• Mineral Collecting Field Trips
  • See below for additional information.
  
• Behind-the-Scenes Tour of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science
  • Please note that, due to the ongoing renovation of the Coors Mineral Hall at DMNS, the rock/mineral/meteorite collections will not be part of the behind-the-scenes tour this year. Instead, this year, the tour will focus on the world-class DMNS fossil collections and preparation spaces. The DMNS collections include spectacular fossils from across Colorado, as well as across the world.
  • Two tours will be offered, one at 1:30pm on Thursday June 11, and the other at 1:30pm on Friday June 12. Each will last approximately 1 hour. Each tour is limited to ten people.

• Mineral Specimen Preparation Demo at Collectors Edge (10am and 2pm)
  • There will be two sessions of this event, one at 10am and one at 2pm. Each is expected to last approximately 1.5 hours. Participants will be shown a range of mineral specimen preparation and presentation techniques, from specimen trimming and air-scribing, to air abrasion (“sand blasting”) and basic chemical treatments.
  
• Opening Reception at the Mines Museum of Earth Science: 5pm – 8pm
  • Food and drink will be provided. This event will include a silent auction and a live auction around 6:30pm.

Presentations will be in Berthoud Hall room 241. Presentations will be approximately 50 minutes, including time for questions, and there will be a ~20 minute break between each presentation. Schedule and speaker order are tentative and subject to change.

8:30am – Tea, Coffee, and Morning Snacks
8:50am – Welcome and Opening Remarks
9:00am – Bryan Lees: “The Detroit City Mine Rhodochrosite Mining Project.”
9:50am – Morning Break 1
10:10am – Jasper Bertisen: “Mineral Collecting Adventures in the San Juan Mountains”
11:00am – Morning Break 2
11:20am – Ed Raines: “The Colorado Mineral Belt”
12:10pm – 1:30pm ~ TACO BUFFET LUNCH ~ (New this year: registration includes a lunch buffet.)
1:30pm – Howard Coopersmith: “Geology and Mineralogy of Colorado Diamonds”
2:20pm – Afternoon Break 1
2:40pm – Chris Emproto: “Secondary Minerals of the Colorado Plateau Uranium-Vanadium Mines”
3:30pm – Afternoon Break 2
3:50pm – Dan Kile: “55 Years of Colorado Mineral Collecting Antics”

The first day of symposium presentations is expected to conclude by 5:30pm.

8:30am – Tea, Coffee, and Morning Snacks
9:00am – Mark Jacobson: “The Pegmatites of Colorado: A Survey of Localities”
9:50am – Morning Break 1
10:10am – Jason Roys & Ian Schimpfle: “Blue Fever: Adventures in Prospecting For Aquamarine and Other Gems on Mount Antero”
11:00am – Morning Break 2
11:20pm – Benjamin Murphy & Jonathan Caine: “Tectonomagmatic Controls on the Formation and Localization of Mineral Occurrences in Colorado and Reassessment of the Origin of the ‘Colorado Mineral Belt'”
12:10pm – Concluding Remarks

The second day of symposium presentations is expected to conclude by 12:30pm. After lunch, the Rocky Mountain Micromineral Association will hold a micromineral summit in partnership with the Friends of Mineralogy Colorado Chapter Symposium.

Colorado Micromineral Summit: 1:30 – 4pm, GRL201 (room adjacent to the Mines Museum)

Field Trip Option #1

Trip Location: Field trip to carlsbad-twinned feldspar localities of Lake County, Colorado. Weather permitting, participants will visit and collect at localities on Prospect Mountain, east of Leadville, and/or on the south side of Chalk Mountain, north of Leadville. At Prospect Mountain, the twinned feldspars reach several inches in length.

Logistical Details: Tentatively meeting in Leadville at 10am; expect trip to proceed through the afternoon. Exact meeting time and location will be confirmed prior to the event. Drive up to Prospect Mountain will require a high-clearance four-wheel-drive vehicle, and participants will be expected to provide their own. Carpooling in available 4×4 vehicles, at least out from Leadville, may be an option for those without such a vehicle but is not guaranteed.

Field Trip Leader: Mark Jacobson

Field Trip Option #2

Trip Location: Field trip to pegmatites in the St. Peters Dome area, near Colorado Springs. The trip will focus on zircon- and astrophyllite-bearing pegmatites, including the Eureka Tunnel and nearby pegmatites that host large, specimen-quality zircons. 

Logistical Details: Tentatively meeting at the St Peters Dome trailhead, along Gold Camp Road, at 10am. Exact meeting time and location will be confirmed prior to the event. An all-wheel-drive vehicle with moderate clearance is recommended for the drive to the trailhead, although a carefully driven sedan can make the drive. Field trip will involve a good amount of hiking to pegmatites below St Peters Dome; participants should expect a hike of several miles with elevation gain and loss of several hundred feet.

Field Trip Leader: Philip Persson