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BOXLEY AGGREGATES
Mt ATHOS QUARRY
Lynchburg, Virginia
June 27, 2009
Our annual field trip to the Mt. Athos Quarry was very productive and well attended. The weather was clear, sunny and very pleasant. At times, there was a nice breeze that blew thru the pit and cooled things down.
There were a lot of material piles scattered around that offered a wide variety of collectable minerals. Several of us from the Lynchburg Club loaded up with large, beautifully colored rocks from which we will cut spheres and bookends for our fund raising events. Others collected large rocks to adorn rock gardens and fishponds.
Epidote was plentiful, as was feldspar, quartz and ilmenite; Sphene or Titanite as it is also known was also abundant and eagerly collected. Unfortunately the pretty apple green rapidly fades to a mustard yellow when exposed to daylight. The only way to keep it green is to keep it in a box away from all light when it is not being viewed. Some beautiful crystal pockets of Quartz crystals were collected as well as massive actinolite, chlorite, magnetite, calcite, bornite and others.
Judging from the comments I heard, everyone had a great time and were very happy with their finds. This was a rather large group with upwards of 50 adults and youth attending. We always look forward to our annual field trip to the Mt. Athos Quarry. We all would like to thank Superintendent Elisha hall and Boxley Materials for providing us with this wonderful field trip opportunity.

Field Trip Report submitted by Dave Callahan, field trip chairman.