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ikram
Joined: 06 Oct 2008
Posts: 35
Location: PAKISTAN
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Posted: Oct 19, 2009 22:54 Post subject: The Pegmatites of Mawi Mine Laghman, Nuristan, Afghanistan |
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Hi
I would like to share some photos of recent mining in Mawi mines, Laghman, Afghanistan.
Cheers,
Ikram
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Jason
Joined: 31 Dec 2008
Posts: 254
Location: atlanta
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Posted: Oct 19, 2009 22:54 Post subject: Re: The Pegmatites of Mawi Mine Laghman, Nuristan, Afghanistan |
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Ikram, those are excellent photos..thank you so much for posting them for us, half a world away, to see..please post more if you have them.
jason
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ikram
Joined: 06 Oct 2008
Posts: 35
Location: PAKISTAN
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Posted: Oct 19, 2009 23:04 Post subject: More Photos of Mawi mines , Laghman Afghanistan. |
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Some more photos of mining activities at Mawi mines, Laghman, Afghanistan.
Cheers.
Ikram
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GneissWare
Joined: 07 Mar 2008
Posts: 1287
Location: California
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Posted: Oct 19, 2009 23:44 Post subject: Re: The Pegmatites of Mawi Mine Laghman, Nuristan, Afghanistan |
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Ikram,
This post and its companion are incredible. The conditions are quite severe for these men, and yet they produce such wonderful mineral specimens. Thank you so much for posting these photos. I never really appreciated what folks went through in this part of the world to bring the minerals to light.
Bob
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Jason
Joined: 31 Dec 2008
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Location: atlanta
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Posted: Oct 20, 2009 00:06 Post subject: Re: More Photos of Mawi mines , Laghman Afghanistan. |
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More good photos..and to think they have to muck all by hand there..Gary Freeman and the guys at Mt. mica would have a heck of a time having to do that..please post any more photos if you have them
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ikram
Joined: 06 Oct 2008
Posts: 35
Location: PAKISTAN
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Posted: Oct 20, 2009 00:39 Post subject: Re: The Pegmatites of Mawi Mine Laghman, Nuristan, Afghanistan |
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Hi
Jason, Bob thank you so much for your great comments and appreciating my photos.
I will post more photos of the locality very soon.
Ikram
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Tobi
Site Admin
Joined: 07 Apr 2009
Posts: 4112
Location: Germany
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Posted: Oct 20, 2009 02:18 Post subject: Re: The Pegmatites of Mawi Mine Laghman, Nuristan, Afghanistan |
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Hi Ikram,
I'm excited to see more pictures. It's really nice to see such impressions from inside a mine, thank you!
Tobias
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Antonio Alcaide
Site Admin
Joined: 23 Aug 2009
Posts: 314
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Posted: Oct 20, 2009 02:31 Post subject: Re: The Pegmatites of Mawi Mine Laghman, Nuristan, Afghanistan |
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Hi Ikram,
The many photos you post the more we appreciate the crystals from there. It's the other side of the mineralogy. You have given me a lot of "food to think about". Only the photos, without ethical discussion. Stunning.
Thank you very much.
Regards,
Antonio
_________________ Life is the shortest crystal |
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Jordi Fabre
Overall coordinator of the Forum
Joined: 07 Aug 2006
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Location: Barcelona
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Posted: Oct 20, 2009 02:51 Post subject: Re: The Pegmatites of Mawi Mine Laghman, Nuristan, Afghanistan |
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ikram wrote: | Some more photos of mining activities at Mawi mines , Laghman Afghanistan.... |
Ikram, both posts are so interesting that I unified them in a single post: "The Pegmatites of Mawi Mine Laghman, Nuristan, Afghanistan" in order to make the navigation easier.
Thanks for your posts Ikram, as you can see them are more than appreciate here! ;-)
Jordi
_________________ Audaces fortuna iuvat |
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John S. White
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Joined: 04 Sep 2006
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Location: Stewartstown, Pennsylvania, USA
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Posted: Oct 20, 2009 04:58 Post subject: Re: The Pegmatites of Mawi Mine Laghman, Nuristan, Afghanistan |
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Great photos Ikram but it would help to know what we are looking at. Can you please include labels for the minerals, some of which appear almost tumbled and rounded so are hard to recognize?
_________________ John S. White
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garchin
Joined: 09 May 2009
Posts: 19
Location: Amsterdam
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Posted: Oct 20, 2009 05:03 Post subject: Re: The Pegmatites of Mawi Mine Laghman, Nuristan, Afghanistan |
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Hi Ikram,
Simply wonderful!
What are the main minerals mined there?
Sukran, Gar.
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GneissWare
Joined: 07 Mar 2008
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Location: California
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Posted: Oct 20, 2009 07:57 Post subject: Re: The Pegmatites of Mawi Mine Laghman, Nuristan, Afghanistan |
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garchin wrote: |
What are the main minerals mined there?
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See https://www.mindat.org/loc-7.html
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Jason
Joined: 31 Dec 2008
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Location: atlanta
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Posted: Oct 20, 2009 09:27 Post subject: Re: The Pegmatites of Mawi Mine Laghman, Nuristan, Afghanistan |
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Most of those look like spodumene..not really sure what the golden orange colored ones are in the one photo
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Turbo
Joined: 30 Sep 2009
Posts: 260
Location: Delaware
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Posted: Oct 20, 2009 11:36 Post subject: Re: The Pegmatites of Mawi Mine Laghman, Nuristan, Afghanistan |
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Is Afghanistan largely unexplored in terms of it's precious stones?
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ikram
Joined: 06 Oct 2008
Posts: 35
Location: PAKISTAN
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Posted: Oct 20, 2009 12:16 Post subject: Re: The Pegmatites of Mawi Mine Laghman, Nuristan, Afghanistan |
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Hi
Thank you so much for your great comments .
Especially Jordi for unifying these in single post .
John ! this is a combine minerals vug of Spodumen and Morganite.
Bob a usefull link of the locality.
Cheers.
Ikram
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Jesse Fisher
Joined: 18 Mar 2009
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Location: San Francisco
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Posted: Oct 20, 2009 12:32 Post subject: Re: The Pegmatites of Mawi Mine Laghman, Nuristan, Afghanistan |
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Given the wonderful things that have been coming from Afghanistan for the past 30 or so years, I would hardly call it "unexplored." The pegmatites of areas such as Mawi, Paprok and Pech have produced some of the finest kunzite, elbaite, and other pegmatite minerals known. The marbles of Sar-e-Sang are world famous for lapis and other minerals such as hackmanite, afghanite, sodalite, etc. The ruby deposits near Jagdelak have long been known. The political turbulence over the same time period has undoubtedly limited exploration and development of mineral deposits, and I am sure that there is far more waiting to be discovered. If peace should ever come to that troubled region I think the wealth of minerals and gems that would be discovered would be mind-boggling.
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Peter
Joined: 16 Jan 2009
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Location: Sweden / Luxembourg
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Posted: Oct 20, 2009 12:48 Post subject: Re: The Pegmatites of Mawi Mine Laghman, Nuristan, Afghanistan |
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Ikram
Thank you for posting the images here as well. They are excellent.
I received a few this summer and a few many years ago from friends who visited.
A lot of work has been done since the first images but still, the Mawi pegmatite is so huge!
Indeed Jesse, although these mines have produced exceptionally fine specimens, and what a variety!!! the amount of work involved is very high.
To me, the Himalaya Mine is one of the richest pegmatites, continuous pockets with great specimens. In Pakistan and Afghanistan, of what I have seen, only a few veins in the Braldu valley could be judged similar in appearance, but here with numerous pockets of aquamarine. Many others, few pockets, sometimes with fantastic specimens, but overall, what we see at mineral shows is la creme de la creme. Most are broken shards, pieces, rounded, broken just like in the image.
Lots for sale in Pakistan are usually a few hundred kilos of rocks with perhaps a couple of fine specimens. Mining is largely paid by the bulk, i.e. cutting, carving rough.
Peter
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Jesse Fisher
Joined: 18 Mar 2009
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Posted: Oct 20, 2009 13:00 Post subject: Re: The Pegmatites of Mawi Mine Laghman, Nuristan, Afghanistan |
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Peter,
As you know, I am familiar with what a mine will produce. From the Rogerley we get 99% wholesale, and a few top pieces each year. We mostly pay for operating the mine by selling wholesale quality. I know this is how most mines are. The top specimens are very rare. The Himalaya pegmatite was exceptional because of the number of pockets and high quality of many specimens. I do not think that many collectors really appreciate how rare the best specimens are.
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Peter
Joined: 16 Jan 2009
Posts: 346
Location: Sweden / Luxembourg
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Posted: Oct 20, 2009 13:18 Post subject: Re: The Pegmatites of Mawi Mine Laghman, Nuristan, Afghanistan |
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Hi Jesse
Very true and I think one must be involved in mining for years in one location to be able to realize it. Over the years, we both saw many pockets in the Himalaya Mine besides other mines in the world. At Malmberget I would say 99.9 % of the pockets are nothing special and the rare good pockets may have a couple of good specimens, the rest bulk.
Then during almost 200 years of mining a one to 12 million tons of magnetite a year besides millions of tons of wall rock, every decade or two perhaps one incredible pocket is encountered and some specimens saved.
I saw many huge lots of material from Pakistan and Afghanistan. Usually there are a few nice specimens in each, some none. Much easier to go to Munchen or Tucson and you will see the best! And although the price is sometimes high, maybe twice the carving rough...... Hundreds of kilos of broken shards have been sold for half or sometimes almost the same price per gram, kilo.
Jordi Fabre had a superb large Pyrosmalite from Sweden at Munchen last year. Yes, it was a few k, but thy to mine there! You may spend M bucks to even find the vein!
I was involved in mining in the Urals, in Volodarsk and some other interesting gem pegmatites. Huge amount of work, pumping and mining costs are exhorbitant. I treasure my specimens even more now!!!
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Pete Modreski
Site Admin
Joined: 30 Jul 2007
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Location: Denver, Colorado
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Posted: Oct 22, 2009 16:13 Post subject: Re: The Pegmatites of Mawi Mine Laghman, Nuristan, Afghanistan |
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Ikram, I also wanted to add my thanks for your posting these fine pictures of the mines, minerals, and workers. The hillsides certainly are honeycombed with tunnels! I was impressed at how snow-white some of the tunnels appeared to be inside--it looked like this was in a pure white marble, but I presume that it must be all feldspars of the pegmatites, just lacking in any dark minerals. Thank you again,
Pete Modreski
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