r/Minerals

I scored this smoky quartz specimen for 30 SFr from an old man operating the Luftseilbahn Chilcherberg (cable car). The mountain in the background is Mt. Bristen.
The base is irregular, so I am trying to figure out how to make a holder for it. Also, could anyone help identify the inclusions near the top?
I am a newbie quartz owner, any insights or display advice would be appreciated!

more pics, 2

Origin India, Fluorite raw

Agate iris with a really cool rainbow.

A Beautiful Batch Of Tourmaline Crystals ❤️

I have been collecting these tiny crystals from the sand using a microscope and tweezers. They are roughly 1mm or less. I searched through a LOT of sand to find these. They are easy to spot luckily due to their color and shape. Looks really nice. I made sure to get sand from infront of the big rocks and have been following the stream uphill to see where the garnet is coming from. Unfortunately I highly doubt ill find any big crystals because its a bunch of sand stone I think these are just tiny ancient deposits that got washed far away from the source. I don't really know what I'm talking about tho all I know is this area used to be underwater a long long time ago so you can find some marine fossils but I haven't seen any around my place but im not that interested in fossil anyways. I need to do a density test and fluorescence

1. Anyone recognize this mineral?
2. How to search this rock pile for fossils, radioactivity, gemstones, gold, and anything else of interest? I often find myself standing in a huge pile of rocks, not knowing what to look for!

Ty <3 🙏

I got this beautiful sphere labeled as “serpentine onix”, about 4” diameter. Ive handled it for me about a minute 2 times, different days, and both times I felt my hands warm up and the veins in my wrists poped up and got visibly fuller. Do you recognize any magnetic mineral in it? Scientifically what would cause this?

8 cm tall Aquamarine Crystal on Feldspar

This piece is just over 14 inches (35cm)!

First is 253g from Karnataka India, second is 216g from Africa (not sure exact locality) and third is 130g from Macedonia pictured in sunlight, with phone torch light through to show translucency and finally in UV. The Macedonian is by far the more UV reactive and translucent, I've heard the marble they form in allows for lower iron concentration. I was wondering which one people thought was my best?

A wonderful piece of old-stock Wulfenite with Mimetite on a Barite matrix from Rowley Mine in Maricopa County, AZ.

Edit: the title should list spessartine as a species not a variety

Garnet sp. Spessartine on Quartz var. Smoky

Wushan Spessartine Sites, Fujian, China

(Mn2+)3Al2(SiO4)3, Isometric | SiO2, Trigonal

max. 32mm

A specimen representing the classic association of spessartine garnets and smoky quartz from the famous, chinese locality. This particular piece features a number of golden and orange, gemmy spessartine crystals sprinkled atop a perfectly water-clear smoky quartz crystal and is belived to have come from the earliest site production (1998-2001). Once abundant in the market, currently this type of specimens is limited to releases from collections as the site is now within the borders of a national park.

Please note that the use of "Wushan Spessartine Sites" insted of "Wushan Spessartine Mine" for the locale name is deliberate and not a mistake. Given unclear factual status of this locality production, it is more likely to reflect actual conditions of specimens being collected across several sites scattered around the Wu mountain area insted of being mined in a singular mine.