Wish I could find a good source here - have had holidays rock hunting on riverbeds - nothing much, some small jade and onyx.
is that red jasper or carnelian? the green stones look like peridot, possibly citrine - hard to tell from a photo, but looks like fun!
Yeah… lots of green agate and green quartz that looks like Jade…. Very large rocks
ah ok, thought those were translucent. Reminds me, watched the first couple of series of Jade Fever - set in Canada, the largest supplier of jade outside China.
The ones to the upper left in the tray are actually mica.... it looked like gold in the water
had to look it up - I have some mica but is a clear crystal (often used instead of glass) - from images, looks like biotite mica.
https://www.minerals.net/mineral/biotite.aspx
Awesome … that’s it …
THE BIOTITE MINERAL GROUP
Biotite is a very common form of mica. It is named in honor Jean Baptiste Biot (1774 - 1862), a French physicist, mathematician, and astronomer who researched the mica minerals for their optical properties. Because of Biotite's abundance, its presence is usually lacking in collections except for it being an accessory mineral to other minerals. Biotite can come in enormous crystal sheets that can weigh several hundred pounds. Thin sheets can be peeled off as layers, and the thinner a layer is peeled the greater its transparency becomes.
In 1998, the IMA removed the status of Biotite as an individual mineral species, and instead declared it as a group name for the following individual members: Phlogopite, Annite, Siderophyllite, and Eastonite. However, mineral collectors still refer to Biotite by its traditional name and rarely make a distinction among its members except for Phlogopite.
Biotite is very hard to clean because if washed it will absorb water internally and start to break apart. The best way to wash Biotite and other Micas is with a dry electric toothbrush.
It’s used to make lamps … https://amzn.to/2UUvXAo
also used in things like microscopes and geiger-counters. lol. Glass is a horrible mess at the atomic level whereas a crystal has a nice structure that allows things like electrons to go through.