Atacamite is a rare secondary basic copper chloride, famous for its striking deep green color. It forms highly aesthetic crystals and belongs to popular specimens among secondary minerals collectors.
Brookite is a rare and highly aesthetic mineral of the alpine clefts. It is a titanium dioxide polymorph with only limited industrial use, but it is a very popular collector’s item.
Platinum is a commercially valuable metallic native element, prized for its physical resistance to chemical and temperature assault, its ductility and malleability, and its utility in enabling catalytic reactions. It is also a precious metal and in the natural form also a rare collecting asset.
The amphibole supergroup is a group of more then hundred rock-forming silicates. This article provides general introduction to structure, physical properties and chemical composition of amphiboles.
Detailed photo report from the 2019 visit of the famous Uri Mineral Museum in Seedorf, Switzerland. The mineral exhibition includes wide variety of the high quality Alpine minerals.
Small opal occurence is located in the serpentinite rocks near the Rožná village, Czech Republic. It yields uncommon opal material with reticulated structures, some of these opals also contain chromite.
Melanterite is a perishable product of iron ore weathering, forming awesome green stalactites and crusts in the abandoned mines. Its shaky existence is a nice example of natural processes, but admiring melanterite beauty often includes trips to hardly accessible underground places.
Cinnabar is bright red mercury sulfide, which is a main ore of mercury and used to be a source of red pigments for milleniums. Cinnabar (and mercury) had been a key to mining precious metals until beginning of the 20th century and also saved a millions of teeth.
Elemental bismuth occurs as a metallic silver mineral often characterized by an oxide tarnish generating a dramatic iridescence of pinks, yellows and greens.
Elemental mercury occurs in the rare natural form as a silver liquid globules. Mercury has extreme physical properties combined with very high toxicity, which makes it a very unusual collectors specimen.
Magnesite is not the most popular mineral for collectors but it can form outstanding specimens and crystals. However, its principal use is as a magnesium ore and a special refractory - a material where resistance to extreme temperatures is fundamental to an industrial process.
Dolomite is calcium magnesium carbonate, which can form outstanding crystals with wide variety of colors, often associated with other minerals. Less aesthetic dolomite rocks can build a whole mountain ranges.
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