First time at NM Mineral Symposium

The 45th annual New Mexico Mineral Symposium took place in Socorro earlier this month, Nov. 7-9. The New Mexico Bureau of Geology & Mineral Resources called it a “great success.” They had numerous presentations throughout the days, 247 attendees, a live auction, silent auctions, hotel “tailgating,” and more.

I didn’t make it to any of the talks, but I was able to check out a couple of the activities that were going on. On Saturday, Nov. 8, I went to the hotel “tailgating” at the Comfort Inn and Suites. Only one group was outside really tailgating, the local Para Vida Gems. Inside the hotel, various rooms are open for people to come in and check out their mineral collections. Most everything on display is for sale as well. I treated it mostly as a museum experience though.

Socorro doesn’t really attract the high-end collectors and sellers, but there are still some really great mineral pieces to be seen in those hotel rooms. Some had tables set up, some simply covered the bed and all other available surfaces with boxes and flats. In the end, I only bought two small pieces. I found a perfect little cube of pyrite, about ¾ inch on its sides, out of Navajun, Spain. The other piece was ferberite from China. Ferberite is iron tungstate and is a shiny black. Alone it is pretty nice, but this piece also had some quartz crystals attached to give contrast.

The coolest room I found that evening had pieces way out of my price range. The guys in that room were just having fun and treating it like the social hour the schedule listed that time as. Bradley Culebro and Mike Eggleton, and some others who helped along the way, had made one of the biggest discoveries in Socorro County and probably New Mexico for quite some time.

At the Blanchard Mine, in the Hansonburg Mining District near Bingham, they opened a new hole in an existing mine and found massive pieces of fluorite. Ice Cream Igloo fluorite crystals they called them. Their spring of 2023 discovery landed them in the Jan/Feb issue of Rock & Minerals magazine, which called it “A Major New Fluorite Find.” They hauled a massive, 1,000 plus pound piece out of a tiny passageway. Dubbed “The Beast,” it’s on display right out in front at the Mineral Museum here in Socorro.

On Sunday, just after noon, I caught the tail end of the silent auction at Macey Center. Proceeds from sales at some of the tables were to benefit the Mineral Museum for the purchase of new lighting for displays. The auction was over by the time I got there, but anything without a bid was still available for purchase. I looked around, mostly treating it as a museum showing again. I didn’t buy anything but knew a few people there: two who were selling, one who was working, one who just gave a talk, and one there to listen to the talk and buy beautiful smoky quartz. I spent some time looking at rocks and talking to friends.

Despite having lived in Socorro for so long, and liking rocks, I had never gone to any of the symposium events before. I’ll now be looking forward to next year’s symposium.