Name: Vanadinite
Brand: The Mineralogical Museum, University of Delaware

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Vanadinite

Vanadinite, 28 cm, from the Old Yuma mine, Tucson Mountains, Pima County, Arizona. The first recorded claim on the Old Yuma mine was filed in 1885, by C. C. Stephens, a Tucson city councilman. Originally it was worked as a gold mine; the gold was found suspended in blackish wulfenite crystals, but only about a tenth of an ounce of gold was contained per ton of ore. To make the meager ore profitable, molybdenum and lead had to be recovered as well. Beautiful red vanadinite was also abundant at the mine, and was recovered as an ore of vanadium. It was described in detail (along with wulfenite) by a University of Arizona professor named Frank Nelson Guild (1870–1939) in 1911, bringing the locality some international recognition. By 1916 a mill had been constructed at the mine to process up to 100 tons of wulfenite and vanadinite ore per day. The mine yielded specimens regularly over the years, and was considered the source of the world’s best vanadinite specimens until the Moroccan material came on the market in the 1970s.

The Mineralogical Museum, University of Delaware

Product details

Species

Vanadinite

SizeLarge Cabinet

Dimensions28.0 cm

Locality

Old Yuma mine, Tucson Mountains, Pima County, Arizona

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