June 25th Report
June 26th Report
June 27th Report
June 28th Report
June 29th Report
Trinity Mineral Co
Rare Minerals
Benitoite Mine
Tsumeb
Mineral Shows.com

The Sainte-Marie aux Mines Show Specimens

 
 
                        June 28, 2003 
Today was a short day at the show for me.  It was also a bright sunny day and a lot cooler than in the previous days.  



I spent a lot of time picking up minerals I had reserved and chatting with folks about their impression of the show.  It was VERY crowded here today.  Nearly impossible to negotiate the crowds at anything other than a snail's pace.  This is, of course, great news for the dealers here who have mostly enjoyed a very good show.  Not too many frowning faces that I can see around here other than the dozens of US and Japanese dealers all scrambling to find some interesting specimens to take back home. Keep in mind that just three years ago I saw only 6 other US and maybe 1 or 2 dealers from Japan here.   That number has ballooned to well over 50!   This is billed as a wholesale show after all and it reflects the success that the show organizer Michel Schwab has created here.  Without question the ambiance of the area is as much of an attractant as are the minerals that are brought here.

Anyway, the first order of business is to obtain cash to pay the bills and that means a 5 minute walk from the show to the closest ATM machine found at the Credit Mutual.  I snapped a couple of pictures while I had someone hold my place in line of the street leading to the "Centreville" where the bank is located.  


You can see the bank in the photo on the right.  It is the pink colored  one. The tall
steeple is of the church which just about every village in this region has of similar design.

While moving slowly around I saw Scott Werschky and decided to see what his take on the show was this year.  He mentioned that he had made several contacts prior to the show for making selections of the new amazonite specimens from Ethiopia.  I was curious as I had seen several dealers with these around here at the show including Marcus Grossman so he led me to them.  Scott did quite well in my opinion with his connection here at Sainte-Marie as he had some enormous crystal groups to well over 30 cm across and a large number of cabinet pieces with exceptional color and crystal sharpness.  You can expect to see these on his and Alan Day's website - minerslunchbox.com - in the coming days. Scott explained how he will be able to clean these specimens so when he is done one of the large one's - pictured below - will be a real winner.


The specimen on the left is the 30+ cm monster.  Easily the best of any found anywhere here at the show or any website.
The specimens on the right are equally impressive with their bright blue color.  The coin on the left is a 2 Euro piece.


One of the people I visited early on was Ian Bruce of Crystal Classics.  Ian was dispersing the collection of Fred Bull.  I was happy to get an early look at this collection and am still stunned that I bought an expensive stibnite specimen from China out of it.  I have not seen a stibnite specimen to ring my bell until this one pictured below.  The luster is superb and the terminations flawless with exceptional mirror-like luster.



These images are of the 9+ cm tall specimen with several brilliant crystals of stibnite.


Elsewhere in the lot I selected an unimaginably rich specimen of an exceedingly rare mineral called schaurteite from Tsumeb.  Schaurteite is a hydrated sulfate of calcium and germanium.  I have not seen
any specimen offered before anywhere with this degree of richness... So I, gulp, bought it along with a number of other fine specimens from the collection.
 


This specimen of massive germanite has two very rich zones of schaurteite to about 1.5 cm across each.

Tomorrow will be the last day of the show so I will focus on more of the show ambiance and look for any other interesting minerals to post.  But before I close this day out there is something that you will likely be seeing in the near future.  Some clever people brought a new toy to the show and these things have been bought by just about everyone here including me.  They are EVERYWHERE in Sainte-Marie. They are highly polished, dense and very strong magnets.  When separated by a few centimeters and tossed into the air they immediately start to clang against each other for the duration of the "flight".   The noise sounds almost like a live electrical wire buzzing away.  Click the picture below to see a staged mpg production that was produced with the aid of Mark Wrigley... who also bought some. We shot this with the magnets buzzing away on a table surface.


One more day to go!



 


The Sainte-Marie Show Specials

Follow the links below to catch up on the latest from Sainte-Marie 2003


June 25th Report
June 26th Report
June 27th Report
June 28th Report
June 29th Report
Trinity Mineral Co
Rare Minerals
Benitoite Mine
Tsumeb
Mineral Shows.com

Also see the reports of the show prepared by Mark Wrigley and Kiyoshi Kiikuni


 
The 2000 Sainte-Marie aux Mines Show Report

The 2001 Sainte-Marie aux Mines Show Report

The 2002 Sainte-Marie aux Mines Show Report

The Official Sainte-Marie aux Mines Show Website

All images, text and stuff on these pages copyright John Veevaert -Trinity Mineral Company 2003
The material on these pages may not be used without permission.