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



 

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Show Reports
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Report 2 from Tucson 2015

It has been a busy last few days here.  The Westward Look show opens today and on the 4th Steve Perry, Scott Werschky and I had our one day mini show.  And of course the stress would not be complete without a meltdown of my Internet connection at the rental I am staying at this year.  "Life in the food chain" as Jesse Fisher says..
 

At least the weather made a change for the good this week!
 

More blue skies at the Inn Suites.
 
 
Wandering further around the Inn Suites - I will never be able to call that place the Hotel Tucson City Center, but I digress - Belgian dealer Valere Berlage has some nice samples of the shattuckite from the Tantara mine, Katanga, Democratic Republic of the Congo.  He also had on dislpay two specimens that had been sliced and polished.  Wow!  These were not available for sale or I would have bought both. They are gorgeous!  He also had some other natural specimens available.  There is no telling how long these things will be available so I selected a few of them.
 

Rich turquoise blue shattuckite 8.5 cm acvoss.
 
 

Sliced and polished shattuckite.
 
 

The smaller piece in my hand.
 
 
In the same room Tomek of Spirifer Minerals had his usual array of fine Moroccan minerals and this time around I could not resist some of the very fine erythrites he had from Bou Azzer.  These are the sort of things that won't be available forever so I made a selection of several pieces for the updates here in Tucson.
 
 
 

Bright and lustrous erythrite crystals on a specimen 4 cm across.
 
 
The Milpillas mine continues to pruduce copper based specimens of extraordinary quality.  I have seen several dealers with the new find of brochantite.  The crystals are thick and sharply crystallized.  Recall the recent finds of the acicular habit - these are striking different.  The vast majority of pieces I have seen are loose groupings of interconnected crystals removed from veinlets or seams but I was happy to find a few with the excellent crystals on white, argyllically (clay altered) altered matrix.  Jordi Fabre had some good specimens available and I found another fellow from Mexico selling these and pounced on them for the updates here.
 
 

3.5 cm high specimen of the new brochantite from the Milpillas mine.
 

A rare matrix piece - 4 cm across of the new brochantite from the Milpillas mine.
 
 
A few years ago I found some blue albite with Joe Dorris (Prospector's TV show) from the Lake Delamo are in Jefferson County, Montana.  They are bluest feldspar I have ever encountered from anywhere.  When I saw Joe I asked him if he had any more of the material and he had managed to dredge up his last remaining specimens.  I gladly took them all.  There were two with a smoky quartz association as well which I was happy to add to the group.
 
 

A 7.5 cm specimen of blue albite on smoky quartz.
 
Rick Kennedy has specimens quartz (amethyst too) and pyrite from Spruce Mtn, King County, Washington.  There is a lot of diversity and pieces in all price ranges.  Well worth a stop at Earth's Treasures to see what he has.
 
 

Two shelves of new specimens from Spruce Mtn in Washington.
 
 

We caught a full moonrise over Tucson on Wednesday night. The bright dot above the moon is Jupiter.
 
 
On February 4th, as mentioned above, we had our one day mini show at the home of Isaias Casanova.  This was the 10th year Steve Perry and I have worked together with a mini show here in Tucson and it was the fourth year that Calaveras County vintner Brett Keller has poured samples of his award winning wines for us during the show.  In addition to the usual array of new benitoite specimens we had available I premiered the Dr. Mark Feinglos Azurite Suite Collection of over 225 specimens from over 200 localities around the world.  We had quite a turnout and had a chance to meet a lot of new people.  More and more of these are starting to happen here during the Tucson Show and I have to tell you these small mini shows put on by dealers are a source of excellent specimens at the best prices you will find in Tucson.  I would encourage you to seek these small mini shows out. You won't be sorry if you have a strick mineral budget.
 
 
 

Folks looking over our new Benitoite Gem Mine specimens.
 
 

Brett Keller (mineral wines) pouring samples of his award winning wines.

 

February 6 was my first day at the Westward Look show put on by Fine Mineral Show (Dave Wasiman).  You can hardly believe the qualityof the minerals available at this show.  The prices reflect the quality and if you are a buyer here then you are likely in a different league than 95% of the rest of the mineral community. 
 
I stopped by Rob Lavinsky's booth to see some of the pseudmorphs of plumbogummite after pyrormorphite many folks are talking about. Wow!  I have seen a few of these around the show with other Chinese dealers but Rob clearly had the best.  If these were pyromorphite specimens they would be world class as most of the crystals exceeded over 3 cm in length!
 

One of a couple dozen specimens Rob had on display of the new pseudomorphs.
 
Christophe Gobin showed me some new specimens of rutile and hematite from Ambatofinandrahana, Madagascar.  You have to see these to believe them!!!
 

Crystals of hematite crystals on minutely reticulated rutile.
 

Another example of crystals of hematite crystals on reticulated rutile.
 

Insanely lustrous crystals of rutile with hematite. 
 
My Reno partner Scott Werschky got into some incredible gold specimens from California and Nevada. 
 

13-15 cm specimen of crystallized gold on quartz. 
 
 

23-25 cm specimen of crystallized gold on quartz from the Eagle's Nest mine in Placer County, California.
 
When everyone from the mineral community convenes on a show we all look for a reason to have a party.  This year Dave Bunk felt that 20 or so partially consumed bottles of whiskey was reason enough to have a whiskey tasting party at his room at the Westward Look.  About 40 people wandered in and had a sample of all sorts of blended, single malt and good Colorado bourbon.
 

The cantina was open in Dave Bunk's room at the Westward Look.
 
 

Tough to beat these Tucson sunsets...
 
More to come from the 2015 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)
East Coast Show
Munich Show

2014
Tucson Show
Denver Show 

Munich Show

2015
Tucson Show
East Coast Show

 

 

 
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