@MineralCup Because I am annoyed quartz yet again has defeated so many worthy minerals over the years of #MineralCup I must again vote for the upstart, this time one championed by one @FaithfullJohn Quartz is so commonplace, ubiquitous and pervasive in uses and for decoration, that is plenty enough of accolade and renown for a mineral. #Cuprite on the other hand is beautiful and sparkly. So let’s elect a deserving young Prom Queen!
#mineralcup — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #mineralcup, aggregated by home.social.
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Last day of voting! Anyone can vote at this link. I as usual have picked the loser in most of the matchups this whole September. What a record I continue to hold, year after year.
Ok last time today and my vote is #Graphite seriously it has a coolness factor and properties that are terrific! Quartz is boring. Sort of like having baking soda around your house. Immensely useful but ubiquitous. Yes I have a lot of pretty quartz and in many crystal firms. But, but graphite is special and cool! I give up. Just vote. At least this matchup won’t result in Ice being the winner.
#MineralCup
#MinCup26 https://www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-results/vote-r4m02 -
Oh durn it! Looks like all the minerals I was really hoping would advance in #MineralCup this year were defeated by lame competitors. Of course IMHO. So now it’s the ending time and this page is showing live results that are being audited for vote manipulation!
https://www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-results
Sad that more than a couple of the contests had this happen. The crew handling the website and polling really had their hands full dealing with this. I never heard of it happening in previous annual contests. I wonder if the site also had to deal with swarms of bot visitors or Ai or LLMs scraping content or data.
Anyhow I think @MineralCup will be announcing this years final contest or the winning mineral this year. I am not hopeful that the one I would grudgingly vote for will win this year. Of course I’ll want to know the End of the Story for another epic year. #MinCup26
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RE: https://mastodon.social/@MineralCup/117357085013547219
Going to have to flip sides from Graphite on this one and cast my vote for Quartz. I don't know why, but I've always felt drawn to quarts. I have a chunk of clear quartz sitting on my desk in front of me right now next to a larger chunk of smoky quartz.
So, quartz it is!
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@Thorium @MineralCup @rpmik Too weird for me! Imma still going #Julienite cuz #Cobalt #MinCup #MinCup26 #MineralCup
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RE: https://mastodon.social/@MineralCup/117340214181731273
My strategy this #MineralCup is to vote for the extremely common, but extremely useful, minerals. #Quartz? Absolutely! #Graphite? Sign me up!
This round it's #Halite. #Salt has been mined, traded, smuggled, sprinkled, and savored for millenia. You can vote here:
https://www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-results/vote-r3m03
The Wieliczka salt mine has been in operation since Neolithic times. There's a gorgeous chapel carved out in the 19th century. But perhaps my favorite part - at the entrance, there's a Communist-era (check out that heroic modernism!) monument to #Copernicus carved out of salt. (Photo in next toot)
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@MineralCup Go team #Sphalerite! For one, I own some marvelous specimens so I am biased. Every time I go to the TCC showcase at the Tucson show I stop by and see the friendly German vendors I buy from. I can never resist these very sparkly minerals and colors translucent glowing or very solid as a matrix for a host of other minerals. And rare elements in the mix. And great for carved pieces but not for jewelry. #MinCup #MineralCup #MinCup26 Vote today at link in post with the photos.
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@ksircombe Oh no no no, vote for Julienite! Because cobalt! You know I would have to vote because the chemical composition makes this blue to blue-purple possible. It makes sense that when found it is now because it would form through heat and chemical deposits/vapers. It would crumble and be soluble in water to become a pretty pink.
I love to collect cobalt glass (cobalt blue glass) which gets that distinct color in glassmaking through heating pink crystals of cobaltoan calcite or any of the more common cobalt minerals. And cobalt now has a lot of people looking for sources to mine it since it’s used in cell phones and modern tech devices along with rare earth minerals. #MinCup #MinCup26 #MineralCup @MineralCup
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As a writer and stationery nerd, going to have to promote graphite for this round! All for the love of a pencil! ❤️ ✏️ ❤️
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RE: https://mastodon.social/@MineralCup/117255126559000260
Because I support the Coalition of Pyrrhotite Survivors I can’t vote for it! The opponent contender does seem rather useless and won’t make gemstones or important manufacturing ingredients, but I must vote for #Cylindrite! #MinCup #MineralCup #MinCup26
See link in post for link to vote. Anyone may vote today only. When you vote you can click to see the current vote totals. If you click on hashtags you may discover rockhounds here on Mastodon! -
@vickyveritas.bsky.social oh the votes are very low count AND it’s too close between these two contenders. I am always FOR pyromorphite, always so attractive and startling color. #MinCup #MineralCup #MinCup26 #Pyromorphite you can vote from the link you find in posts or the @MineralCup profile page. Anyone can vote.
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Andalusite thin section in cross-polarized light. Faint chiastolitic (is that an adjective?) inclusion trails link the corners of the crystal. From an unknown locality, in our teaching collection.
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Here ya go, Everyone! Anyone can vote. Once a day. Just click this link. For each day links will be shared online in Mastodon, Bluesky and a not-to-be-said-aloud other social media.
Not registration needed. Just click on that button there! And then click on the second of the 2?options and of course, for magnificent mineral orpiment. Sure cuprite is pretty in a different way BUT orpiment has more centuries and thousands of years of history!
https://www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-results/results-r1m05
#MinCup #MinCup26 #MineralCup #Mineral #Vote #Orpiment #Radioactive #Yellow #Orange #Pigment #Crystals
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@deborahh Ding ding ding! Orpiment is the word of the day! Go, go #Orpiment #MinCup #MineralCup #MinCup26
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@alyx_woodward I simply must share your post and I hope just in time for the remaining 6 hours left to vote online (anyone with the link can vote!)
For #MinCup #MinCup26 #MineralCup #Orpiment
“depositing yellow crystals of As₂S₃, i.e. the mineral orpiment, in its epithelial cells. Look at this thing! It's bright yellow, because of a frickin' arsenic mineral!” -
@minouette Oh miss, shock! I almost missed #MineralCup #MinCup #MinCup26
Thanks! Now to search for my nice orpiment photos of pieces I bought a few years ago! #Orpiment -
Voting is really close right now, but I don't think I can claim to be a #ttrpg and #DnD fan without voting for 🩷 Erythrite🩷 , the one nicknamed "red hobgoblin"/"rother Koboldt"! LOL
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RE: https://mastodon.social/@MineralCup/117187219374741184
Learn about minerals while playing a game! Why waste your time watching people run back and forth tossing a sportsball around, when you can compete beautiful minerals that have been waiting thousands, millions, or billions of years to be appreciated?
Why indeed! Follow the #MineralCup to learn and play! #MinCup26
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RE: https://ohai.social/@TarkabarkaHolgy/117184784658367606
Timely reminder that #MineralCup 2026 starts September 1!
The bracket is available at https://www.mineralcup.org/2026/bracket
Learn about some minerals and pick your favorites (or the other way around) and be sure to follow the #MinCup26 hashtag and/or @MineralCup for posts from other mineral enthusiasts. Voting occurs every day through the end of September, so lots of opportunities to participate and share some mineral love.
💎 ♥️ 🪨
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Please vote Dioptase the rare pyroelectric #TeamGreen #DesertEmerald through to go against #tugtupite in the Mineral Cup semi-finals!
https://www.mineralcup.org/2025/vote/r3m04
Emerald copper FTW 💚💎🧡
We can get a #piezoelectricity versus #pyroelectricity battle for the ages! It's * #ELECTRIC * ;PPressure or fire, heating things up to get zappadelic, gotta love that.
Better yet:
"As mentioned in the introduction, there is a profound relationship between pyro and piezo sensors: Every pyroelectric crystal is also a piezoelectric crystal (but not vice versa)."
Heating leads to expansion of the crystal lattice, and a measurable electric voltage.https://www.dewetron.com/news/the-piezoelectric-and-pyroelectric-effect/
(After the last two days seeing mass vote stuffing tampering attempts, they're auditing preliminary results, so please rope in new folks to vote for this little toxic pyro guy instead! 🍀 Thank you for voting!)
#Dioptase #MinCup25 #pyroelectric #pyroelectricity #MineralCup -
Oh wow this is a gorgeous specimen! Absolutely bonkers price, but the silver price (according to a quick Google) is as of today approx US$41/oz - and then you've got to cover finders fees, taxes, import costs, the upcharge for how pretty that formation is, actually gaining profit over the vendor's costs to be at Tucson Gem Show and have sufficient stock (not all vendors also mine/shape/whatever their own stock or work super hand in glove with the folk who do. So)...
(Mind you if it was JUST priced on weight and today's price, rough math says it weighs 11.58lb, approx., which might be true but seems overly heavy for the measurements in the alt-text. No I'd guess about a third to half that price is covering vendor costs for it rather than strict valuation of it.)
Aaaaaanyway. .... I just wanted to say it was pretty and adhd went "okay bur consider". 🙄😅😅🤣🤣 sorry and good morning ish???
via @cobalt123
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@MineralCup I am once again asking for people to vote for Dioptase! 🙏 ⬆️
:take_my_money: PYROELECTRIC :blobfoxdealwithitfingerguns: You heat that babe, you get ⚡
https://www.mineralcup.org/2025/vote/r1m10
Rerun campaign! Mineral or gem images in the reply above
Cuboids!
Dioptase on a matrix of sky-blue chrysocolla.
Dioptase gem.
Dioptase on calcite.#Dioptase images. Stunningly gorgeous & vivid green turquoise colour gem, cubes or cuboids or whatever your technical terms. Pictures saved from Twtr or Google, likely during 2021 or 2022 #MinCup.
Dioptase need loads more votes by later on because it's a grudge match to some.
Opt in for some "#Dio och tasering" hard. ROCK. times this mineral cup!
#MinCup25 (Damn tag based 'economy' here.) #MinCup2025 #MineralCup #MineralCup25 #MineralCup2025 #TeamDioptase #WordPlay
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I maintain that this is a rude matchup. Ruuuuude. I'm gonna delay my vote til morning - someone poke me in like 10 hours or something - but also I need a cute bit of #wavellite for reasons of "gimme rocks pls thx".
via @MineralCup
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I've been eaten by a grue but this match pulled me back because #azurite my beloved,,,,
Look, #kosmochlor is a space rock, big whoop. Did you miss they've also found it terrestrially? (Is it remnants of Other Space Rock? Maybe. Shhhhh.) They buried the lede that it's a #clinopyroxene: it's a *temperature and pressure indicator*. I.e., certain formations, colors, levels of occurrence, etc etc etc, say a LOT about how hot e.g. a magma was, what other minerals and ores might be (geologically) nearby, what stressors were on these rocks over time, etc.
Clinopyroxenes are, for the most part, *scientifically* valuable rather than monetarily, aiui. (#Jadeite is a notable exception.) (#Nephrite is not even a clinopyroxine!) (Freely admit I may be wrong!)
Aaaaanyway: scientifically, yes, it's super cool. Azurite is a favorite and I gotta vote for one of my favorite copper minerals. 😂🤷🏻
(Let's be real, bar a wild upset, the space mineral will win. But azurite tho. Aaaaaaazuuuuuuriiiiiiiite.)
via @MineralCup
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Never heard of carpathite and that's just cool #MineralCup
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Mmmmm... #haünye just because volcanoes. I'm simple today.
That said, #jeremejevite sounds pretty fucking cool too. Genuinely a case where I'd pick both if I could.
via @MineralCup
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Hmmmmm.... I like how fluffy #okenite is - also fun fact: it turns gelatinous in HCl! (The things you learn from reading the whole #mindat page, lol. [Side note does Mindat have an @ over here?]) I think that would be fun to poke under a fume hood. (Alas I don't have any okenite or access to a fume hood.)
But I think I'm gonna go with #stibnite - kohl has been important for thousands of years, after all; plus, antimony has loads of uses both modern and ancient, iirc. (Don't ask me to name any right now lol. Migraine brain says mmm rocks.) And, stibnite *is* closely associated with arsenic - very similar symptoms if you ingest it, actually.
One wonders if using kohl was also poisoning oneself.... 🤔
via @MineralCup
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#Okenite looks like something you see from the site of a surviving meteorite that you collect and put on the mantel of the fireplace... until it starts cutely purring.
You are also advised NOT to eat #Stibnite.
https://rockidentifier.com/wiki/Stibnite.html
