@MineralCup
Ready and excited to vote on some awesome ore minerals!
Hark! What’s that we see on the horizon?
Is it something new? Something mostly metallic, quite heavy, and essential to society? It’s an all-new collaboration with IMA!
Ore Cup: https://www.mineralcup.org/about-ore-cup
Voting starts Monday November 3 & continues for the first week of November. Winner crowned IMA Ore Mineral of the Year.
#MinCup Round 2 Match 4:
It’s a battle of mineralogical oddities as organic mineral #Carpathite battles against #Tugtupite, a mineral that looks like reindeer blood!
Faudrait soit
- un long listing qui te donne à la fin ton score de "picky eater".
- une compétition avec des match d'ingrédients 2 à 2 (cf #MinCup par exemple https://www.mineralcup.org/2025/results/r1m14 )
- un site qui te demande n fois de préférer l'un de deux aliments dans une paire tirée au sort et qui fait des statistiques (mais ça ne permet pas de corréler les détestation, genre "trucs amers" ou "fruits exotiques)
Ou alors pas tiré au sort mais réactif (genre si tu détestes le café, détestes-tu le thé aussi ?)
Les Webdev faites-vous plaisir si ça vous inspire.
Some of you might remember the fun during #MinCup reading about vivianite. That is a blue mineral that can form around decomposing bodies (bones) as reduced iron combines with phosphate in an anoxic setting.
For some fun macabre reading, check out: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/vivianite-blue-human-remains
Detailed examination of these mars samples suggests that mobilized reduced iron, combined up with phosphate and made some vivianite (see bottom of p. 336 in article).
Oh wow this is a gorgeous specimen! Absolutely bonkers price, but the silver price (according to a quick Google) is as of today approx US$41/oz - and then you've got to cover finders fees, taxes, import costs, the upcharge for how pretty that formation is, actually gaining profit over the vendor's costs to be at Tucson Gem Show and have sufficient stock (not all vendors also mine/shape/whatever their own stock or work super hand in glove with the folk who do. So)...
(Mind you if it was JUST priced on weight and today's price, rough math says it weighs 11.58lb, approx., which might be true but seems overly heavy for the measurements in the alt-text. No I'd guess about a third to half that price is covering vendor costs for it rather than strict valuation of it.)
Aaaaaanyway. .... I just wanted to say it was pretty and adhd went "okay bur consider". 🙄😅😅🤣🤣 sorry and good morning ish???
via @cobalt123
Attached: 1 image I actually have a fresh photo of a stunning piece of silver to share for #MinCup25 ! I saw this beauty at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show at one of the venues and the manager actually let me photograph some through the display case. I’m #TeamSilver for sure but I own nice pieces of barite, the rival in the vote today. It’s spelled Baryte also) Can’t believe it’s a close race! Vote here each day (anyone can) mineralcup.org for main page and this for vote today https://www.mineralcup.org/2025/vote/r1m05 Also search the main hashtags to see what others have to share within Mastodon #Silver
@MineralCup I am once again asking for people to vote for Dioptase! 🙏 ⬆️
PYROELECTRIC 
You heat that babe, you get ⚡
https://www.mineralcup.org/2025/vote/r1m10
Rerun campaign! Mineral or gem images in the reply above
Cuboids!
Dioptase on a matrix of sky-blue chrysocolla.
Dioptase gem.
Dioptase on calcite.
#Dioptase images. Stunningly gorgeous & vivid green turquoise colour gem, cubes or cuboids or whatever your technical terms. Pictures saved from Twtr or Google, likely during 2021 or 2022 #MinCup.
Dioptase need loads more votes by later on because it's a grudge match to some.
Opt in for some "#Dio och tasering" hard. ROCK. times this mineral cup!
#MinCup25 (Damn tag based 'economy' here.) #MinCup2025 #MineralCup #MineralCup25 #MineralCup2025 #TeamDioptase #WordPlay
I maintain that this is a rude matchup. Ruuuuude. I'm gonna delay my vote til morning - someone poke me in like 10 hours or something - but also I need a cute bit of #wavellite for reasons of "gimme rocks pls thx".
via @MineralCup
I've been eaten by a grue but this match pulled me back because #azurite my beloved,,,,
Look, #kosmochlor is a space rock, big whoop. Did you miss they've also found it terrestrially? (Is it remnants of Other Space Rock? Maybe. Shhhhh.) They buried the lede that it's a #clinopyroxene: it's a *temperature and pressure indicator*. I.e., certain formations, colors, levels of occurrence, etc etc etc, say a LOT about how hot e.g. a magma was, what other minerals and ores might be (geologically) nearby, what stressors were on these rocks over time, etc.
Clinopyroxenes are, for the most part, *scientifically* valuable rather than monetarily, aiui. (#Jadeite is a notable exception.) (#Nephrite is not even a clinopyroxine!) (Freely admit I may be wrong!)
Aaaaanyway: scientifically, yes, it's super cool. Azurite is a favorite and I gotta vote for one of my favorite copper minerals. 😂🤷🏻
(Let's be real, bar a wild upset, the space mineral will win. But azurite tho. Aaaaaaazuuuuuuriiiiiiiite.)
via @MineralCup
Sulfide_Sleuth
Mineral Cup & Ore Cup
Thorium
Abie
Mike Malaska
Inoru
Elysia Macht