Rather than duplicating work with relatively scarce material, I am trying to collaborate with other workers who have already studied cave minerals, as well as obtaining my own original samples where such work has not already been done.
For example, at Jenolan Caves, the Australian Museum has been sampling in the tourist caves and at Contact Cave. The analyses show that the material sampled is aragonite with magnesium carbonate (as huntite).
I have some very small samples of ``aragonite'' from most of the caves visited, and also samples of some of the matrix in which the material was embedded.
Samples of speleothem need only be very small, eg pin head size. Samples of bedrock however need to be larger for thin section preparation, and care must be taken when taking the sample so as not to disturb or damage an important site.