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The Sainte-Marie aux Mines Show Specimens

 
 
                        June 27, 2003 
No rain today thankfully and the temperatures were much cooler too!   I drove to the show with Mark Wrigley and set out to look at a specimen he wanted me to see.  It was to look at a fabulous specimen of nagyagite from Romania brought by one of the dealers set up on the second floor of the balcony.  The 6 x 7 cm specimen was incredibly rich in nagyagite crystals to 1 cm across but it was also incredibly rich price wise.  Too much so so we opted to leave it behind.  It is nice to know that the sorts of things are "out there" however.  

Down on the floor of the Theater I saw what I think has to be one of the most bizarre and interesting rocks here at the show.  Marcus Grossman had two of these rather "gorpy" looking things - "gorpy" that is until a closer look was had.  These specimens were from the Erongo Mountains of Namibia and consisted of beryl, fluorite and schorl.  Of keen interest to me, since I have a fondness for pseudomorphs, was the presence of a second generation of fluorite of violet color which had replaced long gone calcite crystals.   The other pseudomorphic note of interest with this specimen was that the first generation of fluorite had evidently replaced longer prismatic crystals of beryl as the fluorite has a perfect hexagonal shape when viewed down what was once a c-axis of a beryl crystal.  The final phase of beryl mineralization produced a "ball" of aquamarine crystals included with needle like schorl crystals. According to Marcus only three specimens with the violet color and form of fluorite have ever been found from this sizable occurrence.  I selected what I thought to be the most interesting of the two that he had available.



This specimen is over 15 cm in height and very unusual from anything else I have seen from the Erongo Mts.

On this day I was determined to spend more time in the tents to see what was out there.   A general note here:  Most of the finer specimens are found in the Theater on the ground floor.  This is typically the case, however, not universally the case. Many well known and knowledgeable dealers can be found in the larger tents or even in the open areas.   At this show it would be a mistake to not venture out of the Theater and see what is available as many dealers can be found with surprises.  That was a good thing as I found Dr. Ivo Szegeny, of Karp Minerals, in Tent 4 known as the "Passion Tent" with some remarkable new fluorite specimens from Dal' Negorsk in Russia.   This locality is well known for its optical grade and water clear fluorite.  Karp had a new find of large dodecahedral shaped crystals of fluorite that were simply some of the best I have ever seen of specimens with this crystal habit.   An example that comes to mind is the Sweet Home mine, in Colorado, which has produced perfect dodecahedral crystals of fluorite rarely reaching one centimeter in size.  And there are many other localities from around the world have fluorite crystals with cubes modified by dodecahedron faces such as Naica, Mexico and numerous localities in China. These from Dal' Negorsk, however, are the best I have ever seen in terms of size and dominance of habit in the dodecahedral form.  They are also a first from this locality.  I asked to see all the specimens still "under the table" and made a selection of about a dozen pieces.  This is good stuff!



Two of the typical specimens I obtained of the dodecahedral fluorite from Dal' Negorsk.


A photo of Ivo (on the right) and the rest of his team working at the booth.

Elsewhere in the same tent I found Paul Botha of South Africa with specimens from a new find of barylite near Zomba in the Mount Malosa area of Malawi (the same as that which has produced the well known aegerine specimens).  Barylite is a very rare mineral with only a handful of known occurrences including Langban, Kovdor and Franklin.  This new and very limited find, however, has produced what are arguably some of the finest known crystals of this barium and beryllium bearing silicate (BaBe2Si2O7).  I made a selection of specimens then felt that this was REALLY GOOD STUFF!  To the world of mineralogy these are very important due to the size and exceptional quality of the crystals.  I would venture to say, having walked the entire show, that these specimens of barylite are the most significant new material here at Sainte-Marie this year though there are many really good specimens of new material here this year.  



One of the barylite specimens I obtained from Botha.  This has crystals of barylite to 1 cm.

This is another specimen with a 1.5 cm crystal.  This is gargantuan for the species!!


A candid shot of Paul and his wife who's name I did not catch unfortunately.  
The picture on the right is a candid scene in the "Passion Tent".


Walking out of the Passion Tent I saw Christian & Petra Gornick's booth and was captivated by this stunning cerussite from Tsumeb.   Christian ALWAYS has exceptionally good specimens from Tsumeb and other Namibian localities.  It is always worthwhile to stop and see what they have available.


Not the best possible picture of this 12-4 cm specimen of
smoky cerussite but you can get the feeling quite readily.
 

So, with a feeling of exuberance with the barylites in hand I wandered further into the tents and found Dr. George Liu of AA minerals with a fine specimen of fluorite (note the dodecahedral form and cube modifications) that has the desired color from this locality.  The vast majority of the specimens from this locality have fluorite with strict violet to light violet color.  A relative few have the reddish or magenta tint to their color and they are a visual cut above the hoards of others.  I saw one more like this only at Tucson last February that was not priced in the upper stratosphere and purchased it from Dr. Liu then also.  George also has a large hoard of Chinese mimetite.  Actually, A LOT of dealers here have large hoards of Chinese mimetite...



A fine specimen with "the color" from the De'an Fluorite mine at De'an, Jiangxi, China.  The crystal is 5+ cm across.


No matter what as the day wears on people tend to flock to the steps of the Theater.  It never fails.
I took the opportunity to snap a candid shot and then several others from the vantage point that most people experience here... including me.
Not as hot as the day before by a long shot.


I was panning the countryside from the steps and saw this pastoral scene which had to get snapped.
Most of the countryside in this region of France is forested with open prairies which are, of course,
home to the cows.  Gotta get that incredible fromage from somewhere!

l was due to hook up with Mark again at 3:00 pm and did so.  We stopped at the center of the show and I bagged a couple more photos including a mpg file of Mark saying hello.


Lots of people and note that there are many people who deal in beads and lapidary items here at the show.
 I would "guesstimate" the percentage at around 20-25%.  The rest are mineral and fossil oriented.


As Mark and I were headed back to the car I thought it would be a good idea to show you what the parking is like around here.  Remember, this year seems to have more people than ever before.  Unless you get here early and stay put forget getting a parking place close by.  Ain't gonna happen.  But then... There are much worse things in life than having to carry some fine mineral specimens a while in a beautiful area and that seems to dampen any unhappiness about the situation.


Not many places left to drop the set of wheels off during show time here in Sainte Marie.

Much more to come!

 


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.