New Mexico Mineral Symposium — Abstracts

In July 1989, a project was mounted to explore for barite at the 100-yr-old Stoneham, Colorado collecting locality. The locality is famous for its aqua barites that have lured field collectors to the site for decades. Our recent project, the Leeson dig, consumed two weeks of field time followed by three months of specimen preparation. A large tractor was employed to remove overburden and tailings created by previous field collectors. A 50-ft-deep by 200-ft-long trench was opened to expose the barite-rich vein at depth. The final results yielded more than 900 numbered specimens. During the dig, extensive geologic data were collected on the barite depositional environment resulting in a predictive depositional model for future excavations.