Return to the Tucson 2006 Homepage 

Show Reports
Report 1   Report 2   Report 3   Report 4  Report 5  Report 6

 

January 29-30


Finding anything new here in Tucson this year is like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. The general feeling is the same with most folks I talk with.  There are new finds of material from known localities showing up in droves and there are many fine pieces from released collections floating all over town.  But the mineral world is clearly in a lull of sorts when it comes to new finds.

I should point out that there were some fine specimens of karpatite made available to me that were found in San Benito County, California just prior to my departure for Tucson.  These are easily some of the finest karpatites to hit the market in many many years.  Rick Kennedy and Dan Evanich - members of the Bay Area Mineralogical Society -  found these and have done their best to get the word out here in Tucson.   Karpatite is an interesting mineral in that it is an organic compound with the chemical formula: C24H12.  It is also brightly fluorescent under SW UV light.


This specimen of jasperoid is 9.3 x 4.5 x 3.5 cm.  It is covered with drusy quartz and has numerous flat lying 
sprays of fibrous crystals of karpatite to 2.8 cm in length. There are also scattered 1-2 mm grains of cinnabar. 



I found two dealers selling the new root beer colored vesuvianite crystals from Fushan, Xintai in Hebei Province, China.  These were first seen about 10 years ago according to Guangua Liu of AAA Minerals.   There seems to be a new quantity of them so they are worth talking about. These are well formed tabular crystals that look a lot like wulfenite crystals - makes sense since they both form in the tetragonal crystal system.  These things can get enormous.  I saw one that KARP had that was about 25 cm across!  Guangua indicated that the nature of the deposit almost universally precludes any of these being found without at least one corner ding since they are typically found as chain-like groups or on a very soft matrix.  One dealer (China Bonny Gemstone) at the Clarion had some odd colored "vesuvianite" specimens that caught my eye.  It was obvious to me that there were some fine and large honey colored crystals of grossular on and associated with some of these specimens of vesuvianite.  She insisted that they were all vesuvianite.  Whatever... I gathered up all that were not damaged and paid her price and raced back to my apartment to clean them up. Wow! 
 
 


This is one of the grossulars on vesuvianite and one of the typical vesuvianites I obtained.
The grossular is 1.6 cm across and rests on a vesuvianite crystal.  The individual vesuvianite is 1.5 cm across.

At the Inn Suites I visited with Wayne Leicht to see what he had in the way of a gold supply from the famous Eagle's Nest mine in California.  He said that production was marginal this past year but he did allow me to plunder his inventory and I made a selection of what I thought were large and showy specimens. 
 
 


Here are two well crystallized specimens.  The one on the left is 4 x 3.5 cm and the item on the right  is 6.1 x 3.5 cm


Dennis Beals of XTAL has a tremendous supply of very fine amethyst specimens from Las Vigas, Mexico. This is the best material he's had in a number of years and they are flying out of his room at the Clarion.  I picked up a group of specimens including several with laumontite associations. 


Two of the better specimens in Dennis's room.
 


While Dennis (left photo) was writing up my order my auction associate and Kentucky dealer Keith Hayes popped in.




I visited KARP early on and found several items of interest including some odd Dal' Negorsk specimens and a few Burmese mushroom tourmalines.  Ivo had a very nice supply of recently cleaned sperrylite specimens from the Oktyabriskiy Mine, Talnakh near Noril'sk, Russia.  Sperrylite is a platinum bearing mineral and several of these specimens were very rich with the stuff.


Two of the sperrylite specimens I bought from KARP.  The specimen on the left has crystals to 
0.8 cm across and the specimen on the right has upright and somewhat elongated crystals to 1.1 cm.

Luis Miguel Fernandez had a new find of Andradite from Rio Seco, Quebrada de Cordoba, ICA, Peru.  These are a pleasant brown color and are typically associated with quartz and/or epidote.


One of the andradite specimens from Peru.  This one is about 4.5 cm across.

The Gobin brothers, Christophe and Brice, had, as usual, some fine specimens from China, Morocco and DR Congo.  They also has some of the richest emerald green crystals of fluorite from the Erongo Mountains I have ever seen.  I could not bear the thought of leaving four of these behind so... Below are two of the four.  Francois Lietard also had specimens from this find but his had crystals of aquamarine also!


The specimen on the left is 4.5 cm across and the beast on the right is 9.7 x 8.5 cms.

Stuart Wilensky has what is easily one of the best rocks here at the show.  It is a simply stunning specimen of inky blue apatite on tourmaline and muscovite from San Jose de Batalha, Paraiba, Brazil.  Below are two pictures of the specimen.  If you have interest in this ~expensive~ piece let me know and I will put you in touch with Stuart.


The specimen is at least 15 cm in height.
(Note the face in the picture on the left of Kiyoshi Kiikuni!)




Lots more to come from the 2006 Tucson Show!!
 

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