A classic and really cute example of epitaxy. Chalcopyrite epitaxial on a sphalerite crystal. And to add to the cuteness, there are some tiny tetrahedrite crystals bottom left of photo. Width of view 6mm. Stack of 28 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Colourless, pale blue and pale green fluorapatite. Dark brownish-red andradite. Dark green diopside. Brownish black allanite-(Ce), variety bagrationite. Ex Costas Constantinides. Click on the images below for a higher resolution version.
White albite growing epitaxially on orange orthoclase with smoky quartz. Width of view 6mm. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Native copper porphyroblasts in saturated wood from an ancient mine. Width of view 14.5mm. Stack of 34 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Two joined benitoite crystals (I hesitate to say twinned as I don’t know what sorts of twins can occur), shown in normal, longwave ultraviolet (red), and shortwave ultraviolet (blue). It is really interesting how different the surface textures look under each light source. Width of view 14.5mm. Click on the...
Dark blue benitoite, shown in white light, under longwave UV with a red fluorescence, and shortwave UV with a blue fluorescence. Width of view 12mm. Click on the images below for a higher resolution version.
Tiny sprays of post-mining gypsum crystals collected on the dumps. Look closely and you can some fishtail twins (eg: near the centre of the photo). Width of view 9mm. Stack of 55 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Prismatic colourless crystals of gypsum. Ex Jo Price Collection. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 100 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Interpenetrant gypsum crystals. Collected during roadworks. Largest crystal is 27mm long. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Gypsum crystals on secondary copper mineral (chrysocolla?). Ex Lesley and Doug Ball Collection. Width of view 7.75mm. Stack of 45 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
A brownish-grey gypsum rose with a white UV reaction. Ex Margaret Brown Collection. Margaret purchased this specimen in 1983 in Broken Hill. Labelled simply Maryborough, Queensland. There is some doubt that it may not be from this region. James Melville advised that it is almost certainly from Newport Waterways (canal...
Colourless gypsum crystals with a white granular coating. Width of view 7.75mm. Stack of 85 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Cream ball of gyrolite with white tacharanite on colourless phillipsite. Width of view 7.75mm. Stack of 80 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Elongated orange-brown grossular garnet. Ex Judy Rowe Collection. Width of view 9mm. Stack of 35 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Orange grossular (hessonite) garnets. Ex John and Betty Weir. Width of view 7.75mm. Stack of 40 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Tiny off-white scheelite crystals (not in photo) and pale green grossular garnets. Width of view 7.75mm. Stack of 50 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Olive-green crystal of grossular garnet. Ex Jo Price Collection. Width of view 7.75mm. Stack of 30 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Small grey-green grossular garnets with white wollastonite and yellow-orange vesuvianite. Width of view 7.75mm. Stack of 35 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Olivine-green crude crystals of grossular embedded in magnetite. Width of view 7.75mm. Stack of 30 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Brown grossular garnet with blue chrysocolla. Width of view 7.75mm. Stack of 40 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Small quartz crystals on olive-green to brown grossular garnets. Width of view 7.75mm. Stack of 55 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Green chrome-rich grossular garnet crystals. Width of view 7.75mm. Stack of 50 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Reddish-brown fibres of hewettite with bubbly grey variscite balls and unknown lime green mineral (vésigniéite? maybe). Ex Joan Lamond Collection. Width of view 7.75mm. Stack of 70 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Pale adamite crystal aggregates with deeper green cores of copper-bearing adamite (or zincolivenite?). Interestingly, as you move the specimen around under the microscope, the “hard dividing line” between the two colours looks like it moves! Some sort of optical phenomenon. Width of view 7.75mm. Stack of 50 images. Click on...
Purple cobaltkoritnigite, pink erythrite balls, thin bladed prismatic silky white hörnesite, pale pink sainfeldite, white weilite, and silky white sprays of picropharmacolite. Type Locality for picropharmacolite. Width of view 7.75mm. Stack of 36 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Silver cobaltite crystal in matrix. Ex Jo Price Collection. Width of view 7.75mm. Stack of 44 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Dark grey pseudocubic crystal embedded in matrix. Ex Bernie Day Collection. Width of view 6mm. Stack of 30 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Small pyrite crystals on calcite crystals. Ex Charles Willett Collection. Width of view 9mm. Stack of 65 images. Allegedly, a dead tree once stood over this quarry with the inscription “D. Boon (Daniel Boone) Cilled A Bar on the tree in year 1760”, although an internet search places the sign...
An aesthetic parallel growth of copper crystals. Ex Charles Willett Collection. Width of specimen 7mm. Stack of 30 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution verion.
Multiple generations of calcite with siderite, and some of the calcite fluoresces strongly red. One habit is white “Christmas trees”. Width of view 5.5mm. Stack of 28 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Green and bluish-green wardite in yellow crandallite with white crandallite and pale pinkish crandallite. Type Locality for wardite. Vintage micromount collected and mounted by John Melhase in 1935. Ex John Malhase. Ex California Academy of Science. Ex Steve Pullman. Width of view 5mm. Stack of 30 images. Click on the...
A nice group of bournonite crystals perched on brassy arsenopyrite and dark sphalerite crystals. Quartz crystals on specimen but not in photo. Height of view 5mm. Stack of 48 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Dark red spheres of rhodochrosite on white albite. Colourless crystals in the foreground and on the left may be pectolite. Minor green aegirine also present. Width of view 5mm. Stack of 38 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
A single sharp green libethenite crystal with a spray of lighter green ulrichite, on a bed of green chalcosiderite crystals. Height of view 2.5mm. Stack of 45 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Tiny colourless crystalline balls of variscite. Width of view 2.5mm. Stack of 60 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Platy green crystals on smoky quartz. Most are much thinner than the one in the photo. Width of view 5mm. Stack of 40 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Natrolite perched on other natrolite crystals, on analcime. Red gmelinite coloured by hematite. Ex Bernie Day Collection. Width of view 5mm. Stack of 50 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Bright white matted liskeardite lining cavity. Width of view 5mm. Stack of 20 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Pharmacosiderite cubes coated in a thin coating of iridescent goethite(?) or maybe silica(?). Ex Chris Jewson. Ex Bernie Day Collection. Width of view 5mm. Stack of 32 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Tufts of blue connellite. Ex Bernie Day Collection. Width of view 2.5mm. Stack of 50 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Red carminite forming epimorphs after prismatic mimetite crystals, with green pharmacosiderite. Width of view 4mm. Stack of 28 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
White “snowflakes” with grey centres. Ex Dick Dufton. Width of view 8mm. Stack of 60 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Lustrous red pseudobrookite crystals with yellow transparent enstatite crystals. The lustre is so good you can clearly see the reflections of other crystals. Ex Dick Haslam Collection. Width of view 2.5mm. Stack of 40 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Lustrous dark brown pseudobrookite crystals with yellow transparent enstatite crystals. Ex Dick Haslam Collection. Width of view 6.25mm. Stack of 40 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Lustrous brown pseudobrookite crystals with yellow transparent enstatite crystals. One very thin apatite needle is also present. Ex Dick Haslam Collection. Width of view 2.5mm. Stack of 20 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Lustrous brown pseudobrookite crystals with tiny yellow transparent enstatite crystals. The larger pseudobrookite crystal has a slight “bend” in it. Hematite is out of view of this photo. Ex Dick Haslam Collection. Width of view 2.5mm. Stack of 20 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Orange pseudocubic svanbergite with a pyritohedron pyrite crystal (altering to goethite) on white dolomite. Ex Ray Hill 7/2007. Width of view 5mm. Stack of 60 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Dark red prismatic carminite with yellow-green beudantite-segnitite. Width of view 5mm. Stack of 18 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Acicular blue connellite with green brochantite. Ex Bernie Day specimen. Width of view 5mm. Stack of 40 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version. Below: Connellite. Photo width 15mm.
Tiny groups of pale blue acicular crystals of mixite. Width of view 3mm. Stack of 50 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Dark red carminite, green beudantite and pharmacosiderite, and pale green scorodite, all in cavities in arsenopyrite. Width of view 5mm. Stack of 45 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
May be bettertonite/penberthycroftite rather than liskeardite. Acquired by Joan Lamond from Harry Critchley in 1998. Width of view 5mm. Stack of 35 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Pale green hexagonal pyromorphite crystals. Width of view 2.5mm. Stack of 35 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
A twinned yellow crystal on gossan. There looks to be a possible arsenopyrite crystal that perhaps the cerussite seeded on. Width of view 9mm. Stack of 25 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Red parallel growth realgar with tiny orange orpiment patches. Ex Trevor Hocking. Width of view 6.75mm. Stack of 40 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Green partial coating on sphalerite crystals on dolomite. Width of view 9mm. Stack of 40 images. Off white fluorescence under longwave ultraviolet may be calcite partially coating dolomite. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Purplish-grey grimaldiite in a crocoite vugh. Width of view 9mm. Stack of 35 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Yellow exsolution of greenockite-hawleyite on sphalerite. Width of view 9mm. Stack of 30 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Greenockite as a yellow coating/exsolution on sphalerite crystals. Some tiny orange crystals of greenockite evident particularly in the bottom left-hand quadrant (zoom in to explore). Width of view 7.75mm. Stack of 40 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
A small fragment of goslarite showing some tiny crystals. Width of view 6mm. Stack of 50 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
A small spray of graphite crystals. Width of view 6mm. Stack of 25 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Fragments of nodules analysed as containing goyazite, hematite and apatite. Width of view 7.75mm. Stack of 30 images.
Pale green crystals on a quartz matrix, that really light up under longwave ultraviolet light. Width of view 7.75mm. Stack of 10 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Small, white crystalline mass of slawsonite with very minor matrix. Ex Andrew Hodgson Collection. The dealer gave Andrew the locality as Kagami-mura, Kochi in 1987. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version. Andrew Hodgson photo.
Almost pure pale beige fine-grained mass of tobelite. Ex Andrew Hodgson Collection. Type Locality. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version. Andrew Hodgson photo.
Sliced specimen showing micro black inclusions of rock-forming potassic-sadanagaite from the type locality. Ex Andrew Hodgson Collection. Purchased by Andrew from Soenke Stolze in 2014. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version. Andrew Hodgson photo.
Glassy white finely-crystalline sibirskite without matrix. Ex Andrew Hodgson Collection. Purchased by Andrew from Soenke Stolze in 2008. Andrew Hodgson photo.
Greenish-brown, massive bunnoite on black hausmannite. Ex Andrew Hodgson Collection. Purchased by Andrew from Marzio Mamberti in 2017. Type Locality for bunnoite. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version. Andrew Hodgson photo.
Pure, white, fine-grained piece of sudoite. Ex Andrew Hodgson Collection. Older material, purchased by Andrew from David Garske in 1984. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version. Andrew Hodgson photo.
Grey, fine-grained rectorite without matrix. Ex Andrew Hodgson Collection. Purchased by Andrew from Roger’s Minerals, Canada, in 2007. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version. Andrew Hodgson photo.
Small dark olive-green grains and prismatic cleavages of barroisite in schist. Material originally from Yosuke Ito in 1982 and purchased from Minerals Unlimited the same year. This may in fact be a different amphibole species, following recent revision of the amphibole group. Ex Andrew Hodgson Collection. Click on the image...
Rich dark-green-black, radiating crystalline hastingsite with hedenbergite. Old material (ex-John Patrick, January 1963), purchased from Ralph Merrill (Minerals Unlimited) in 1984. Ex Andrew Hodgson Collection. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version. Andrew Hodgson photo.
Pinkish massive to crystalline pyroxmangite with lustrous/metallic black to deep red neotocite with conchoidal fracture. Click on image below for a higher resolution version. Andrew Hodgson photo.
A cluster of pinkish gypsum crystals.
Lustrous black crystals. Ex Ed and Martha Cunningham Collection.
Labelled as mixite and cuprian adamite. Is it mixite or agardite? Cuprian adamite or zincolivenite? Mindat lists all. Width of view 6mm. Stack of 50 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Iridescent siderite with hexagonal chabazite-Na crystals. Also present very thin long apatite needles. Width of view 3mm. Stack of 45 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Fragments of iron showing some signs of oxidation. Width of view 7.75mm. Stack of 46 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
A cluster of sulphur crystals with globular hyalite opal. Width of view 7.75mm wide. Stack of 65 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Doubly-terminated hoppered crystal of sulphur 14.5mm wide, no matrix. Stack of 60 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Sharply-terminated crystal of sulphur with interesting growth patterns 11.5mm tall, no matrix. Stack of 30 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Doubly-terminated “herringbone” crystal of sulphur 16.5mm wide, no matrix. Stack of 38 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Doubly-terminated hoppered group of crystals of sulphur 17.25mm wide, no matrix. Stack of 68 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Doubly-terminated hoppered crystal of sulphur 22mm wide, no matrix. Stack of 55 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
A tiny group of sulphur crystals on sinter. Width of view 6mm. Stack of 38 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Orthorhombic crystals. Width of view 6mm. Stack of 30 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Beads of hyalite on sinter. Width of view 6mm. Stack of 50 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
A tiny group of sulphur crystals on sinter. Width of view 6mm. Stack of 70 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Filiform pyrite with a few right angle bends. Also present is a brown chlorite(?). Both sit on two generations of calcite crystals, the first colourless, the second golden. Ex Brent Torrens. Width of view 3mm. Stack of 50 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Blue and green scorodite. A specimen acquired at the 2023 Joint Australasian Mineralogical Societies Seminar in Tasmania. Width of view 6mm. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Grey hexagonal crystals of bastnäsite. Ex H. William “Bill” Meinert. Width of view 6mm. Stack of 88 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
A single crystal of emerald 7mm wide with a bluish tint. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version. Below: A closeup photo showing internal interference colours. Width of view 3.5mm. Click on the image for a higher resolution version.
A radial cluster of pyrite crystals that have grown in a tight area. Ex Joan Lamond Collection. Width of view 8mm. Stack of 40 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Spherical brown siderite on heulandite. Width of view 3.5mm. Stack of 28 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Colourless to white tabular heulandite crystals with colourless sprays of gypsum. The heulandite crystals have dark blue cores giving the crystals a bluish hue. Width of view 3.5mm. Stack of 35 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Tiny transparent crystals. Ex Vince Peisley. Width of view 3.5mm. Stack of 50 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
From the mine best known for its crocoite comes a rarer occurrence, zoned mimetite crystals. There are interesting rounded surface features too. Probably where the mimetite was attached to ferro-manganese oxides. Hexagonal prisms of zoned mimetite on a small amount of gossan. Width of view 3.5mm. Stack of 45 images....
A group of cube-octahedral galena crystals with hoppered faces. Width of view 8mm. Stack of 45 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Olive green cubes partially coated by goethite. Width of view 3.5mm. Stack of 32 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
