John Veevaert    PO BOX 2182   Weaverville, California  96093  USA  (888) 689-8402

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Munich Show 2011 This year I had planned to have regular updates during the show but I decided this year instead to take advantage of the many people I have come to know through this business and spend time with them in the evenings instead of pounding on a keyboard.  I ended up getting the same amount of sleep but Munich 2011 will be with me for some time to come unlike previous shows.   So, I have opted to have one report on the minerals and show, one on the displays that were here (they were incredible) and one offering up some faces and places while I was here in Munich... On the last leg of the trip here - somewhere between Frankfurt to Munich. A late night view of St. Paul's Cathedral about 0.5 km from my hotel around 1:00 am...  I spent day one more or less in recovery from jet lag.  California is 9 hours behind Munich so your entire bio-rythym is messed up.  All of that day was spent hanging out downtown with Jesse Fisher, Dan & Diana Weinrich and then later having dinner with Jesse, Terry and Marie Huizing and John White.  It was a gorgeous day with bright sun and blue skies.   Set up day in Hall A6. Additional shot of set up day in A6. Jordi Fabre has to be one of the first dealers to be set up and ready for action.  This year was no different as he was fully open for business as soon as I got there Wednesday morning. He had several new things to show me.  One was some of the new material coming out of Inner Mongolia in China (more on this later) and also a limited find of fluorite with an odd compressed habit from a locality in Asturias.  Apparently a home owner was doing some bull dozer work and he encountered a small pocket was gemmy fluorite crystals of faint lilac to violet color.  Most interesting about these though are the tabular habit they have of cubes modified with dodecahedral faces.  I did not select any for an update as I thought the prices were a bit steep but they are interesting regardless. A 1.5 cm crystal of the new fluorite.  180 Euros =  $250 fyi.  I did pick out two specimens, however, of chrysocola pseudomorphing boleite.  There is some speculation, according to Jordi, that some of these might be pseudomorphs of cumengite. A 2.5 cm specimen of chrysocola after boleite from Mexico  German dealer Wolfgang Wendell has one of the most inviting booths at the Munich Show.  He has a bar set up in the middle and it is site of frequent encounters as people come there to relax, have a glass of wine and look for minerals.  One thing I noticed were the fine new Autunite specimens he had from Steinbruch Heilmann in Saxony, Germany.  I did not obtain any of these as going through customs with radioactive minerals can be an exhilarating experience.  Wendell will be at the Westward Look show in Tucson so if you can get there it is worth it to see him and his exquisite array of mineral specimens.   A 7.5 cm specimen hosting crystals of autunite.   A 15 cm specimen with autunite crystals.  Last year one of the big sensations was the new alabandite specimens from Peru.  Teodocio Ramos was behind most of these so I made an effort to see his soon after getting there. Also, a tip from Bruce Cairncross suggested that it might be worthwhile to see some of the new specimens of bright pink clinozoisite that he had from the Angelina Three mine in Pisco, Peru. The crystals are all small rarely exceeding more than 3 mm but the pink color is so atypical of clinozoisite that I decided to "load up" on some specimens.  The color ranges from a burnt pinkish orange to the rich lilac color you see below. Associations are either calcite or quartz.  The specimens on quartz tend to be the brighter colored pieces.    4 cm vug filled with small clinozoisite crystals.  Just outside the halls the show personel were setting up several large life sized dinosaur models.  I was setting outside with John White and Mark Mauthner when suddenly the pieces to these plastic beasts were being assembled.  John White had a hard time suppressing the kid in him... The business end a T-Rex being moved to its display position. John White with a teen aged expression on his face. Day two and most dealers are set up for business. While wandering the show I saw Steve Ulatowski of New Era Gems.  Steve is based out of Grass Valley California about 2.5 hours from where I live.  He has a the largest quantity of tanzanite of anyone I know.  But what I decided on was a green update of green things from Meralani, Tanzania.  He had a relatively new find of green kyanite and also some of the better know tremolite, diopside and tsavorite. I picked out a small hoard and will post them soon after getting back to Trinity County.  A 3 cm crystal of lime green diopside. A 3.5 cm crystal of pale green kyanite.   A very dark lime green crystal of tremolite. While enjoying a glass of Helles Bier at the local stand I was approached by Pierre Clavel.  He mentioned that he might have some items of possible interest so I said let's go.  He's been actively working with field collectors in Morocco and he had some interesting specimens of safflorite on cobaltoan calcite from Bou Azzer and some very odd looking prehnite from Imilchil, Mecknes.  Safflorite is an arsenide of iron and cobalt and somewhat rare.  The combination on the cobaltoan calcite is quite appealing.  The prehnite consists of groupings of long thing lath shaped crystals grouped in a radial habit.  A 7 cm specimen of pale Co-calcite with abundant safflorite crystal groups. A 7.5 cm specimen of pale yellow prehnite. Probably one of the more exciting new things here are pseudomorphs of shattuckite, plancheite and dioptase after calcite from the Tantara Copper deposit in Shinkalobwe,  Katanga, DR Congo.  This locality is known for producing a lot of dioptase but what was intriguing were the pseudomorphs.  Before the show I was contacted by Belgian collector Valere Berlage about this new find. They were first seen this past summer and Valere recognized them as something significant immediately.  He consulted an earlier issue of the Mineralogical Record which identified the blue mineral as plancheite.  Interestingly a couple dozen specimens made their way down to South Africa where Kalahari Classics and Paul Balayer managed to get some.  Their analysis showed the blue mineral to be shattuckite.  Ok, so apparently there is a mix of minerals comprising the pseudomorphs as many specimens I saw also had dioptase and malachite comprising portions of the pseuodmorphs.  It is quite likely that plancheite and shattuckite are part of the pseudomorphic mix here. The former calcite habit was scalenohedral and in all cases that form was preserved in the pseudomorphs. I managed to obtain a half dozen of these specimens which are not likely more than 60-70 total from this limited and small find. A portion of a 7 cm specimen I obtained with pseudos comprised of shattuckite and dioptase of calcite. A 15 cm specimen of Valere with large single and cluster groups of pseudomorphs presumed to be comprised of plancheite. The dioptase is secondary. Based on discussions with several dealers there is growing excitement about the new specimens coming from Haunggangliang Iron mine in Inner Mongolia, A.R., China.  This deposit has a strikingly similar mineralogy to that of Dal'Negorsk in Russia.  Ilvaite, hedenbergite, pyrrhotite, galena, chalcopyrite, arsenopyrite, rhodonite, andradite, pink fluorite, and much more are finding their way to shows.  The pink fluorite is spectacular but at 7,000 euros a pop for an average piece I was not interested.  Numerous Chinese dealers had specimens as did French Dealer Rene Daulon.  Last year ilvaite specimens were available but this year all sorts of things were here to be had.  The following are images of specimens from this find. An 8 cm specimen of crystallized pyrrhotite. A 9 cm specimen of hedenbergite crystals with arsenopyrite crystals.  An 8 cm specimen with crystals of deep reddish brown andradite. It is not an underestimation to say that this is likely to become a significant new source of spectacular minerals as the deposit continues to be developed. Whenever I come to Munich I look for specimens which are more easily found here than back home and Munich is the best place I know of to look for minerals from Panasqueira.  As usual Luis Miguel Burillo had a number of very fine specimens but this year I found Espadarte from Portugal with many fine specimens available.  I plan to have a large update of this material when I get back home in a couple of days. An 10 cm specimen of muscovite hosting lavender colored crystals of apatite.  Several years French dealer Frederic Escaut had specimens of red, tin bearing microlite from Alto Ligonha, Mozambique.  I was quite surprised to find a very small group of these specimens available with French dealer Leon Perichon. I was not the first person to find these as perhaps 30% of the specimens he had were already sold but I did manage to get five pieces that I will post when I get home. A 3 cm specimen with crystals of microlite to 1.5 cm across.   Polish dealer Tomasz Praskier has joined forces with Reno, Nevada dealer Scott Werschky to have a booth a Munich. Socializing with this group can result in many undesirable outcomes such as losing things because of the seemingly endless supply of Polish vodka ever present but Tomasz has great ambition to procure minerals for his business.  He is well established in Morocco and he and Scott both had many fine specimens at very affordable prices!  Scott and Tomasz also publish the Mineral Newspaper to which I was pleased to author an original article on Benitoite.  You can see this online here (it takes a while to download but it is the same thing as the printed copy) or pick up a printed copy if you're going to Tucson or Denver next year.  I found several nice specimens of erythrite and also a new find of dark, titanium bearing andradite.   I will have to post the correct locality for the andradite when I get home as it is deeply packed away at the moment in my luggage. Lastly, he had some nice specimens of gersdorffite, as did German dealer Sigbert Zeccha, from Bou Azzer. Keep an eye of Spiriferminerals.Com for excellent quality at very affordable prices. Large crystals of erythrite to 3 cm comprise this specimen. 3.5 cm specimen with dark black crystals that have light green demantoid like over growths. 4 cm specimen with octahedral crystals of gersdorfite to 1.5 cm across.  Ok then, the general concensus was that this was a very slow show for new finds.  Pricing for minerals, like any show is all over the place and if you're willing to put some time in you can find interesting material that won't deprive you of a decent retirement but it does require some leg work. As always, the Munich Show is run with precision and attention to detail.  In terms of a singular mineral event it is unparalleled.   I would like to publically thank the Keilmann's for their generosity and dedication to making this a substantial world class mineral event.  I will without question be here again unless I fall off another ladder.  Don't ask!! While working on this report the bells at St. Paul's Cathedral started to ring.  Today is October 31, 2011 and tomorrow, November 1 is considered a national holiday.   I expect to get the minerals I obtained here posted somewhere around Nov 14th or so.  Colleen and I have a 1000 things to do before winter arrives back home and I can't stop the rain. I will send out a note when the update is ready so be sure to sign up on the mailing list form below here. Until, 2012. Cheers!  John Past Shows & Reports PLEASE NOTE: The minerals that were offered on these pages are all sold 1999 Munich Show 2000 Sainte Marie Show Munich Show 2001 Sainte Marie Show Munich Show 2002 Tucson Show Sainte Marie Show Denver Show Munich Show 2003 Tucson Show Sainte Marie Show East Coast Show Denver Show Munich Show 2004 Tucson Show West Coast Show East Coast Show Denver Show Munich Show 2005 Tucson Show West Coast Show East Coast Show Denver Show Munich Show 2006 Tucson Show Bologna Show Sainte Marie Show East Coast Show Munich Show 2007 Tucson Show Dallas Show East Coast Show Denver Show Munich Show 2008 Tucson Show West Coast Show East Coast Show Denver Show Munich Show 2009 Tucson Show West Coast Show East Coast Show Denver Show Munich Show 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       Join the mailing list for Trinity Mineral Co. and MineralShows .Com Subscribe | Unsubscribe All text, specimen images, graphics & site desgin copyright 1998-2014 - John Veevaert  - trinityminerals.com