Well, only two things tend to stop me writing show reports as I'm going along at mineral shows - one is lack of internet access, and the other is if I'm having far too much fun. I'm pleased to say that apart from the first night when there was no internet, it's just been non-stop fun! Now is the first real chance I've had to put some of my reflections of the show online - I'll be doing this in three parts - this is part one which covers my first days in Tucson and the Westward Look show.
I always have my eye out for unusual things, and this specimen of
Curienite from Iran, as yellow coatings in fossil brachiopod casts, was certainly different, an
Ausrox specimen at the Westward Look show.
Also at Westward Look,
Wayne Thompson had this utterly crazy
Silver specimen from Batopilas, Mexico:
Dan Weinrich was showing this fabulous 2cm
Grossular on matrix from the Jeffrey Mine in Quebec:
and
Stuart Wilensky had this outstanding
Sperrylite on
Chalcopyrite from Russia - a specimen that used to be in the Freilich collection.
More excellent Russian material was available from
Herb Obboda who had a selection of Russian
Diamond crystals, including some, such as this one, in matrix:
And even more Russian goodies at
Heliodor who had a small selection of the
Platinum crystals which first came out a few years ago, but have been conspicuous with their absense ever since.
platinum showed me this fabulous piece of
Fluorite from the Rogerley Mine, mined in 2008 - this stuff just keeps getting better and better.
The
Gobin Brothers had a very beautiful
Cobaltoan Calcite from the Mashamba West mine -
They also had two of the new find of large Dioptase crystals from the Kaokoveld, Namibia
Crystal Classics and Kristalle had a large display, one thing that struck me as particularly nice was this Linarite and Caledonite from the Reward Mine in California
Back at the hotel shows, one of the few genuinely new and exciting things was from Russian Minerals who had a new find of Cuprite, Copper and Silver from the Rubtsovskiy Mine in Siberia - these included sharp, lustrous cuprite crystals to several centimeters, some associated with native copper and some native silver.
Copper and Cuprite from Russia
On the first Friday I was at Tucson (Friday 6th Feb) - a mindat collecting trip was organized to the J.C.Holmes claim, searching for Vanadinite. As I'd never done any collecting previously in the US, I decided to tag along - and a great day was had by all.
and a view of how the Vanadinite was found on the rock faces
After the J.C.Holmes trip, rather than go back to the shows, I popped in to the Pima Air and Space Museum which has a great collection of (mostly) US military aircraft dating back to the second world war. It was slightly disconcerting however to be followed in to the building by a man carrying a bomb. Here he is resting it on a bench before regaining his breath to carry it into the building:
Man with a Bomb
The highlight of the trip to the museum was the coach tour around the US Air Force 'Bone Yard' at the nearby Air Force Base, where over 4400 aircraft are stored in the desert in case they are needed again in the future or simply to be stripped for spares.
The 'Boneyard'
On the monday following the Westward Look show, I made another detour, this time to the Sonora Desert Museum - here's how it looks outside
Desert Museum, Tucson
It's well worth a visit, a great day out, and they also have a rather good arizona mineral collection on display, including this incredible Flux Mine Cerussite
Part 2 of my Tucson Review will come soon and will include more from the Hotel shows and... our little collecting trip to the Grand Reef Mine!
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AWESOME CURIANITE and FLOURITE!!!!
Very Good Rewiew!
Greetings from Chile!
Steffan Giadach Axt
17th Feb 2009 8:14am