Most common localities where minerals occur

When one gets to a minerals page, it shows the hardness, streak ect. It would be helpful if the most common sites are also listed where this mineral occures.
Just another idea.
-Adam

I am not sure, but I think he means deposits, i.e. for beryl: pegmatite; for copper secondaries: hydrothermal-replacement. Am I right?

-Rowan Lytle

son: -picks up huge loose amethyst cluster- "Is this what we're looking for?"
father: "Holy #$@%!

Rowan
What I was trying to say was, if the locality(s) where the most sigifigant finds of that mineral are found or the most common locality where it is found is listed on the minerals page. Example: Elbaite signifigant finds at: Gillette Quarry CT, Mt Mica Maine, Himalaya Mine CA. Elbaite Common localities: Minas Gerais Brazil, Stak Nala Pakistan ect.

-Adam

That is what the silver and gold stars indicate.

David, is't that more an indication of quality, not quantity?

If you look at the detailed information about minerals from a locality (at locality page level), there is a field for rarity at the location, but it can't be seen on the mineral page. Perhaps there could be a symbol/abbreviation for rarity as well, showing on the list for localities of the minerals - like a red c for common, red u.c. for un common, red r for rare, red v.r. for very rare...

Of corse some one have to put the data into the database, and it's also a big question - when is the mineral common, and when is it rare...

It would be helpful if it was on the minerals page without scrolling through the mineral pages. So if you purchased a prehnite from a dealer without a label you can maybe narrow down your searches by viewing those common localities like "oh it looks like this prehnite is from lower new street..." which you probally should have thought of;)

Sorry, Adam, but I must be a party pooper here :) :

Guessing at mineral localities by comparing photos, or by picking the localities where a species is most abundant, is going to result in a lot of erroneous locality attributions. Too much of that going on already, so Mindat should do nothing that would encourage more of that.

Your best defense is simply not to buy specimens that don't have good locality information, and don't recycle old collections that have their labels either missing or hopelessly mixed up - Toss them out, or use them for decorating bonsai pots. And this should be a warning/advice to other collectors and dealers: Whenever possible, whenever the identity of a specimen isn't obvious, glue a tiny locality label directly onto the base of a specimen - That is much more important than the name of the mineral, or any cataloguing system! Without that, you risk your specimen becoming close to worthless after you die or lose your marbles. :S

And now to go find my glue, scissors, and finest pen, and start following my own advice, which I haven't done yet 8-)

Alfredo,

Thank you. Amen!

Joe

Yes I agree totally, you can't go on that info as you risk a mineral becoming misidentified I didnt even know that was what the stars met David! But having that feature would work as a reference to a locality from the minerals page for research etc.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/23/2011 03:26AM by Adam Berluti.

Adam,

In the kindest possible way, it is "etc" not "ect". Etc is short form for the latin phrase "et cetera" which means "and the rest". I only know this because I was lucky enough to have studied Latin when I was in high school.

Regards,

John