Early in 2020, when Covid first hit, and the world went into varying degrees of lockdown, I set up a Zoom session for members of the Facebook Micromount Club Group. It…
The Rashleigh Archive (digital books)
With the support of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, Andy Tindle and Peter Sleep have produced digital copies of Rashleigh’s “Specimens of British Minerals vol 1 & 2” and his…
Kaolinite, Goonbarrow China Clay Pit, Cornwall
“Pig’s Eggs” are a pseudomorph of fine-grained muscovite (“sericite”) with kaolinite (and minor quartz, biotite, etc.) after orthoclase, found in kaolinised granite such as that found at Goonbarrow.
Goonbarrow China Clay Pit, Bugle, Cornwall
In the heart of Cornwall lies a landscape unlike any other in Britain: the stark, white, terraced pyramids of the St Austell china clay district. At the centre of this…
Chalcophyllite, Wheal Gorland, Cornwall
Lustrous hexagonal green crystals of chalcophyllite with pale blue-grey and greenish-grey scorodite.
Minerals of Cornwall Video
Early in 2020, when Covid first hit, and the world went into varying degrees of lockdown, I set up a Zoom session for members of the Facebook Micromount Club Group.…
Fluorite, Quartz, Wheal Remfry China Clay Pit, Cornwall
Zoned purple cubes of fluorite.
Tourmaline, Wheal Remfry, Cornwall
Pale blue to green to darker brown tourmaline crystals, exact species unknown. Dravite and schorl are both listed in Mindat, along with “tourmaline”. Steve Rust notes that many of the…
Topaz, Rutile, Wheal Remfry, Cornwall
Lustrous colourless topaz with black rutile.
Fluorite, Kaolinite, Wheal Remfry, Cornwall
Purple cubes with small trisoctahedron(?) modified corners, and some curved edges. Some crystals are also contacted showing lighter colour towards the centre of the crystals. The fluorite fluoresces a bluish-purple,…
Anatase, Quartz, Wheal Remfry China Clay Pit, Cornwall
Tiny sharp dark anatase crystals with colourless quartz crystals.
Wheal Remfry China Clay Pit, Fraddon, Cornwall
Abridged version of an article originally published in the Monthly Mineral Chronicles volume 5, number 10. Kaolin, or ‘China Clay’ as it is commonly called, is a hydrated aluminium silicate…