Hello, and thank you for visiting my homepage! My name is Brett Keller and I collect minerals from all over the world. I specialize in Benitoite (hence my handle) and other minerals of the Benitoite Gem Mine in Sunny California, USA. I live in the Sierra Foothills, Gold Country!

I first began collecting minerals when I was 12 years old, and studied Mineralogy and Geology for a short time at Santa Barbara City College before changing study to become a winemaker. It wasn't until 2006 that I even thought about collecting minerals again. At that time my Daughter, Alyse, started getting interested in crystals when she started finding Quartz, Pyrite, and Gold in roadbase rock at my workplace. The roadbase is from the famous Carson Hill Mine and they are still finding gold there!

I finally started collecting again in late 2006, and started buying specimens here and there at our local rock shop and on ebay when I came across a listing for Benitoite that said the Benitoite Gem mine was open for collecting. My girl and I decided to go and see what we could find because I remembered how pretty Benitoite was, and on Jan 19th 2007 took our first trip to the mine.

I was skeptical at first at paying $100 to dig for no guarantee, but I decided it was worth trying once. Upon arrival at the mine we met Rick Kennedy and Dan Evanich, masters at finding and processing Benitoite, and two of the nicest guys you would ever want to meet! They showed us around the mine and told us what to look for, and then off we went. About 11 AM I found my first notable specimen, A Neptunite floater about 3 cm long. I will always prize this crystal! and then had slim luck until I spotted the some shot up neptunites in the dirt where we were digging. After a lot of digging, we unearthed a 250 lb boulder covered n two sides with Natrolite with Neptunites everywhere, and some Benitoite showing too. After learning we had to pay extra for whatever we found that didn't fit in our bucket, I was really skeptical about paying $200 extra for that rock, especially since I had no saws or anything to cut it!

Well, I just hemmed and hawed about that one for most of the day and went looking again. I really didn't find much until about 4 pm, almost closing time. I was looking around in one of the far off places in the mine and from about 40 feet away I saw BLUE! My first Benitoite was a 5" by 9" plate with broken downward pointing crystals and lots of natrolite. I was pretty jazzed by this time, and the mine owner, David Schreiner said it was the find of the day!!! I spent over a month etching it, and finally finished its trimming and shaping in time for the Turlock show in March 08. This is the specimen on this home page!

Now back to that boulder. I didn't have the $$ with me to pay for that rock, so you know what? Rick Kennedy lent me the dough. He said he wanted me to have that rock. How cool is that? He just met me and was willing to help me in a big way. Thanks Rick! That boulder gave up several specimens but the best side of the rock gave me a really nice 6" by 9" slab of Natrolite with multitudes of Neptunite and 20 benitoite crystals! It is definitely a prized piece.

Well, needless to say I was hooked. I have since been back to the mine 7 times and have had great luck. About half the Benitoites/Neptunites in my collection, pictured on Mindat (or soon to be) were self collected. All were etched by me. My girl and I even went to the filming of Cash and Treasures on Discovery Channel! They interviewed Alyse, and filmed our best rocks!

Many of the benitoites shown were from rough I traded for and etched. The rough was dated back to Clarence Cole's ownership of the mine, about 50 years ago! Some of my best pieces came from this rough!

Well, Thanks again for visiting my page. I hope you enjoyed my story. I have become an advocate of Benitoite and am truly a benitofanatic, although I collect many other minerals. If you ever want to talk benitoite, drop me a line to my mailbox!

Cheers,

Benitoboy