P.O. Box 2182 Weaverville, California 96093-2182 (530)-623-2040   (888)-689-8402 (Toll Free) john@trinityminerals.com

Greetings and welcome to the newly revamped rareterra.com website which is dedicated to nothing but Rare Mineral Species!  What is a rare mineral you ask?  That is a good question as the world of minerals is defined by a continuum of sorts.  Species such as quartz are found all over the inner solar system where as species such as andyrobertsite are found on only a few rocks at best.  In between is everything else.   Some species such as gold and calcite will not be found here while others such as Semenovite and Labuntsovite will be.

So why a website dedicated to Rare Minerals?  The energy to put this website together was born out of the fact that most websites present their specimens in a less than ideal fashion for the cyber-age collector.   Websites that present rare and unusual species don't do much of anything except provide a citation to a species and location and leave the details of the specimen to the collectors imagination.   Others, myself included in the past with Trinity Mineral Company,  generally toss out random species that reflect a hit or miss approach to the serious species collector.   This website will strive to make available specimens of rare and unusual mineral species that are aesthetically superior to simple reference specimens and present them in a way that makes it easy to find out quickly what is here or what you may be interested in.  Clearly, in many cases, specks or microscopic crystals is as good as some species get and ascribing the word aesthetic is probably a lot more than just a stretch.   You will find specimens that are not much more than specks on a rock here but you will also find some that are among the best of their kind or at least a cut above the majority of their kind.

You can search for specimens on this site in several ways:

1) Search by Alphabet
There are two ways to do this.  At the top of each page you will see the entire alphabet listed which are hyper-linked.  You can click any letter and any available or reserved specimen in the database will be listed in table format with a link to more information and pictures to the specimen of interest.  You can also use the pop-up box and scroll down it with it alphabetical listing of minerals in the database.  To see more than one species simply hold the [CRTL] button down and use your mouse to click the species of interest.  Once you have made your selections you then press the search button immediately below the Specimen Name box.

2) Search by Key Element
This is one of the more exciting features of this new website from my perspective.  Each specimen that is entered into the database has its most interesting elements included in the Key Elements criteria database.  Essentially, you can select to see only those specimens with elements of interest to you that are presented in the pop-up box.  Example:  Say you want to look for species that have Berylium, Carbonate (CO3) and Tellurium.  You simply hold the [CTRL] button down while scrolling through the Key Elements pop-up box and when you have finished selecting Be, Li and Te press the Search button below the box.  A table with all of the available or reserved specimens that contain either Be, CO3 or Te will be presented with links to individual specimens.  Elements such as Silicon, Oxygen or other of more common crustal forming rocks will not be listed.  PO4, SO4 and CO3 are included as searchable elements.

3) Search by Location
This is another fast way to find specimens that may have been uploaded which could be part of a suite listing.  Simply  hold the [CTRL] button down while scrolling through the Location pop-up box and when you have made your selection(s) press the Search button.  A table will be presented with all of the specimens that are either available or reserved from the locations of interest to you.
 

Take a look at the wall paper on this website.  It is a copy of the periodic table of elements.   I felt that that was appropriate since minerals are really just natural compounds found in the Earth's crust.

This is a simple website to negotiate with next to no frills.  Simply click any of the icons below to visit that section of the website.  This site will be frequently updated with new species as they become available.

Thanks for your interest!