Collecting and Storing Minerals

WHERE TO FIND MINERALS

There are various places to find minerals. You can take your chances in the field and collect your own specimens or you may purchase them from a rock shop, mineral show or even online.

In the field - This is a term that refers to the natural occurrence of the mineral. It might be an old mine, a rock quarry or in a national forest. There are several things you need to know about collecting minerals from their natural location. First and foremost, make sure you have permission from the landowner before searching for minerals. There are many landowners that are kind enough to let you look for minerals as long as you ask permission. If you do not gain permission, the owners may become angry and you can be charged with trespassing and/or theft. If you are wanting to search an old mine, again get permission and make sure it is safe to do so. If you are in a national forest or other type of government park, DO NOT PICK UP ANY SPECIMENS, unless of course you have permission. If you are caught with anything that belongs in the park, you have to put it back, pay a fine and then are asked to leave the park. Second, dress for the occasion. It's usually a dirty job collection your own minerals. Lastly, make sure you have the right equipment.
Rock shops and mineral shows - These two places are excellent for picking up hard to get specimens or specimens that you might not be able to collect in the field. Most of these specimens will come with the proper identification and location, so there is very little work to be done once you buy the specimen. Not only are these places good for buying specimens, but you can gain a lot of knowledge from the sellers as most of them collected the specimens.
Online - There are a few rock shops that have online access and you are able to buy specimens from them. This is a nice idea if you live a long way from the shop and as long as you know who you are dealing with. There is also Ebay. You can take your chances on Ebay, but there is no guarantee you will receive what you think you won.

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EQUIPMENT

If you plan on collecting your specimens in the field, make sure you have the proper equipment for collecting. Sometimes it is as simple as picking up a mineral off the ground, but most of the time, it will require some work. The first thing you will need is a hammer, preferably a rock hammer, because it won't break when you hit it with rock. You need to bring along a bag of some sort to carry the specimens you collect. Also, individual bags such as sandwich bags are good each specimen. This is to provide a little protection to the minerals as well as keeping the specimens separated. If you want further protection, you may wrap them up in newspaper. Two more important items are a pen and paper. When you collect a specimen, write down the important information such as the location, the types of rocks around it and the date. You can then put this paper in the bag with the specimen. If you are collecting in the mud, a pair of rubber boots will be nice. (Simon) A typical rock hammer, good for chiseling, chipping and crushing.

Photo by Patrick Laird ©

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STORING AND DISPLAYING YOUR SPECIMENS

When you get your mineral specimens home, the first thing to do would be to label them. There are many ways of labeling them, but the best way is by putting the information on a small piece of paper or index card so it can be kept with the specimen in storage. The information that goes on the card needs to be the name of the mineral, the location from where it was collected, as well as the date the mineral was collected. There are two other pieces of information that may want to put on the card as well, the classification and the chemical formula.

After labeling your specimens, they need to be arranged in order in some type of storage.

Arrangement - There are a number of ways to arrange your mineral collection. It can be arranged by the color of the mineral, the date it was collected, the location they were collected or by the mineral class.
Storage and Display - There are many ways to store and display your collection. Here are three simple ways to do it. You can use small jewelry boxes to store individual specimens and then put the boxes into a larger flat box, such as a soda box flat. The other two ways are by using either hardware drawers or tackle boxes. Using the drawers or takle boxes are fairly cheap and are easy to store. Most takle boxes will close and have a handle so that the collection can be carried.

This is a typical identification card.

This is a tackle box used to store and display a collection.

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Created by Patrick Laird for GO336 Mineralogy at Emporia State University, November 11, 2002.