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Penny`s Pocket in Rogerley, UK
The last few weeks were very busy for our team. Parallel with publishing Minerals #2, and editing the book “Agates from Ploczki Gorne, Lower Silesia, Poland” we were working on Mindat.org Conference and preparing for Sainte-Marie-Aux-Mines show. Finally everything went well, but at the end of the Conference I was really exhausted. I was dreaming about some real holidays – somewhere with no hurry – either under or over ground collecting. A great opportunity showed up just before end of Conference – Cal and Kerith Graeber invited us to visit the Rogerley mine again! Reason was simple – they just hit a new pocket which produced several good quality specimens. They still didn’t know much about overall size and quality of pocket. We decided immediately to go and 5 days after Conference we – Scott, Kristof and myself – were in Northern England. Unfortunately for us, Asia was enjoying the beaches in Croatia, so the photography portion of this report is not up to normal standards. It was difficult to take pictures while playing in the mud! Tomasz Praszkier See Rogerley specimens in our store.
Penny Williamson (pocket name was given in her honor) with Amir Akhavan and Brian Jackson at the Mindat.org Conference in July 2011 in Poland. R. Bode photo.
Cal Graeber - one of the owners of the Rogerley mine - invited us for this great trip. T. Praszkier photo.
Mine "offices" at the bottom of the quarry. T. Praszkier photo.
Lower tunnel and the stairs to the main entrance. S. Werschky photo.
Beautiful day in Weardale! T. Praszkier photo.
Mine entrance with the mining trams. T. Praszkier photo.
Transporting rocks to the dump. S. Werschky photo.
Transporting rocks to the dupm. S. Werschky photo.
Scott looks at the fluorite. T. Praszkier photo.
Crystals frozen in cemented mud. T. Praszkier photo.
Fragment of Penny`s pocket behind Kristof. T. Praszkier photo.
Fluorites in the wall! T. Praszkier photo.
Some of them were coated by calcite. T. Praszkier photo.
Crystals sticking out from the clay. K. Dembicz photo.
Fragment of the pocket. T. Praszkier photo.
Small cavity after the clay was cleaned. T. Praszkier photo.
Scott working in the pocket. T. Praszkier photo.
First specimens. T. Praszkier photo.
Fluorite crystals partly covered by calcite. T. Praszkier photo.
Water is a very important tool in Rogerley. T. Praszkier photo.
Freshly collected specimen. T. Praszkier photo.
Perfect twinned crystals sticking from the mud. K. Dembicz photo.
One of the biggest specimens that we managed to get out of the wall on the first day. S. Werschky photo.
One of the biggest specimens that we managed to get out of the wall on the first day. S. Werschky photo.
The same specimen (in situ on the photo above) - first time in daylight. T. Praszkier photo.
Tom, Scott and Cal with the specimen at the mine entrance K. Dembicz photo.
Happy Tom with the dirty fluorite. K. Dembicz photo.
Time for bath! K. Dembicz photo.
Better... K. Dembicz photo.
...better. K. Dembicz photo.
Much better! K. Dembicz photo.
Quite impressive color and size of crystals after cleaning. K. Dembicz photo.
Another specimen from the Penny`s Pocket. T. Praszkier photo.
Another specimen from the Penny`s Pocket. T. Praszkier photo.
Classic twin with very high daylight fluorescence. T. Praszkier photo.
Great blue color of twins. T. Praszkier photo.
One of the best (so far) specimens collected from the pocket. T. Praszkier photo.
Kristof with specimen from the photo above. T. Praszkier photo.
Washing after day of work. K. Dembicz photo.
Famous Blue Bell pub - Scott is ready for the beer after work. T. Praszkier photo.
During short trip we visited some of the classic mining places in the area. Old mining carts in Allanheads. T. Praszkier photo.
Dumps in Frazer`s Hush. T. Praszkier photo.
Classic landscape in Weardale. T. Praszkier photo.
Old mining cart in Rookhope - famous for Boltsborn mine. T. Praszkier photo.
Picturesque valley - note the head frame at the center. T. Praszkier photo.
Mark Kielbaso, Scott Werschky and Jurgen Tron being lazy and sleeping on the sun! T. Praszkier photo.
Mark, Jurgen, Cal, Scott and Kristof at mine entrance. T. Praszkier photo.
Kristof examining the pocket. T. Praszkier photo.
Jurgen washing the pocket. T. Praszkier photo.
Scott with exposed group of fluorite crystals. T. Praszkier photo.
Fluorites in situ! T. Praszkier photo.
Fluorites in situ! K. Dembicz photo.
Very happy Scott with his micromount. T. Praszkier photo.
Mining fluorites is a dirty job - but it was worth it! K. Dembicz photo.
Dirty and happy Tom with one of the specimens. K. Dembicz photo.
Some of the big specimens. T. Praszkier photo.
One of the biggest rocks... T. Praszkier photo.
... with great crystals of fluorite with galena. T. Praszkier photo.
Time for trimming! Cal is sawing one of the big specimens. T. Praszkier photo.
Sawing specimens. T. Praszkier photo.
Some of them were really heavy. T. Praszkier photo.
Sawing the biggest one. T. Praszkier photo.
To cut the smaller specimens Cal had to sit on the saw. S. Werschky photo.
Unusual find - probably etched corals overgrown by fluorite. T. Praszkier photo.
Another specimen of ?coral overgrown by fluorite. T. Praszkier photo.
Time to say goodbye after 5 great days! T. Praszkier photo.
And thank you Penny for the great pocket! R. Bode photo.
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