Mineral Shows - Trinity Mineral Co

After having breakfast I headed on over to meet up with the goings on at the show. Parking this year is tough as if you don't arrive early you're destined to hoof it.... I ended up having to hoof it today.

Before I go on let me convey to you that I am using my laptop here and my monitor is an active matrix screen. Much different than a cathode ray tube monitor. I am doing my best to convey accurate colors based on what I see on my screen but invariably the colors are not true for all pictures as the lighting - especially indoors - is hard to control.

I went straight to the Theater to see what the lay of the land looked like. The Theater is where the best dealers are found. Most typically, the best specimens at the show can be found here as well. I took several shots from different vantage points in the room to gain a sense of where everything was. Also, almost all of the lighting used in this building are halogen lights. With the pre-existing high temperature and humidity already bearing down on you this was akin to Dante peering into the Inferno in the Divine Comedy.

Here is a view of Michel Schwab. He is the organizer of this show and for the days leading
up to, during and after the show he will be getting maybe 2 hours of sleep every night...

At just above the floor level

From the balcony.

In the lobby are found additional retailers and various magazines.

I arrived at the show and met up with Christophe and Brice Gobin. They have found some exceptionally good specimens of cobaltoan Calcite from Morocco. These are not new to the mineral world as they were first brought on to the mineral scene at the 2002 Denver Show. The color is electric pink and many have attractive associations with pyrite. They also had a very odd form of cobaltoan calcite with reddish pink crystals and a later phase of colorless mineralization that produced white tipped crystals. I secured a large lot of these and will of course post them when I get home back to Weaverville. These are really very attractive and the Gobin's had the best pieces of any dealer here at the show. There are a number of other Moroccan dealers with specimens of this find but by far the Gobin's selection is the finest available here at the show.

Above are four pictures of the typical forms of cobaltoan calcite from the new material brought to the show by the Gobin's.
In the center are close up pictures of the unusual white tipped crystals of the calcite. These were only available through
Chris and Brice Gobin.

The Gobin's also had some very fine specimens of reticulated cerussite from a new find in Taouzz, Morocco. I did not select any but did snap a few pictures. They are somewhat expensive owing to small number found at the mine according to Christophe but are, in my opinion, the best to come from anywhere since Tsumeb. If you are interested in some of these let me know before they get snapped up! Keep in mind prices are in Euros and not US Dollars (1.17:1).

Several of the new, very fine small miniature and thumbnail reticulated (snow-flake) specimens of cerussite.

Another mineral causing a buzz here from recent finds in Brazil are some fine etched spessartine garnets from Lavra Navigador in Minas Gerias, Brazil. These are not new to the mineral world but the quality is exceptional. I obtained a parcel from Frank Melanson prior to the show but it only arrived in Weaverville yesterday my wife told me. Here in the Theater Italian dealers Lino Caserini and Tironi Minerals had specimens available. They had the best and most were snapped up quickly. Caserini also had specimens from the new material amazonite coming out of Ethiopia. These are also not new to the mineral world but they are very good in terms of color. I did not select any as I have heard from several reliable sources here at the show that the potential is high for a great many of these to reach the market over the next several years. The prices should swing down in the next couple years. But still the good specimens will always command the higher prices.

The pictures I have here do not convey the accurate color or detailed dodecahedral etch patterns these specimens display.

Also in the Theater I found Francois Lietard setting up. Francois has made several trips to Pakistan in the past several months - given the current state of affairs in the region this is no simple matter. As usual he has many interesting new specimens available. Below are several examples of the new material coming out of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

One of the finest rich lime green diopside in light violet
colored matrix from Badakhshan, Afghanistan.

An unbelievable, and unique amazonite specimen also from Afghanistan.
This 3 cm crystal is as close to a gem amazonite crystal as I have ever seen.

New lime green (the photos are not accurate with the colors) prehnite
specimens from Pakistan. The prehnite is associated with quartz.

Francois also had a couple of these gem crystals of spessartine
set on quartz matrix with blue albite from Nuristan, Afghanistan.

While walking the haunts of the Theater I saw two familiar faces - Dudley Blauwet (left) and Sandor Fuss.
Dudley conveyed the horrors of his recent trips to Burma and the middle east. Breaking a toe and also being
bitten by a dog that required a course of rabies shots. He's been traveling for nearly two months non-stop and
Sainte-Marie is his last stop before heading back home to Colorado. As for Sandor, well, he just looks like
he's having too much fun in his life these days...

I ventured out into the less hot real world and found several other items of interest that I will report on later in the show including a fine selection of the rare minerals kesterite and mushistonite from Ping Wu in China, rich bluish green fluorite from a new find in Morocco and several others.

Two views from the steps of the Theater looking to the north and north west.

Much more to come!

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

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