I use a spray can of paint. Black Rust-Oleum Flat Protective Enamel or Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch Ultra Cover (can says that it "bonds to plastic") work well. This paint is what the late Bill Henderson Jr. used. My method is to place a block of say 25 by 25 micromount boxes on a large piece of ...

A practical question. How does one sponsor a page? The "donation form" doesn't mention anything about how much it costs, nor does it provide any directions for doing so.

On the site for the Normandie mine, Saint-Joseph-de-Coleraine, Québec, ref. https://www.mindat.org/loc-17076.html, there are two identical site photos by the same photographer/uploader. One photo is obviously redundant. Peter Tarassoff

Thank you all for your suggestions. Peter

There is a specimen of the original "bytownite" from Bytown in the Holmes Mineral Collection in the Redpath Museum, McGill University. Andrew Fernando Holmes (1797-1860) was a Montreal physician and mineral collector. He sent a number of mineral specimens for identification to the famous Scottish ...

This has probably already been covered, but the advanced search app needs improvement. An example: type in Ilmen Mountains for locality, and Russia as a keyword, and what comes up? Two localities, one in Colorado and one in Massachusetts, both containing the words mountain and ilmenite!! Problem: ...

Under Regional Geology the "rock units at or nearby" the Poudrette quarry, Mont Saint-Hilaire, are described as: Cambrian-Ordovician 443.8 - 541 Ma Cambrian-Ordovician sedimentary rocks True, the nearby rocks are Cambro-Ordovician sedimentary rocks (of the Saint-Lawrence Lowlands platform). ...

The latitude (50.6666) and longitude (-120.3333) cited for the type locality of ferrierite-Mg translates to "12 Thor Dr, Kamloops, BC" as shown on the map accompanying the Kamloops Lake Mindat site. Thor Drive is obviously not the railway cut shown in the photos for Kamloops Lake. The type ...

Hi all, I recently acquired a Canon 7D Mk II camera and I'm looking for a telephoto lens for photographing miniature to cabinet specimens. I've had good results with a Canon PowerShot SX50HS but I want to take advantage of the capabilities of the Canon 7D. I do not want to resort to stacking. ...

Peter, Not all MSH "natrolite" is in fact that species. Your "natrolite" may have been paranatrolite which loses water and disintegrates if it is not kept wet when collected, hence the coating. Another natrolite look-alike at MSH is gonnardite (formerly called tetranatrolite) which also loses ...

Somewhat related to this topic is a series of books by Kenneth J. Kutz, a mining executive and philatelist who wrote and published a series of mining histories illustrated by philatelic items. These items might be a stamp, a letter, a cover (envelope) with a postmark of a mining town or carrying ...

I had admired the specimens at the museum during a number of visits, but that was a long time ago. It's nice to see some of them again. Nice photos, thanks for sharing them. But considering that the displays have been 'renewed' it's a bit surprising to see the locality for a dioptase specimen still ...

Quebec locality names on Mindat are rendered in French, except when an English place name is officially recognized as such, e.g. "Eastman, Memphrémagog RCM, Estrie, Québec". However, for whatever reason, note that as in this example from Mindat, "RCM" is an English abbreviation. For consistency, ...

I have had good success by soaking minerals for 12-24 hours in water to which I've added a few cc of sodium hypochlorite in the form of household/laundry bleach. I follow this by a soaking in water to remove residual bleach. I always do this before using an "iron-out" product.

To whomever, Please replace photo of Gunnar Bjareby on the bjarebyite page with this better photo: http://www.mindat.org/photo-739049.html Both photos were taken by me. Thank you.

Rob, The authority is Dr. Igor V. Pekov. As Pavel notes, the ore mineral is indeed loparite-(Ce), a major source of niobium, tantalum, and lanthanides in Russia. Both areas of the Karnasurt mine are currently in operation. Pekov (2007) states that raslakite (eudialyte group) was "discovered in ...

Rob, I'm sorry, but these are two separate issues. That photo is of a specimen in the collection of the Redpath Museum, and I do not have authority to post it on Mindat. Besides, what's more important, correcting a serious locality omission or posting a photo of jasper. Peter

Uwe, I have just received this clarification from a leading Russian authority on the mineralogy of the Lovozero Massif: "...the operating part of the Karnasurt mine is [now] only underground. It consists of two areas, namely the Karnasurt area (underground workings under Mt. Karnasurt) and the ...

Pavel, I have in fact seen such labels prepared by a prominent Russian mineralogist who personally collected the specimens which are not from the Yubileinaya pegmatite. Since the Karnasurt mine is referenced in Pekov (2000) monograph, it should be listed. Peter

In the locality list for the Lovozero Massif there is no mention of the Karnasurt mine/Karnasurt underground mine. Pekov (2000) places the Yubileinaya pegmatite in this underground mine. Interestingly, the mine extends from Karnasurt Mountain to Kedykverpakhk Mountain, and mineral labels can read ...

Hi all, I don't have anything to add about mineral photo uploads. A lot of good suggestions have been posted. The most important thing is quality - quality of photos, and quality of accompanying information. On a related topic, I think that some tightening of rules regarding locality photos ...

I too have noticed photos of obviously misidentified minerals, sometimes the purported species is not even on the locality list. There should be better quality control.

Back in 1956 I collected at what was then known as the Newry or Nevel pegmatite mine. It's well described in Philip Morrill's Mineral Guide to New England. But the mine doesn't come up in a locality search on Mindat: no Nevel, and the only Newry is a graphite mine. Can someone explain this? Is it ...

I was sad to learn of Ann Sabina's passing. I had the privilege of having known her for many years, going back to the 1970s. The Horvàths and I dedicated our Mineralogical Record article on the Francon quarry to Ann in recognition of her great contribution to the mineralogy of the quarry through ...

Many years ago I visited the Whitehorse Copper Belt while working as a student assistant for the Geological Survey of Canada. At the time, I collected specimens of malachite associated with minor azurite and chrysocolla on some of the old mine dumps. However, the coating on Lloyd's chalcopyrite ...

Hi all, Interesting. On the Bjareby specimen I have, there is a nodule consisting of a central phase with a dark green color exactly like Bob's Weber specimen, surrounded by a lighter greenish-yellow phase which may be an alteration product. The material I collected also has two ...

I was privileged to have written a Who's Who in Mineral Names about Luiz in Rocks & Minerals. A warm and friendly person, with a great love for minerals and mineralogy. I always looked forward to hearing about and seeing his latest mineral discovery. Having embarked on a PhD, he surely would have ...

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I note that dickinsonite has been crossed out on the list of minerals from the Chandlers Mill mine, supposedly because of "erroneous literature entries." I have a dickinsonite specimen that was collected by Gunnar Bjareby in 1957. I also have dickinsonite that I personally collected in 1958. Both ...

The late Louis Moyd, Curator of Mineralogy, Canadian Museum of Nature, visited the gaspeite type locality in 1966 and 1969. His field notes recorded the locality at the time as: "N. slope of hill overlooking Ruisseau du 17e Mille, Lemieux Tp., Gaspé Ouest Co., Québec. About 12 miles W. of Mont ...

Hi all, I found all the back-and-forth about latrappite and niocalite very interesting. In 1963 I actually met Steve Bond who was then general manager of Quebec Columbium Ltd. (a subsidiary of Kennecott Corp.). He showed me the type niocalite occurrence and it was indeed a trench in the Bond ...