KOFA National Wildlife Refuge - February 2010 - photo by John Veevaert
John Veevaert    5582 N White Sands Rd, Reno Nevada  USA  (888) 689-8402



 

Return to the 2015 Tucson Show Homepage  

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

 
 
 



Tucson 2015
 
I arrived here in Tucson on January 27th.  The drive from Reno, Nevada is about 400 miles shorter than the drive from Weaverville and it is actually quite scenic along Hwy 95 which runs along western Nevada. 
 
Below are a few scenes along the way. 
 

This is Walker Lake which is a natural lake just north of Hawthorne.
 
 

Hawthorne is probably best known for the thousands of ammunition dumps which dot the landscape.
 
 

Just a minute fraction of the land dedicated to storing bullets and bombs .
 
 
 
 
 

Rolling into Tonopah you see this info sign.
 
.
 

Downtown Tonopah and the famous Mizpah Hotel once owned by Boxer Jack Dempsy in the early 1900's.
 
 

One of the numerous mine head frames which are found all around the town.
 
 

The busy road between Tonopah and Goldfield.
 
 

Just entering Goldfield - the county seat of Esmerelda County, Nevada.

 

Bustling downtown Goldfield. 

A look back at Goldfield.

 

Drumroll please.... Beatty, Nevada!!!


 

 


The night was spent in Henderson, Nevada.  This is a scene of the mountains just east of Las Vegas.
 

 


Lake Meade displaying very low water line behind Hoover Dam.  That is all Colorado River water.

 


Now in Arizona here are some granite formations south of Kingman.
 
 


The first saguaro cactus near Wikieup, Arizona - we're in the Sonoran Desert!
 
 


Phoenix and the site where the Super Bowl will be played February 1st.  Glad I won't be anywhere near this zoo... 
 


A shot of downtown Phoenix from I-10.

 
 


Picacho Peak along I-10.  Tucson is almost in view once you pass this bump on the ground.
 
On to some minerals found here in Tucson.
 
Laurent Thomas was busy again in the Congo with some even better specimens from the M'fouati mine, Bouenza Dept., Republic of Congo. I focused on getting some of the gorgeous wulfenite crystals and also royal blue hemimorphite with small cerussite crystals sprinkled on it.  I also found one very niec specimen of reddish orange wulfenite with dioptase.  Good stuff!
 
 


A 2.6 x 2.3 x 1.4 cm crystal of deep reddish orange wulfenite with a partial coating of drusy quartz.
 


A rich blue colored specimen of copper stained hemimorphite 4.3 x 2.5 cm.
 
 

A 5.3 x 3.8 cm specimen of hemimorphite sprinkled with cerussite crystals.

 

Crystar Gem Minerals (not an example of "engrish") have specimens of a new find of cerussite from the Yangshuo mine,  Guilin, Guang Xi Province, China.  These are all flattened cyclic twins forming crude "snow flakes".  They have a pleasing peach color and satiny luster.  They had about two dozen available.  I selected four in all.


  A 4 cm specimen of the new cerussite from China. 

 
Jaroslav Hyrsl has some new specimens from thw Mundo Nuevo mine in La Libertad, Peru.  The specimens consist of euhedral scheelite on quartz coated with bright yellow, microcrystalline stolzite. In some specimens stolzite has completely replaced huebnerite which is also found at this mine.  I selected a nice large cabinet sized specimen for the next update. 
 

A 14 x 10 cm specimen of quartz with scheelite coated with stolzite. 
 

A close up of the above specimen. The stolzite below the scheelite are pseudos after heubnerite. 
 
I have saved the best for last with this first report.  I visited Ian Bruce shortly after arriving in Tucson as he told me about a significant find of volberthite from the Milpillas mine, Sonora, Mexico that was actually made a couple years ago.  Volberthite has been found in many places around the globe but always as small crystals rarely over a millimeter or two at best.  A quick perusal of Mindat.Org's photo gallery will clearly reveal how volberthite has been represented in collections.  So this new find more or less blows all previously known localities for this species away with crystals up to 2 cm!!! This is an order of magnitude greater than any other find for this relatively rare copper vanadium bearing species!!!   The crystals are found alone and in some cases with associations of azurite and brochantite.  Most have brilliant luster.  Ian obtained these over the last two years from Marshall Sussman and it is believed that the entire population of this find consists of 20-25 specimens. 
 

A unique 5.2 x 2.6 specimen with 1 cm crystals of volbertite and brochantite. 
 
 
 
 

Lustrous crystals of dark green volberthite to 2 cm in length. 
 

A 6.8 x 6.0 cm crystal of azurite with volbertite crystals to 1.7 cm. 
 
 

A 1.4 cm crystal on the above specimen.
 
 
You may have heard from some folks on Facebook already that the start of the 2015 Tucson Show experience has been a bit... well... wet.  It has been VERY WET!  This of course means that there will be a burst of desert wildflowers in about 6-8 weeks so that is the silver lining but there was water everywhere around here!
 
 
 
 
 
 

A swampland scene out of the mesozoic...
 

From another vantage point.
 

No beach volleyball today!
 

Okay.  This is just the first stab here at what is new in Tucson.  I am sure that there will be a lot more to talk about!

 


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)
East Coast Show
Munich Show

2014
Tucson Show
Denver Show 

Munich Show

2015
Tucson Show
East Coast Show

 

 

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

Subscribe | Unsubscribe


All text, specimen images, graphics & site desgin copyright 1998-2015 - John Veevaert  - trinityminerals.com