| 8 Rows |
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 Bromargyrite and
Iodobromargyrite
A colorful miniature of yellow bromargyrite (silver bromide), green iodobromargyrite (silver iodobromide, the midmember of the bromargyrite-iodargyrite series), blue chrysocolla, and possible silver flakes (larger image, bottom right) on a quartz matrix with hematite staining from the Cerro Colorado Mine (Silver Queen Mine), Pima County, Arizona. Thanks to Roger McCaslin's auction on eBay for the specimen and the image! | |
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 Cryolite
Cryolite, sodium aluminofluoride, was once used as a flux in the manufacture of aluminum. The octahedrally-modified cubic crystals are hard to see, especially with the adjacent calcite - there's also some tiny colorless pinacoidally-terminated dawsonite (a sodium aluminum hydroxycarbonate) in the smaller vugs in this specimen from the Francon Quarry, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Thanks to Dave Hayward at Lucky Strike Minerals for the specimen and the images!
Thanks to Tim Jokela, Jr. at Element 51 for the dawsonite identification! |
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 Fluocerite-(Ce)
A small miniature of pinkish-tan fluocerite-(Ce), cerium trifluoride, from the Black Cloud pegmatite, South Platte District, Teller County, Colorado. Typically, fluocerite-(Ce) contains a small amount of lanthanum; fluocerite-(La) reverses the proportion. The larger image (right) shows an additional two thumbnails. Thanks to Alexander Falster's auction on eBay for the specimens! |
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| Row 2 |
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 Gagarinite-(Y)
on Cryolite
A crust of pinkish-tan gagarinite-(Y), an yttrium calcium sodium chlorofluoride, hugs the edge of this impure gray cryolite miniature from the Kola Peninsula in Russia. Thanks to Amethyst Galleries, Inc. for the specimen and the image!
Image copyrighted by Amethyst Galleries, Inc. |
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 Griceite
Griceite is lithium fluoride - this large thumbnail from the type locality of the Poudrette Quarry, Mt Saint-Hilaire, Rouville County, Québec, Canada, comprises rare colorless griceite and dark orange villiaumite in a hackmanite matrix. Thanks to Val Collins' auction on eBay for the specimen! | |
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 Halite on
Burkeite
A large cabinet specimen of sharp colorless halite (common table salt, sodium chloride) cubes (some hoppered) on red botryoidal burkeite (sodium carbonate sulfate) from the type locality for burkeite, Searles Lake, near Trona, San Bernardino County, California. Thanks to Paul Williams' auction on eBay for the specimen and the images!
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| Row 3 |
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 Halite
A beautiful miniature of blue, white, and orange halite from Les Mines Seleine, Iles-de-la-Madeleine, Québec, Canada. The blue coloration is due to colloidal sodium while the orange tint is caused by hematite inclusions - the combination of three colors is quite rare!. Thanks to Darrel Merke's (Proton Minerals) auction on eBay for the specimen and the images! |
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 Halite
A small cabinet piece of purple halite from the Carlsbad Potash District, Eddy and Lea Counties, New Mexico. The purple color is due to β-radiation from 40K in nearby sylvite. Thanks to Brendan Carver's auction on eBay for the specimen! |
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 Halite
A gorgeous thumbnail of brilliant cobalt-blue halite from almost the same location as my purple halite - the Intrepid Potash Mine near Carlsbad, Eddy County, Nevada. The intense blue color is, in this case, derived from "extra" sodium ions in the NACl lattice. Ex: Michael Shannon Collection. Thanks to Michael Shannon's Shannon & Sons Minerals auction on eBay for the specimen and images! | |
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| Row 4 |
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 Iodargyrite
A micro of a white iodargyrite (silver iodide) crystal on bright green gartrellite in a tiny vug in a quartz matrix from the tungsten mine at Les Montmins, Eschassieres, Ebreuil, Allier, Auvergne, France. Thanks to Tom & Vicki Loomis at Dakota Matrix Minerals for the specimen and the images! |
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 Jarlite
A micro of jarlite (a complex sodium strontium aluminofluoride) and barite from the type locality of the Ivigtut cryolite deposit, Greenland. It's the strontium analog of calcjarlite. There's also a tiny pyrite crystal perched near the top let corner. Thanks to Chris Stefano's Christopher J. Stefano Fine Minerals auction on eBay for the specimen and the image! | |
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 Kleinite
A miniature of yellow kleinite (hydrated mercury nitrogen chloride-sulfate) crystals on matrix from the now-closed McDermitt Mine, near McDermitt, Humboldt County, Nevada. The larger image (bottom) shows a thumbnail from the same locale. Thanks to Anthony Jones' auction on eBay for the specimens! |
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| Row 5 |
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 Korshunovskite
A micro of white fibrous korshunovskite (magnesium trihydroxychloride tetrahydrate) on matrix from the type and only locality of the Korshunovskoye Iron mine, Zheleznogorsk, Irkutskaya Oblast',
Prebaikalia, Eastern-Siberian Region, Russia. Thanks to Csanad Loranth's auction on eBay for the specimen and the images! | |
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 Meniaylovite
A micro of tiny beige meniaylovite (a complex hydrated calcium fluoride aluminofluoride) crystals (larger image, bottom row, right) on a ralstonite matrix from the type locality of the Great Fissure eruption of the Tolbachik volcano, Kamchatka Oblast', Russia. Thanks to Csanad Loranth's auction on eBay for the specimen and the images! | |
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 Mosesite
A beautiful micromount of sub-millimeter mosesite (a complex hydrated mercurychloride) crystals on blackened cork from the type locality of the Terlingua District, Brewster County, Texas. Thanks to Jake Slagle's Maryland Minerals auction on eBay for the specimen and image! | |
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| Row 6 |
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 Neighborite
A very rare micromount of neighborite (sodium magnesium fluoride, larger image, top) from the Poudrette Quarry. Thanks to Arnaldo Brunetti's auction on eBay for the specimen and the microphoto image! |
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 Pachnolite
A bright white thumbnail of pachnolite (hydrated sodium calcium aluminum fluoride) from the type locality of Ivigtut, Arsuk Fjord, Greenland - it's an alteration product of cryolite and a dimorph of thomsenolite. Thanks to Alexander Falster's auction on eBay for the specimen! | |
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 Perite
Tiny orange crystals of perite (bismuth lead oxychloride) on a miniature matrix from the Viente Cinco Vein, Magallanes, 88 km east of Antofagasta,
Region II, Chile. Thanks to Anthony Jones' auction on eBay for the specimen! |
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| Row 7 |
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 Prosopite
Only the prosopite (a calcium hydroxyaluminofluoride) from the Santa Rosa Mine, Mazapil, Zacatecas, Mexico has this lovely light bluish-green color (caused by a consistent 4.1% copper impurity). It's sometimes used as a turquoise substitute. Ex: Joe Cilen Collection with a Topaz-Mineral Exploration label. Thanks to David H. Garske's (MINERALS and MORE) auction on eBay for the specimen! |
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 Ralstonite
A busy miniature of colorless octahedral ralstonite (a hydrated aluminum magnesium sodium hydroxyfluorite, larger image, top right) and iron-stained thomsenolite (hydrated sodium calcium aluminum fluoride, larger image, bottom right, and a dimorph of pachnolite) needles on a cryolite matrix from Ivigtut, Arsuk Fjord, Greenland. Both minerals are alteration products of cryolite. Thanks to Tony Jones' auction on eBay for the specimen! |
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 Silvite
A large miniature of massive sylvite (potassium chloride) from Suria, Province de Barcelona, Spain. The specimen tag larger image, bottom left dates to April 1955. Thanks to Tina Awald's auction on eBay for the specimen and the images! |
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| Row 8 |
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 Sylvite, var.
Sylvinite
Sylvite (potassium chloride) often has halite (sodium chloride or common salt) mixed in with it - this old miniature (sealed in acrylic to keep the moisture in the air from dissolving it) was originally from the (now Union Potash & Chemical Company) International Minerals & Chemical Corporation potash mine in Carlsbad, Eddy County, New Mexico. The reddish tint is due to hematite. It also has a "V-B" tag (larger image, bottom) encapsulated in the acrylic. Most of the North American industrial potassium chloride comes from this mine. Sylvinite is much more common than sylvite even though it only assays out at 24% K2O (rather than sylvite's theoretical maximum of 61%). Thanks to P. Scott Dykes' auction on eBay for the specimen! | |
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 Villiaumite
A (cleaved) cubic inch of dark red villiaumite from the Kola Peninsula, Russia. Synthetic sodium fluoride is colorless - the red color of villiaumite is due to structural defects. Thanks to Chris Korpi at Pangaea Minerals for the specimen! |
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 Zavaritskite
A miniature of dark-gray zavaritskite (bismuth oxyfluoride) in a quartz matrix from Fielder's Hill, Torrington, Clive County, New South Wales, Australia. It's an alteration product of bismuthinite. This uncommon member of the matlockite group was obtained by Forrest Cureton in 1985 - 86 from this previously unreported occurrence for the mineral. Thanks to Tony Nikischer at the Excalibur Mineral Company for the specimen! |
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