John Veevaert    6152 Mia Vista Dr. Reno, Nevada USA  (888) 689-8402

 


 
 
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Show Reports
Report 1            Report 2
2015 Munich Gem & Mineral Show

The theme this year for the special displays was Gemstones and Gem Crystals.  You know what that means... lots of eye candy.

St. Paul's Cathedral near Theriesenwise Park

 

The fall colors of Munich are just stunning .

The Glockenspiel at night on Marien Platz in downtown Munich.

 

Our U-Bahn station near our hotel - the Theriesienwise station.

 

Just outside the Messestadt Ost U-Bahn station and short walk to the show.

 

The last day of the show and the place was very busy!

 

Jordi Fabre had a nice array of specimens of phucalite from a new find made at the Senhora de Assuncao mine, Viseu, Portugal.  They are associated with autunite.  They are a brilliant yellow color and, though the crystals are small, quite attrractive.  I opted to not obtain any of these simply because of issues related to carrying radioactive minerals and over zealous customs agents.

Several of the phurcalite specimens available from Jordi.

 

Kalahari Classics had a new find of churchite-Y specimens from the Skorpion mine in Namibia.  They crystals are acicular and occur as hemispheres to .75 cm across.  This find has produced some very large crystals groups of this fairly rare yttrium bearing mineral.  

Two pictures of the same specimen of churchite-y.

Luis Miguel Burillo had his usual spread of fine minerals which are meticulously prepped.  What I found in his booth this time were some of the finest hutchinsonite crystals from the Quiruvilca mine I have ever seen in terms of luster. Hutchinsonite is one of the few minerals found in nature to contain the element thallium. Thallium is also quite poisonous so care should be excersized when handling these specimens. The three specimens I obtained from him have b rilliantly lustrous, prismatic crystals associated with orpiment ad pyrite. One of the specimens, featured below, has small enargite crystals with a secondary coating of deep blue covellite. I love these sorts of minerals!

Lustrous crystals of hutchinsonite associated with orpiment and enargite.

 

I had heard from Tomek Prazskier of Spirifer Minerals that the blue barytes from Jebel Ouichane, Nador, Morocco are at an end as the deposit has been exhausted so I made it a priority to pick up as many of these of good quality as I could.  I also heard of a new find of Moroccan pyromorphite from the Moulay Bouazza area, Meknes-Tafilalet Region in Morocco.  It is not even a mine yet - just a digging found by some locals. This is the first good promorphite find from Morocco I have ever heard of.  The crystals have good chartreuse color and are set on gossanous matrix.  Again, the Moroccan dealers were the best source of these though some other dealers had them.  Other items of interest from Morocco were some new gersdorffite from Aït Ahmane, Bou Azzer District, Morocco. The luster on these recently collected specimens is exceptional! The last item to report on is a new find of djurleite also from Aït Ahmane, Bou Azzer District.  Tomeck had just a small handful.  He had them analyzed and they are found to be djurleite.  Djurleite is a sulfide of copper with a huge molecule - Cu31S16. The crystals are encased in calcite and only by etching the calcite away can the crystals be seen.  There are only a handful of these specimens that have been found to date.

An example of the new pyromorphite crystals from Moulay Mouazza area, Meknes-Tafilalet, Morocco.

 

One of several gersdorffite specimens I obtained with sharp and lustrous crystals.

 

Two of the blue baryte specimens from Morocco that I picked up. 

 

Two images of the same djurleite specimen.  The crystals are over 1 cm across.

 

German dealer Christian Rewitzer was offering a very large collection of German fluorites.  I was happy to be there when they were being put out as I grabbed a lot of them as many are quite colorful.  These come from various districts in Bavaria for the most part. Below are two the many I purchased from Christian.

Both of these specimens come from the Marienschcht, Wolsendorf, Bavaria, Germany.

I always make it a point to visit with Werner Radl as he has a good source of material from Tanzania.  This time I picked out several very good specimens of chrome tremolite.  These all have rich lime green color and all are fully terminated.

A fully terminated 4.2 cm crystal of chrome tremolite.

 

Time for a sausgae, cheese and wine break thanks to Spanish mineral photographer extraordinaire Joaquim Callen.

 

German dealer Gerd Wiedenbeck was the show case for some new fluorite specimens coming out of Weardale.  The locality is known as the Greenlaws mine located in Daddry Shield, Weardale, England. The dominant color is violet but there are many with interesting hues.  As is typical of much of the fluorite from this region interpenetratiop twins are common.  Most of the specimens I saw have a lot of inclusions that are commonly referred to as "oatmeal".  But there were a few that I saw with great clarity and luster.

One of the better speicmens I saw in terms of clarity from the new find.

 

California gemstone dealer Steve Ulatowski of New Era Gems had his usual array of great stuff from Tanzania.  But what caught my eye were his small hoard of imperial topaz crystals from Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil. All fully terminated and with good color.  I bought the lot of nine pieces.

 

Two of the nine crystals.  Note the crystal on the right has violet hues - very rare color from Ouro Preto.

 

South African dealer Paul Balayer is always worth a visit.  He had some remaining specimens from the Skorpion mine - more or less the same material as last year. I found two specimens of smithsonite.  He also had some newly collected specimens of hematite from the N'Chwaning II mine.  These are blocky crystals with great luster.  He was also handling several specimens from Desmond Sacco of Tsumeb.  I picked out several including a very fine specimen of calcite covered with crystals of minrecordite and dioptase. 

Dioptase and minrecordite on calcite from Tsumeb.

Hematite and calcite from the N'Chwaning II mine.

 

Cuprian smithsonite from the Skorpion mine.

 

There was little in the way of new finds to talk about this year but I did find some rather interesting specimens that comprise the mixed mineral part of the update.  Below are just a few and by no means close to all that will be available in the next few days.

 

A stunning specimen of pyrite (with diploid crystals) on Enargite from Butte, Montana.

 

Cuprian smithsonite from Tsumeb with rare mammilary form habit.  It comes with a Wendel Minerals label.

 

Proustite from the Frieberg District, Saxony, Germany.

 

 

Azurite & Malachite from Concepcion del Oro, Zacatecas, Mexico.

 

 

Bixbyite and ettringite from N'Chwanning II mine in South Africa.

 

I will have another report on the displays at the show along with a few people shots. 

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)
East Coast Show
Munich Show

2014
Tucson Show
Denver Show 

Munich Show

2015
Tucson Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show 
Munich Show

 
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