Two Big Nerds Ogle Fluorite and Native Copper

“The fact that went makes us nerds. The fact that we had fun… I don’t know what that makes us.”
- Maya on the Arizona Mining & Mineral Museum.

On the day after we went to see petroglyphs we went to what is, perhaps, the most nerdy attraction of all those we have ever been to. We went downtown to the headquarters of Arizona’s Department of Mining and Mineral Resources to see their Mining and Mineral Museum. Oh yes, we did.

Outside the historic building (formerly the headquarters of a chapter of the Shriners) are several large pieces of mining equipment. The scoop in the picture behind Matt was retired because it was just too small to keep up with the mining needs of the state. On the other front corner of the building was the wooden super-structure of a mine hoist. It’s like what a derrick is oil-drilling, apparently. There were also several chunks of wood from the Petrified Forest.

Inside the museum, was case after case of minerals, core samples, fossils, gemstones and polished spheres or various interesting rocks. This is not the kind of place that everybody would enjoy, but we had a lot of fun. At each case we were like, “Oh, look at that!” We saw a giant quartz crystal that was easily a foot and a half across, various precious and semi-precious stones in raw and processed forms. There were seeming endless varies of crystalline minerals in a vast array of colours. One of the things we saw over and over again was fluorite in purple, orange and red. It makes perfect cubes that look really neat all jumbled together. We also saw an amazing black opal with tons of flecks of green throughout. Even Matt was thinking about rings and jewelry.

Other than putting all the shiny stuff on display, the main function of the museum is to educate the public about all the types of mineral extraction that go on in Arizona. The state produces the highest value in non-fuel minerals of all the states. Copper is one of the things there is a lot of in Arizona. When copper (or another metal) is mixed in with a rock, but is still visible it is called native copper. We’ve heard that term before but not we know what it means! We also saw native silver and native gold. There were also cases that broke down the ridiculously complicated processes involved in extracting gold for gold ore or getting oil out of oil shale. For gold extraction it involves several iterations of crushing melting and mixing. Each time more of the non-gold bonds to whatever the mix is this time and the gold comes out more pure. There are 5 or 6 of these steps. Ridiculously complicated. Arizona has other minerals too. A lot of American uranium comes from Arizona. The museum had some uranium in its infamous yellow cake form on display. In the photo you can also see a giant block of coal on the other side of the case.
There were a few non-mineral items toward the end. The museum also had a nice collection of fossils from around the state. There were trilobites, a preserved dinosaur foot print, the skeleton of something small crocodile-like animal, and some teeth from an early horse. A watermelon-sized lava bomb and some other samples from Arizona’s volcanic areas were on display as well. In this same section was a model of the solar system made from polished stone spheres that really looked like the planets they were supposed to represent. The rocks they had for Earth and Jupiter were both uncannily accurate, if not in shape at least in colour. The model has not been up-dated to not include Pluto. And at the very end was a huge piece of native copper. Huge! We left with a smile but shaking our heads at our own nerdiness.