We offer you one group mineralogical tours:

First day: Transfer from airport Apatity to hotel, accommodation, meeting and advices, preparing to the tour.
Second day: Breakfast, departure to the town of Kovdor, Fe-ore (Tour N 8)and Flogopite (Tour N 9) open pits. Return to the hotel.
Third day: Breakfast, departure to the White Sea coast. Olenitsa village. (Tour N 15). Distance - 350 km. During of the transfer - excursion to the old Russian pomor's village - Umba.
Accommodation in village house in Olenitsa.
Fourth day: Breakfast, gathering of Glendonite mineral. Tour to Korabl Cape. (Tour N 16) Return to Olenitsa.
Fifth day: Breakfast, return to Apatity. Accommodation in hotel, rest.
Sixth day: Breakfast, Vostochny open pit (Khibiny mountains. Tour N 1).
Seventh day: Breakfast. Free day, excursion are available. Custom procedures.
Eighth day: Breakfast, transfer to airport of Apatity.

Mineralogical Tours to the Kola Peninsula.

The Khibiny massif.

Excursions by car to the Khibiny mountains. Any place is rather easy to reach. One day is enough to visit one or two places.

Tour N 1. Waste dumps of the Koashva, Niorkpakhk and some other mines. A probability to find collection samples of the following minerals is very high: Eudialyte; Titanite; Magnesiumastrophyllite; Hydrodelhayelith; Delhayelith; Lorenzenite; Murmanite; Lomonosovite; Lamprophyllite; Willemite; Pectolite; Kankrinite; Natrolith; Stscherbakowite; Sodalith and a number of other minerals.

Tour N 2. Mt. Eveslogchorr, the astrophillite gorge:
Astrophyllite - radiate-fibrous ("suns") and parallel-columnar ("rain") aggregates in albitite and recrystallized nepheline syenite;
Mosandrite - crystals in nepheline-feldspar pegmatite of 2 to 3 cm long;
Aenigmatite - flattened crystals of 5 to 6 cm long;
Fersmanite - growths and single crystals of 4 to 5 mm across;
Wadeite - aggregates of pink tabular grains of to 2 cm across.

Tour N 3. Peak Marchenko.
Ankylite - dendrite growths of fine crystals, the size of crystallizations of some millimeters across.
Titanite - idiomorphic crystals of 2 cm long in apatite-feldspar matrix;
Zirkon - brownish dipiramidal crystals of 1 to 2 cm across;
Loparite - fine twined crystals of 2 to 3 mm across;
Natrolith - veined;
Spodiophillite is possible to find in natrolith

Tour N 3a. Mt. Yukspor:
Yuksporite - felt like fine-fibrous aggregates in kalispar pegmatite of to 10 cm across;
Perlalite - fine-fibrous rims replacing nepheline crystals, modules of 15 to 20 cm across, perlialite rim thickness of 1 to 2 cm;
Ilimaussite - is possible to find - radiate-fibrous aggregates of 3 to 4 mm across.

Tour N 5. Mt. Takhtarvumchorr:
Troilite - idiomorphic hexagonal crystals in tinguaite of 4 to5 mm across;
Djerfischerite - thin, less than of 1 mm across, grains with troilite;
Keldyshite and parakeldyschite - grains of 4 to 5 mm across in agirinite;
Mosandrite - crystals of to 4 to 5 cm long in feldspar pegmatite;
Lovenite - crystals and growths of crystals of 5 to 6 mm long.

The Lovozero massif

There is a highway connecting the town of Apatity and settlement of Revda; another 15-th km way is by a special car of a high cross-country capability. It takes a day to reach the geological place and go back. It is possible to stay the night in the settlement of Lovozero.

Tour N 6.The Flora site (the northern area of the Lovozero massif):
Lorenzenite (ramzaite) - idipmorphic crystals of 4 to 5 cm long.
Murmanite - plane-tabular crystals of 1 to 2 cm across.

Tour N 7. Ussingite shkatulka - an underground mine Alluaiv of the Sevredmet JC (special permission for visiting).
Bornemanite - spherulite and radiate-fibrous crystals aggregates of 2 and 3 mm across;
Vuonnemite - tabular crystals of 6 to 8 cm across;
Gmelinite - fine fines of fine crystals on the surface of cavities in ussingite;
Lovoserite - pseudomorphism and rims after eudialyte crystals;
Manganeptunite - fine crystals in agirinite;
Pastrophite - fine and rare crystals;
Sidorenkite - monocrystals of to 1 cm across;
Serandite- prismatic crystals of 3 to 4 cm across;
Stenstrupine - crystals of 1 to 2 cm across;
Tugtupite - thin rims of 1 to 2 mm thick together with chkalovite;
Terskite - aggregates of macrocrystalline structure;
Chkalovite - aggregates of 5 to 6 cm across;
Umbozerite - lanceolate crystals growths of 1 to 2 cm across;
Ussingite - macrocrystalline aggregates;
Eudialyte- crystals in agirinite;
Epistolite - fine-fibrous aggregate.

The Kovdor massif

There is a highway connecting the town of Apatity and Kovdor. The excursion can take two days to travel to the town of Kovdor, staying the night there.

Tour N 8.The phlogopit open pit waste dumps:
Sr-apatite - radiate-fibrous aggregates of crystals in phlogopite of 30 to 40 cm across;
Phlogopite - hexagonal crystals of few centimeters to some meters across;
Tetraferryflogopite - dolium-shaped crystals and growths of crystals of some centimeters across;
Baddeleite - fine - prismatic crystals of 1 cm long;
Forsterite - cutted crystals of to few centimeters across;
Diopside - cutted crystals in calcite of to 2 cm long;
Klinogumite - crystals and aggregates of crystals of to 2 to 3 cm long.

Tour N 9. The iron ore open pit waste dumps:
Magnetite - octahedric crystals and crystals growths of 5 to 10 cm across;
Frankolite - sintered kidney-shaped aggregates cementing ore breccia, the surface area of crystallization is of tens of square centimeters.

The Afrikandsky massif

There is a highway connecting the towns of Apatity and Afrikanda. It takes a day to travel to the town of Afrikanda and go back.

Tour N 10.
Knopite - crystals of 2 to 3 cm across.
Titanite, shorlomite, prenite are possible to find.

The Zapadny (Western) Keivy

It can take several days to travel there. It takes one day and a half to go to the site where the excursion begins by a cross-country vehicle and 1,5 hour by helicopter to and 1,5 hour to go back.

Tour N 11. The area near the Makzabak mountain:
Almandine - rhombic dodecahedra of 5 to 20 across;

Tour N 12. The area near the Rovozero lake. Astrophyllite in quartz.

Tour N 13. The area near the Chervurt and Shuururt mountains.
Kianite - an aggregate of coarse-tabular crystals with quartz and muskovite;
Stavrolite - oblique and straight crosses of to 5 to 10 across;
Khiastolite.

Tour N 14. Mountain Ploskaya. Amasonite; Plumbomicrolite.

The White Sea shore.

Tour N 15. Two days expedition to the Olenitsa village.
Glendonite;

Tour N 16. Two days expedition to the Korabl (Ship) Cape.
Amethist; Morion; Quartz; Fluorite.

NOTES:
1) In the Khibiny, Lovozersky and Kirovsky massifs there is a great amount of minerals (including those known to occur only in these massifs) that are found quite rarely. So, if interested, some samples are possible to acquire.
2) It is possible to get thematic collections of rock-forming and other minerals as well.
3) It is possible to have some problematic mineral findings X-ray diagnosed.
4) Of all the gem-stone raw materials, of greatest popularity are the Khibiny tinguaites of various textural patterns (even of a landscape type) and tinges of green colour, taking a good polish; urtites - rocks of greenish colour with idiomorphic crystals of nepheline, dark-green aegirine, titanite, with impregnation and schlierens of red, pink and raspberry eudialyte; spreusteinized urtite - of various tinges of reddish-brown colour; albitite and nepheline syenite with astrophyllite. The Keivy amazonite is well known . Near the Khibiny mountains such minerals as amazonite, the Keivy massif, patterned dolomite, the Khibiny massif, and diopcide monocrystals the Kovdor massif are well known.
5) Natrolith, transparent crystals, and ussingite of various tinges of lilac colour take a good cutting.

The tourist company "South-Kola", Ltd.
Apatity Telephone/Fax: +7(81555) 74178 (Russian, English) E-mail: southkola@com.mels.ru Reno, Nevada USA Telephone: +1 775-527-1370 Email: southkola.reno@sbcglobal.net