OCTOBER FIELD TRIP
62nd ANNUAL GEM-O-RAMA
Sponsored by the Searles Lake Gem & Mineral Society
Trona, California

October 11-12, 2003
Saturday 8AM to 5PM, Sunday 8AM to 4PM

Mud Trip Saturday - Only Departure 9AM- Cluster & pancake hanksite, trona, borax - $8 per car
Blow Hole Saturday - Only Departure 2:30PM- Hanksite, halite, borax, sulfohalite dry surface- $8 per car
Pink Halite Sunday - Only Departure 9AM- In brine, under hard salt - $10 per car (no refunds)
IMC Chemical Plant - Sat 11:00AM to 2:45PM, Sun. 11:00AM to 12:30PM - in bus - FREE

The Searles Lake, IMC Chemicals, Inc., (IMCC), permits public mineral collecting at one time each year during the annual gem and mineral show. The show is the second weekend in October . This show date was chosen because it is thebest time of year to collect the minerals. The brine level is below the salt surface, the mud is dry, and it’s hard enough to support the equipment used to bring it to where everybody can prospect for minerals, and the infamous pink halite that hasn’t started its winter leaching. The weather will be pretty cool to make collecting comfortable.

During the show there are three field trips to the lake, and different specimens are available during each trip . The first one is to collect found minerals in the mud. The plant digs up about 100 tons of mud and hauls it with trucks about a mile away where they spread it out in a area so rockhounders can prospect it for specimens. There’s plenty of large Hanksite crystals (some 3 or 4 inches across), large clusters of Hanksite growing together with other minerals up to 100+ pounds and sometimes you can find large borax crystals buried in the sticky, black MUD! A word of warning: You will get very DIRTY! There will be brine to wash your crystals in and a place to wash off at the collecting area. Bring a pick and hand trowel if you want to find good specimens. Let’s face it, how long has it been since you played in the mud!

The next trip is at 2:30 P.M. on Saturday where the upper salt minerals have been lifted to the surface and spread for your selection. Rarer minerals are available like Hanksite, sulfohalite, borax, and trona. These are only found in just a few places in the world (Hanksite is found only in one other place - Uganda). This is the most popular trip each year. Collecting is on the dry salt surface and the material is spread out, making collecting clean and easy, and you won’t need any special tools. But, may get your shoes wet with brine if you stand too close during the "jetting" demonstration.

The third trip is at 9 A.M. on Sunday to collect the cool Searles Lake pink halite. This will be the only mineral available on this trip. The best specimens we found are on the underside of overhanging ledges under the ledges of open brine pools. The best ledges are usually in the deepest pools. To get your specimens, you’ll have to chop off the ledge. You might want to bring picks or even a steel bar or a sledge hammer with you since the ledge material is tough and hard to break. Since the brine pool may 2-3 feet deep, you might want to team up with somebody to catch the specimen once it has been chopped off so it doesn’t break or get lost. You can also find some good specimens where pressure ridges have created a hole just below the brine surface. The salt in is tough here too, so big tools work really good!

All the lake minerals you collect dissolve easily and quickly in water. So, don’t wash your minerals, or they’ll disappear! Use brine. You can get it during either the first or last field trips. Also, don’t soak your pieces in the brine, and deep the brine at about room temperature. The sulfate in the brine and minerals changes really quickly with the temperature and the crystal form of the minerals changes at about 60 degrees to form salt. If this happens, it’ll probably destroy your specimens. So, be careful and see you there! For more information, call Bonnie Fairchild (760)372-5356

Justin Butt , Field Trip Chair