Mineral and rock collection

The establishment of the mineral collection took place in 1763, when the Department of Mineralogy-Chemistry-Metallurgy was established. For this reason, it has an inestimable historical and scientific value. Unfortunately, the two removals damaged the collection. In the inventory books from the end of the 19th century there were nearly 5000 documented minerals, and now – in spite of the significant increase of the last decade – the collection has again near 5000 items, mainly of didactical value around in the world. There are five exhibitions: in mineralogy, a systematic and a terminological; in petrography a systematic, a textural and a third one, which represents Hungarian ornamental stones. Finally, there is an exclusive exhibition, a selecton of the outstanding specimens (golds and silver minerals, etc.) in the Selmec Museum Library.

Mineral resources collection

The oldest samples of the collection of ores and industrial minerals came from the collection of the Mining Academy, predecessor of University of Miskolc. The Academy must have had a significant collection of samples representing the Upper Hungarian and Transylvanian ore districts. Due to the move of the university from Selmec to Sopron then Miskolc, a large part of this collection was probably destroyed. However, the number of samples has been increased in the last decades. The collection represents both ores and non-metallic minerals and is used mostly for educational purposes. The arrangement of the samples is based on a genetic system.

Geology of Hungary collection

The collection representing the lithostratigraphy of Hungary comprises few thousand hand samples. A selected part is exhibited in showcases on the floor of the Department of Geology and Mineral Resources, arranged by regions. The rest is stored in a separate room in a similar arrangement. The specimens can be searched by region, rock name, formation name and age in the record.