Erich Berger's Photo Gallery
NTY-D49Phenakite Be2SiO4
Dimensions: 30 mm x 12 mm x 12 mm
Field of View: 36 mm
Largest Crystal Size: 10 mm
After a blast in 2020 the remains of a pocket system could be collected on the blast tailings. Besides phenakite, there was also topaz, fluorite, zircon, galena and black tourmaline. Quite good quality and size of phenakite and topaz for this locality could be collected in an area of 7x7m up to a depth of 0.5m.
Kopila gamma radiation visualisation in Google Earth
The yellow peak on the front right is the visualisation of geo-localized gamma radiation at the Kopila U deposit, as overlay on Google Earth. The two peaks to the left on the horizon are from the Kovela Th deposit approx 15km away. The data was collected by hand with a combined scintillation detector/GPS. Each yellow column represents around 5000 point measurements and the height is scaled to 1m/per count/per second. The general background radiation is around 5 to 20 cps, the maximum measured in Kopila is about 1500cps on top of a twenty year old borehole.
VEC-U2CColumbite-(Fe) Fe2+Nb2O6
Dimensions: 23 mm x 18 mm x 13 mm
Field of View: 40 mm
Largest Crystal Size: 13 mm
A cluster of columbite-(Fe) with feldspar. Swapped in 2017 at the mineral fair in Copenhagen.
EP8-HGGZircon Zr(SiO4) , Natrolite Na2Al2Si3O10·2H2O , Aegirine NaFe3+Si2O6 , Lorenzenite Na2Ti2(Si2O6)O3
Dimensions: 65 mm x 65 mm x 40 mm
Field of View: 70 mm
Largest Crystal Size: 7 mm
A light brown 7mm zircon sits on greyish natrolite together with green bushels of aegirine and milimeter sized brown green lorenzenite. Swapped in 2017 at the mineral fair in Copenhagen.
005-6WLColumbite-(Fe) Fe2+Nb2O6
Dimensions: 45 mm x 24 mm x 17 mm
Field of View: 40 mm
Largest Crystal Size: 25 mm
A cluster of Columbite-(Fe) crystals. As it was ingrown in feldspar I was lucky it came out this good, but many of the smaller "rays" broke. Collected in 2017.
3JX-KQ9Columbite-(Fe) Fe2+Nb2O6
Dimensions: 75 mm x 45 mm x 65 mm
Field of View: 60 mm
Largest Crystal Size: 20 mm
A single undamaged crystal which luckily did not break and stayed attached to the matrix. Collected 2017
QNU-M61Columbite-(Fe) Fe2+Nb2O6 , Almandine Fe2+3Al2(SiO4)3
Dimensions: 25 mm x 15 mm x 8 mm
Field of View: 30 mm
Largest Crystal Size: 23 mm
A flat almandine 15x4mm sits on the top/side of a Columbite. I optained this specimen via a trade at the mineral fair in Copenhagen 2017.
JPC-A0CTapiolite-(Fe) Fe2+Ta2O6
Dimensions: 35 mm x 20 mm x 20 mm
Field of View: 40 mm
Largest Crystal Size: 15 mm
Strangely tapered undamaged Tapiolite-(Fe) from the type locality. Collected in summer 2017.
408-0EGTopaz Al2(SiO4)(F,OH)2
Dimensions: 15 mm x 15 mm x 15 mm
Field of View: 30 mm
Largest Crystal Size: 15 mm
I found this topaz in the gravel just below the quarry wall after the water was pumped off. The wall showed several emptied pockets and the Topaz must have come from one of them. The topaz is light blue, but I was not able to capture the color correctly. Some smaller topaz and quartz crystal fragments have been also found but nothing reportable. Collected in summer 2017.
A64-6KPFluorite CaF2
Dimensions: 22 mm x 20 mm x 20 mm
Field of View: 60 mm
Largest Crystal Size: 22 mm
Light violet fluorite from a miarolitic cavity. The crystal was found loose in the cavity gravel but must have been attached earlier. The faces are heavily etched/pockmarked but show also healing. Mica/chlorite which is not removable sits in many of those pockmarks making the specimen look dirty. Other Minerals in the cavity were deep black smoky quartz up to 6cm and mostly covered with a layer of chlorite as well as microcline crystals up to 5cm. Field collected in summer 2017.
