KOFA National Wildlife Refuge - February 2010 - photo by John Veevaert
John Veevaert    PO BOX 2182   Weaverville, California  96093  USA  (888) 689-8402



 

Return to the 2011 Tucson Show Homepage  

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

 

 
 
 

Tucson 2011 Report 5

T he Main Show and the rest of the Tucson mineral experience is over for 2011... whew.  It has become a marathon the last 10 years or so with a core group of about 500 people who arrive in mid January and then hang around for the grand finale 3-4 weeks later.  Heck, there is nowhere else I would rather be the truth be told. Before I launch into the cases there is one more new item to report on that Dudley Blauwet had.  These are lazurite after plagioclase specimens... everyone thinks... The work on these is still being done and it may be that the original crystals were hauyne replaced by feldspar then that was in turn replaced by lazurite.  These will require some more work to nail down more precisely but for now they are being called lazurite after plagioclase.  The replacement is only partial which is quite unusual as far as anyone who's had an interest in pseudomorphs will attest. They come from Lajuar Madan, Sar-e-Sang District, Badakhshan, Afghanistan.  Dudley had a dozen or so of these so I grabbed the three best small specimens with sharp defined crystal faces.


 A small cabinet specimen of the new material from Afghanistan.

 
 
I swung by the Australian's pyromorphite booth on the last day. Dave's got the grin in his eye.
At the end of the day the shelves were left with only dust - a complete sell out!
 
 
The entry to the north east of the Convention Center on Saturday.
 
 
Here's the Rocks & Minerals Benefit Auction room.  Terry Huizing and I selected
 a couple dozen specimens for the benefit auction to be held later in the spring.
 
 
 
Here they are including an antique miner's lamp!
 
The main show at Tucson is what everyone still here looks forward to.  It is remarkable how many people come here between January 10 and Feb 9 and then are gone never to see the main event.  This year the theme was "Minerals from California".  Of course benitoite comes from California and though I thought seriously about showing some specimens from my collection here at the show I decided that travelling with it afterwards through the desert was probably not a good idea.  Who cares there were plenty of great examples of my favorite mineral here this year at Tucson.

 


The San Francisco Crystal Gazers had a case of California goodies with this at the front and center - 2.9 cm benitoite floater from the albite zone of the mine.


The rest of their booth which was set up by Len Pisciotta, Richard Geiger and Paul Geffner.  
 
 

The last specimen in this case that caught my eye was a little piece of my home county - Inesite from the Hale Creek mine in south western Trinity County. I live about 50 miles to the north and east in Weaverville in the heart of Trinity County.  Inesite from here used to be the world's best until the great discoveries in South Africa and China.
 
 

The display of the Los Angeles County Museum filled with chunks of California.
 

A closer view of some of those "chunks" - two large gold nuggets and what is arguably one of the finest specimens of benitoite - the famous chain... drool...
 
 
I would say the finest matrix specimen from the Himalaya mine... 

I spoke with a large percentage of the dealers here this year and the pent up demand for minerals seems to have broken through the recession blues of the past two years.  Everyone commented that they had had an excellent show overall. More about that later on here in number 5.

 
A view from the Rocks & Minerals auction room of the main floor on Saturday.
The " joint be jumpin' "

 

back to the cases...


This 20 cm specimen from the Tourmaline Queen mine was on display in its own case...
One of the famous Blue Cap specimens on loan from the Houston Museum.
 
 

The small case next to the Queen mine specimen above had a display of recently mined kunzites from the Oceanview Mine in the Pala District.
 
 

I mentioned earlier about Joan Kureczka and Jesse Fisher's case.  Here it is.  Now for some closer looks...
 
 

The cover specimen for the current issue of Rocks & Minerals.

 


I think that this is one of the five best spessartines from the Little Three mine in San Diego County.

 


A fine group of specimens from the Pala District.

 

Another fine group of specimens from the Himalaya Mine.
 
 

Two icy blue topaz crystals from the Little Three mine in Ramona, San Diego Co.
 

In the corner of their case was a picture of two characters well know in the history of 1970s mining in Pala:
John McLean left and Terry 'Skip" Szenics right - both back in their "salad days".
 
 
 
 

The University of Arizona had a nice display of the neighboring state.
 

A 25 cm leaf of native gold from the southern Mother Lode country in Tuolumne County.
 

A large cabinet specimen of benitoite  with crystals to 2 cm across.
 
 

I thought this two tone beryl specimen from the White Queen mine in San Diego County to be quite unusual!
 
 

John Seibel of Tehachapi, California had his case of California minerals - many self collected!
 

John has one of the best benitoite specimens I know of a fine triply terminated crystal on a small pedestal of crossite/natrolite matrix.
Steve Perry is the person who found this specimen and etched it.  John was smarter than Steve who sold it to him...
 
 

Another group of specimens all self collected by John.
 
 

Fellow Benitoite junky Rick Kennedy had a nice display of minerals from San Benito County. 
 
 

The centerpiece of Rick's case was the group of TN and faceted specimens. Nice stuff Rick!
 

Susan Harlow had a case of specimens from the Benitoite Gem mine and some great old photos of trips there in the late 1930s.
 

A group of specimens and cut stones in Susan's case.
 

Also in Susan's case was stat sheet on benitoite and low and behold a picture of a specimen in my collection at the bottom.
 
 

The American Museum of Natural History had a case of fine California specimens.
 
 

It found these two Pala pieces especially attractive.
 
 

Bless the Harvard Museum!  They had a case of minerals from the Crestmore Quarry - a place often overlooked by collectors since the minerals found there don't exactly look like much more than road fill.  This locality has more mineral species than anywhere else in California and many type locality species too.
 
 

The collection owes its existence to Alden Carpernter.
 
 

Two rarities from this important California locality!
 
 

Trona, California.  If you have never been there you nose has been spared a particular aroma...
 
 

And it also means you've never had the pleasure to reach into a pile of mud to grab a crystal of Hanksite.
 
 

Wayne and Donna Leicht had by far the best display of gold found in California. 
 
 

A fine group of leaf and crystalline specimens.
 
 

A large crystallized gold from the Eagle's Nest Placer Co., California.
 
 

The famous "Tree Root" leaf gold specimen...
I am pleased to say that I actually held that specimen in my hand before...
 
 

Between case photos I saw Jim Spann (left) talking with Mike Wise of the Smithsonian and that is the hand of Diana Weinrich...
Dan Weinrich is in the back ground directly behind Jim.
 

Speaking of the Smithsonian here is the case that the museum put on display.
 

Four excellent of the various borates found in California.
 

Every time I have been to the Blue Bell mine my caledonite specimens are worthless and weak compared to this beast!
 

A couple of fantastic leaf specimens of gold from the Mother Lode region of California.
 
 
Now for a few things that were on display at the show but not from California.
 
 

A fairly expensive chunk of Australia found last year in Australia...
 
 

Tucsonian Ken Roberts pointed me to a fine case of specimens from various Tucson Mineral Enthusiasts!
 

Ken self collected this specimen of pyrite and Quartz from Washington.
 
 

Ken also self collected this beautiful amethyst from Jackson Crossroads, Georgia.
 
 

The fluorite from Okorusu was kind of spell binding for sure.
 
 

Thumbnail Collector Rich Olson had a beautiful display of TN sized specimens. 
 
 

The only problem was that he put his best specimen in the back row!  ;^)
 
 

Bob & Evan Jones put together a taste of the 2012 Tucson Show which will be on Arizona Minerals
commemorating the centennial of statehood.
 
 

A stunning cabinet sized specimen of wulfenite from the Rowley mine.
 

Another smoker from the Rowley mine...
 

Crystallized silver from Gila County.
 

Native copper from Ray and Azurite from Morenci.  
 
 

Phoenix Collector Jim Robison had a great case of Tsumeb dolomite specimens. 
 
 

Jim humorously explained the origin of some of the dolomite at Tsumeb.  R.I.P.  CaCO3. 
 
 
 
This was an overall good Tucson Show for me and just about everyone else who came to Tucson.   The mineral market seems to have been sparked back to life after a couple years of many people holding on to their disposable cash during what has now been termed the Great Recession.  We're still a long way from the boom times of the mid 2000s but the market is expanding again.
 
As I have mentioned in the past there are two general collector types - folks who know about various aspects of mineralogy and those who collect natural art.  The natural art collectors are driving prices into the next dimension and in doing so the dealers who cater to them are presenting nice but common minerals with 5, 6 and 7 digits.  And I am not including the cents columns either!  This makes it difficult for 99% of the rest of the collector community to feel like they can have access to some great minerals. 
 
It is understandable that species like gold and minerals from defunct localities are finding their way into fantasyland pricing but many people scratch their heads when they see a fluorite specimen offered up for $15,000 or $50,000 for that matter.  It bears repeating: educate yourself on minerals, develop a focus for your collection, and view mineral purchases as a step in reaching the goal for your collection.  There are plenty of "wounded" out there who thought they were buying an investment only to find that not to be the case when they went to sell their "investment" .  And to me that is where the roots are for a lot of this crazy pricing we're seeing.  If you bought a choice benitoite specimen from Bill and Buzz in the 1980s it is worth more - a lot more - than you paid for it today. A lot of common species such as beryls, tourmalines, calcite, fluorite, etc. will never appreciate like the true rare minerals out there because there are  A LOT OF THEM OUT THERE.  The best of the best of the common species will always be in demand but that is where education comes in and finding knowledgeable dealers or co-collectors you can query.  That is it for the lecture.   
 
As for significant new finds this year things were a bit lean.  Perhaps most impressive were specimen brought by Green Mountain Minerals - Dylan and Nicholas Stolowitz - who had some great new specimens of tanzanite with icy blue, prismatic prehnite crystals from Arusha, Tanzania.  These were all pricey but all found new homes.  The other that got a lot of buzz at the main show were the new pyromorphite specimens from the Browns Open Pit, Rum Jungle, Northern Territory Australia brought by Paul Melville and Dave Rosewall.  What made this find memorable were that there were specimens of all price ranges available so that everyone from the new collector to the heavy hitter could find something to jump at.  They completely sold out of their 500 or so specimens! Not too bad there guys. Also there was a lot of chatter about the cuprites from the Rubtsovsk mine in Russia.  More information about this deposit is coming to light and this is the third or fourth oxidation zone (pod) that has been found with these lustrous cuprite crystals mixed with copper and/or silver.  The pseudomorphs of copper after cuprite are quite interesting mineralogically.  Though lustrous the cuprite crystals are quite dark owing to the concurrent deposition of tenorite during crystallization.  Prices for these were all over the map as the same quality specimen could be found from $250 to $15,000 - exact same crystals!!!  If someone feels that dropping $15k on a rock that could be had for $250 makes sense then please email me.  I would like to talk about things I can offer you to help scratch that itch.  The new jeremejevite matrix specimens from the Erongo Mountains of Namibia were also an interesting new thing here. Apparently there will be a new variety of tourmaline described at some point in the future which comprised the matrix for most of them. Lastly, there is a producer in the Pala area again with the Oceanview mine generating numerous fine specimens of kunzite and elbaite.  It looks like this will be an active mine for some time to come. I am sure I missed some other significant things but I that is my take on Tucson 2011.
 
If you have never been to Tucson it is something you should put on your "bucket list" of things to do before you "move on". The best part of it for me is the interaction with the hundreds of people I know and just more or less catching up.  We all share that same interest and with it, it transcends our various positions in life.  It is great to see people of all walks of life congregate and interact as peers.  That is what I most look forward to here at Tucson or any other venue I travel to.
 
A lot of folks showed me some fine hospitality this year including Isaias Casanova (icminerals.com) who gave me a badge to use during the main show, Marshall and Charlotte Sussman who had a fantastic party at their home in Oro Valley, Wayne & Dona Leicht and Ian Bruce who also threw a fantastic party at their rental in Tucson, Dan & Diana Weinrich for their hospitality and an evening out, Marty and Rose Zinn for a fun night out, Scott Werschky for listening to me whine again and again and again and again, Frank Dzubeck for his consultation re: medical matters, Jesse Fisher and Ian Jones for turning me on to La Cocina, Steve Perry and Rick Kennedy for also listening to me whine again and again, Terry and Doug Wallace for literally listening to me whine in hideous fashion, Marie & Terry Huizing, John White,  Don Zowader, Jerry Rosenthal, Gloria Staebler, Paul Pohwat, Tom Hughes, Dave, Tricia & Paul, Tim Sherburn, Kevin Brown, Leonard Himes, Cal Graeber, Dave Bunk, Jim Robison, Simon Hildred, Tom Gressman, Tom Moore, Wendell Wilson, Herb & Moni Obodda, and literally hundreds of others who heaped sympathy on my current state of injury related affairs. The mineral community has a lot of good and generous souls in it!  Also many thanks to the various show organizers around town who make this thing called Tucson happen each year.  Laura Delano especially!  Without these shows a lot of people like me would still be stuck in our day jobs!
 
Ok, that is it for me for the 2011 Tucson experience.  I will be shipping the hundreds of specimens ordered here over the next few days and then it will be off to KOFA National Wildlife Refuge to sit under the stars and enjoy hikes and campfires with Colleen before heading back into the tail end of winter in Trinity County, California.
 
See you here again in 2012,
 
 


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  

 

 
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