I went to see who was new that had opened up and headed for Rene Daulon.  Rene is well known for his exceptional Chinese material and it is always a treasure hunt in his booth area.  He had a very fine selection of fluorite as usual but also a very fine selection of tabular aquamarine specimens from Sechuan.  I picked out several and then he showed me the last of his personal hoard of kesterite specimens also from Sechuan.  He also had a unique specimen of rhodochrosite from the Yao Guang Jian mine - famous for its production of fluorite in recent years.  After some negotiation I was able to reach a good price with him for the lot and the other specimens of beryl. 

I wandered over to Hall A4 to see who else was open and found a few Chinese dealers with new specimens of gemmy, bright red, and lustrous cinnabar from the Tongren Mine.  These new cinnabars first showed up at Denver but were just oppressively expensive there.  I have not usually taken a second glance at cinnabar of late but the color and luster on these new specimens is exceptional.  I selected a small group and moved on.  There are still a great many specimens of cinnabar here from China but relatively few with the combination of color luster that these have.

 I visited with German dealer Uli Burchard near the end of the day and he showed me what has to be one of the finest specimens of Chinese realgar I have ever seen.  He had found it at the show the day before. It is a cabinet sized specimen about 12-13 cm across with a couple dozen crystals of gem quality realgar.  The largest is just about 2 cm in length.  The price for anyone interested is 1500 euros or about $1750.

Here's some photos of this remarkable realgar specimen.

 I met up with Francois Lietard later in the morning as he was setting up and saw some of the now famous xenotimes from Pakistan.  These were first seen here in Munich last year and then at Tucson with Dudley Blauwet.  Anyway, Francois had some reasonably priced specimens of the xenotimes available and I corralled a few of them up. 

German rare species dealer Gunnar Farber had his usual array of interesting rare species including some brand new specimens of a new mineral called Guanacoite - just approved by the IMA according to Gunnar.  They come from the El Guanaco Mine, East Catalina, Atacama Desert, Chile.  This is a light blue bladed mineral and is comprised of copper, magnesium, arsenic, oxygen, and water.  Its chemical formula is: 

As the day progressed I met up with Dutch collector Jan Buma.  He suggested that I visit Dutch dealers Willy and Joop Jansen in Hall A4 who were dispersing a recently obtained collection.  It was well worth the time as there were many fine specimens from Mexico and other global locations available.

Later in the day I visited with French dealer Laurent Thomas.  You may recall that Laurent was the dealer who made the new mineral pezzottaite available at Tucson last February.  His display of this mineral at the 2003 Munich show is nothing short of dazzling.   He also had some photos of the mine and work in progress taken this past summer. 

I have done a lot of talking with people here at the show - both with Laurent and also with several Italian sources/dealers who are directly connected with Dr. Pezzotta.   The possibility for significant production from this mine appears to be quite limited to scattered isolated crystals and very minor production from the in situ material.   There were only two cesium rich pockets found in the pegmatite that produced these specimens of pezzottaite - both not much more than 2-3 meters in dimension.  The primary minerals being sought from the mine are large gem kunzites and tourmalines.  Other minerals found are amazonite, lepidolite, schorl, elbaite, orthoclase, albite,  quartz and spodumene var. kunzite. The two cesium rich zones appear to be isolated anomalies.  I am fairly confident at this point that this this time to get these specimens if you can.  Laurent Thomas says he will bring his unsold stock from this show to Tucson but that all cuttable material will likely be headed for faceting or other forms of jewelry fabrication.

Clive Queit was set up in Hall A5 and had his usual array of fine African material.  Many specimens of amethyst and pieces from the Kuruman and Tsumeb areas of Namibia.  He had some very fine specimens of dioptase available which were too nice to pass up on and several small but nice specimens of inesite from Kuruman. 

Also sitting in Clive's booth area was Rocko Rosenblat.  You may recall that Rocko was gracious enough to wear an Oakland A's cap for a shot taken at the East Coast show last August.  The picture below reflects Rocko's true love for the Yankees... I liked the A's cap better...

The 2003 show marks the 40th anniversary of the Munich Show and this evening there was a large ceremony in Hall A6.  John Keilmann addressed the crowd.  There was considerable press coverage of the event as well.

More tomorrow!
 

2010
Tucson Show
San Francisco Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show
Munich Show

2011
Tucson Show
San Francisco Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show
Munich Show

2012
Tucson Show
West Coast Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show 
Munich Show

2013
Tucson Show
Sainte Marie Show
Crystal Days (Poland)
Munich Show