Mineral County: WANDERINGS

Chance Encounter Creates Opportunity to Mine for Variscite in Nevada

- BRUCE MCKAY

Best intentions can be very effective, especially if you can keep to your goals, but some places and experiences can really put one’s resolve to the test.

Thinking back about my time in Quartzite, Arizona, in January of 2019, I’m reminded of the conversation I had with myself about keeping my purchases to a minimum. The fact is, I have more rock than I can cut in this lifetime, and since I don’t know if I’m going to be reborn as a lapidarist and I don’t know how to get the rocks I have in this life into the next, purchasing more may not be the wisest decision. Add to that, not all the rocks I have are the best quality, so if I find better specimens and add a pound to my pile, the lesser quality sinks to the bottom and out of sight. Sometimes it’s all about justifications as you wander the booths at the Quartzite Pow WoW.

My rockhound logic softened the iron resolve not to purchase more rocks and allowed me to stop short in my tracks when I saw some of the most beautiful Variscite I have ever seen. There were huge slabs of lime green orbs mushed against each other into spiderweb patterns, and slabs cut from football-size chunks of material. A longtime fan of Variscite, I was smitten, looking at some of the finest I had ever seen.

The proprietor of the booth was Alan Chambers, partner with Rodney Frisby in the Vista Grande Mine outside of Mina, Nevada. We got to talking, and soon he invited me to come to visit the mine during summer. I slotted some time in early June and stopped by on the first leg of a cross country trip.

MAKING THE TREK TO MINA