Blogs
23 Jun, 2018Back in February 2016 we created a short blog "Pull Your Fingerite" about a BBC article (and others) covering a paper by Dr Robert Hazen, of the Carnegie Institution in Washington DC, and Prof Jesse Ausubel of The...
21 Jun, 2018It is time to announce the latest 10,000 minerals have been added to the e-Rocks database, this time it is an all American honour - or should I say honor? Michael Cline of Uravan Minerals (USA) brought up item 660000 earlier...
21 Jun, 2018Luigi Chiappino of Systematica called up a new mineral today - Albertiniite - to be added to the mineral database. This new species recently approved and published by the IMA is quite a straight forward iron(II) sulphite, ...
20 Jun, 2018Whilst doing some tidying on the website I came across the mineral postite recently listed. I needed to check out the composition the relation to other minerals. It was not long before I was looking into the range of...
12 Jun, 2018I know there are a few collectors of unusual pseuodomorphs out there who might be interested in this. I spotted this specimen chenevixite posted by Carsten Slotta; from the photographs you can see an array of quite well...
11 Jun, 2018Pyrite - Victoria Mine, Navajun, Spain Introduction: I know the title is a terrible Alistair MacLean pun, but it is hot here today and it was the best I could come up with. Spanish sellers Baltasar and Elvira at...
10 Jun, 2018Once again whilst researching and updating a new mineral I came across another interesting figure behind the mineral name. This time the mineral was gorbunovite - the citation from the IMA proposal is in the box below. ...
08 Jun, 2018Hoganite Hoganite and paceite (along with calclacite) are currently the only known minerals containing the organic acetate ion (CH3CHO2)- Minerals Containing the Acetate (Ethanoate) Ion Calclacite Ca(CH3COO)Cl...
05 Jun, 2018Having worked with Madagascan minerals over a number of years, grandidierite has always been a interesting and hard to get hold of mineral. The story went that there were a few localities close to each other in the south of...
04 Jun, 2018I have just been updating 2 new minerals recently added to the e-Rocks database and made a sad but interesting discovery about the name. Edtollite and alumoedtollite are comparatively newly IMA approved minerals pending...
02 Jun, 2018I spotted our third ever specimen of santanaite go under the virtual gavel the other day and in my tiny brain the name resolved to "santanaite, named for Carlos Santana legendary Mexican guitarist"! Of course santanaite is...
31 May, 2018As we push back on May and head into June a final quick blog with 2 bits of new information. Nollmotzite (Mg[U5+(U6+O2)2O4F3]·4H2O) A new mineral, IMA approved pending publication due. Nollmotzite is the first...
