Some useful tips for mineral collecting

To collect and to look for minerals require of certain knowledge on rocks, minerals, deposits, etc. These can be obtained by means of the book reading, speaking with an expert collector, or visiting museums, fairs and mineral shows.

There are 3 properties of the minerals that facilitate their identification, these are: the brightness, the ray and the hardness. In addition it is recommendable to have a book that has good photographies and to have present that mineral is in the deposit from where the mineral sample comes.

The appropriate places to look for minerals usually are quarries, mines (in operation or not), margins of ways and highways, and the mountain. It is important to know the minerals that are possible to be found in the deposit before making the visit, as well as to make use of a geologic map.

In the field trips to look for minerals or fossils it is very important not to go single, not to put in danger our security or the others, to leave the place so clean and safe as it has been (not to leave garbage), and to as much request always the necessary permissions in public properties as prevailed.

The conservation of minerals requires an appropriate space: drawers, boxes or display cabinets are indispensable because the dust is the worse enemy of minerals. It is good for having the custom to associate to each mineral a number and a descriptive card where there will be the present date, deposit, minerals in the sample, and some observation.