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  • 23 May, 2020
    Joy Desor
    Analytical investigations of the germanite and renierite associated secondary minerals have lead to the discoveries of many unique minerals eg. otjisumeite, bartelkeite, stottite from the Tsumeb Mine, Otavi Highlands,...
  • 01 Nov, 2017
    Mark Wrigley (Admin)
    Back in 2007 when we began cataloguing Warren Taylor's Tsumeb minerals we came across a real stand out rock. It was oddly labelled as "Quartz Psm Azurite" but was obviously gypsum and appeared to have formed around something...
  • 19 Feb, 2017
    Joy Desor
    This weekend three of my friends visited me for some analytical work on their self collected and collection material. One of them had an old Tsumeb sample hosting filigrane silky masses on germanite renierite matrix. Not...
  • 17 Feb, 2017
    Joy Desor
    Greenockite from Tsumeb forms beautiful hexagonal orange crystals in cavities of Cd rich galena. Often the specimens host brownish Cd rich smithsonite. Crystal size is usually around 50-100µm. Studies under the electron...
  • 17 Jan, 2017
    Joy Desor
    When I started examining micro minerals I came across a nice specimen hosting olive green bartelkeite. It was pure luck to find this mineral. This is what I can say now looking back at the small number of specimens I had....
  • 29 Dec, 2016
    Mark Wrigley (Admin)
    This leiteite specimen from the Uerpmann collection recently posted on Facebook brought back fond memories of the man who's name was given to the mineral back in 1977. Leiteite was named to honour Luis Antonio Bravo Teixeira...
  • 25 Nov, 2016
    Mark Wrigley (Admin)
    Hedyphane is seldom seen from Tsumeb, but here it is formed out in small flat hexagonal crystals with white faces resting on a bed of pale green calcio-duftite. There are more excellent photographs and a specimen currently...
  • 21 Nov, 2016
    Joy Desor
    EDS confirmed galloplumbogummite spheres (pictures 1-5; picture no. can be seen by mouse overlay on the pictures below) in germanite renierite ore, accompanied by otjisumeite needles (pictures 8-10), unknown bright phase (...
  • 03 Nov, 2016
    Joy Desor
    Recently I obtained a specimen from Tsumeb without a name. It underwent elemental analysis and turned out to be beudantite. This case shows that elemental analysis can be very useful. Even if the precision is limited, in the...
  • 01 Nov, 2016
    Joy Desor
    Germanium (Ge) & gallium (Ga) are elements which are essential in our todays life. ----------------------------------------------------------------- In the semiconductor industry Ga is used for InGaAs diodes, which have...
  • 30 Sep, 2016
    Mark Wrigley (Admin)
    George and I have just picked up the collection of Dr Ernst Peter Uerpmann from deepest Spain. The collection of over 3,000 pieces has been in storage since 2002 when Peter moved from Germany to Alicante on his retirement;...
  • 10 Jun, 2016
    Mark Wrigley (Admin)
    Whilst sorting through some Tsumeb minerals recently we came across this label, with the dealer information cut off. All we had to go on was the hand writing and a "crossed hammers" symbol on the left. With a little help and...

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