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Manganese Adventure: The South African Manganese Fields, The

Mineralogical Record, May/Jun 1999 by Wilson, Wendell E

The Manganese Adventure: The South African Manganese Fields

by Bruce Cairncross, Nicolas Beukes and Jens Gutzmer Published (1997) by the Associated Ore and Metal Corporation Ltd.; available through Bruce Cairncross, Dept. of Geology, Rand Afrikaans University, P.O. Box 524, Auckland Park 2006, Johannesburg, South Africa (Fax: 011-27-II -4892309). Only bank checks or credit card orders accepted. Hardcover 8.5 x 11.8 inches, 250 pages printed on high-quality paper, over 250 color photos and 62 color maps, price: $90 plus $15 seamail postage.

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To any experienced mineral collector, names like Hotazel and N'Chwaning conjure up images of fabulous rhodochrosite specimens like . . . well, like the one on the cover of this spectacular book on the Northem Cape manganese deposits of South Africa. The largest land-based manganese deposits on earth occur here, in the Kalahari Manganese Field and the Postmasburg region. The Manganese Adventure documents the fascinating history, geology and mineralogy in a publication so beautiful that there is little doubt it was heavily subsidized by mining interests. Like the book on Broken Hill, New South Wales, published some years ago under an industry subsidy, this book spares no expense in detailing technical aspects using abundant color graphics, and illustrating over 200 superb specimens in color.

Here we see, as expected, many superb rhodochrosite specimens, yellow sturmanite and ettringite crystals, beautiful black octahedral hausmanite, brilliantly lustrous blocky hematites, hot-pink inesite clusters, magenta-purple sugilite crystals, deep red andradite, black hausmanite prisms and water-clear thaumasite crystals. There are also some surprises: blue celestine crystal clusters, pink datolite looking like Brazilian rose quartz, wine-red tephroite crystals (the rare manganese olivine), golden hexagonal roses of shigaite, fine pink to gemmybrown microcrystals and clusters or poldervaartite, and a superb doubly terminated crystal of azurite-blue vonbezingite, among others.

The authors' emphasis on geology and paragenesis over hard-core mineralogy is evident in the early chapters, and in the collector-oriented species descriptions, which contain little actual mineralogical or morphological data and no analyses or crystal drawings. But the references are given for those who wish to dig deeper technically; and the more ephemeral collecting history is well preserved. The specimens illustrated are mostly from the excellent collections of Desmond Sacco, Bruce Cairncross and Paul Botha. This book is a fine addition to the shelf of the connoisseur and the geologist alike, even if a bit light on actual mineralogy. Considering the high production quality, the price is very reasonable.

Wendell E. Wilson

Manganese Adventure: The South African Manganese Fields, The

Mineralogical Record, May/Jun 1999 by Wilson, Wendell E

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