Report 1   Report 2   Report 3  Report 4


 

Updated November 13th, 2008

This page will carry the entire series of  updates for the 2008 Munich Show.

Preset buttons for quick access to What's New

Click any of the preset buttons below.  You'll then be presented with a page of specimens to consider.

Thanks for your interest!


 




Botallackite
November 13th
Bottalackite from England -  Two British dealers, Ralph Sutcliffe and Simon Hidred, had some nice specimens of botallackite from Cligga Head, Perranzabuloe, St. Agnes, Cornwall, England. These were found in April of 2007 and are the best of the species anyone has seen in a long time.  This small deposit was completely worked out this past year so the supply of specimens are dwindling.



Spessartine
November 13th
Spessartine from Tanzania -  Sometimes all you have to do is wait a little.  These spessartines first hit the market at the 2008 Tucson Show and the prices being asked were astounding.  Jentsch minerals had a large supply of these at fractions of what was asked for them at all shows previous to this one.  Hence, the time had come for me to finally get a few.   This is probably the basement pricing level for these and it is likely, from what I have heard from people who've been to the locality, that there will be specimens available for some time to come.




Liddicoatite Slices
November 13th
Liddicoatite Slices from Madagascar -  Laurent Thomas had the finest display of liddicoatite slices anyone has seen in a very longtime at the Munich Show.  These are next to impossible to legally export out of Madagascar in commercial quantities so when he unveiled them there was a bit of a rush with many people lining up to secure pieces.  I don't usually go for things like this but these are absolutely stunning to look at and no two are ever the same.  Laurent deomnstrated that by showing me several slices from the same crystal that looked like apples and oranges.  He also explained that creating slices is a work of art. The color zones in these crystals can be very dark or very light.  Cut them too thin and the colors are blanched out.  Cut them too thick and you have a slab of what looks like schorl.  Another reason so many fine slices were available was due to the large number of stream rolled (cobbles) specimens of liddicoatite found in a new rice field.  While clearing the field the farmers quickly realized that a lot of the bothersome rocks were actually liddicoatite crystals that had eroded out eons ago and then transported and tumbled by moving water to the flat lying areas where the fields were being put in. Laurent was made aware of this and arranged to get as many as he could to slice up. Hence, most of the slices he had were from the Rice Field locality.  I made a selection of 21 specimens of natures stained glass windows for this update.



Siderite
November 13th
NEW FIND - Siderite on Chalcopyrite from Peru -  Peruvian dealer Teodocio Ramos Cabrera  was set up with a new find of blocky siderite crystals on chalcopyrite.  These come from the Paloma mine in Huancavelica, Peru.  The blocky rhombic crystals are a uniform brownish green in color. A few of the specimens he had also had beautiful irridescent luster on the chalcopyrite.


Blue Apatite on Muscovite

Torbernite
November 13th
Specimens from the Munich Show -   This is an assortment of minerals found at the Munich Show.  I also included two specimens of hubnerite & quartz from the new find in Peru in this group.



Wulfenite
November 13th
NEW FIND - Wulfenite from Iran -  The Gobin's as usual had some very interesting specimens from a new find.  This time it was a slew of specimens from Iran.  This is a place that is essentially impossible for American dealers to get into and now that Christophe and Brice have moved permanently to Dubai they are centrally located to get specimens from the middle east region. They had numerous specimens of wulfenite and cerussite along with a few other species from Iran.  Back in 2000 there were a large group of Iranian cerussite and minor wulfenite specimens made available by Mikon minerals at the Munich show from the Nakhlak mine but there hasn't been anything of note until this hoard brought out by the Gobins.  Interestingly the wulfenite specimens - all from the Ahmad Abad mine in Yadz - is found with several habits including: thin wafer intergrown crystals, blocky crystals, hoppered crystals and serrated edge crystals.    They also had two linarite/brochantite specimens from the Galeh Zaki mine in Khoran. 


Apatite
November 13th
Apatite from Panasqueira -  Luis Burillo had a few things of interest.  A new find of hubnerite on quartz from the Mundo mine, Huamachuco, La Libertad, Peru.  The crystals are dark black and brilliantly lustrous. Quite striking in contrast to the quartz crystals. He also had specimens from Panasqueira, Portugal - a few dozen specimens of apatite and other accessory minerals found at the mine such as arsenopyrite and wolframite. Since the show was a little slow for new finds I decided to round up a few pieces for an update.


Olmiite
November 13th
Olmiite from South Africa -  I had seen Bruce Cairncross earlier (For those of you who don't know of Bruce, he is one of the more knowledgeable people on mineral in general and southern African minerals in particular. He is a pleasure to talk to and very approachable.  I encourage you to try and obtain several books he's been involved including the Minerals of South Africa and two books with numerous images from the famous Desmond Sacco collection.) and he made mention of new olmiite specimens from the N'Chwaning II mine.  He was assisting Paul Balayer of Kalahari Mineral Venture with his stand. Recall last year that the mineral was first introduced at the Munich Show as pale beige colored crystalline masses.  Well this year the specimens were stunning.  Rich salmon red colored masses and rich beige colored masses - both with brilliant luster - were available.  The salmon colored specimens were quite pricey as you would expect and they got snapped up quickly by Bryan Lees in particular. But I did obtain several nice groupings for the update.  Several of the specimens were associated with snow white, acicular crystals of xonotlite.  Subsequent research on the polvervaartite/olmiite question indicates that just about all poldervaartite is in fact olmiite. 


Calcite & Stibnite
November 13th
Stibnite & Calcite from China -  Several Chinese dealers had these specimens of calcite with stibnite available but at least 90% of them were just hammered.  I managed to find 7 that had either minimal or no damage. It felt a lot like the proverbial needle in a haystack experience.


Hematite ps Magnetite
November 13th
Hematite ps Magnetite -  As is customary with every Munich Show I have ever been to Spanish dealer Jordi Fabre was the first one set up.  He is handling the Silvane collection - a collector from Barcelona.  All sorts of interesting items in this collection. Jordi also has some outstanding examples of the hematite pseudomorphs after magnetite from Argentina.  Forever these have been reported as coming from Patagonia, Argentina.  Patagonia is a pretty big place.  The new accurate locality (Jordi is meticulous on getting localities correct) is Payun Matru Volcano, Malargue, Mendoza, Argentina.  Jordi provided some detail on the geologic origin of these unique specimens.  They are found in tuffaceous rock.  Tuff is a form of volcanic ash.  Some of the specimens Jordi has have secondary hematite crystals on the surface of the pseudomorphs providing specimens with exceptional luster.


Brookite from Madagascar
November 13th
Brookite from Madagascar -  French dealer and good friend Laurent Thomas of Polychrome had some stunning specimens of loose brookite crystals available from Fitampito, Ikalamarony, Fianarantsoa, Madagascar.  These are different from the Pakistan specimens in that they are blockier and one even had a small euhedral anatase crystal set on it.  How in the world do you get two minerals with the exact same chemical formula to form together???

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)
Munich Show  

 

 
Join the mailing list for Trinity Mineral Co. and MineralShows .Com

Subscribe | Unsubscribe


All text, specimen images, graphics & site desgin copyright 1998-2014 - John Veevaert  - trinityminerals.com