Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2011 9:06:59 GMT -5
Want to make a trade?  |
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bushkraft
having dreams about rocks
Public nuisance Number 1
Member since July 2011
Posts: 65
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Post by bushkraft on Oct 15, 2011 6:54:34 GMT -5
What ya got in mind ?
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nzexpert
off to a rocking start
"the young gun"
Member since September 2011
Posts: 14
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Post by nzexpert on Oct 26, 2011 2:10:33 GMT -5
a guy at my club(here in NZ)works in the mine where they mine this stuff, if talk to him at some point ill ask him and give you a message
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller 
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,504
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Post by Sabre52 on Oct 26, 2011 19:39:36 GMT -5
Wow, that last cab has fantastic color and pattern. Now I know what I have I thought was Marra mamba must be some variant of tiger iron because it sure don't look anything like that cab *S*.....Mel
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bushkraft
having dreams about rocks
Public nuisance Number 1
Member since July 2011
Posts: 65
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Post by bushkraft on Oct 27, 2011 18:44:39 GMT -5
Let me try to briefly explain a little more about marra mamba, I live in Perth Western Australia very close to the owner of the current marra mamba tiger eye deposit, we have both been involved with the exploration industry for many years, the term marra mamba refers not to a place but is the name given to one of several iron formations that are several hundred meters thick and cover hundreds of square miles of the Pilbarra region in North Western Australia.
Several large mining companies extract the iron ore and export it overseas, many other minerals are also exploited within these iron formations (which started forming 3.7 billion years ago) one of which is asbestos; in a few places silica rich waters invaded the asbestos fibres slowly hardening them until they eventually formed what we now know as tiger eye, small pockets of this material can be found all over the region, but most is too soft to be of any economic value.
The colour is determined by whatever minerals were also present within the solution when the tiger eye was forming, and differs from area to area, I have been making cabs from tiger eye for many years now and have seen thousands of examples, some are absolutely spectacular with vibrant colours and a high level of chatoyancy, others are dark, almost black and although interesting are not worth cutting and polishing.
The marra mamba tiger eye deposit lies in a very remote valley and is only mined a couple of times a year, there are two large Iron ore mines operating about twenty kms away these mines do not produce tiger eye, they are numbered marra mamba one and two, simply because they are extracting ore from the marra mamba iron formation.
Several forms of tiger eye associated with the region have been recognised over the years, Brockman tiger eye is found on Mount Brockman station (ranch) and Pack saddle tiger eye on Packsaddle station ..... Tiger Iron is found further North and formed in exactly the same way as tiger eye and at about the same time.
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