Updated November 12th, 2007

This page will carry the entire series of  updates for the 2007 Munich Show.

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Thanks for your interest!

 

Gratonite	November 12th Gratonite -   I met up with a part time German dealer who had one of the best hoards of gratonite from the Excelsior mine, Cerro de Pasco, Pasco dept., Peru I can ever recall seeing. This is the type locality for this lead arsenic sulfide. I can rarely resist picking up rare species like this so I bought the whole group of specimens. These were originally obtained in the 1940's by a German mining engineer working in Peru at the time and lay forgotten until the heirs cleaned out his closet recently and wanted to part with the "rubble".
Fluorite - China	November 12th Munich Show Minerals -  This is a group of about a dozen specimens found at the show - eveything from this to that and all are choice specimens.  Use the two button links to see them stratified by pricing.
Liddicoatite - Slice	November 12th Liddicoatite Slices from Madagascar -  French dealer Laurent Thomas had numerous slices of liddicoatite available.  However almost all were simple mono-color slices without the classic triangular pattern.  I selected two from his inventory.
Azurite	November 12th Azurite from Kerrouchen in Morocco - A great thing about a show like Munich is that many dealers from Morocco come with literally thousands of specimens from the various mines in that country.  The locals there descend into the old workings looking for specimens to sell and that is the only way new material makes it to the market.  The vast and I mean VAST majority of the material is poorly handled and suffers damage en route. However, if you put your time in you can find good specimens and I found four very good azurite specimens.
Adamite - China	November 12th Chinese Adamite - I ran into John White at the show and he made mention of a new find of adamite from China.  I located two Chinese dealers selling specimens from the new find in the Dachang Sn-polymetallic ore field, Nandan Co., Hechi Prefecture, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Chinas in Hall A4.  I picked up two specimens from Yang Yun Mineral Museum. They are quite reminiscent of the Ojuela mine material in terms of the gossanous matrix but the habit looks much like adamite from the Tintic mine in Utah.  The color is pale yellow.
Brazilianite	November 12th New Brazilianite - On a tip from Herb and Monica Obodda I went to see French dealer Cailloux Minerals.  Cailloux had a new find of brazilianite from Linopolis, Minas Gerais, Brazil available.  Specimens ranged in size from single crystals to large cabinet pieces. Also, eslewhere in Hall A5, Jose Villani Crystals from Brazil had a very large selection of fine brazilianite specimens available. I purchased specimens from Cailloux and Jose Villani Crystals for this Munich Show update.
Microlite - Mozambique	November 12th New Find - Microlite from Mozambique - French dealer Frederic Escaut has a new find of tin rich microlite from Macoa, Alto Ligonha, Mozambique. The crystals are lustrous and have a rich cinnamon reddish brown color. The largest crystal I saw was about 2 cm across and the majority were in the 1cm size.  I saw only a couple pieces on matrix and all would be considered thumbnail to small miniature size specimens. I purchased three specimens in the moderate price range including two on massive cassiterite matrix.
Olmiite - South Africa	November 12th New Species - Olmiite from South Africa - I met up with Dr. Bruce Cairncross and he mentioned that a new mineral had been described recently and it is sure to cause a lot of confusion in the hobby.  It is a new species called Olmiite. It was officially described this past April and is found at the N'Chwaning II mine in South Africa. What is confusing is that it is the manganese end member of the poldervaartite mineral and it looks exactly like just about every new poldervaartite specimen you have seen in the past few years.  That is because the poldervaartite in your collection is likely an olmiite or combination of both species.  South African dealer Kalahari Mineral Ventures had a group of analyzed specimens that are olmiite and I made a small selection.  Many are associated with celestite and/or bulfonteinite.
Quartz - Nepal	November 12th Chlorite included Quartz from Nepal - Nepalese dealer Hari Timsina had a large hoard of chlorite included quartz from Ganesh Himal, Nepal. I don't usually get worked up over things like quarty but these were quite different and attractive.  The crystals have varying amounts of chlorite inclusions and a wide range of habits. Most of the specimens had issues so it was a bit of a challenge to find pieces with no to minimal damage.
Sphene - Brazil	November 12th New Find - Sphene from Brazil - German dealer Gunnar Farber had these large thumbnail sized specimens from Sao Geraldo do Araguaia in Para, Brazil.  The exact locality is not known as these were brought out of the jungle by a local collector in Sao Geraldo who had found them in mud. No matrix at all - just floater crystals.
Torbernite - France	November 12th Torbernite - France - French dealer Jerome Adani had some very good specimens of torbernite from the Margabal Mine near Averyon, France.  The specimens are without matrix except for a few and consist of clusters of slightly curved crystals.
Zinkenite - France	November 12th Zinkenite - France - The guys from Webmineralshop.Com had the last of their zinkenite specimens collected in Saint Pons, Ubaye Valley, France several years ago. I picked out a few fine specimens for this update.