KINO 24: A HUGE SHOW WITH GOLD AND A GOAT

 

 

 Aerial view of the Kino venue. Photo courtesy of KinoGemShow.com

My next venue on the schedule was the Kino Gem and Mineral Show situated south and east of downtown along I-10 heading east and on Ajo Way. It is among the most isolated of the venues but is quite large with ~225 vendors. Kino is a show where one goes to get exercise by walking and walking and walking. Most vendors are situated in tents open to the weather although there are a couple of the really giant tents. Kino is the place to go if interested in “large” quartz crystals and “big” rocks and large water fountains. If one is buying at Kino there is a possibility of the need for a flatbed truck and loader to carry home your loot. There are also numerous jewelry booths in the big tent where one can purchase lesser priced rings, pendants, bracelets, etc.  And of course, carved skulls and beads are plentiful. What generally was missing are mineral collectables for you home cabinet. But, if you are interested in doodads, rugs, magic minerals, handicrafts, trinkets, etc. this is your place. And, the parking is plentiful and free. Lookers could easily spend a day here and if interested, pet a goat. 

Mookaite (locally coined) is a silicified sedimentary rock, actually a colorful indurated radiolarite only known/collected from the Lower Cretaceous Windalia Radiolarite (a geological formation) in the Carnarvon Basin of Western Australia. The rock is composed of gazillions of microscopic radiolarians that have a siliceous, usually opaline, test (their “shell”). This particular radiolarite forms in the weathering profile of the Windalia. Every year I come to ogle at these colorful slabs.

 

Sometimes you just toss all of your extra rocks on a table and see what will sell for a dollar.

And so, the walk begins at the south end near the parking lot. Not certain that I can see the north end of the aisle!!

I guess this is a brecciated conglomerate of some sort. Definitely a yard rock that will not fit in the trunk of your passenger car.

Another one you need the truck for—a large quartz turned into a yard fountain.

I don’t know if the goat (look closely eating hay) comes with the geode. But it was friendly, and kids (and some adults) loved to oh and ah and pet it.

This is a mighty big concretion, about four feet tall. Bring the loader and the truck.

This building is mostly filled with amethyst concretions.

Shell of a giant clam, perhaps Tridacna sp. Today most giant clam species are overexploited due to extensive harvesting for food ornamental objects.

After hunting around for “something” to take home from the Kino Show, I finally found an answer in a lonely looking perky box mixed in with some larger specimens: a quartz base topped with a porous and gnarly looking mottramite, a lead copper vanadate [PbCu(VO4)(OH)], and then within a mottramite vug, shiny gold. Wow, who could turn down a specimen of gold? Not me!

The mounted specimen came from the Shelby Mine, Gold Basin District, White Hills, Mohave County, Arizona. The Gold Basin District has a long history as an 1881 publication (see MinDat) noted mining started in the 1870’s but remoteness from the base of supplies retarded developments of the half dozen mines. Jump ahead to the present and TheDiggins.com noted the District has~ 533 active claims and 19 producing mines. In addition, Gold Basin Resources Corporation has leased/is leasing ~40 km2 in an active project to “mine” gold from   shallow depths (surface to ~100 m or so).  And, the project is easily accessible by major highways. Things have changed in the last 140 years).

Quartz matrix, dark mottramite, and the shiny gold in a vug. Width FOV ~5 mm.

The bedrock is composed of Precambrian and Cretaceous granite and gneiss. The richest mineralization seems to be stacked along major fault zones. Thus far, the gold is oxidized and lacks sulfides and is prime for heap leeching extraction. They are looking for investors!!!

And I close with something I tried to reinforce in my students: Your mind is like a gold mine, if you dig deep, you will find something golden        author unknown.