DAY FIVE: Kvanefjeld

Two additional team members, John and Kathy, join the trip today, and we’ll go up to Kvanefjeld.

Kvanefjeld looms large in the mineral collector lexicon as the location within the Ilímaussaq complex where gemmy red tugtupite is found. It’s still found there, in small amounts, though mostly by locals working as miners.

When red and translucent, tugtupite is regarded as a semi-precious gemstone. Since the mid 1960s it has been sold to jewelers who craft mostly cabochons from the gem rough. In fact, Peter, our local guide, is also a lapidary and major artisan of tugtupite jewelry.

Kvanefjeld is a small mountain marking the northwestern-most edge of the Ilímaussaq complex, and lies on the north side of the Narsaq valley. The base of Kvanefjeld is reached by a twenty-minute jeep ride from the village of Narsaq. Reaching the top, where tugtupite may be found, requires considerably more effort.

Kvanefjeld is also home to much of the more radioactive mineralization in the complex; Th and U are present in several minerals, and especially steenstrupine, which occurs in quantity within the lujavrites on Kvanefjeld. In the 1970s an attempt was made at commercial mining, a pilot program undertaken, and an exploratory adit driven into the south face of Kvanefjeld. Several hundred tons of ore were removed. Some of this was brought to Denmark for beneficiation, but much remains in piles, neatly laid out on the floor of Narsaq valley in the sequence they were extracted. There is little of interest in these piles for fluorescent mineral collectors today (lots of uranyl-activated, green-fluorescing stains and films), and the adit above is now sealed, but the road that leads up to it makes a helpful footpath for at least half the steep climb.

Peter tells us this road was passable with 4-wheel drive vehicles in recent years. But it isn’t today. The truck is left at the start of the mine road. We walk all the way up.  

A hundred meters or so from the adit, more than halfway up, we leave the roadway, cut left over some boulders, and follow markings on a steep rocky trail towards top. This last section of the climb is steep. In fact, the final few steps are hand-over-hand up exposed rock. The hike takes us a good hour and a half. The effort required makes reaching the top all the more rewarding. And thirst producing.

From where we’ve climbed up we can now see Kvanefeld's summit is a relatively flat plateau. Turning around, the views back across to Nakkaalaaq and Taseq slope, and to the right down to the ocean, are spectacular.

Up here on the summit plateau there’s a lovely lake just to the north, stretching east-west. To the right are some higher levels facing east, towards where Mount Ilímaussaq looms. To the left, a trail leads down (mercifully) to the vein system that hosts the red tugtupite.

After resting a few minutes, Peter asks if I want to explore the very top, a bit farther to the east. Like a fool, I say yes. We amble off, and up, while the others continue down to the tugtupite ‘mine’ on Kvanefjeld’s plateau.

We skirt the very edges of Kvanefjeld, stopping along the rim to inspect boulders. Peering down from the brink I see traces of mining activity—whether for uranium or more recent tugtupite I can’t be sure—in the freshly broken rock on ledges that line the steep rock face below. At several points near the top I find chkalovite, but no tugtupite.

In one instance, at nearly the highest point on Kvanefjeld, I spot a large, watermelon-sized mass of weathered, dimly green-fluorescing chkalovite. A few minutes of hammering splits it into several large masses. The fluorescence inside is surprisingly vivid, yielding several fine cabinet-sized specimens from a unique location.

Some more chipping and checking, and it's time to end exploration and go visit the tugtupite mine. We take a path back down and in twenty minutes find the others, all busily hammering away.

Howie has homed in on (as usual) a huge boulder with traces of tugtupite—clearly too large to work profitably, or so I thought, anyway. Mark is with the other two, in the ‘tailings’ area of the mine, cracking into a big chunk of green-and-red fluorescing chkalovite and tugtupite he’d left behind last year.

I settle in to work another section of the mine tailings. And for the next several hours there are no other humans on earth; the focus on minerals complete. Almost every other rock proves worth cracking into. It is a fine spot.

The local miners are only interested in the obviously red, gemmy, tugtupite. But tugtupite occurs in a range of colors—from pure white through pink to red (and even pale blue). In fact, most tugtupite is white or slightly pinkish in daylight.

There is no correlation between the redness of the tugtupite and the brilliance or redness of its fluorescence. Although red tugtupite is nearly always nicely fluorescent, it is not always the brightest. Much white tugtupite fluoresces more brightly than good gemmy red Kvanefjeld material, and provides just as pure (‘saturated’) a red fluorescent response too.

Some collectors imagine a ‘ruby effect’ with red tugtupite—i.e. that it appears redder in daylight owing to a ‘natural’ longwave UV fluorescence, but this is incorrect. Tugtupite’s fluorescent emission in the red (~ 625 nm) is only produced by shortwave UV (< 300 nm); longwave UV yields fluorescence in the yellow-orange, not red. And sunlight contains vanishingly little shortwave UV.

In any case, we find the ‘mine tailings’ here littered with fascinating fluorescents: many specimens of green to blue-green fluorescing chkalovite ‘eyes’, rimmed by red fluorescing tugtupite; tugtupite coated with earthy coatings of blue-white fluorescing beryllite, and more.

Before I know it, there’s a cry to pack up and start the long climb back down. Another climb. This time with rocks. A brief pause at the the top, a few last photographs, and we begin the slow descent, taking extra care given the newly added weight.

About 50 meters down from the top, I stop to retrieve some vuggy white rocks I’d left on my way up (why bring rock up I’d only later bring back down?). Yes, they still look interesting, and I barely manage to toss them into my pack.

Months later I'll find they contain nice flecks of tugtupite—fluorescing in two colors; red and a distinct pink; pockets of non-fluorescing 1-2 mm albite crystals coated with a dusting of a bright yellow-orange fluorescing mineral; and vivid violet fluorescing grains as well. These are among the most interesting specimens found today.

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