What's New in the Mineral World? - The Mineralogical Record

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Kleinite, a mercury mineral with the strange formula [Hg2N]2(Cl2,SO4)·H2O, reaches
its best crystal development worldwide at the McDermitt mine, Opalite district,
Humboldt County, Nevada. The yellow (and photosensitive) kleinite crystals are all well
under 1 cm individually but in some specimens the microcrystals form solid coatings on
matrix. A few such examples, collected in the 1980s, are now for sale in a March 7
update (“Gallery 14”) on the site of Wright’s Rock Shop (www.wrightsrockshop.com).
Unfortunately the website places the McDermitt mine in California, not Nevada, but
these, anyway, are impressive specimens of a very rare mineral, with bright yellow
crystals as sprinklings and thin encrustations on white opalite breccia matrix.
Kleinite, 5.6 cm, from the McDermitt mine, Opalite district, Humboldt
County, Nevada. Wright’s Rock Shop specimen and photo.
Also in Nevada, there is a new find of pretty calcite/quartz specimens from near an
extinct hot spring in the Virginia Range of mountains near Reno: Jack Crowley posted
the specimens on his Crystal Mine site (www.crystal-mine.com) on February 26,
announcing proudly that “no one else has these.” The specimens are miniature to cabinetsize
groups of opaque pinkish calcite scalenohedrons with dull to satiny luster, with
quartz occurring as brilliant “starbursts” of colorless, transparent prisms scattered at large
all over surfaces of the calcite. Some of the quartz crystals are stubby, some are
elongated, quite a few are sceptered, and all of the little starbursts have the effect of
lending glitter and glam to the rather pedestrian calcite crystals below and around them.
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