Welcome.

My name is Keith. I have been a mineral collector since 1991. I am also a geologist by profession and have worked in the mining industry for eleven years. My work has involved both exploration and production positions, and has taken me from Greece to Montana to Nevada. This work has afforded me the opportunity to collect minerals at a number of great locales, including the Getchell mine in Humboldt County, Nevada, and on Milos island, Greece.

My passion is collecting minerals myself. I have bought minerals from time to time but never enjoy them very much. The specimens I care the most about are those I have found myself. While this limits the quality of my collection in some respects I feel this is more than made up for by the treasured experiences that the individual specimens represent.

As an example, here is one of my favorite specimens. It is Kainosite-(Y) on muscovite from Hickory, NC. The locality is one I had collected at for years. I was fortunate to be there at the right time when the quarry had exposed some really bizarre veins and pockets. I found excellent calcite, pink apophyllite, sharp muscovite crystals of superb quality, and this specimen, which turns out to be one of the world's best kainosite specimens.



Naturally such a find is a once in a lifetime event, if that. I have little to say for it in the way of skill. But it is probably the best illustration of of my favorite maxim of mineral collecting: "Give luck a lot of opportunities!" Things like this add tremendous life to my collection in my eyes and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I hope you enjoy my minerals. Just about all the photos are of specimens I collected myself. As you look at them I hope they encourage you to keep getting out there to look for specimens of your own. Give your own luck a lot of opportunities and you will surely find some pieces you'll treasure for years. It can be done.

Cheers,
Keith