During the month of September 2017 a fever gripped Twitter unlike had been seen before (well it probably had, but still). Geologists everywhere staked their sides in the epic online battles between different minerals to see which would be named the best: which would be crowned the winner of #MinCup 2017!! We all remember our surprise when pyrite went out SO early and the tension in the voting between plagioclase and zircon – which won by one vote!!!! It was fantastic and if you want to find out more, or relive any of the drama then you should definitely head over to Eddie Dempsey’s website and read his first-hand account.

For many of us it was over too soon, and I was one of those people. I started sketching the minerals in order of their finishing positions in the table and people responded really positively!! So much so that Eddie and I had a chat and decided to make a calendar. We decided that a charity calendar would be for the best – featuring the top 13 minerals (to give us time to design it and have enough room to see the sketches – 32 would have been too much). So that’s what we have done.

Enter the MinCup Charity Calendar. All profits from the calendar were directly donated to Centrepoint, a charity that helps homeless young people get back on their feet and into education or employment.

Contact myself or Eddie if you have any questions, thanks for your support and keep on mineral nerding!!