Mineralogy

Bismuthinite rock on a white background

The Museum holds a vast collection of rocks, minerals, meteorites and ores.

Explore 500,000 rocks, gems and minerals, including 5,000 meteorites.

Find out how you can use the mineralogy collections as a resource for economic geology and scientific research.

Looking for a specimen?

The mineralogy collection is being digitised

Meteorites

The Museum houses one of the world's finest collections of meteorites, with around 5,000 individual pieces from 2,000 meteorites.

Rocks

The Museum’s rock collection consists of approximately 123,000 samples collected from around the world during the last 250 years.

Ores

The collection contains over 15,000 specimens and is a valuable resource for the field of economic geology.

Minerals

The collection is one of the most important and comprehensive collections of its type in the world.

Ocean bottom deposits

The collection is the most comprehensive British collection of seabed samples and cores.

Collections on the move

We have set out on an ambitious programme to develop a new science and digitisation centre. As we prepare for the move, access to some collections will be affected.

Accessing the collections

Scientists and collections management specialists can visit the collections and borrow specimens for research.

Collections management

Our duty is to provide a safe and secure environment for all of our collections.