Welcome to the 2002 Sainte-Marie aux Mines Show!
 
 

 
June 28th

What a difference a day makes!  The weather has improved a great deal with temperatures in the 50s to 60s F.  A nice cool breeze and even a scattered light rain shower or two.   I was so much more joyous about the weather that I stopped at the col and snapped this picture of the countryside...

The view from Col Bagenelles looking west.

I went to the Theater first to see who was there and snapped a couple of candid pictures.

These two shots show the early morning sun filtering in through the windows inside the Theater.

Here's a shot of Jordi Fabre (against the wall) getting ready to open at "0-daylight-thirty"

In the International Mineral Tent I visited with Giovanni Signorelli - an Italian dealer and collector.  He had a new find of zinkenite from Sant Pons, Ubaye, France.  These are set on matrix of siderite crystals.

Here are two pictures - one of Giovanni and Carlo and one of the specimens of Zinkenite that they recently collected.

Elsewhere in the tent I encountered Colin Corser of South Africa who had some amethyst from Magliesberg Mountain Range northeast of Pretoria in South Africa.  With him was a collector I have had dealings with in the past - a young man from England named Liam Scofield.  It was a pleasure to meet him and say hello after having exchanged a number of emails over the past years.  Liam is a systematic collector and has a very sophisticated collection for a young man.  Quite impressive.  Back to the amethyst.  I usually am not roused by quartz of any kind but these new specimens have some very interesting features including color zones and diverse habits as a result of episodic mineralization.   I received an interesting note from Bruce Cairncross regarding this occurence:

These quartzes, and amethyst, have in the past few months appeared on the local market here in their thousands.    Its not a new discovery as everyone is trying to claim, but one that has been known for over 15 years. If you have a copy of our "Minerals of South Africa" book, take a look at page 179 and you'll see there's a photo of one of my specimens, that I bought in 1987. This was the first time they were offered for sale here - very good dark red-purple specimens with the typical "skirt" of smaller crystals. Then they disappeared from the market and have now recently resurfaced again. Not all are the good dark amethyst colour. In fact, I'd say that about less than 10% are, the rest are colourless to white. The exact locality of the crystals has been a 15-year enigma. The reported locality is the Magaliesberg, which is a ridge of Proterozoic quartzite / sandstone that outcrops about 35 km north of Johannesburg, but this has never been verified. I somehow suspect that they are coming from elsewhere, perhaps from veins in the Bushveld Complex granite that outcrop further to the north. Either way, they are definitely attractive specimens and are a highlight of our mineral scene here right now, which is otherwise in a relatively quite state (excluding the recent frenzy caused by the Kalahari poldervaartites).

Below is an average piece (also in desperate need of cleaning) from the lot I selected.  Most are much more interesting than this piece but the rest are buried in my packing already...

Amethyst from South Africa

As I mentioned earlier there are many vanadinite specimens at the show! The picture below is just the tip of the tip of the tip of the iceberg!  While there are an abundance of vanadinite specimens most are lost in the crowd of mediocrity.   There are a few nuggets that can be found - nuggets defined as coca cola red color and nicely contrasting matrix.   These are relatively few but they are here and with perseverance can be found.

Here's a small quantity of rather high grade
vanadinite in of the many Moroccan dealer's tents.

While taking a break on the steps of the Theater I had a great chance to snap a picture of Andy Seibel and Scott Werschky solving a few of the world's problems.  Andy is the one facing the camera.  It did not take long for him to see that I was up to no good and he quickly made an advance towards telling me to "Shut that thing off!".  Too late...

At this point I have had a chance to see just about everything here at the show now and have talked with many of the dealers to get a sense of what is new here.  The feeling I get is that the bulk of interesting new material is coming from China and Pakistan/Afghanistan.   Morocco is also producing some good pieces as more care is being exercised in the recovery of specimens.  The fluorite from China is getting better as are all of the other interesting minerals such as scheelite and beryls as examples.   The material from Afghanistan is really improving.  For many years people living there have more or less ignored rocks.  In recent years economic hardship, coupled with a realization that rocks can put some beans on the table, has resulted in many new finds of material coming to light.   So, though prices are higher this year, not all attributable to the decline in the dollar, there are some very good opportunities for choice material at reasonable prices.  However, you really gotta hunt them down.   Overall not as many new things as in recent years but still some interesting material none the less.

One last note on the weary subject of the Chinese Kermesites.  After having talked to many dealers here it is apparent that there are literally tons of kermesite specimens available in China.  The main deposit is, as it turns out, comprised mostly of massive kermesite with many pockets of crystals. Even the specimens seen here, though reasonable now, are likely going to seem high in the next couple of years.   I recall the sensation of the new cavansites when they were first introduced from India about 10-12 years ago and how high the prices were for them.   What cost $1000 in 1990 can be had at any mineral show for as little as $5.   Once the Chinese suppliers realize that the current price scheme for these is floating out there in the "reality-free zone" they will come down - A LOT!  Just as the cavansites did a short while after their initial release.  In summary, this new find of Kermesite has become the benchmark for a new era of the marketing of mineral specimens from new finds with a direct influence from the Internet.  There is never any way to know for sure what the future will hold when a new find comes to market but I believe that the collector's best interest is to learn as much as she or he can before plopping one nickel down on a specimen from a new find.  It is possible that a collector may miss the opportunity for a specimen from a new find but in most cases a little patience up front will save you money in the long run.

As the day progressed I decided to move on to the other aspects of this show which include educational displays and demonstrations.  I went to the Expo Quad and saw Alain Morala demonstrating the art of flint napping.  This is a very old technique developed by people from around the world.  But the essence is the same.  Take a rock and fashion it into a useful tool.  The tools used for napping are rocks and antlers. The finished products prepared by Alain were spear points, scrapers, hatchets and other useful tools similar to those used by our very distant ancestors.
 
 

This link will take you to a short mpg of Alain working the flints.

A very short distance from Alain was a demonstration on how to pan for gold.  I do this a lot in the back woods of northern California so it was a bit nostalgic for me to watch this display.
 
 

This fellow is demonstrating the technique  for gold panning.  He also explained the  physics behind it all.

More tomorrow!

John

 

Follow the links below to catch up on the latest from Sainte-Marie 2002

June 25th Report	June 26th Report	June 27th Report	June 28th Report	June 29th & 30th
Trinity Mineral Co	Rare Minerals	Mineral Books	Tsumeb	Mineral Shows.com

 

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