Congratulations to this guy for winning the inaugural Ore Cup and becoming the International Mineralogical Association's Ore mineral of the year!
https://www.mineralcup.org/

Go copper metal, you might not be a sulfide mineral but you still rock.

Image: Worlds largest chunk of mined vein copper. 19 tonnes of native copper!

#OreCup25 #orecup #MineralCup
#keweenaw #coppercountry #nativecopper #MichiganRocks #michigan

#MineralCup #OreCup25 #orecup

Last chance to vote in this years Ore Mineral cup.

https://www.mineralcup.org/vote-results/results-r3m1

Go Copper!

#OreCup25 #orecup #MineralCup
While the big times of Native copper mining in Northern Michigan is long behind us, the residue of those old mines are modern gold (well copper really) mines. Some of these wasre rock piles still have percent levels of native copper in them. A much more ecologically friendly solution to sourcing the copper need, especially since copper is usually in the form of sulfide minerals which leads to acid mine runoff and leaching of contaminants unless treated very carefully.

Image: copper metal from a waste rock pile at the Quincey Mine.
Note: Quincey Mine is private property and collecting and rockhounding is strictly prohibited, unless you have a collecting permission for research.

@MineralCup
Copper ahead by a wide margin atm.

Keep it up copper, you can do it.

#MineralCup #OreCup25

Unless you hate Bob Ross and pretty little clouds you will vote for ilmenite today.
#titaniumwhite

https://www.mineralcup.org/vote-results/results-r1m3

#orecup #OreCup25 #mineralcup
@MineralCup

Congratulations Kyanite!

#MineralCup

https://www.mineralcup.org/

Please vote Dioptase the rare pyroelectric #TeamGreen #DesertEmerald through to go against #tugtupite in the Mineral Cup semi-finals!

https://www.mineralcup.org/2025/vote/r3m04

Emerald copper FTW 💚💎🧡
We can get a #piezoelectricity versus #pyroelectricity battle for the ages! It's * #ELECTRIC * ;P

Pressure or fire, heating things up to get zappadelic, gotta love that.

Better yet:
"As mentioned in the introduction, there is a profound relationship between pyro and piezo sensors: Every pyroelectric crystal is also a piezoelectric crystal (but not vice versa)."
Heating leads to expansion of the crystal lattice, and a measurable electric voltage.

https://www.dewetron.com/news/the-piezoelectric-and-pyroelectric-effect/

(After the last two days seeing mass vote stuffing tampering attempts, they're auditing preliminary results, so please rope in new folks to vote for this little toxic pyro guy instead! 🍀 Thank you for voting!)

#Dioptase #MinCup25 #pyroelectric #pyroelectricity #MineralCup

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???

#MineralCup #MinCup #MinCup25

via @cobalt123

https://beige.party/@cobalt123/115152062785285478