Today we will give you a glimpse into nature's best kept secret- natural mineral specimens...

Aquamarine, another variety of Beryl, seen here with cassiterite or tin oxide, comes in spectacular combinations from China

These specimens are owned by the MIM museum in Beirut, Lebanon. There are many more online at FMF mineral forum.

Here is a fluorapatite from portugal. These are among the world's finest fluorapatites

Australian bustamite - rarely does such an uncommon species form such beautiful crystals

Vesuvianite from Quebec is one of the many colorful and lustrous minerals found in the Jeffery quarry- now closed

Possibly the best Pakistani combo piece in the world-class aquamarine with school and albite.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this field, every one of the specimens posted above is worth at least five figures. They are utterly unique and completely natural.

where are you from?

chilean here, and I'm surprised you spelled colombia right and not columbia

Schorl* (variety of tourmaline)

Here is a wonderful diopside, a beautiful variety of a common rock forming mineral, from Tanzania near Mt. Killimanjaro

>tfw a lot of these mineral names are familiar to you because of Dwarf Fortress

America. Fortunate enough to have been to Colombia. Minerals are a way for me to connect to geography.

Here is an ultra rare Bolivian phosphophyllite

All of this shit is manicured and none of it looks like this in nature

Here is a monster piece, worth an easy six figures- morganite (variety of Beryl) with kunzite from Afghanistan

They have been cleaned, but I can assure you they have not been touched by man. Most people have no idea that these kinds of things even exist.

Here is a Chinese stibnite or antimony sulfide.

I should clarify- people clean these using certain qcids, water, air guns etc to remove dirt and iron staining. However, believe it or not, these treasures are straight from the earth as nature created them.

Here is a hematite from South Africa.

Part of the reason they look "manicured" as user put it is because these are some of the finest examples ever found. They are leaps and bounds ahead of the vast majority of specimens in terms of quality.

Here is a very rare vayrynenite from Pakistan

cool, are you a geologist perchance?

Here is North America's holy grail- rhodochrosite from Colorado. This is worth more than most houses.

Yes, still in grad school. It's a top tier profession in my opinion. Lots of opportunities for travel and seeing amazing things.

Here's a kesterite with mushistonite from China.

School of Mines?

Here's a sapphire (corundum/aluminum oxide) from tanzania

No, it was expensive. I got a good deal somewhere else that paid for it all.

Silver from Michigan.

Adamite from Mexico. This is super rare material, only found once in 1981

Thanks for sharing. Very interesting

Another American classic- red Beryl from Utah

My pleasure. More people need to know bout this kind of stuff.

A crazy aquamarine from Pakistan.

One of the best specimens of any type - a legrandite from mexico nicknamed The Aztec Sun

Mexican wulfenite- a lead molybdate

Jalpaite from mexico

Botryoidal mimetite from Mexico. A lead arsenate mineral.

Here is a fine sample of (You) for you OP.

Good thread.

And finally a Chinese ferberite.

Thats all for now, I'll try to check in later.

this was my fave, thanks geOP

so... can I lick it or is it dangerous?

btw. can a person dig for that kind of stuff or is this discoverable only with companies, heavy machinery or a shitload of luck.

WE

Not OP but here :
issuu.com/irocks/docs/romero_collection_-_complete/15

You could lick it without any harmful effects. Most minerals containing harmful elements like lead or arsenic are safe to the touch. Best not to ingest though, it's not food.

It is possible to find these sorts of things as an amateur collector, but a lot of them do come from deep underground mines, access to which is strictly regulated by companies. Many of the minerals above are from defunct localities, meaning they will not produce again and access is impossible. Modern mining methods move huge volumes of rock which allows for more discoveries, but at the same time these methods are more destructive to the minerals, nor are companies interested in their preservation. They dont want miners picking up shiny things when they should be working. Most of the world's greatest minerals were crushed to produce things like copper pipe. It's sad to think about.

/sug/ here, ready to fuck some rocks. What of these won't kill me if i touch or breathe near them?

>Most of the world's greatest minerals were crushed to produce things like copper pipe. It's sad to think about.

That's actually a very depressing thought. Is there any hope to salvage gemstones from older and now disused mines, or do mining companies not leave much room for that sort of thing?

definitely jam the cuprosklodowskite up your urethra

It depends. Some old mines you can still enter. Others are flooded, backfilled (buried), off-limits, etc. You would never be able to reach the productive zone if it's under 1000 feet of rock and water. Some companies are amenable to private contractors who collect in their mines and market the material. This is a very enlightened attitude, but a rare one. Keep in mind that old underground mines are incredibly dangerous.

>gemstones
>minerals that you can sell for a profit
>like everything in this thread
If a company found a gemstone deposit in their mines they would definitely continue digging until there was nothing but geologically interesting, but non-precious and poorly crystalized examples left

Where do you think this all came from?

This is true, but you can still find great things on mine dumps sometimes.

Hey- I live in Colorado!

Should I major in Geology or Geophysics OP?

If i major in geology i won't have to take any more math courses, problem is I like math, but at the same time i like job prospects for geyphysics since they are more needed but they stare at computers all day.

either one is fine. just learn GIS.

Beautiful

How big are these things? Are they like gigantic? Fist-sized? Microscopic?

Awesome thread, btw

Absolutely pornographic.

Here's my contribution: dolomite on smokey quartz from Romania. It isn't anywhere near the quality of the other posts, but it's one of my favorite combinations. Looks like snowy mountain crags.

absolutley beautifull

waiting for more if you got any

I really should have posted sizes along with the images, I was just being lazy. Most of what you see is between 1 and 10 inches in size.

user was right, either is fine just follow your heart.

13.5 cm anglesite from morocco

if you go into geophysics learn computational fluid dynamics. on long enough timescales, rock actually behaves more like a fluid.

The subject of value keeps coming up. I'm curious- is it simply by virtue of their rarity that these gemstones are so valuable? Or do some of them have practical uses?

AWW YISS. Hematite is my favourite mineral.

10cm Beryl on feldspar from brazil

here.

Maybe a better way to ask that is: *why* is worth more than some houses?

Their value comes from their rarity as collectors items. Each one is unique, and no one can ever produce another one. They have been compared to old Masters's paintings in this respect. The most valuable minerals (if they are sold) would bring upwards of one hundred million dollars. There are known transactions of several million dollars for single specimens. T
If they are not damaged, or their quality superceded by new discoveries, they will hold and in fact increase their value better than any other commodity or investment.

Kunzite, 20cm, Afghanistan

Basically it is a highly desirable investment/art object. There are hundreds of new millionaires every day, some of whom look to hold tangible assets that hold long term value. These rhodochrosites are of the highest quality imaginable and they are very difficult to come by. There are probably thousands of specimens from that mine, but only a handful attain this level of quality in terms of color, form, aesthetics, and freedom from damage, and contrast on matrix.

Super gorgeous azurite and malachite from mexico, 14cm.
The cartel controls access to this mine. I actually bought one of these, and I'm fairly sure the money went to them.

Fluorapatite and aquamarine, 13cm, Pakistan

thats some sci-fi looking shit right there.

Cerussite, 24cm, Namibia.

Oops

Topaz, Pakistan, 6.5cm

Hot stuff

I always wondered if there are software libraries that can be used to simulate crystal formation at given pressure/temperature
Any idea if something like that exists?

yeah, pratt and whitney have something like that for creating single crystal metallic turbine blades.

Look up Vlad klipov. He grows quartz crystals. It's cool.

10cm fluorite from Illinois

Thanks for the romp, OP. Are the Mexican mines you're talking about in Chihuahua? Whereabouts do you do most of your work?

Image: Amazonite, microcline, and smoky quartz specimen from Colorado. ~2ft long

The mine is called Milpillas, and it's in Sonora. I do work on an area in the lake Superior region. Thanks for posting minerals.

fluorite looks like it belongs in the marvel cinematic universe

Augelite, 6cm, Peru. These are rare minerals, and this is one of the best examples.

OP I'm a sophomore undergrad majoring in geology. This has all been very inspiring. I was wondering if you'd recommend any schools, especially Midwestern ones.

With Transformers fighting over it.

Euclase, Colombia, 4.5cm

this is a refreshing thread considering what usually gets posted here

Ahhh yes illinois and our glorious fluorite.

I keep trying to see if there's any internships I could get at a fluorite mine but it seems impossible unless you already know someone there. A thousand paleontology digs and internships can be found, but where the hell are the geology ones?

It depends on what you're interested in doing. I looked at schools like CO school of mines, Arizona state, U of AZ, U of Texas at Austin. There are many many possibilities though. Talk to your professors, read journals, connect with potential advisors

Gypsum, 14cm, mexico. This is what drywall is made of.

Rhodochrosite, 4cm, south Africa

Just what i thought

pic related will ensure you get a job and probably has the best geology program in the country, if not the world.

Seconding CO school of mines. (disclaimer: not a geologist, just drink like one)
Colorado has a booming microbrewery scene.

You need to get into economic geology if you want to mess around with in places like that

...

Fluorite, 14cm, Pakistan

Tanzanite, 11cm, tanzania

Spessartine, 9cm, Pakistan

I do love beer. I even work at a liquor store with a massive beer section, working almost exclusively in that area.

I was made for geology.

So hey, geologists, what is your favorite specialization in the field and why? What's your dream career and why does it appeal to you?

Prospecting seems fun as fuck if you love hiking and the wilderness.

Absolutely stunning.

Here's some ocean jasper as thanks

Great thread