Geo Gallery 1 -- Rare Minerals from my Collection :
This was the beginning : mineral collecting ! Later only I learned the skills of geology, ore deposits and mineral exploration. But mineral collecting staid and these days I am rich in stones indeed. Here are 24 examples of rarer species of minerals collected over the years and photographed by Philip Blümner.
Please click (!) on the thumbnails to get a larger image with some description. If you have any questions, dont hesitate to contact me.
- Scaly brucite aggregates
Hjulsjö, Schweden
Specimen width : 10 cm - Yellow calcite on colemanite
Kestelek Borate Mine, Turkey
Specimen width : 5 cm - A classic specimen : barrel shaped campylite crystals, a rare variety of mimetite
Dry Gill mine, Lake District, Northern England, Specimen width : 10 cm - One of the best known changoite specimen , a rare sodium zinc sulphate
Swakopmund, Namibia
Specimen height : 12 cm - "Root Beer" coloured colemanite crystals
Kestelek Borate Mine, Türkei
Specimen width : 5 cm - Fibrous ferrimolybdite crystals, a rare iron molybdate from the Missouri Bell Mine, Idaho, USA
Image width : 1 cm - Green gaspeite from Widgiemooltha, Australia
Specimen width : 6 cm - Porcelain-like hotsonite vein
from the type locality Hotson Mine, Northern Cape, RSA
Specimen width : 6 cm - Golden yellow hydronium-jarosite in fibrous aggregates
Namib Lead Mine, Namibia
Specimen width : 7 cm - Inderite is a rare borate, forming excellent colourless crystals
Bigadic, Western Anatolia, Turkey
Specimen width : 7 cm - Kutnahorite cauliflower, a calcium - magnesium carbonate in weird, but familiar aggregates
N`Chwaning II Mine, Kuruman, South Africa, Specimen width : 7 cm - Radiating nifontovite crystals
Fuka Mine, Japan
Specimen width : 6 cm - Pyrite as such is not a rare mineral at all, but text book shaped pentagondocecahedral crystals indeed are
Collected 2005 at Murgul Mine, Northeastern Turkey, Crystal size : 5 cm - Ruby crystals in marble
Morogoro, Tansania
Specimen width : 7 cm - Schalenblende - Rhythmic interbedding of galena, sphalerite, wurtzite and pyrite
Schmalgraf Mine, Belgium
Specimen width : 20 cm - Turkey Fat Smithsonite
Rohden Quarry, Schaumburg, Northern Germany
Specimen width : 7 cm - Purpurite is a manganese phosphate and was named for its deep purple colour
Sandamab Pegmatite, Namibia
Specimen width : 10 cm - Tellurite crystals from the Bambolla Mine, Sonora, Mexico.
Crystal size : 4 mm - Delicate, well formed trona crystals
Lake Owens, California
Specimen width : 8 cm - Polished green variscite nodules from Utah are a mineralogical classic
Clay Canyon mine, Fairfield, Utah, USA
Specimen width : 10 cm - Woodtin is a rare microcrystal-line variety of the tin oxide cassiterite, resembling wood
Wheal Jane Mine, Cornwall, UK
Specimen width : 3 cm - Wurtzite, a zinc sulphide akin to sphalerite, rarely displays well developed crystals
Agios Philippos mine, Rhodopes, Northern Greece
Specimen width : 6 cm - Detail of the well crystallized hexagonal wurtzite crystals
Agios Philippos mine, Rhodopes, Northern Greece
Image width : 3 cm - Fibrous zaherite, collected 2009 in the Hotson Mine, Northern Cape, South Africa
Specimen width : 5 cm