Ice Cream Igloo Pocket, Blanchard Mine, Bingham, Hansonburg District, Socorro County, New Mexico, USAi

Regional Level Types
Ice Cream Igloo Pocket	Pocket
Blanchard Mine	Mine
Bingham	Unincorporated Community
Hansonburg District	Mining District
Socorro County	County
New Mexico	State
USA	Country

The following summary is based on “A Major New Fluorite Find at the Blanchard Mine,” published in Rocks & Minerals, vol. 100 (2025), no. 1.:

The Ice Cream Igloo Pocket was a significant pocket that produced some of the most exceptional, highly unusual fluorite specimens ever found at the Blanchard Mine.

Maxwell Novetzke and Christian Shackelford contacted Ramon S. DeMark (Albuquerque, New Mexico) about permission to collect on the claims at the Blanchard Mine. They also requested clearance for Bradley Culebro (Sterling, Virginia) and Michael Eggleton (Thomaston, Connecticut) as assistants. DeMark gave permission to all of them, and work began in early March 2023.

While at the Blanchard Mine, Shackelford came across the Eagle’s Nest Pocket, which is a pocket that was first worked in 1996. Shackelford and Novetzke left the property but Culebro and Eggleton stayed and worked in the Eagle’s Nest Pocket. The two started digging at the back of the cavity, and an opening with a draft coming through suggested that there was another cavity beyond. A section of the Eagle’s Nest Pocket wall was removed which led to the discovery of the Ice Cream Igloo Pocket. Thus, this pocket is just south of the Eagle’s Nest Pocket.

In mid-March 2023, DeMark and Michael R. Sanders (Albuquerque, New Mexico) were informed of this discovery by Culebro and Eggleton at the Albuquerque Gem and Mineral Club Show. DeMark and Sanders did not have the physical ability to fully work the discovery, so Culebro and Eggleton, younger and energetic, came back to start working on the new pocket.

The pocket was named by Culebro and Eggleton. The pocket got its name because the first specimens from the pocket consisted of rounded green and purple fluorite crystals that looked like ice cream scoops, and also the pocket was shaped like an igloo (a narrow entrance and domed center) once it was opened up.

The most significant specimen from the pocket is known as the “Blanchard Beast.” The dig was wrapped up on June 4, 2023, as the pocket was worked out except for the Blanchard Beast. Later, in July 2023, the Blanchard Beast was removed with help from an excavator.

In addition to fluorite, gypsum, quartz, and galena were also found in the pocket. The Ice Cream Igloo Pocket is sometimes abbreviated to “ICI Pocket.” Specimens from the pocket were first offered for sale at the New Mexico Mineral Symposium in November 2023 and in Tucson in February 2024.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References