Section · Mineral identification

Name the stone
after you test it.

Color is a rumor. Hardness, streak, light, fluorescence, and acid are evidence. This section gathers the field protocol used on South Okanagan and Similkameen ground.

Open the diagnostic guide Back to the Education Hub

Start here

What should a test change in your mind?

If two stones look gold, what would you trust more: the color in sunlight, or the color of the powder they leave on porcelain? That question is the whole section.

5-step diagnostic field testing

Mohs hardness, streak, LED edge-light, 365 nm UV, and the fizz test — then gold versus pyrite, regional profiles, and lapidary checks.

Open guide ↗ 02

Field identification (hub guide)

The shorter Education Hub version of the same five tests, written as Guide 02.

Open Guide 02 ↗ 03

South Okanagan stones

Jasper, chalcedony, chert, calcite, galena — what those tests look like on local material.

Open Guide 03 ↗ 04

Gold versus pyrite

Color, streak, hardness, malleability, and specific gravity side by side.