A Basic Guide to Mineral Collecting

Whether you are fascinated by the science behind rocks and minerals, or simply love the look of the vast array of colours, patterns and intricacies of specimens, collecting minerals and rocks can be a fascinating past time for any age.

Malachite and Chrysocolla Specimen from the Democratic Republic of Congo

What are you going to collect?

The first thing to decide on when starting a mineral collection is what it is exactly that you are wanting to collect. Will you collect from a specific region or locality? A specif species or family of mineral? Anything that takes your fancy? Particularly when starting a collection for a child, you may even start a collection of whatever can be found locally. Whatever you decide on, it is important to pick rocks that are attractive to you and pieces that you find to be unique in some way; After all, this is YOUR collection.

Regardless of what you are collecting, be it rocks and minerals or stamps or coins or anything, proper organisation and display plays a key part in the process. The basics of organisation in mineral collecting are:

Identification - Once you have a mineral specimen, you need to properly identify it. There are countless amounts of species from countless amounts of localities. Where does your specimen come from? What species is it? What variety is it? The first and most important step in organising your collection is proper identification.

Labeling - Once you have properly identified your specimen, you need to give it a label. if you are considering entering mineral competitions down the track then there is certain information which is required on your label:

• The species name(s) (which should be in CAPITALS).
• Don’t use common names (such as ‘Tourmaline’) but rather use the specific species name (Tourmaline could be Schorl, Dravite, Elbaite etc). Names listed in the book ‘Fleischer’s Glossary of Mineral Species’ are widely accepted
• Specimens like Amethyst should be labeled as 'QUARTZ var.Amethyst'. It is generally acceptable at competitions to Always place the SPECIES name first in CAPITALS and the variety name second in lower case.
• It is important that you have your locality details as accurate as possible (i.e Country, locality, mine name etc). For overseas specimens a region and country are generally accepted at competitions if you don’t know the name of the mine. 

Other information that you may like to include on your label are the specimens common name (if you know it), where it was found and the date it was collected.  Labeling your collection pieces can help you organise them into groups and store those groups together in your display.

A portion of my Grandfathers Mineral Collection

Cataloging - Cataloging is basically an extension of your labeling system.  A catalog is a written archive of your collection which can be referred to when needed.  Each specimen has its own label which identifies it and your catalog keeps a record of all those labels in one reference point. Your catalog can be particularly helpful if you include information such as where the specimen is stored or displayed. Other information that you could include in your catalog is:

• A unique specimen number
• Where you obtained the specimen from and how much you paid for it
• Weight, size, size of individual crystals etc

Display - Displaying your collection helps you show it off - By displaying your specimens both you and others can appreciate their natural beauty. It is important to display each piece along with its label so you and others can identify each piece easily.

A portion of my Grandfathers Mineral Collection

Barite Crystal Cluster - A piece from my mineral collection

This piece is a specimen of Barite Crystals and came from the Meikle Mine, Bootstrap, Elko County, Nevada, USA. I purchased this piece a number of years ago and it remains one of my favorite collection pieces.

Barite Crystal Cluster - Meikle Mine, Bootstrap, Elko County, Nevada, USA

Barite, (or Baryte) (BaSO₄) is a mineral consisting of barium sulfate. The barite group consists of barite, celestine, anglesite and anhydrite. Barite is generally white or colorless, and is the main source of barium. 

Cutting a rare Australian mineral - Gaspeite

Gaspeite - An extremely rare Australian mineral

I was recently talking to a friend of mine and we were discussing various different stones. She mentioned that she had seen a bright green stone pendant at a jewellers which she loved and asked if I could cut some for her. She couldn't remember the name of it, but said that it was apparently a very rare stone from Western Australia. I couldn't think of anything off the top of my head, but after we both did a bit of googling we figured out that the mineral she was talking about was Gaspeite.

Although the mineral was originally discovered in Canada, one, very small deposit of the nickel carbonate rock was discovered in the West Australian Desert. The Australian Gaspeite from that deposit is considered to be amongst the best and is the most sort after.

Gaspeite has a Mohs rating of approximately 4 1/2 to 5 making it relatively soft. I found it quite similar to cutting serpentine, and it was just as messy.

The Rough:

After a bit of searching, I managed to track down a small, cuttable piece of Australian Gaspeite from a dealer in Melbourne:

Australian Gaspeite Rough from Western Australia

Initially, I was a little bit disappointed with the piece once it arrived as it had a number of large cracks that ran quite deep. You can see one of the cracks in the photo above, which was the one of most concern to me.

The Custom Design:

After showing my friend the rough, we figured out what sort of shape she wanted, and that she was hoping to get a set to have a pendant and earrings made.

Here is the resulting cabochon set made up of 3 rectangular cabs:


Set of 3 Australian Gaspeite Cabochons

It turned out that my concerns about the cracks were warranted in some regard - you can see the remnants of one of the cracks in the small cab on the right in the picture. In saying this, it ended up giving the pieces a little bit of character with the small cracks and depressions surrounded by a nice polish. The stone itself polished well and was soft and easy to cut.

An Extra Cabochon:

After cutting the cabs for my friend, I had enough material left over to cut a free form cabochon:
 

Free Form Australian Gaspeite Cabochon

The crack in the middle of the stone seen above is the remnants of the large crack visible in the photo of the rough, but again I think it gives the piece a bit of character.

In the end, I didn't mind cutting Gaspeite; It finishes well with a nice shine (although plenty of other stones get a much higher polish) and it was relatively soft so was easy to cut. The above free from cabochon is currently available for purchase via my store:

Gaspeite Cabochon

And dont forget to check out my facebook page:

Jaka Gems on Facebook

Until next time!