MinEx Associates (www.minex.org)

30/01/2026

Cornish miners on the Barberton Greenstone belt - around 1890.
MinEx will finish the job.

26/08/2024

Well, probably Paul's WIFE was the thorn in his side, of which he spoke and was glad for.

Like him, I thank and give praise on high, for my lovely, beautiful wife, most precious gift from God, Dudu, who humbles me daily 🥵.

2 Corinthians 12:7-9

7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me 👉a thorn in the flesh👈, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.

8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.

9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for ☀my strength is made perfect in weakness☀.
... Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

25/07/2024

'The pattern of life'.

30-odd years ago, Pash Canby decided to take over conducting the Royal Police band on the King's visit to Dvokolwako Diamond Mine, in Swaziland. The conductor was pretty surprised, but impressed. Pash, very serious.

Yesterday, his niece, Pasha, graduated from creche. Very impressed, not that she understand what it means, but just loves dressing up.

20/02/2024

Viable options ARE available.
This might be the most important message you recieve in you life.

18/11/2023

Red Rhodochrosite crystals on matrix from Sweet Home Mine, Mount Bross, Colorado, USA

Diamonds may be a girl's best friend and for ever, but this to me is more interesting.

14/11/2023

Crazy world full of magnificent illusions... or is this real?!

A wonderful example of Erythrite from Morocco.

Thanks, Sacred Stones for posting.

24/05/2023

How beautiful is this one?
Blue Tourmaline crystal cluster

from my friend
Noor Ullah https://www.facebook.com/gandhararoughgems

Dara-i-pech, Kunnar Province, Afghanistan

Email: [email protected]

Available for purchase, interested buyers can direct message him for further queries !

For much more, please visit his website: www.gandharagems.com

23/03/2023

My sons went to the Lake District last weekend with their friend George and send a beautiful picture of a glacial valley.
A dream come true for the Xoe Mmow zxual geologist.

27/10/2022

Blackchurch rock .... is an impressive sea stack found on the North Devon coast, UK. It is composed of marine sandstone, shale and mudstone that have been separated from the mainland cliffs by sea erosion. Wave action has also attacked the less resistant layers of mudstone, opening up two windows or arches within the stack (comment schematic). The rocks dip ~60o with the axes trending parallel to the coast.

The formation is Carboniferous in age (~320 Mya) and was dated using index fossils. The rocks contain goniatites (comment photo), ammonoid cephalopods that lived in tropical to subtropical seas from the Middle Devonian until their extinction at the end of the Permian (The Great Dying). Their sutures are smooth saddles and lobes, which gives the name "goniatitic" to this particular pattern, and these sutures often have a distinctive "zigzag" pattern. Goniatites are useful as index fossils for age determination and stratigraphic correlation.

From the Late Devonian to the Early Permian, rocks in the SW UK were subjected to a major mountain building episode, the Variscan Orogeny. This tectonic event was caused by the northward convergence and collision of the continent of Gondwana (present day South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia and India) with the continent of Laurasia (present day Europe, Russia and North America). This collision eventually resulted in the closure of the ancient 'Rheic Ocean' and the formation of the supercontinent Pangea in the early Permian (~290 Ma). This area was part of a foreland basin as the ocean was closing.

Rivers flowed from areas of high land in Wales southwards into the basin, carrying fine sediment which settled out on the sea floor as muddy layers, eventually becoming shales. Periodically, submarine ‘avalanches’, triggered by earthquakes, carried flows of much coarser sediment mixed with water down onto the ocean floor. These are called turbidity currents and they deposited layers of fining-upward sands across the steep slopes and floor of the basin, eventually becoming the interbedded rocks we see today.

16/10/2022

When a bat dies on a stalagmite.
Thanks https://www.facebook.com/michael.lafferman
We love you man!