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January 29-30

It is great to be back here in Tucson.  This time of year most of us travel from places that are cold, wet, dreary, snowy or all of the above.  Here the weather is dry and very mild.  Bright blue skies, balmy temperatures and no clouds to speak of.  It is pretty easy to call Tucson home for one month out of the year.  The fact that this place is starting to fill up with rocks makes it darn near a paradise.  

An interesting note to mention here is the current state of currency exchanges.  Everyone expects to see people from Europe here in better numbers than in recent years as the Euro is at a record high rate of exchange vs the US Dollar. Currently it takes 1.08 US Dollars to get 1 Euro.  In contrast just 12 months ago it took 1.12 Euros to get 1 US Dollar.  It should be interesting to see if people take advantage of the current exchange rate or if they decide to stay away due to the rampant talk of war with Iraq coming out of our nation's capital.  Best to leave that door closed and hope that the grown adult people involved in this mess act like grown adult people.

I arrived here the morning of the 29th and checked into my apartment in the Starr Pass area in west Tucson.  Dan Weinrich told me about this place and now I owe him a steak dinner for the recommendation.  It is quite nice and only about 10 minutes away from the principal hotel shows.  An interesting side note here is the number of javalinas that are all over the apartment compound.  Javalinas, though similar in appearance to pigs, are a separate species.  These critters are bold and not above poking into an apartment if the door is left open in search of left over pizza, grapefruit peels, or just about anything that has caloric value.  I bet a toe might taste pretty good to them if given the chance...


Here's a photo of a javalina provided by Bill and Jaye Lawrence (Rocksmith's).

Ok, on to the rocks!

Just prior to my departure for Tucson (January 23rd) I was contacted by Dudley Blauwet of Mountain Minerals regarding some specimens of a new find from (where else?) Afghanistan.  Dudley had these analyzed by Frank Hawthorne who believes that they will eventually be recognized as a new species.  For the time being they are being referred to as a potassium-fluorine rich richterite or K-F Richterite.  Regardless, it is an amphibole and the fact that these are gem crystals makes the new find extraordinary!  Presently, the majority of the new find is being cut as a new gemstone...   Most of the find is just shards with actual crystals being somewhat rare.  Interestingly, the crystals, besides being lustrous and terminated, are also quite reactive under SW UV light having a yellow fluorescence.  I was fortunate to obtain the entire lot of specimen crystals from Dudley.


The crystal on the left is 1.6 x 1.2 x 0.4 cm and the crystal on the right is 1.4 x 0.7 x 0.3 cm.

Also, on my way down to Tucson, I stopped and visited with a collector who has requested to remain nameless for obvious reasons. He recently obtained some fine specimens of crystallized and leaf gold from the Round Mountain Mine in Nye County, Nevada.  These were collected at the mine about 4-5 weeks ago!  This mine is producing some incredible amounts of gold and some of it is quite extraordinary in terms of its appearance.  I have maintained that the State of Nevada should consider changing its name from the "Silver State" to the "Golden State" as it has long ago surpassed California in the total amount of gold produced a few times over!  I obtained several miniatures and a number of fine thumbnail specimens - all either crystallized or leaf gold.  Of particular interest are the specimens with cubic crystals! There are also several spinel law twins and numerous specimens with trigonal faces on the leaf surfaces. This stuff is gooey! Below are a couple of examples from this new material.



The leaf specimen on the right is 4.7 cm across and the dendritic specimen on the left is 1.8 cm in length.


I have had a chance to see only a small portion of the material that is here - only at the Inn Suites and Executive Inn as it is still quite early and most dealers won't be open until the 1st of February.  But, the good news is that there are some new minerals here!! Whoohoo!  

One of the more striking are the new mimetite specimens from China.  These, at first glance looked a lot like the mimetite from Hat Yai in Thailand however the matrix was a bit different.   These come from Gui Lin, GuangXi Province, China. Larry Lan of Dai's Rock Shop from GuangXi Province had these specimens though a few others have them also.  Larry had the most of any dealer I have seen thus far and the majority were in not too good a shape with missing or damaged crystals.  I picked out 15 or so that were ding free and boxed them up.  No telling yet as to the future availability of these but my guess is that for the next few years they will be around much as the mimetites were from Thailand.  The Thai mimetites are now gone more or less and limited to recycled collections for the most part.   I spoke with Marcus Origlieri, a graduate student here in Tucson, who has analyzed these.  He confirmed that they are mimetite and not pyromorphite as some folks were speculating.  



These are two specimens showing the typical habit for these.  The crystals on the specimen
on the left are about 0.5 cm in length while those on the right are close to 1 cm in length.


In the past couple weeks word has been circling around about a new find of millerite at the Meikle mine in Elko County, Nevada.  Sure enough a couple dealers have them here - Casey Jones of Geoprime Minerals and Scott Kleine of Great Basin Minerals.  I picked up a small group from Scott.  These are a one time find from the 41-20 Heading of the Griffin Ore Body at the Meikle Mine.  You may recall that the Meikle is most famous for the stunning golden barites it has produced in the recent past.  These are limited and will not be around for any length of time at all.



This is a typical specimen from the lot I picked up from Scott.  The spray is 1.4 cm across.  It sets on arsenian rich pyrite and grayish colored violarite.




Scott also had this acquisition of Aurichalcite from the Copper Queen Mine at Bisbee!  These are large specimens - a
couple  over 30 cm across.  These were not yet for sale as Scott has some prep work to do on them.

The next person, who is always full of surprises in terms of new minerals, is Luiz Menezez.  Last October in Munich Luiz had some great specimens of Kosnarite.  He had several new specimens of the same mineral that were even better for this show!  What caught my eye though were specimens from two new finds:  crystalline and reticulated rutile inter bedded with hematite from Itamarandiba, Minas Gerais and some fine pseudomorphs of fibrous rutile after anatase from Presidente Kubitschek also in Minas Gerais.



This specimen has deep reddish colored crystals of rutile aligned in a reticulated fashion on plate-like hematite. It is 6.3 cm across.




This is a TN sized specimen of rutile after anatase.  Associated with quartz.  The
 rutile is fibrous in habit but the shape of the former anatase is unmistakable.


Here's a shot from one of the balconies at the Inn Suites on the evening of the 30th.


Lots more to come!

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

2016
Tucson Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show 
Munich Show

2017
Tucson Show
Munich Show

2018
Tucson Show

 
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