMS.
We know you will be disappointed we’ve reached the end of the RMS. We are too. We'll do our best to deliver a great last one – we look forward to you being a part of it!
Below is the zoom registration link for RMS 2023. Each attendee must register in order to join the symposium. The symposium will run over three days, but you only need to register one time to get the calendar invitations to attend whatever days and times that you choose. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing Zoom information to join the webinar.
Register in advance for this webinar:
CLICK TO REGISTER
If this button doesn’t work you can copy & paste this address in your browser:
https://us06web.zoom.us/.../reg.../WN_VcsD9TOkRSa3DU--6H6ewQ
The starting times for each day of the Symposium are:
Friday, April 21 - 8:00 pm
Saturday, April 22 - 11:00 am
Sunday, April 23 - 11:00 am
See you soon!
50th Rochester Mineralogical Symposium: The eRMS 2023!
Friday, April 21 – Sunday, April 23, 2023
Friday, April 21
8:00 pm Opening – Raymond McDougall
8:10 pm The Sudbury Basin: An Unearthly, Earthly, Metal-Rich Anomaly – David K. Joyce
9:15 pm --- VIRTUAL LOUNGE ---
Saturday, April 22
WHAT’S NEW IN MINERALS
11:00 am What’s New in Minerals - Jeff Scovil
12:00 pm What’s New in Minerals II – John Betts, with Mark Jacobson, Raymond McDougall and Jim Nizamoff
What’s New from New Mexico – John Rakovan and friends
1:00 pm --- LUNCH BREAK ---
1:30 pm The History and Minerals of the New Cornelia Mine, Ajo, Arizona – Les Presmyk
2:30 pm Chrysoberyl Knoll and Quarry Hill: The Minerals and Quarries of Haddam, Connecticut – Harold Moritz
CONTRIBUTED PAPERS AND SHORT TALKS IN SPECIMEN MINERALOGY
3:30 pm Ryerson Hill Quarry, Maine: Pegmatite Contamination and Titanium Dioxides. Lloyd W. Alexander, Alexander U. Falster and William B. Simmons.
3:45 pm Teaching Mineralogy During Covid: A Much-Needed Assist From the Mineral Collecting Community. Sarah Hanson.
4:00 pm Positive and Negative Striations on the 021 Pyritohedral Face. Bob Morgan.
4:15 pm The Azurite to Malachite Pseudomorph Process. Raymond Straw.
4:30 pm Geochemical Trends of Zoning in Heavy Minerals in the Emmons Pegmatite. N.K. Tolls.
4:45 pm --- VIRTUAL LOUNGE ---
Raise a Glass and Sing! – David K. Joyce
Sunday, April 23
11:00 am Sir Arthur Russell and his Mineral Collection – Roy E. Starkey
12:00 pm Celebrating 50 Years of the RMS – Raymond McDougall and Steve Chamberlain
Raymond McDougall - Chair
Carl Miller - Registrar
Sarah Hanson – Technical Session Coordinator
Chris Emproto - Online Host for the eRMS 2023
Carolyn McDougall – Online Host for the eRMS 2023

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A view of Ryerson from the drone 10-5-22. Thanks you Zoltan for doing the bulk of getting this cleaned up! Patrick thanks for pitching in and helping.

To answer a question I have received several times over the last several days.

Ryerson Hill is closed to the Public.

Best bet is joining a local club and going on trips with them. Clubs have come to Ryerson in the past.

If you wish to invest in the Ryerson Hill Mining adventure please contact Zoltan Matolcsy, the owner.

I have come up with a name for the recent pocket. I talked it over with Zoltan and a few other people. While I found this one on my own his opinion and that of AF are something I seek often. It is better to have a collective thought and agreement. Future pocks, especially those found as team will be discussed and named collectively. Thanks to Zoltan for allowing me to choose what means the most to me for this one.

This one though the pocket name comes from something that saved me as much as I saved her. My dog Molly, who is now passed, was a rescue you dog and became such a wonderful pet and was loved by everyone who met her. I learned a lot from her and she helped me on the journey that led to me being at Ryerson. Molly even went to Ryerson several times.

Thus, The Molly Pocket, 6-1-22 is the first tourmaline pocket in the history of Ryerson Hill and hope only the first of many.

Ryerson Hill has 96 minerals and I expect that to go up significantly soon. Dunton Gem Mine is listed with 103 on Mindat and leaving it simple that makes it the second most in the State with Emmons (Uncle Tom) being number. Ryerson thus for now sits at number three but I believe that will change. So number three for now and the 103 in our sites....then 104 n onward.

I will keep you updated with new minerals and the count total.

So I get asked why I do not post more images my discoveries at Ryerson and have explained several time but will do so again here and this will the go check the post, post.

Many of the minerals I am posting about are micros and some of those are a mm in size or smaller. They need scopes to see and some can only be identified by special machines at the lab which reveal the elemental make up of the mineral.

Taking images with a scope or other micro photography takes a long time. The image I am posting with this post took 97 images to get and those must be stacked together. Each image is a very slight turn on the microscope. Truly barely a movement. If you mess up by turning too far or ending up with blurry images the stacking will not work and you must start over. So it is very intensive and time consuming.

Then you need to take into account that if I am going to spend so much time on the images do I want to hold them for publication in a magazine, a paper, or presentation? Most of those mediums want images that have not been seen before. If I post on Ryerson then people see it but really just gets glanced and often mens little to most of the viewers where in one of the other mediums it is a feature.

I will post pictures or scans when I can. It isn't that I don't want to share or am hiding something. I am just being smart about the use of my time. Studying micros is a lot of work and takes a lot of time under the microscope. Knowing the pegmatite well is crucial in knowing what may need to be looked at further and what possibilities may be waiting to be found in Ryerson's pegmatite. The future becomes clearer with each new mineral and is looking promising.

pictured below is vivianite crystals from Ryerson Hill.

Shot of work at Ryerson in June 2022. Pictured are Zoltan Matolcsy, Patrick MacDonald, and Lloyd W. Alexander.

Photos courtesy of Lloyd W. Alexander and the MacDonalds. I mages and video will be added periodically.

Interesting crystals from recent work at Ryerson Hill in the study area. Several vivianite crystals can be seen and some other crystals that need chemistry to confirm identification. A couple are very intriguing.

New mineral for Ryerson Hill.... Monazite-(Ce). This one was a good lesson for me in substitution and the limis of mindat. Thank you AF for getting me through this one.

#95 for mindat
#96 non mindat (mindat isn't accepting orthoclase for whatever reason)

It is getting closer. Working on presentation and now know my time slot. April 10th 11am to 11:15am.

I’m anxious but excited.

It is with great excitement and relief that I can announce…. “Congratulations on the acceptance of your abstract for presentation at the virtual Rochester Mineralogjcal Symposium!”

I was very nervous as Ihad never written an abstract or done a mineralogical study. I’m so very pleased to have this results. Thank you to Al and Skip for the mentoring on this project. I look forward to working with them on what is next and what is ahead.

Abstract has been submitted. So now I wait till about end of February to see if it’s excepted.

Title… Ryerson Hill Quarry; An unusual find

What’s the unusual find? Lol, can’t let that out yet but it’s a rare find in Maine and maybe a first find in the Oxford Pegmatite.

We are also talking about a full article by end of 2022 for Rocks and Minerals. We shall see where the journey goes…

I’m excited and anxious. It feels good that what I started with for topics is still what’s the base of the abstract and very happy, blessed to have had Al and Skip advising, guiding, and reviewing.

Much more studying to do at Ryerson and hopefully more papers to come…

A nice visit to the lab to work on the paper and confirm a new mineral and discuss a few others.

The abstract of the study paper is about 99% done and ready to submit, almost. I am excited and nervous to submit it. I hope it get excepted and I present it.

New mineral.... Torbernite.

One that I have confirmed but can't get on mindat yet...orthoclase.

The one Al had never seen turned out to be a very odd combination of a chamosite base, a clear apatite, translucent pyrite and red hematite on top of that....very cool.