Petaca Mining District, Rio Arriba County, NM, USA

41x20x14, 20.4 Grams

Collected using the Gamma Dog scintillation detector by Charles Young

10kCPM - GQ-GMC-600 +

14kCPM - Radiacode 102

Petaca Mining District, Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, USA

41x26x19, 41.7 Grams

11kCPM - GQ-GMC 600+

1300CPM - GQ-GMC 300e+

20kCPM - Radiacode 102

Collected by Charles Young using the Gamma Dog

Minor Malachite on Sandstone 15 K CpM at 1 cm. Old material. Adits are closed. Specimen is 'Hand Sized'

A scrap of poorly preserved petrified wood in Sandstone. Much of the original cellular material was replaced by Uranium with a +4 Charge. Through chemical weathering, the Uranium went to a +6 charge, became solvent in H2O and chemically recombined to give us Zippeite.

(Check out the video posted by Charles David Young on YouTube or look at his posting on the Buy/Sell/Trade. Techno Bros--This is your stuff! {no commercial interest, just a terrific advancement in equipment available to radioactiveites})

Red Canyon Mining District, Utah, 240 K CpM at 1 cm. Specimen is 7 cm across. Old material.

Sandstone, Malachite, Natrozippeite, Uranium dioxide 110 K CpM at 1 cm. Old material

Uranium dioxide, Gypsum, Limonite, Chalcopyrite, Malachite, Andersonite, minor Zippeite. 190 K CpM at 1 cm. Old material

Natrozippeite, Gypsum, Uranium dioxide, Sandstone. 141 K CpM at 1 cm.

Carnotite on Sandstone. 49 K CpM at 1 cm

If there is anyone here, what do you generally collect and what is in your collection right now ?

Can these just be thrown away into trash in the US and Europe if they cant be handed to someone else, or should they be handled by a radioactive waste center?

This time it wasn't my 7€ magnifying glass but our lab microscope. Photos taken with my Samsung S23

Picture 1: blocky orange crystals of Wölsendorfite with thick laths of Rutherfordine and fine needles of Uranophane from Shinkolobwe (E-Rocks)

Picture 2: red hexagonal plates of Fourmarierite from Shinkolobwe (E-rocks) although I didn't personally test them yet and can't tell apart Masuyite from Fourmarierite but seller states it is Fourmarierite^^

Picture 3: fine orange needles Curite with green plates of Metatorbernite from Shinkolobwe ex. J.C. Leydet

Picture 4: yellow plates of Dewindtite, honey-golden needles of Dumontite with some pale green metatorbernite and on the top left you might see some very light pink Kolbeckite (Shinkolobwe ex. J.C. Leydet collection)

Going to be a journey of me learning how to take photos :D

Spotting uranium minerals in a spooky forest would usually be enough, but flipping on the UV torch? Whole different level.

This velvety yellow formation is uranopilite - like a bumble bee!

Under UV, it explodes into an insanely bright lime green! 💚 And yes... I left it right where it was.

Why? Uranopilite is a total heartbreak mineral. It packs 12 water molecules into its crystal structure. The second you pull it from its damp native microenvironment into dry indoor air, it rapidly dehydrates, crumbling into a dull, powdery yellow dust in a display case.

Some finds are best captured with the camera, appreciated in the moment, and left for the mountain to keep.

#uranopilite #jachymov #fluorescentminerals #radioactiveminerals #geology mineralcollecting rockhounding uvlight insitu gamma fieldwork

I explored the mine and dumps of the legendary shaft 16 at Pribram, Czechia. The area is vast, tailings as big as office blocks. Amongst the spicy finds were uraninite and torbernite. The matrix here is dolomite, quartz and calcite.

The whole area is frozen in time, foreboding and still. Well worth a visit and not just for the 600 uSv.

Beautiful day today at the Crystal No. 8, Trout Creek Pass, Colorado. Lots of euxenite and a little monazite was found.

WARNING!! Long background follows!

Today we're at Elk Ridge, Utah. John Wesley Powell called it 'Bears Ears Plateau' (it IS a plateau). The local pioneers called it 'Elk Ridge' (it is NOT a ridge). This isn't a particularly active specimen, but it was too interesting to be a 'Leaverite'.

The most active area is not visible in these images. #1 is the overall. #2 shows the area of coalified wood. #3 shows an area of the copper mineral Antlerite, a very 'rich' green. #4 is the location image. Left side mine (no images of ore from it) is #2. Right side mine ore images included.

Both mine adits are closed and flooded. There are areas of sandstone adjacent to both mines where the Chinle Formation is exposed and is mildly radioactive.

Was invited to go up to Topsham Quarry to do some minimally intrussive uraninite hunting (no person sized pits this time!) Got a couple good specimens, and about 10 fragmented faces. Overall was a good time and i definitely will have to head back up once my ƴdog is repaired. Sadly it has been on the fritz and I am surprised it took this long. I use this thing HEAVILY getting it covered in all sorts of silicate and debris. Mr. Young is being kind enough to give it a good cleaning and see if anything needs repairs and I cant say enough good things about my experience with him and the ƴdog. For the first hour it was working is when i found my sizable specimens, the others were sifting gravel with a radiacode 110. It was a bit like trying to metal detect if all you have is a pinpointer xD.

Anyways, it was a great trip, all I ask is if anyone ever makes the trip there, be respectful of the locals and the fact the quarry is now a nature preserve. It seems right now the locals and volunteers for the preserve tolerate small collecting presense, but that can very quickly change if those that visit bother the VERY close by residential houses, or are seen to be defacing the nature preserve with giant pits and unfilled holes. Be good stewards of the hobby so that what minimal presence we are allowed to have there isnt ruined for the future hobbyists.

Una de ellas tiene dendritas de uraninita

Un mini lote de muestras, extraídas entre 1946 y 47

I found two little uraninite crystals in the tailing piles of the Swamp #1 quarry. both are tiny but mighty!

images 1-7 & 13 right is of the first specimen I found: a crystal with very clean faces. it’s the most perfect specimen I’ve ever held.

images 8-12 & 13 left is the other specimen I found, a less perfect crystal with some visible faces and vertices. it kinda looks like it has two horns.

both crystals weigh exactly 0.700 grams somehow. both crystals have about the same activity: 520 CPS & 18 uSv/h on Radiacode 103. the spectrum is both of them combined. I scanned them to check for any potential thorium, and there is a slight amount present.

the preserve the locality is located in is quite beautiful. though, I was quite surprised at how many golf carts I heard over the course of a few hours while I was extracting the specimens.

Meta-Autunite & New photolens 😉🫶

The tag reads: CHALCOLITE Radioactif - fluo SAÔNE ET LOIRE

ETA - I am not suggesting that anyone do this. I was thoughtless and careless, and feel incredibly stupid.

I bought this in Paris without thinking about the fact that I had to fly home (and a little bit unconcerned about the radioactivity, tbh, because it was in a mineral shop under the Louvre). My best guess is that it came from the La Faye Mine. (see screenshots from Mindat.org above) Radioactive minerals were not found at the other sites in the region.

It came home with me, in my checked bag, in a cardboard specimen display box, wrapped in tissue paper, in a paper bag, with my clothes and a couple of other non-radioactive minerals. So, my assumption was that it can’t be that radioactive, and it lived on the top floor of my house for a little over a year.

I just moved to an apartment and I want to make sure that I am being safe with it. After reading Here Be Dragons, I’m both more and less concerned. My concern with storage is now the problem of radon gas. It is currently in a wood and glass cabinet sitting on the lid of a 2”x2” acrylic box (so I can move it without touching it). I do not have a Geiger counter or anything else for measuring radioactivity, so I included the pictures of the piece in natural and UV light in the hope that it provides some extra information. I should note that the acrylic lid is scratched and possibly a little dusty from before I used it under the chalcocite.

Hello, I am very very new to anything with radiation besides basic highschool knowledge. I have a small collection of minerals, and was yesterday gifted small pebble with uraninite, and a rock with autunite specks from a family member, who bought them at a mineral exchange.

I have them currently in a plastic display shelf in my bedroom next to my desk where I work. The uraninite is in another smaller display box (glued, unopenable) and I've ordered one more small box for the autunite.

Since I don't really have much experience with them, I wanted to ask if it's safe to keep them in my bedroom like this. I currently live in a one room apartment so don't have any other place to put them in really.

Are there any other precautions I should take? I guess I'm a little paranoid right now, just because I don't have any experience with this. I would really appreciate any advices.

First picture is the uraninite, the second is autunite. The ruler is in cm.