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violet sin
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Registered: 2-9-2012
Location: Daydreaming of uraninite...
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Man, a bit frustrating on this end. That purchase for the ludlum 3 and a couple rocks off Bonanza stagnated and was just sitting there unappreciated.
14 and 11 days respectively, passed since payment. Meaning though the money cleared days ago, week(s) in the case of my first purchase... No one
even logged into the site to see that there WAS a purchase made since the 2nd of april.
I sent a couple emails off. Sent another several days later, and ended up having to call the guy up to get his attention, on my lunch break.
Luckily hes at UNM( university of new mexico) and the PayPal email address brought me to his school where his phone number was listed. I was about to
have PayPal close down the payment. It won't be here immediately, but the wheels are turning = good enough  he did say it's(P3 pancake probe) sensitive enough to find U bearing minerals a foot under the surface of the ground.
That is inspiring.
Emailed the seller from GSTubes.com and he still does not know, it's perhaps waiting to load up enough to send off at the shipping yard. My research
into russian shipping seems like one of them things where it's ya know, a week or maybe 2 plus months... he confirmed and said it's first in last out,
untill the pile is big enough nothing is sent. So still hoping for the best. He gets back to you in 24 hr almost every time, which is reassuring.
Between those two, the wallet hurts and it would be nice to see merchandise show up on the porch. But life keeps on ticking, a bit boringly at times,
though ya can't complain about still drawing breath. It's a gift. Rambling and tired, I take my leave.
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violet sin
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Location: Daydreaming of uraninite...
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Some samples
 
 
I got a big package the other day. Two specific rocks, one of which was included 
the other mia and no email communication so far. There was an appropriately sized replacement, just the larger side of the first purpose bought rock.
You can see the reflected pattern in the first pic. Little guy was like 33$ and spot on. Other was labeled tyuyamunite, Yeah I'm confused. The
Ludlum 3 with P3 probe. 4# of rock what just came with the geiger counter because, awesome. an 8" fiesta ware plate, actual pictures of professor
(*?) Steve Buggie on location all kinds of extra info. A bnc to ludlum c connection or something. I've had precious little time to inspect the nerd
treasure chest. Some of the rocks are pretty, some are dull. Like 14 or so foil wrapped and activity labeled rocks. 8 or so left to unwrap.
That's the Rockhound_Steve guy on Bonanza.com/ User ID
buggie4vrlhe on ebay, has cheap lumps of rock pretty affordably priced ... 6# lot of rocks for 30$ +13something $ shipping.
I have a hard time getting his attention though, the partial refund for combined shipping difference was fast. The Ludlum works great, probe is rad,
capable of reading stuff from several feet away.
And somehow amazingly, the parcel from GSTubes, that spent most of March, all of April and some of May in Russian federation, just popped up on the
usps radar in Queens NY. Well played, postal service, well played. Had me nervous since the order was placed end of Feb.
When I get the rocks unpacked I'll try to figure be some good pics. Think I'm good buying samples for a while. My whole collection fits inside a
smaller styrofoam ice chest for shipping a ham, so, not so bad.
Edit
(*?) I was unaware that PhD title has a stigma around it, being called Dr. So and so perhaps is an unwelcome idea. The gentleman in question, has a
PhD and did -not- refer to himself as Dr. It was my idea to do so, I thought it respectful to reference an achievement I don't have. Guess that a
debatable opinion, and could reflect on that person in ways they may not care for. Whoops.
And after calling today, yes I had to, I'm not any more sure I'll see the rock I wanted . But what eves,
[Edited on 7-5-2021 by violet sin]
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Mailinmypocket
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Nice haul! I’m very jealous of that counter of yours! Maybe one day 
Does anyone know of any Canadian sources of radioactive minerals? I’ve searched and searched but there doesn’t seem to be the options that there
are in the US, it’s quite frustrating! I could buy some from the USA or overseas but it just adds an additional level of complexity to something
that’s already complex.
On the plus side I finally received my SBT-11A tube, fun times!
 
Note to self: Tare the damned flask.
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violet sin
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Location: Daydreaming of uraninite...
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I bought more Ore... And two special ones from the seller on bonanza, Steve.
Hands down best price. 30$ for 6lbs and like 15$ shipping. If you buy specific rocks at same time you save on shipping, almost 20$ this time.
But... You spend over a hundo on hot rocks, like 150$.
Prices included for those that plan to buy samples in the future. Elsewhere a single rock could cost you 45$ +s/h and be super underwhelming in
activity. United nuclear has some, sold out last I checked, that are exactly as mentioned 3-7k CPM for 45$. And there is nothing wrong with what
they are doing... This is just better price.
I look forward to actually getting to spend some time with these samples and daylight. Eventually, there will be display boxes... I promise. Enjoy
the pics for now.
(1) - the 135k CPM rock hits about 12k CPM by my GMC 320+ standards.
( * Side note * now imagine paying 45$ for one that only hits 3-7k CPM by fancy probe,,, measure with the GMC 320+ = frustration)
(2) - festive tin makes it just plain look like Christmas
(3) - assortment of rocks shoved in there ^^^ tiny foil wrapped gifts to your inner scientist. Complete with labels of specific activity on every
one.
What you get from the grab bag besides physical U samples : Contrast and compare probes and machines to know what future sales from other sellers will
seem like. Build comparison charts against his Ludlum 2200(?)(something like that) rate meter scaler with 44-9 probe. Dial in your 44-9 probe if
your lucky enough to own one. If I'm not mistaken he uses an eberline pulser to calibrate his machines and those sold. So the descriptions are
accurate. He also marks the fast activity areas with whiteout. Should be repeatable for others.
  
Fun hobby if you ask me. Better if the rocks were found, not bought... He offers a guided tour if you make it to New Mexico. Too far away, like
17-19 hrs. One day though.
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violet sin
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(1) - laid out and sorted pile
(2) - big but only 19K CPM pic of active side
(3) - less active side of 28K CPM rock, flat and thin
(4) - active side with dot for hot area.
I intend to take a measurement from each side (3)/(4) and see how quickly signal is attenuated in matrix. Some is just crusty secondaries, very thin
layers. some is matrix bound primary (black flecks) in unassuming rock.
The 3k CPM rock I opened ( not pictured) was nil on the colorful red sandstone side and hot on the ubiquitous honey brown side. There wasn't color
or dark bits there. (Maybe UV would show something, but another time. Forum already ate one attempted post when previewing). And it only measured
350-360cpm on my gmc 320+ despite being a large rock.
 
 
Only opened a couple, if others look interesting I'll try to add more photos less me.
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violet sin
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Mineral pics,
Not the easiest to photograph for me. But I got out the old stereoscope and shoved my phone up to it. Some details of the last lot of stones
purchased.
1) I spotted blue mineral coming out of a few stones in small crystal flakes.
2) detail of stone in last pic
3) primary dark flecks(?) In matrix with secondary layers penetrating.
4) zoom out of same area, in general
5) point of a rock showing numerous minerals
6) close up of some secondary and calcite? Looks like calcite to me.
7) pinkish mineral associated with dark minerals and bright secondaries.
8) the colors pop with low light. Kinda boring from a distance, but neat up close.
   
   
I want to make a test bed to orient odd shaped stones over the detector in a way so as to be able to read the display and have control of the
orientation of detector to source. Dollar store selfie stick works ok. Pinch type grip works on the detector, not great for stones, leaves the
display in odd positions. It's a process, I'll figure something out, half the fun.
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mayko
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I found this piece of blue apatite, which I bought at a hippy Crystals & Metaphysical Bumper Stickers store in the mountains. I wonder if they
realized how spicy it is (10-20 cps by my geiger counter). So sometimes you don’t have to look for explicitly radioactive minerals like pitchblend,
but those that happen to often contain traces of radioactive elements
These sort of count as minerals
The woods behind my house were grown over an old landfill, and there’s stuff not far below the ground that sometimes floats to the surface. There
was one spot that had a lot of old bricks, which was pretty useful. Another had a bunch of broken glass and old bottles and jars half-buried and
incubating mosquito larvae. I was poking through the detritus when I saw a piece of clear green glass with a distinctive textured design; I was
certain, looking at it, that it was uranium glass. Sure enough, it fluoresced bright green and was slightly radioactive (a piece would typically
measure ~10-50 cps). I went back at night with my UV flashlight and unearthed more than a pound total of uranium glass shards. I also met another
person out digging in the glass pile for cool bottles, and we had a sort of pen pal correspondence through a jar that we’d leave notes in for one
another.
  
I also found a couple of pieces of ceramic, which appears to have a radioactive glaze of some sort. It’s not the usual orange/red fiestaware, but
looks green-tinted and is
fluorescent. The small piece is ~30-60 cps.
 
For reference, my smoke detector americium source is ~20-50 cps from within a prescription pill bottle, and a 1% thoriated rod is ~0.5-2 cps.
Along the way I also found these bits of glass, which fluoresce but with a yellow-green rather than apple green and they’re untinted except for
solarization. Not radioactive, but kind of cool looking!
 
al-khemie is not a terrorist organization
"Chemicals, chemicals... I need chemicals!" - George Hayduke
"Wubbalubba dub-dub!" - Rick Sanchez
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violet sin
International Hazard
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I got two more rocks from RockhoundSeve .. they have me a bit stumped. One rated 87k off a pancake probe on his very accurate 2200 scaler ratemeter,
the other rated 72k CPM.
The hotter one is a secondary mineralization in the limestone, Tyuyamunite from Jurassic canyon. It's all yellow and cool looking. (A)
The second one is primary mineral rolled in the limestone, congruent black lines and layers mixed into the rock. Labeled as uraninite, also from
Jurassic canyon.(B)
The GMC-GQ 320+ agrees with the labels as to which one is hotter, but the geometry of the detector has them at a little different ratio compared to
his measurements. I. e. 8.2K CPM vs. 6.4k CPM
( small #/large#) = 0.78 vs. 0.81 with mine being the lower number. They are in strong agreement, that I found comforting.
The departure from this relationship of hotness comes at the hands of the radiacode-101, a scintillation counter suggested by neptunium. It reads a
smaller area more accurately. It is far more sensitive too. The hottest point on (A) was found to be towards the thicker yellow crust. It is 5-7
μSv/H on seller's indicator, but 11-12μSv/H beside that, an inch and half away. So ... One would expect (B) to be somewhat lower, along the lines
of :
0.81*((6+11)/2) to average the pinpoint readings of the hottest side of that rock or something rudimentary and get a lower, proportional relative
number. 6.8μSv/H to 6.6μSv/H kinda reading... But it's 27μSv/H... 27! Well that was the hottest spot, 25 was possibly a less sensational
representation.
What is this thing seeing that both Geiger Counters fail to. It's not alpha, maybe the x-ray emissions from alphas hitting the plastic case of the
scintillation counter? They sure aren't supposed to penetrate, and the hotter sample seems chill at half the reading of the other. I haven't had a
chance to check the energies of daughter isotope from the primary mineral on a chart. Nor have I had time to check the specifics of the sensors used,
threshold energies, % conversion of particles to signal. It's beyond my timeframe of a lazy Saturday with the fam.
I do know that secondary mineralization requires time to reach equilibrium again after being parted from the daughter isotopes. And a solid portion of
the penetrating radiation is from lower % likely conversions of U and the daughters.
Regardless, I found this an interesting little circumstance. Just got the samples Thursday, only had the radiacode-101 charged at the time, and
just got the 320+ charged for this preliminary inquiry. Maybe I'll run an hour spectra of each rock to see what's popping.
Take some serious midnight scienceing time to bust out all the counters and few moderator sheets to see what energy levels are making it, and which
arent. Thoughts?
BTW, Steve got these rocks to me in well under a week!! I highly suggest buying from him.
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violet sin
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" Uraninite called Pitchblende, from Pribram in Czech Republic, 100g bag. "
" Derbe masses very rich with calcite and barite in matrix. Type locality. Jachymov, Bohemia, CZ. "
Got another sample, it's active! They weren't kiddig around when describing it as rich sample. Not really the kind of thing you order to just
leave lying around, I'll have to make a little Pb lined box or something for display purposes.
Much more active than just a crusting of secondary mineralization or some fine grained uraninite mixed in with host rock. The veins are shiny and
black solid layers!
Got here in 12 days from order date, very pleased. 50$ and a few cents total with shipping and everything. Price of samples usually being the
biggest deterrent, not so here, your brain should be used in deciding if this belongs in your collection. I measured it at a steep 80-95 μSv/h with
the radiacode-101 and 100-124μSv/h with the GQ GMC-320+v4. One of the hottest samples I own. The GMC-320 finally set down around 24-25kCPM after a
couple min, first pic with it shows it climbing in count still. That's on par with a handful of thorianite pebbles @ ~25kCPM.
There was some dust crated in shipping, long trip it's anticipated, but it was secured in the packaging. The interior of the shipping box had no heat
to it, just the foil immediately wrapped around it had some specks and showed action. Good.
This hobby is going to force me to invest in more lead... Lead lined boxes with rocks in them... Sounds light an easily manageable, haha. Safety
first.
Someone else needs to start showing off their collection in this thread... I'm stacking up posts here.
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CRUSTY
Hazard to Others
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Registered: 5-6-2016
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I have successfully found uranium minerals in the "wild" in New Hampshire. One publicly-accessible site is Parker Mountain Mine, and the other mine I
go to I unfortunately cannot reveal because, well, it's not exactly public. The former location yielded me a large quantity of secondary uranium
minerals including autunite and torbernite. The latter is where I get my uraninite which is VERY radioactive (>50k CPM without an alpha window) as
well as a good amount of autunite.
I hunt for uranium minerals using a cheap Geiger counter and a 405 nm laser diode (without lenses). Typically I'll survey a site for uraninite with
the Geiger counter which will lead me to any hotspots within ten feet or so of them. I sweep walls of the mines with the unfocused laser diode which
causes and secondary uranium minerals to fluoresce brightly. I use mindat.org to find sites and then go in person to survey for uranium. I take
samples using a hammer and chisel set.
Uraninite is tricky to find without a geiger counter but occasionally you'll find some mixed in with autunite. It can be identified as small greyish
somewhat-metallic deposits typically in granite where I live but sometimes in pegmatites. The uraninite deposits often have a browish-orange halo
around them from radiation-induced discoloration of the surrounding rock.
I'll post some photos later.
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CRUSTY
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Here are some of my uraninite samples from NH. The autunite samples are too pale yellow to accurately capture on camera unfortunately.
 
One of my hottest samples (left) and a close-up of the uraninite deposits in it (right). The larger black spots in the rock are uraninite. Notice the
orange-brown radiation-induced discoloration of the granite around the uraninite. The orange color is due to secondary uranium minerals as it is not
fluorescent under 365 or 254 nm light.
Another sample with spots of greyish-black uraninite visible in the front.
The first rock against my Geiger counter (this is excluding most alpha particles so the actual activity is far higher).
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violet sin
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Curite on uraninite, DRC
 
*********************************************************
The collection is growing, some colorful ones in the mail already headed this way. These two are courtesy of radman minerals, super cool and very
helpful company. I highly recommend checking in there from time to time.
 
[Edited on 23-9-2023 by violet sin]
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violet sin
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Couple more samples from radman minerals.
  
There's a nice assortment of color in this order, very affordable. I noticed a few low dollar bits and a discount if you buy 3 or more samples. The
autunite is justly sealed in the glass jar, super powdery prob left over in the bottom of a box after shipping, but cooler than not having any. A
colorful flake of unknown mineral, 4$, how ya gonna pass on that? Pretty sure most the labels are visible in pic. Size limit prevents too many
photos.
Bottom of the autunite jar reads 30-35μSv/h sitting right on the radiacode 101. That carnotite/torbernite topped out ~10μSv/h. So they aren't
too hot, though they add plenty of color.
I've a few more samples coming from abroad. Small miniature size off an auction site. I foresee a UV display in my future. I was lucky enough to
snag a couple very cheaply 10$-12$. Andersonite, autunite. Then some more yellow bits of uranophane and uranopilite, if I spelled it correctly.
Pretty excited to see them eventually.
Really been enjoying this hobby. A lot to learn from a bunch of different viewpoints. Detectors are getting more widespread and affordable. Old
stuff still around if you look. I'm constantly surprised by the amount of Soviet Union leftovers floating around.
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violet sin
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Curite on uraninite, from the famed Shinkolobwe Mine, Haut-Katanga, DR Congo.
Orange curite with secondaries from the famed Shinkolobwe Mine, Haut-Katanga, DR Congo
Man I tell ya, this hobby keeps getting more expensive...
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Yamato71
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Forget about Geiger counters. If you intend to search for hot rocks in nature, you want a good gamma-only detector as gamma is the only radiation
that will be detectable from anything buried deeper than a couple of cm. You want a scintillation counter, preferably one with a 1" - 2" crystal
probe. I've had very good luck prospecting for radioactive rare earth minerals with a surplus Ludlum 2241 with a 2"x2" NaI probe I bought on eBay
several years ago. It has a built in programmable count divider that emits one audio ping for every 10 or 100 counts, making it very easy to hear
subtle changes in the background count. Scintillation counters are more than 1000 times as efficient as geiger counters at detecting gamma rays. In
fact, GM counters cannot actually detect gamma radiation directly, they only detect charged particles that collide with rarified gas molecules in the
GM tube. When they do respond to gamma, they are actually detecting photoelectrons kicked out when gamma photons strike metallic components within
the GM probe. That doesn't happen often. Less than one gamma photon in 1000 that enters a GM probe is actually detected. With a good scintillator,
it's possible to pick up a hot rock from several meters away. If you are approaching a hot outcrop, it's possible to sense its presence from hundreds
of meters away.
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The Plutonium Bunny
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Can definitely confirm the above. At best, something like a pancake-tube Geiger is good for sorting through piles of rocks above the surface (if you
pretty much already know the pile contains hot rocks). But otherwise, a good-sized scintillation detector is your best friend. I've used the Ludlum
44-2 probe to good effect (even finding rocks >6" buried). There is also a forum on Reddit where some people are selling purpose-built
scintillation detectors for hot rock locating, called the "Gamma Dog" or the "γDog" (two different guys producing these, I believe). They are
expensive but very hard to beat for utility.
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violet sin
International Hazard
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Bought a couple more, finally...
Pair of smaller rocks (1-2) and a much larger stone (3) all uraninite from Pribram
(1)  (2) 
(3) 
Still haven't gone prospecting anywhere, but slowly adding to the collection
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Random
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Sammarskite - Y caught my eye.
I wonder how I came across this mineral.
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