Welcome to my Norwegian minerals.
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This page is devoted to some minerals I collected in 1/9-5/9 -97. I made a trip to Mo i Rana, Norway to visit my friends Eli and Odd Finanger, and together we travelled around to a couple of places in Norway. We were lucky with the weather and I had a wonderful time. I also had the opportunity to meet some of the other members of Rana Mineral Society. The week in short terms... my diary.
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Altemark
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The Altemark talc mine is an underground mining operation, taken up in
the talc surrounding a peridotite. It is reported about 30 different
minerals from Altemark, but I don't have that list yet. We found the following minerals there : Chlor apatite, Talc, Antophyllite, Aktinolite, Dravite, Magnetite, Almandine, Biotite, Magnesite, Clorite, Hornblende, Quartz. |
Båtsmo
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In the Båtsmo area there are a number of places to look for minerals.
There is a belt with Kyanite bearing schist passing right through this
area, so the best places to look for it is along the coast, or where
the rock is blown up for roads or houses. We found kyanite in highly metamorph schist at the sea, but the rock were too hard to work with. We also found a ball of kyanite in some rocks where a new house were built. Look for quartz balls in the schist, often together with garnets (Almadines).
About 1 km west of Båtsmo there is a road cutting where it is possible
to find magnetite, Epidote (big xx), grossular (small xx). The stones
from the roadcutting is used in the road itself about 1 more km to the
west, but the most of the findings is already done by local collectors.
The biggest epidote crystals collected there can be watched in the
museum in Mo i Rana (owned by Chris Holstadt ???).
We found Epidote (Dark green xx), Magnetite, Grossular, Calcite,
Diopside, Titanite ( one clear lightbrown xx in calcite ). |
Fauske
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Well, the Almadines from Fauske is a beauty for the eye. It is an exposure
of the bedrock at the side of a mountain above a field. About 50m of the layer bearing
almadines and staurolite is exposed. Here we picked large, well formed
crystals right up from the ground. Only because there were bigger crystals
in the mountain. Too bad that people isn't careful enough when they tries
to removethem from the rock. The majority of the crystals were chopped
right along the side of the rock. It's a hard work ( expect an hour or two ) to get one of the biggest crystals out of the rock, but if you can manage with a minor piece, it's just to pick it up from the ground. There are also one layer with staurolite. Big black crystals with fine surfaces. The only problem is that the top of the crystals is VERY brittle, and to make a nice piece in the collection is a pain in the
Maybe Fauske is famous for it's garnets, but for the most people the name
is connected with "Fauske marble", exported even to Italy, I was told. |
Store Akersvatnet
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Store Akersvatnet is a fantastic place. It is a water magazine for power
production so the water level can change up to ten meters or more. (I don't
know really.) We visited it in the fall when the water level was as
highest, but we found a lot of diopside anyhow. The geology is that a massive layer of unpure carbonatic rock is exposed. In the carbonatic rock there is a lot of diopside and tremolite crystals which stands out of the stones. There seems to have eroded about 5 cm since the last ice age so there is a lot of stones with crystals penetrating it, with ends protruding out of both sides of the rock. There is also some kyanite in the area. We found a vein with kyanite and some small traces of rutil near the kyanite. We also found a rock full of dravite with some kyanite and rutil. |
Barted minerals
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I had some stones with me from Finland, Varuträsk and some other places
which I used for trade. Some I bartered and some I sold. The following
is the minerals I barted for or was given to me.
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