Babati, Gairo, Morogoro

[chrisP]

Babati:
In Babati, we had the opportunity to visit an over 40-year-old iolite mine. It took us more than 1.5 hours to cover around 25 km. An off-road adventure before we arrived at the miners' camp at an altitude of over 1600 meters. The miners live very, very modestly and are self-sufficient. After an extensive tour, we invited the miners to a picnic we had brought with us. They were very happy.

The Iolite vein stretches along a mountainside, probably all the way down into the valley. The overburden is blasted to get to the iolites. We also found green kyanite and sunstone (oligoclase with hematite) in the overburden. Both minerals are not used commercially.

[chrisP]

Gairo
On the way from Babati to Dodoma, we stopped near Gairo to visit a quartz mine. Gairo is located in a very impressive area characterized by dozens of extinct volcanoes. The soil is very fertile. Intensive agriculture is practiced here.

The quartz mine was a hole in the ground, where quartz crystals with lepidolite, hematite or tourmaline as well as sunstones - sometimes crystallized the wrong way round, the hematite was not distributed in the oligoclase but on the outside, which gave the impression of a rusty file - could already be found from the surface.

The owner is a farmer by profession and the finds are rather occasional finds. However, the bush radio worked very well and suddenly the whole extended family was there and had brought kilos of stones with them. It was interesting to see that in addition to quartz and sunstone, there were also red garnets and intense green chrome kyanite. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of these because I had to dig through several kilos of stones. The stones are generally not of faceting quality, but would be suitable for mineral collectors if handled with care.

[chrisP]

Morogoro
In Morogoro we unfortunately didn't have time to visit the mines in the Uluguru Mountains. Our organizer, guide and good friend organized a mine owner who has mining licenses for tourmaline, yellow danburite, ruby, spinel, chrome sphene, garnet, sunstone, various quartz crystals, scapolite and other minerals. He then dragged along a guy who had pink mahenge spinels with him.

We had a lot of fun and spent several hours there. However, caution is advised. There was a glass stone among the tourmalines. There was a lot of indefinable gray transparent stones on a table. No one had any idea what it was, especially not the seller. Allegedly found in a river, cubic, slight color shift, no air bubbles and relatively soft - carvable with a tourmaline. Possibly color-doped higher quality glass? We will be back in Morogoro in a few days and will then get to the bottom of the mystery.

[danielle]

Exciting !

[chrisP]

Thank you very much.

The tour in the north is over. On Saturday we continue with the south.

[Barbra Voltaire, FGG]

Excellent posts.
Keep them coming.

[chrisP]

In Morogoro we checked the grey stones again.

SG 2.83
Single refractive. Polariscope showed only dark.
Hardness 6

It could also be Pollucit. However, finds in the Uluguru Mountains are not documented anywhere.

I wanted to buy one for a lab report. But of course the seller refused. He wanted to sell the lot not a single stone.

I might have the chance to get my hands on a stone after all. The paths in Africa are unfathomable. I'm not giving up yet.

Next stop Mahenge.