Mineral Cup Round 1: Ammineite vs Dioptase
It's the battle of the grues today with two very different copper-containing minerals!
https://www.mineralcup.org/2024/vote/r1m06
AMMINEITE
This bright blue beauty is only known from Pabellón de Pica in Chile, where copper deposits interact with bat guano to form the unique mineral.
Name: First known mineral to contain ammine (NH3).
Bling: Blue!
Uses: None (yet?).
Team DO NOT Lick: Contains copper, formed from guano, and unstable in water, so not recommended.
David Hospital. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
DIOPTASE
This emerald look-alike only forms in dry, carbonate-rich environments like deserts. It also has some fun anti-ferromagnetic properties if you cool it down enough (70K)!
Name: Greek for "see through"/"visible through", for the internal cleavage you can see in unbroken crystals.
Bling: Green!
Uses: Ground to make pigment or (carefully) cut to make gemstones.
Team DO NOT Lick: Also a copper mineral and often used in dust form, which can irritate your lungs as well as poison you.
Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com – CC-BY-SA-3.0
Density. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.
