A new one for me - specular hematite (aka specularite), bright silver hexagonal plates and metallic masses in a dark matrix. It got an ultrasonic clean, but otherwise as found, near to one of the concrete ore washing buddles at Bassett and Grylls mine, Wendron, Cornwall.

There is a lot of really shiny mica and coal dust on this site, but even with a crust of clay over most of it, it it was obvious that this was much brighter, sparkly mineral when I picked it up.

According to "The geology of Poldark Mine and it's surrounding area" by N. G. LeBoutillier, this mineral is a high temperature one that occurs in the "roots of the lode", indicating that there is not much tin left below - most of it has eroded away from kilometres of rock above the current surface level a long time ago. This is the reason so much of it was present in the soil and stream sediment in the area.

mindat.org minID: V04-YHW
Field of View: 2.5 - 10mm

#Cornwall #MicroMinerals #Fossicking #CornishMinerals #MineralSpecimens #Crystals #FossickingCornwall #Mineralogy #MineralCollecting #GeologyRocks

New research for Royal Society of Chemistry funded Organised Atoms workshops, using mine waste crystals in electronics.

This is a new design we've made for a synthesiser, it's a light controlled oscillator that uses a natural pyrite crystal (from Wheal Unity Wood mine, in Cornwall) to output sounds that change as you move tiny 'cats whisker' wires to different places on the crystal surface.

#Fossicking #Chemistry #Electronics #PublicEngagement #ThenTryThis #Geology #MineWaste

Another tiny #fossicking report from Nangiles mine, just off the Bissoe trail in Cornwall.

This place was mined for copper and tin from 1808 till the money ran out in 1991 - after which it flooded 50 million litres of toxic water into the Carnon River.

The rainwater here has etched little gulleys in the waste rock 'tailings' in this photo. This has the effect of partially arranging the waste into 'placer' deposits, sorting fragments by density.

#Cornwall #MineWaste