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A Little About Vicki and Tom
Loomis |
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Tom and Kara |
Vicki
and Kara |
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Tom Loomis, founder of
Dakota Matrix, graduated from South Dakota School of Mines and
Technology in
Rapid City
as
a geological engineer in 1982. After graduation, Tom worked in
Gillette
,
Wyoming
as
an environmental engineer and a coal geologist. It was in Gillette
that Tom met Vicki Klar. They were married in
Spearfish
Canyon
in
the
Black Hills
on
September 23, 989
and
lived in Deadwood. Tom worked as a mine geologist at Wharf
Resources’ gold mine near Deadwood, while Vicki worked as an
X-ray technologist in Deadwood. While at Wharf, Tom became the
reserve engineer and eventually the Chief Engineer at Wharf’s
Golden Reward mine. It was at Golden Reward that Tom re-discovered
the rare vanadium phosphate, sincosite, not seen by mineral
community since the 1890’s. As if blessed by the mineral gods,
the sincosite deposit was discovered within Tom’s last few
months at Wharf before taking a job in
Mexico
in 1996. While in
Mexico
,
Tom worked at Campbell Resources’, Santa Gertrudis gold mine,
near
Magdalena
in
Sonora
as
their technical superintendent. Tom collected at many localities
while in
Mexico
including the
San
Francisco
mine known for its splendid wulfenite. In 1998, Tom and Vicki
relocated once more to Fallon, Nevada after receiving an offer he
couldn’t refuse from the Coeur Rochester silver mine near
Lovelock, Nevada. His positions there included Chief Engineer
responsible for reserve engineering, long and short term mine
planning and project engineering. Although
Nevada
was
enticing for its huge mineral collecting potential, the one and
half hour one-way trip to work prompted their return back home to
their beloved
Black Hills
in the year 2000.
Both Tom and Vicki enjoy the outdoors, bike riding and especially
like dogs |
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A Short History of Dakota
Matrix Minerals |
| Matrix Minerals, the
predecessor of Dakota Matrix Minerals, was founded in 1996. That
year marked the re-discovery of the aforementioned mineral,
sincosite (see Mineralogical Record May-June, 1999 issue, Vol.
30), and propelled Tom into mineral sales. In 1998, Matrix
Minerals formerly changed its name to Dakota Matrix Minerals to
emphasize its specialty in minerals from
South Dakota
.
Dakota Matrix has had a presence on the Internet since 1998. The
Dakota Matrix Minerals website was in its infancy and only a part
time venture in 1998, while Tom and Vicki were in
Nevada
. In 2000, after relocating to the
Black Hills
, the website became a
full time occupation for Tom. In 2001, the Dakota Matrix website
took on a new look after a complete and thorough redesign. In
2003, the website once again went through major changes to improve
navigation and to incorporate a user-friendly database search
function. A secure online order form and a shopping cart were also
added. |
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Sincosite
(green) with Minyulite (white) - Ross Hannibal mine, Lawrence Co.,
South Dakota |
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Tom
& Vicki - Top of the French Alps - 2007 |
| Our
Mission & the Way We do Business |
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An easy to use, fast-loading
website with good, clear photos has always been a priority for
Dakota Matrix Minerals. Although the Dakota Matrix website is a
major component to bringing minerals to its customers, the mineral
stock and customer satisfaction are forefront to the overall
mission of Dakota Matrix. Dakota Matrix’s acquisition policy
includes finding minerals, which are unique, rare, and uncommon on
the market. Dakota Matrix also strives to find the undamaged and
the best quality minerals. Ubiquitous, easy-to-find minerals are
generally not found on the Dakota Matrix website. Customer
satisfaction is not lip service at Dakota Matrix. Our policy
includes a satisfaction guarantee – if you don’t like, return
it. Our packaging is extraordinary and sometimes overkill. We try
to answer all emails in a timely fashion and our pricing is not
out of this universe. We do not believe in getting the highest
return possible and selling only to the few people with loads of
money, but believe in giving all of our customers a competitive
chance. You may find a Mission Statement and more about our
policies on the Ordering, Security, Shipping and Return page. |
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Mrs.
Miranda Boenisch - SDSM&T - Geologist & Assistant |
| Why the Black Hills of South Dakota
? |
| That’s
easy. There is no other place on earth where there exists a more
diverse geological and mineralogical environment. The
Black
Hills
are home to thousands of pegmatites, lead – sliver, tungsten,
tin, vanadium, uranium and gold deposits. More than 400 mineral
species occur in the
Black
Hills
,
22 of which are type localities. All this in a relatively small
area of about 6,000 square miles covered with Ponderosa pine and
Aspen
with elevations reaching to over 7,000 feet. Probably one of the
most thorough histories
of the mining and mineralogy of
South Dakota
can be found in 2002 summer and fall issues of MATRIX
magazine
published by Jay Lininger in
York
,
Pennsylvania
.
This two volume set was dedicated to
South Dakota
and covers the historically significant Homestake gold mine,
pegmatite mining, tin mining, the famous Tip Top mine plus
biographies of Bill Roberts and June Culp Zeitner. |
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Dakota
Matrix is actively involved in
Black Hills
mineralogical research. At present Dakota Matrix and Dr. Buford
Nichols of
Houston
,
Texas
are digging through the old mine dumps at the world renowned Tip
Top pegmatite in
Custer
,
South
Dakota
.
There have many exciting finds since operations began in 2004. A new mineral was discovered by Buford and Tom in 2005. The new
mineral was approved by the IMA in 2007 and is called Jahnsite – (NaFeMg). Further discoveries are in the works!! |
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Click
here for a list of Publications by Tom Loomis |
| Mining
the Tip Top Pegmatite |
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Mining
the Dumps at the Tip Top - 2005 |
The
latest In Modern Equipment (left) |
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Dr.
Buford Nichols examining freshly mined load of PHOSPHATE nodules. |
Tom
and Buford at the Tip Top - 2004 |
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Tom
& Vern Stratton "harvesting" Phosphate |
Tom
examining vugs loaded with Ehrleite & Pahasapaite* |
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The
Tip Top Mining Crew |
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*In
his dreams |
Copyright © 2000 -
2008 Dakota Matrix Minerals
All photos by Dakota Matrix and are Copyrighted © and may not be used without permission
Last modified: March 10, 2010 |
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