I have already returned to the winter in Norway after a brief visit to sunny Arizona including a couple of days in Tucson at the start of the gem and mineral show. This report gives a glimpse of what I have seen during the visit to most of the dealers at the 10 most mineral oriented of the in total nearly 40 shows running at these times. The report will clearly be coloured by my personal tastes and preferences as well as from my experiences after 14 previous visits to the Tucson shows. I hope this report can be an inspiration for those of you who will go to Tucson in the coming days – or another year. I will also in the days to come post pictures of some of the specimens obtained in my gallery in Mindat.
The shows in Tucson are spread out both in time and geography. To see all the dealers and shows you would have to stay in Tucson from mid January to mid February as well as being in the right place at the right time when new material are being offered. I am sure that there will be a lot more to see at the Westward Look show opening this week-end and at the TGMS (main) show next week.
A car is essential for getting around between the venues and usually driving is easy in the US, but not so this year in Tucson. On my way down from Phoenix there were long delays due to road work on the I10 in the area of Marana north of Tucson and in the city itself the exits between Prince and Starr Pass are closed. This makes travelling between the shows more cumbersome and I really envied the rare gems dealer Steve Perry who had brought a bike with which he could shoot between the motels and dealers as new material was being unpacked. Even if the shows officially opened on Febr. 1st or 2nd, many dealers were open for business many days earlier. An early bird can rub shoulders with the high-end dealers who try to cherry-pick the best specimens that are being moved up in the Catallina foothills to the Westward Look or to the fancy display cases at the main show at a very different price level. Hunting for such “sleepers” are becoming more difficult as both dealers and collectors have more knowledge of specimen rarity, quality and markets prices not the least as a result of the internet.
The prime location for mineral specimen also this year is the Inn Suites where dealers from last year’s Clarion show have moved. It is a very pleasant venue where the large interior and sunny garden can be enjoyed between the visits to the poor dealers stuck in their rooms for nearly 3 weeks. Good minerals can also be found at the Executive Inn and some other smaller show around the intersection between Oracle and Drachmann. The Quality Inn at Benson Hwy south of exit 262 also has many mineral dealers and as usual there are minerals among the gem and jewellery dealers also in different motels and tents on the west side of I10 between St. Mary and Congress. At the Ramada Ltd, also to the west of I10 there were a few mineral surprises between large numbers of rocks hosting dead animals.
Then to the minerals I observed during my stay until Sunday Febr 3de, presented based on country of origin and with emphasis on new finds and exceptional specimens:
CHINA has been a major producer of mineral specimens for many years now but there are less really new finds. But there is both good and interesting material available. I saw 2 good matrix specimens of lovely blue-capped pink Elbaites said to come from Hunan. One at Quality Inn Benson Hwy was priced at USD 2.600 while a larger specimen tucked away among the fossil dealers at Ramada Ltd had a price tag of 20.000. In my mind, both were priced to stay. At the last location I also saw the best Chinese specimen of wire Silver on Acanthite priced at 12.000. But this combination can be seen with many other dealers at inferior but more modestly priced specimens. There are also apparently new finds of Calcites from different locations and presenting a variety of habits. In addition the usual specimens with Fluorites, Scheelites, Beryl, Spessartine and a variety of crystallized sulphides can be seen with different dealers. Except for a large and very pricey specimen hosting two about 8 cm Bournonites from the YaoGangXian mine, there was nothing else from China that really stopped me in my track.
MYANMAR (BURMA) may be one of the few countries in the world with an of yet unexplored potential for good mineral specimens. Both the repressive government and the international trade embargo make it difficult for dealers. Still there is a trickle of interesting novelties each year. Most of the exploration is for gem rough and mineral specimens have been considered just a by-product. That is why most of the interesting specimens and new minerals seen represent gem minerals. 2 years ago it was Painite and Poudretteite, this year Joachidolite is the novelty from Myanmar. This mineral is surprisingly rare being a simple Calcium-aluminium-borate originally found in a few specimen in another rogue state, North Korea. Recently it turned up in Burma as small yellow cut stones. More material has been located also with matrix specimens. The mineral occur as colourless to deep yellow masses and (usually) poorly developed crystals with Sodalite and other minerals. The Sodalite is the Hackmannite variety turning dark purplish pink after a few minutes in the Tucson sunlight making for striking specimens. KARP at the Inn Suites has a good selections of small and larger specimens which can be had for 25-200 USD and also a few cut stones which sell at 600 USD per carat.
AFGHANISTAN and PAKISTAN are steadily producing new material even if the production is severely reduced due to the unstable conditions in the region. There are also (understandably) less dealers from this area in Tucson this year. Most of the material seen this year probably represent older finds or comes from well known localities. The only striking new find seen by me was a small lot of Elbaites of an unusual (for tourmalines) deep yellow colour with a purplish cap and core said to come from the Kunar province in Afghanistan. I obtained the only good matrix-specimen I found at the Inn Suites with a 8 x 3 cm undamaged crystal in Albite. Later I spotted a gem dealer at Howard Johnsen with a larger part of the find offered only as a 10 kg + lot at 8 USD a gram for a mixture of large broken Elbaites, Albite and Muscovite. These pieces had been carelessly collected and handled much reducing their value. I also purchased the largest specimen to be brought back to Norway this year from this region, a well formed 20 cm white and partly transparent crystal of Pollucite hosting a group of lovely link and green Elbaites on top - a unique specimen which probably will go to a museum display if I decide not to keep it myself.
INDIA is another important specimen producing country in Asia and as always there are dealers with excellent specimens of zeolites and associated minerals from the Deccan basalt to be seen all over Tucson. Considering the amount of labour necessary to extract and trim these specimens to perfection without damages, they will one day be considered very cheap buy at today’s price levels. And there are treasures to be found among the ordinary Stilbites, Heulandites and pale green Apophyllites. I always take some interesting Indian specimens back from Tucson. This year I found a couple of excellent specimens of the rare zeolite Goosecreekite including one unique combination of a 5 cm group of white Goosecreekite crystals perched aesthetically on top of pink Heulandite crystals on a blanket of Quartz crystals in a geode. Another specimen had a 7 cm group of spiky Mordenite looking like a limpet mine on a matrix of Stilbite. Lastly I also had to take a large cabinet specimen with Cavansite crystals of a size and quality that would have commanded 2-3000 USD a few years ago. If you don’t have a good Cavansite, get it now, it won’t become cheaper. Good Powellites can also be had for a fraction of a price paid some years ago. One day hopefully also people in India will have decent wages, a safer working environment and a decent standard of living. Then collectors will realise what they passed when zeolite specimens were still available and cheap.
AFRICA has many important specimen producing regions and a lot of good specimens of well known (to me) material can be seen with different dealers from South Africa, Namibia, Madagascar, Congo and Morocco. Specimens from a new find at the Skorpion mine in Namibia of green Tarbuttites sometimes with the new mineral Skorpionite were seen at the Inn Suites, but the only real novelty from Africa spotted were the large orange Spessartines from Tanzania already mentioned by other contributors in Mindat. Stuart Wilensky at the Inn Suites has large single crystals some of them gemmy – and priced accordingly. Rob Lavinsky of Irocks has posted pictures of similar crystals on his website. More interesting was the fact that the same material could also be found with Marianne Jentsch, a German dealer and Tanzania specialist at a small show located in a crummy Econolodge motel just North of exit 261 on I10. He had also visited the locality and could tell it is being exploited for gem rough in the weathered part of a manganese rich mica schist where the large Spessartines around associated with hematite in Quartz veins. The only matrix seen with some of the crystals were pink Muscovite looking like the Mn-rich variety “alurgite” and thus substantiating his story. Being a rock-forming mineral at the deposit ( and not comparable to the scattered gemmy Spessartines previously found in cavities in pegmatites at other locations, there is a huge potential also for good specimens. I bought a 4 cm well-formed if only partly complete icositetrahedron with a nice orange colour for only 12 USD!
There were as far as I could see no exceptional new minerals from Brazil this year except for Brazilianites from the Telieiro mine. But the specimens offered in Tucson are not as good as the ones I saw at the last show in Munich. At Inn Suites the operator of the Urucum mine had nice Kunzites and Morganites as usual, but this year he had also taken a few pieces from a very special find of Apatite made in 1998. Only fragments of large crystals were found and most of the material went to the cutter. Only a few specimens were saved and these who a 1 cm thick outer layer of glassy deep blue apatite covering a yellowish core. The apatite looks exactly like the cobalt-glass of older times. It is not known what causes the colour, but the mine owner’s guess was copper – probably because Parabaia tourmalines of a similar colour are known to contain copper.
There is a steady trickle of interesting and also new minerals from Chile. In addition to species available also previous years, I found a massive piece of Cuprite from Arana, los Azules mine having cavities with dark blue-green crystals identified as the rare copper nitrate Gerhardtite. There were also very interesting old specimens in the boxes at some of the whole-sale dealers originating from old private and museum collections ( including the Philadelphia collection). Having personally visited the unique copper mines at Chuquicamata, I was happy to find very good old pieces both of Leightonite, Natrochalcite and Salesite at modest prices. A 7 cm polished nodule of sky blue Ceruleite from a small find of gem material some years ago was saved from further cutting.
Bolivia also has a long history as a mineral producing country illustrated by a find in one of the wholesale boxes of a 14 cm specimen of Sphalerite with a large cavity covered with excellent crystals of Franckeite and with an old label tracing the specimen to the Friedrich Ahlfeld collection. There is a steady trickle also of new finds some of them to be seen with the dedicated and always friendly Mindat board member Alfredo Petrov at the Inn Suites. Amongst others he had specimens from the locality in the Andes which the Incas mined for blue sodalite and which is also mined today for this ornamental rock. On fracture and in cavities interesting rare minerals occur, including blue-green balls of Krasnovite which I obtained on a good sized specimen. I visit to Alfredo`s is a must for any Mindat member at the Inn Suites. I saw nothing special from Peru or other South American countries this year. Mexico still has surprises in its mineral rich interior. Evan Jones had some of the best Azurites ever found in Mexico of a quality comparable to the best from Tsumeb. There will surely be more at the Westward Look and main show. There had also been a new strike of thick, prismatic Wulfenites partly on green mimetite of which pictures can also been seen on the Irocks website.
The theme of the main show this year will be US minerals and there will certainly be many exceptional specimens displayed, There were not much new material offered at the motel shows. John Cornish at the Inn Suites has a room full of Pyromorphites from the Bunker Hill mine. If you do not find a specimen to suite you there, you will never have a good Bunker Hill Pyromorphite in your collection. The only problem may be that seeing so many similar specimens of the mineral from the same locality somehow kills the collector instinct.
Benitoite is another much sought mineral from the US and since the mine is now completely worked out, new material only emerges when specimens from the recent mining operation is being developed and trimmed. John Veevaert and Steve Perry had put a lot of work into preparing good specimens of Benitoite, Neptunite, Joaquinite and Jonesite for this years show and in addition to the specimens offered on the trinityminerals.com website, they arranged a small private show early this week. I had a preview of the material and selected a specimen with unusual platy crystals of Benitoite only found in a few specimens at the margin of the deposit. At the Inn Suites there was also an excellent selection of newly mined specimens of the organic mineral Karpathite in straw yellow crystals embedded in matrix from California. The Karpathite also shows a strong fluorescence.
Canada also has a proud history of exceptional mineral discoveries in the last decade but this year I observed no new major finds. But you can always count on Mnt. St. Hilaire and even if only modest finds are being made with the present quarry operations, many of the UKs are turning into new species and being released to collectors. I managed to obtain excellent specimens of the 2 newly IMA-accepted beryllium-bearing species Niveolanite and IMA 2007-039 (UK118) which will be named to commemorate the discovery of the element Beryllium which makes up less than 0.0006 % of the earth’s crust but still a major element in more than 100 different minerals including some of the most collectible and rarest mineral species known. I have not mentioned minerals of Europe or Russia and the former Soviet Union area. There were new finds of well known minerals and also new and rare minerals offered, but nothing I found worthy of my special attention. Maybe I know this region to well and the question of novelty has been considered based on what I saw in Munich only a few months ago.
Japan is the last country I will mention – not because of exceptional new finds, but because of a few exceptional specimens of Henmilite available at the Ramada Ltd from Mitsuo Tanabe, the collector who originally made the strike at the Fuka mine. He had made his first visit abroad ( ever !) visiting Tucson and bringing a few exceptional specimens from the original find. I was able to obtain one of the very best pieces, a 12 x 6 cm plate of botryoidal calcite covered with snowy white Olshanskyite and aesthetically sprinkled with more than 100 dark purplish blue Henmilite crystals up to 7 mm in size which is very large for this mineral. It is probably one of the best specimens of Henmilite to leave Japan and worthy of a museum display. I very much appreciated being able to obtain this specimen which is clearly the best find from my 3 days of hunting minerals in Tucson this year. I should have liked to stay also for the Westward Look show and the main show and envy those of you who can visit in the coming week. I hope this report will be an inspiration fir your visit and that some of you will contribute with reports here in Mindat. I wish you all a pleasant stay in Tucson and happy hunting !

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