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

 


 
 
 
Show Report
2013 Munich Show Report
 

Munich Show 2013

I got to Munich on the 21st after a route that started in Sacramento then went to Chicago then to Dublin, Ireland and then to Munich.  That's what happens with last minute planning.  The weather here has been remarkably mild with bright blue skies and gorgeous fall colors.  Here's a few scenes that I have on my way to the show each day.

 


On the road to the UBahn station.


The long escalator ride down to the Theresienwiese station.


Waiting for the train.

 


Just one of millions of feathered "rats" that infest every major city in the world... Pigeons.

 


The transformation is about to begin in Hall A6...

 


And also in Hall A5.


As usual one of the very first guys to get his stuff out and on display is Jordi Fabre.

I went out to the Messe as I knew several people would be busy setting up.  I found Spirifer Minerals  just about completely set up and made several selections of some of the specimens available.  Tomasz and company have gone to great lengths to make numerous specimens available at affordable prices.  I recommend Spirifer very highly!  I found specimens of yellow apatite on feldspar from Anemzy, Imilchil, Morocco.  They are reminiscent of the apatite from Cerro de Mercado in Mexico in terms of color.  They also specimens of water clear celestite from Sakoany, Mahajanga Province, Madagascar.  This is not a new locality and it is far from exhausted but the celestite from this locality are the world's finest so I picked out a couple.  Next, were some lime colored apophyllite flowers on stilbite matrix from Rahuri, Maharashtra State, India.  Again, not a new locality but one that is now exhausted. Lastly I picked out a few more of the quartz crystals from Bou Oudi, Morocco.  These were first shown at the 2013 Sainte Marie show this past June. 


Tomasz Praskier of Spirifer Minerals. 


The had lots of fine specimens of celestite from Madagascar. 

 


A miniature that I obtained from Spirifer of the Malagasy celestite.

 


A 4 cm doubly terminated crystal of quartz with the amethyst phantoms.

 


A case of fine cobaltoan calcites from Morocco.


A fairly new find of canary yellow apatite also from Morocco  


A miniature that I obtained from Spirifer of the Moroccan apatite on feldspar.

 

Tomasz had some new cases built with special design features...See the next picture. 


Convenient storage for libations!

The Kristalle and Crystal Classics booth was also among the first to be set up.  Ian Bruce mentioned several new finds from Iran and Tanzania. The first is of fluorite from Ardestan, Esfahan Province, Iran. The color is bluish violet and the crystals are cubic with very slight etching.  Some are associated with Baryte. He also pointed out specimens of blue hemimorphite from the Qaleh-Zari mine, South Khorasan Province, Iran. These specimens are comprised of closely pack blue crystals.  The other new find is of alabandite crystals from Arusha, Tanzania - yes the same locality that produces tanzanite.  The crystals are octahedral and slightly lustrous.  What will they find next out of this deposit? Recall last Tucson the amazing reddish orange wurtzite specimens that came to the market. Ian had a few of them also.


8 cm specimen of the bluish violet fluorite from Iran. 


Bluish hemimorphite from Iran. 


 


Alabandite from Tanzania. 


A few wurtzites from Tanzania. 


No doubt that it is fall here in southern Germany.  A view between A6 and A5 halls. Look at that blue sky! 

Teodocio Ramos always seems to turn up something new for Munich.  I noted several flats immediately of new green crystals of what he had labeled as brochantite from the Lily Mine, Pisco Umay, ICA Dept., Peru.  The first thing I noted was that the crystal form was wrong for brochantite.  These were .  The second thing I noted was that there were at least two different species on some of these rocks.  The consensus was atacamite for the long bladed crystals and a visit to Jaroslav Hyrsyl gave the answer to the second mineral - clinoatacamite. These, according to Jaroslav, are the finest known crystals of clinoatacamite ever found.  Previously crystals to 1 mm or so were known from a locality in Spain. This new find has crystals up to 1/2 cm across! I wasted no time in gathering up all of the clinoatacamites Ramos had. Jaroslav has several specimens available also.  Both dealers also had specimens of atacamite with the typical elongated crystal habit. I also found one very stunning specimen of chrysocolla covered with drusy quartz.  I couldn't resist it.    


One of the largest known crystals of clinoatacamite (1 cm across) set among smaller crystals.

 


Exceptionally rich specimen of clinoatacamite 8.5 cm across.


Atacamite crystals on calcite.


9 cm exceptionally colored specimen of quartz over chrysocolla.

Paul Balayer contacted me prior to the show to let me know he would have some new material from the Skorpion mine in Namibia.  He sure did! A large array of new smithsonite, hemimorphite, scholzite, skorpionite and apatite ps skorpionites were available.  I tried to select a nice cross section of the specimens he had available and was quite pleased to have had a first whack at these.  The following a images from specimens I purchased from Paul.


A 5.5 cm specimen of royal blue hemimorphite.


Blue apatite pseudos after skorpionite.  


Nearly colorless specimen of smithsonite.

I spent a lot of time looking for interesting new Chinese material not from the Inner Mongolia region where everything seems to be coming from these days.  I found it in hall A6 - beautiful and delicate crystalline and stalactitic masses of chalcocite covered with a thin 1 mm layer of micro bornite crystals from the Daye Mine in Hubei Province, China.  They have incredible rich blue iridescent hues.  The one Chinese dealer that had them had about 20 of them in all and Tom Moore, of the Mineralogical Record, asked him how many of these were recovered.  He said less than 200 and all were sold via the network of Chinese dealers to other dealers. He was thrilled to have 20 of these.  I picked out four including his best pictured below.


A 5.5 cm specimen of chalcocite covered with bornite.


A 4 cm specimen of chalcocite covered with bornite.

You can never know what will turn up at shows like this and I was happy to come across a lot of rare minerals from Burma from Bill Larson - also known as "Burma Bill".  Bill offered me small lots of serendibibite, hibonite, baddelyite, and something I have never even heard of before - transluscent green thorite!  The last species of note are very well formed crystals of the rare mineral zirconolite - not to be confused with zircons.  These are rare as hen's teeth in good crystals!!! All from Burma!

German dealer Sigbert Zecha had a new find of beautifully colored selenite with halite from Bleicherode, Nordhausen, Thuringen, Germany.  The rich amber color of the selenite is quite appealing.   I picked up only one of these but Siggy had 25 or specimens available in all.


A remarkably transparent crystal fragment of thorite. I picked up several of these.


A remarkably transparent crystal fragment of thorite. I picked up several of these.


A .6 cm crystal of caramel colored hibonite.


A exceptional 1.5 cm crystal of the rare mineral zirconolite.


A 2 cm crystal of baddelyite.  It is doubly terminated.

There are still lots of great specimens coming out of the Haunggangliang Iron mine in Inner Mongolia, A.R., China.  I picked up two specimens of sphalerite from this deposit including this remarkable specimen with some of the most complex features I have ever seen in a sphalerite. 


A 5 cm complex crystal of sphalerite. 


Gerd Wiedenbeck (left) and Roger Lang waving a cheerful good-bye after a long day on Wednesday. 

This is the 50th anniversary of the Munich Show.   And the theme is, not surprisingly, gold.  I will spend tomorrow (Sunday) looking at the displays. But Friday night was the opening ceremony in the large tent near the show.  The Munich Show organizers put together a fabulous dinner event with live music, delicious food and of course beer!


Christophe Kielmann delivering opening remarks. 

 

 


Our happy table David and Audrey Lloyd, Wayne Leicht, Sabina Krug, Lois Nelson and Rob Selecki.  

This year the theme for the Munich Show was gold.  Quite appropriate since this is the Golden Anniversary (50th) of the show. There were some mind bending specimens of native gold on display.  The vast majority from localities in the United States - principally, California, Nevada and Colorado.  There were scores of other localities from around the globe represented too but the US specimens were by far the best overall.  Lots of museums and private collectors made their specimens available for this special display.  I could have taken several hundred photos but there are plenty of other people out there now posting pictures to the web of things like this so you wont have to look hard to find some. That said here are a few that I felt compelled to share here.

You can never know what will turn up at shows like this and I was happy to come across a lot of rare minerals from Burma from Bill Larson - also known as "Burma Bill". Bill offered me small lots of serendibibite, hibonite, baddelyite, and something I have never even heard of before - transluscent green thorite! The last species of note are very well formed crystals of the rare mineral zirconolite - not to be confused with zircons. These are rare as hen's teeth in good crystals!!! All from Burma!


An enormous nugget from Australia about 30 cm across!!


A very fine specimen of crystallized gold from Venezuela.


A Brazilian specimen on display from the Los Angeles County Museum.


Octahedral crystals from near Washington Camp, California.


Leaf gold from the Mother Lode in California.


Leaf gold with sharp crystals from the Mother Lode in California.

One of the finest specimen of crystallized gold from Hope's Nose in Britain.

Another smoker from Hope's Nose - a Spann Collection specimen.

A severely overexposed image of one of the finest gold specimens in existence - a large wire from Colorado and in the Harvard Collection.

So this will do it for the 2013 Munich Show.  I would like to publicly thank Christophe and Johannes Keilmann for the passes to the show.  I had a wonderful time meeting lots of people for the first time as well as renewing friendships with friends from around the world.  I am looking forward to the show again next year and expect to be back then.

I expect to have the specimens from this show on the web by Nov 5th.  I will send out a note to all on my mailing list when that update is ready.

Thanks for following the show with me this year.

Cheers,   John Veevaert