Mineral Museum
The Educational-Scientific Museum of Minerals was created along with the establishment of the Department of Applied Geology, back in the 1920s. It has been developing since its foundation and its exhibit fund has been replenished. Samples were obtained from various deposits of the former Soviet Union and other countries of the world, acquired by exchange, collected during contractual fieldwork, or donated by graduates with good will. Currently, more than 5,000 samples collected in the museum are not only for educational and educational purposes, but a significant part of them is of a scientific nature. The museum exhibits include well-ranked and geologically systematized educational and research collections of almost all deposits and ore occurrences in Georgia. The museum is unique in Georgia with its specimens. Even the former Geological Department did not have collections of such practical importance.
In 2001-2002, at the exhibition “Georgia – Treasures from the Land of the Golden Fleece” held under the auspices of the then presidents of Georgia and Germany, the museum’s exhibits were exhibited, which, as a token of gratitude, was placed in a thick catalog published in Germany at a high level of printing.
Our museum is often visited by potential investors from Italy, Austria, Israel, etc. In July of this year, at the request of the Ministry of Economy, Israeli investors got acquainted with the samples of Georgian paving stones collected in this museum, which aroused their serious interest.
The museum is located on the top floor of the third building and occupies an area of 240 sq.m. It consists of two exhibition halls. There is a separate preparation room, a photo laboratory and a warehouse.
The first hall is dedicated to the endogenous, exogenous, metamorphic processes of the origin of deposits and industrial types of minerals. The glass showcases contain standard samples of rocks, ores and minerals characteristic of magmatic, pegmatite, greisen, skarn and hydrothermal processes from different countries of the world and Georgia. Geological formations related to weathering, sedimentation and infiltration processes are also placed here. A special place is occupied by samples of the world-famous metamorphogenic iron deposits – the Kursk magnetic anomaly and the Krivoy Rog, ranked according to the complete geological section. The same hall houses classified samples of skarn (Dashkesan) and sedimentary (Kerch) iron ores. More than a hundred processed samples of Georgian facing stones of various sizes are exhibited separately.
The second hall is almost entirely dedicated to Georgian deposits and mineral occurrences. Here, scientifically systematized exhibits are collected, both for exhibition and educational and research purposes. Visible models of the Madneuli quarry and the Zopkhito antimony deposit are also exhibited. Many dozens of samples are stored in boxes in the museum’s storage room, which can be used for both educational and scientific purposes.
Bachelors and master’s students, upon the request of the head of the subject to be processed and with the permission of the museum director, can work both in the exhibition halls and in the office, preparation room and photo laboratory located at the museum.