One transistor radio, now with pyrite detector diode (#Fossicked from #MineWaste at Unity Wood mine, #Cornwall). The pyrite seems to work just as well as the standard germanium one, it doesn't take long to fund a working junction on the crystal surface. #OrganisedAtoms

One of the best things I've found - a single, well formed 2.5mm wolfram crystal #fossicked from #minewaste at Wheal Fortune, Great Consolidated Mines, #Cornwall. See it's mindat page for more info: https://www.mindat.org/photo-1292350.html

This was found inside a large mass of well formed quartz crystal which was surprisingly rich in wolfram (tungsten ore) as well as large but not as well formed, and more thinly disseminated chalcopyrite crystals (copper ore).

"It could have been different, I know, -- Qfwfq remarked, -- you're telling me: I believed so firmly in that world of crystal that was supposed to come forth that I can't resign myself to living still in this world, amorphous and crumbling and gummy, which has been our lot, instead." - Italo Calvino, t zero, "Crystals"

Iridescent #quartz #fossicked from Poldice #minewaste tailings, Gwennap district, #Cornwall.
mindat.org minID: 1KG-P08
FoV: ~2mm

A single dark, transparent sphalerite crystal #fossicked from #minewaste at East Wheal Maid. This has been a tricky one for me to find (it's name means treacherous because it's hard to identify). An ore of zinc, also called 'black jack' by the old miners.

Siderite - deep brown, iron rich curved crystals #fossicked from #minewaste at East Wheal Maid

Unusually for #Cornwall, chlorite is a mineral found here that humans have no purpose for - it's just greenish, and a favourite of mine. Here are a mass of microcrystals (actually fairly big for chlorite) growing on the face of a quartz crystal. This was #fossicked from #minewaste at East Wheal Maid

Chocolate brown twiggy wolfram crystals #fossicked from #minewaste at Poldice mine, Gwennap district, #Cornwall. In the time since these atoms organised themselves, they have travelled with the sun around the centre of the galaxy one and a bit times.

New microscope! To celebrate, another shot of that fractured cassiterite revealing it's three 'parting planes' as a result of its atomic lattice pattern. Field of view ~5mm (#fossicked from #minewaste at Nangiles mine, Gwennap, #Cornwall)

Wolframite in two 'vugs' (pockets) #fossicked from #minewaste at Poldice. Showing striation and banding patterns as well as a crazy amount of iridescence. Wolfram is the main ore of tungsten and seems to have quite a wide variety of forms, I had to get some expert help (from https://www.mindat.org) on this identification as other specimens from this location look quite different.

Galena - lead sulphide, #fossicked from #minewaste at Poldice, #Cornwall. Famously useful to make diodes from, as it's a reliable semiconductor. This example is fairly weather worn but the atomic patterns are still visible in the hexagonal and square cleavage planes. It's really very reflective too. This is a high grade and dense sample, so at some point I might look for cleaner crystals inside.

Clean metallic arsenopyrite crystals mixed with decaying craggly pyrite, and tiny crystals - probably sphalerite, also #fossicked from Nangiles. Although it contains arsenic, arsenopyrite is quite stable in this form - the bad stuff environmentally is the pyrite which decomposes to sulphuric acid when exposed to water.

This is a shattered face of cassiterite crystal, which has an atomic structure that fractures differently in three directions. Its the super dense ore of tin, which once made #Cornwall rich as the only plentiful source in Europe. This is part of a thick seam #fossicked from the Nangiles #minewaste dumps near Chacewater.

Scratch testing fragments of cassiterite crystal - #fossicked from Nangiles #minewaste tailings. Using a piece of glass to differentiate it from sphalerite, which is much softer than this, and doesn't leave marks on glass at all.

Another lump of microscopic tetrahedral #quartz and cubic #pyrite geometry. These atoms were assembled 280 million years ago, dug up, discarded and #fossicked from #minewaste at #Nangiles mine, #Cornwall. Trace copper bearing minerals have stained the quartz mint green.

Some nice large citrine quartz crystals #Fossicked from mine waste at Great Wheal Charlotte. Pretty pleased with how well https://hugin.sourceforge.io/ works for this sort of thing - you just need to set the camera angle really tiny for microscope images.

Microscopic chunk of Malachite #Fossicked from mine waste from the north coast of #Cornwall - getting to the end of the samples from Great Wheal Charlotte.