The identification of ore minerals requires a trained eye that can recognise the subtle colour differences between minerals. Training students (and professionals) in this skill has traditionally been difficult - partly because of a lack of a colour guide to the characteristic optical properties and textures of ore minerals and ore-associations. One particular problem is that the same mineral can appear to be optically quite different in different associations.
This site provides over 400 full colour photomicrographs of the major ore-forming associations and opaque minerals in non-mineralized rocks. It describes typical examples of each material from many classical localities throughout the world. For each association there is a listing of the major (and important minor) primary ore minerals, alteration products and gangue, typical textures, a brief discussion of the geology of the association and a list of references.
A range of menu options displayed on the left of this page provide access to this information via their association, country, location, mineral name, mineralogy, texture, optical property, individual plate descriptions or via an image gallery.To obtain the optimum display of information, please set your browser's screen display to small fonts and a screen resolution of 800x600 or higher.
In order to speed the transfer of images across the WWW the photomicrographs used in the atlas have been scaled down or subjected to varying degrees of compression. Three types of JPEG image result: Thumbnails (small images ~10K); Full size, compressed images (~50K) and Full size, high quality images (~300K).
Because of the size of this site, the Atlas is available on a CD-ROM or in hardback form (280mm x 230mm, 208pp) directly from the authors.
Contact Rob Ixer for further details.
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