Add Minerals to a Locality

From Mindat

To enter minerals you need to click on the white area in the form (Minerals to add:). Then you type in the mineral names, one per line (separating them by hitting the <Enter> key or separating them by a comma and space). You then should enter the reference (or references if you are using more than one reference) that you are using that lists those minerals from the locality. You should use the reference that you are actually using, not any reference cited in the paper that you are using. Entering the reference provides an important quality check for the database (one can go to the paper and make sure that it was properly entered). It also allows anyone interested in that locality to find published works about that locality. You can also add an additional reference to the minerals at a locality by checking the box preceding the mineral name on the list in the left box. The reference will be added to the minerals with checked boxes and any minerals entered in the large area.

While some abbreviations of magazines or books may seem obvious to you, they may not be recognized outside your country. Full names for publications can always be used, if you want to use abbreviations, please make sure they are available in the mindat manual. The reference should include the authors, year of publication, publication name, volume and page numbers. Listing the title of the article can be useful for the viewers. Please be aware that the reference can be listed on both locality and mineral pages so that an abbreviated listing can be difficult to find ie Author(2004).

If there is no published work for a mineral at a particular locality you need to add the authority for the entry.

Contributors listing mineral species occurrences into locality files should keep in mind that only what is entered into the reference block is visible to other users. If you use 'Personally found and identified' that is all other users will see, your name as the contributor will NOT show, in other words, it is useless.

Mindat allows references other than citations from literature. This allows Mindat to capture occurrences that are not yet published. The references used under such circumstances must be relevent.

Following are examples of acceptable references:

• Personally collected by (your name here) in 2007
• Collection of (your name here), specimen catalogue number (optional)
• Collected by (someone's name here) & analyzed by (someones name here)
• Collection of (your name here) based on label from Schortmann Minerals (or whatever)
• Collection of (your name here) ex: (original collection name here).
• Dr. (name here), personal communication (pers. comm.) 2007
• (name here), Curator, XYZ Museum of Slammin Specimens, pers. comm. 2006
• (Your name here) collection
• (Your name here) collection (EDS-analysed) [but only if EDS is sufficient for correct ID!]
• (Your name here) collection (XRD-analysed) [but only if XRD is sufficient for correct ID!]
• (Your name here) field observation (year/month optional)

To submit the form and add these minerals to the location click on the button "Add these minerals". If you do not have information in the reference box, the minerals will not post to the database.

To list the mineral as questionable, you can place a ? before the mineral name. If you want to specify the quality of a mineral sample, you can add the following symbols before the mineral name.

• Rock forming mineral/non-crystalline/little interest for collectors.(##)
• Poor for species, only of interest for locality collectors. (#)
• - not specified / average specimens - (Nothing - this is default)
• Good crystals or rich for species - important (!)
• Excellent - world class for species or very significant. (!!)

If there were any minerals in your list that are not in the mindat.org mineral database, there will be the following message above the form after the posting attempt. One or more minerals was not recognized. Check the remaining names below and retry. You should then go in and fix the bad entry (usually a spelling error) and resubmit the form.

If you enter a synonym for a mineral that is in the mineral database, you will get the approved name for the mineral, not the synonym (for instance if you type in argentite, you will get the currently valid mineral name acanthite). Varietal names will post to the file under the varietal name. You can have the main mineral name as well as a number of varietal names in a listing. For example, quartz, rose quartz, amethyst and smoky quartz could all be entered at a single locality and all four minerals will be in the mineral list.

If you do try to add a mineral that is already on the list, the program assumes that you wish to add a reference for that mineral (this is a method to update literature references for multiple minerals all at one time instead of having to do them individually).The box "Unchecked - Add Reference, Checked - Replace reference" allows you to replace the reference instead of adding a reference (if there was an error in entering the reference or you are changing things from web addresses or personal communications).

If you want to add any additional information about a mineral, you should click the mouse on that mineral in the Minerals listed area on the left hand side of the form (this takes you to the Mineral Edit form).