Congratulations to #OreCup winner and IMA Ore Mineral of the Year #Copper!

https://www.mineralcup.org/orecup/2025-copper

Voted for chrysotile in #MineralCup

It gets a bad rap as misused asbestos.

But it's one of the minerals produced by serpentinization, the transformation of certain mafic and ultramafic minerals that produces vast amounts of natural hydrogen, just waiting to be harvested as a safe energy source.

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

Native copper in a sedimentary conglomerate. It is proposed that detrital hematite reacts with copper sulfate solutions to reduce the copper and the fluids carry away the iron and sulfur.

From Calumet and Hekla Mine, Michigan. University of Waterloo Earth Sciences Museum Collection.

#OreCup25 #MinCup25 #Copper #Michigan #UpperPeninsula #UWaterloo

#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.

#OreCup FINALS:

Place your vote to decide the IMA Ore Mineral of the Year! Are you a fan of the classic native metal #Copper, or the slippery silver #Molybdenite that evaded being pinned down for so long?

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