FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Jesse Fisher]

I can not comment on Jordi's secret new find, but it is obvious that the management at the InnSuites/City Center hotel have been watering the lawn in excess to the point that they have created the Tucson equivalent of the La Brea Tar Pits, trapping some of the migrating dinos in a quicksand-like turf. How will future paleontologists explain this one?

[GneissWare]

There are a few other new things this year at the InnSuites...

Dehne McLaughlin has been busy in the Malbunka Copper Mine, the source of the Azurite suns. New this year are round Azurite nodules, reminiscent of those from La Sal, Utah, but in a stark whitish kaolinite matrix. He also found a small zone of bright Atacamite.

These are the pieces I added to my collection.

[Jean Sendero]

Here we go, where to find Mexican minerals at the Hotel Tucson City Center (Inn Suites) and elsewhere on January 27-28, 2012. Firstly, in the category of the what’s new area, new finds are relatively limited based on what I have seen.

Luis Miguel Burillo Minerales has some interesting new light bluish green hemimorphite crystal groups sitting on a limonitic matrix from the San Antonio Mine at Sta Eulalia. These are coming in sizes from thumbnail to large miniature, or almost small cabinet.

An unexpected place to find Mexican minerals is in the UK Mining Venture room. The room contained, spread amongst the Rogerley fluorite specimens, several large cabinet calcite specimens from the Hercules Mine, Coahuila. We do not see these very often and at least 4 were still there when I visited the room. Also of interest are some large botryoidal grayish yellow smithsonite specimens from the Buena Tierra Mine Sta Eulalia. These came out a little before Christmas. Other minerals from Sta Eulalia were also seen such as the “cactus quartz”.

Dennis Beals has a diversity of specimens from a diversity of Mexican localities, in all sizes. Of note, welcoming you as you walk in his room is a stunning plate (app 45 cm across) of quartz crystals sprinkled with dark sphalerite crystals and clear fluorite from the Los Remedios Mine Taxco. Interesting sphalerite crystal habits can be observed on it. A nice stalactite is popping up.

Fender Minerals has a wide variety of Mapimi specimens and mineral species. Of note is a shelf with light yellow to beige mimetite and Baryte on arsendescloizite. These range in sizes from thumbnail to large miniature. Also with John are a few small specimens hosting some micro lotharmeyerite associated with adamite (Mn).

Benny Fenn has some very nice smithsonite from Choix, one in particular is bright cadmium yellow. Several large specimens of platy calcite with goethite coating inclusions are for sale as well.

Azurite, malachite and brochantite specimens from Milpillas of good quality and quantities can be seen at Rocko Minerals. Sizes ranged from miniatures to good cabinet size. Valenzuela Minerals has mainly the azurite.

At the TEP, way out to the east past the airport, Ruben Avila had a large selection, all in flats of creedite from Rodeo, pyrite from Concepcion del Oro, wulfenite from Mapimi, and much much more if you have the patience to dig into piles and piles of flats.

At the Market Place, on Oracle, when I stopped on Friday, the Holguin had not yet set-up so I cannot say if anything new can be found with them.

Hopefully, I caught everything that was available but one never knows, surprises can be awaiting later on.

[Joan Kureczka]

Jean -- thanks much for the mention. One correction though -- our UK fluorite mine is the Rogerley, not "Waverly," as you have it here.

[Jean Sendero]

Yep, I tried to correct it this morning but I do not have the rights. The wine was good last night when I wrote this up. I have another correction to make. One flat of azurite should read miniatures and not thumbnails.

[Jordi Fabre]

[Joseph DOliveira]

Jordi,
Thank you for the show reports, I am sitting here in snowy, Northern Ontario, Canada, waiting for my Sunday flight to Tucson next week. Unfortunately I have another week of anticipation to deal with.

[Jordi Fabre]

My pleasure Joseph, but as you saw the most complete posts were done by other FMFers what is really best.

I encourage every FMFers in Tucson to write some lines. All avantages: a more complete overview and less work for me! ;-)

[Matt_Zukowski]

Hello everyone. I have been here since the 24th, but for the first week or so have been/will be renting a house in the desert, on the other side of the mountains from Tucson, so I can get more of the desert stargazing experience that you just can't get in Alaska. Unfortunately this also means that i have no cell phone service and satellite internet that is so painfully slow that I haven't posted before and won't post any pictures till I get over into the Tucson Bowl.

My impressions are similar to other people: not much new, the Inn Suites got going quite early (I had things to look at on the 24th), and it took a little longer for the other mineral shows (Quality Inn, River Park Inn) to get going. The newest interesting mineral combination I have seen are the sulfides (mostly chalcopyrite) on siderites from Inner Mongolia that a number of the Chinese dealers have. I saw one interesting tetrahedrite with chalcopyrite on siderite from that same locality. On this piece, the chalcopyrite seemed to have nucleated on the etched areas on the tetrahedrite, but other areas of the tetrahedrite retain luster. But for the satellite internet, I'd post pictures now - I will later. There seems to be more Rubtsovskiy cuprite and pseudos of copper after cuprite than last year, and the prices remain high for this material. At some point this material has to run out based upon everything I have read or heard about this locality, so for those who really want this material, perhaps the prices aren't too high. I have seen more Uchucchacua rhodochrosites this year than last, almost all have a scalenohedral habit, but a couple have a rhombic habit. Unfortunately and as usual, too many of the faces of minerals in the Chinese and Indian dealers at the Quality Inn, when touched or smelled, have oil or silicon on them. I wish they would get the message that we do not want these enhancements and will pay less for (or not buy) specimens with these treatments. I make it a point to tell these dealers that i do not appreciate these treatments and encourage others to do so as well.

The Inn Suites bristles with many nice things, too may to list. Most dealers seem to be in the same place as last year except: a) Charlie Zp Guo (Stone Age Gifts), a newer Chinese dealer with good inventory moved over from the "fossil hotel" (I think it was the Ramanda) to the Inn Suites; b) Rob Lavinsky has a clearance room; and c) Rocko Minerals, an upstate NY dealer that seems new to me but perhaps i have missed in the past, has a bunch a milpillas azurites and upstate NY specimens that seemed good to me.

There will be a couple of dealers new to the Westward Look including Sunnywood and Danny Trinchillo (Fine Minerals International), so it seems like the Westward Look show will be bigger than ever.

That's it for now. I hope this message finds everyone well.

[Jordi Fabre]

[Matt_Zukowski]

Thanks for elaborating Jordi.

I want to further say that i have not seen once piece with undamaged chalcopyrite. I have told the dealers I have seen that I would prefer less damage. The more that we as a group of collectors tell the dealers what we want, the more that the message will get from the dealers through the distributors to the miners that we want damage-free specimens. Now of course I understand that damage-free specimens are uncommon and hard to produce (Jesse always sets me straight on this issue ), but it is possible that people in other cultures/markets may not know how much we value damage-free/untreated specimens and so I believe it would be good that we keep on telling the dealers of our desires. Hope I am not too preachy on this subject, but I want to make sure the dealers all get the information back to the miners, if they have not already.

[Matt_Zukowski]

I really don't want t leave anyone out so another new dealer that I saw at the Inn Suites is Spirifer Minerals & Miner's Lunchbox (Scott Werchky). You can see nice vanadinites, Bulgarian minerals, and golds (Round Mountain and other) in this room. I was happy to meet here Tom and Asia who seem like great people, and I know Scott is one of those quiet and competent people you should always listen to.

[Jean Sendero]

A small add-on to Saturday evening report.

On Sunday I took the time to do a full tour at the Inn Suites and found more of the nice bluish green hemimorphite from Sta Eulalia in miniature size in Wrights Rock Shop room.

[Jesse Fisher]

To elaborate on what Jordi mentioned concerning specimen damage, almost nothing that we recover from the Rogerley is "perfect." This is because most of the pocket zone has undergone varying degrees of collapse and brecciation. No mater how carefully we extract the specimens, they have already suffered at the hands of nature. While I am sure that much damage is done to many specimens reaching the market by carelessness in recovery and subsequent handling, I think this human concept of "perfection" is something quite rarely found in any mineral deposit. The fact that we as collectors are becoming ever more obsessed with this idea that specimens must be prefect is driving both the rapid escalation in price of perfect and near perfect specimens, as well as the rapidly expanding business of specimen enhancement.

On the subject of Inner Mongolia, here is a photo of a fluorite specimen (with arsenopyrite) labeled as coming from the Chi Feng mine. I saw similar specimens in Munich with four-figure prices, but obtained this one at the InnSuites show for much less.

Cheers,
Jesse

[Jean Sendero]

One more thing, not a new "discovery" but you simply do not see those often on the market.

Dennis Beals showed me a small lot of 5 large miniatures (to 7 cm) azurite specimens from Mina Los Olivos in Chihuahua. The crystals aggregates have a superb blue coloration. They are surely different than the ones from Milpillas and not as spectacular, but we do not see specimens from this locality very often on the market. For the Mexican mineral aficionado, these are pretty and affordable.

Good Mexican minerals hunting.

Getting ready for the Westward Look starting on Friday. I came across Evan Jones on saturday and he showed me a few photos of two new specimens....OMG...smokers from Milpillas.

Cheers

[Philip Simmons]

Jesse,

I completely agree with you on the topic of perfection. I have field collected thousands of specimens as well, and I have very, very rarely discovered the "perfect" specimen. In fact, the vast majority have a ding here or a small fracture there which, I think, comes with the territory of collecting minerals. In my opinion, imperfections don't necessarily make the minerals less desirable, they just lead us to the conclusion that "perfect" minerals are very uncommon in their natural environment.

Philip

[Jean Sendero]

More from the Hotel Tucson City Center,

Earlier in the show a little angel told me to wait until Fabre Minerals opens and Jordi will have something new from Mexico that could be of interest. So, during my lunch break today, I left the office and drove down to the show to see Jordi room’s.

What’s new……, more than 20 specimens of mottramite from level 35 of Mina Ojuela,Mapimi Durango. These guys developed forming nice botryoidal or globular texture with the globules reaching 2 cm. Also, some developed as stalactites. The specimens are ranging from large miniature to super large cabinet.

To my knowledge, and the one from MinDat or the Min Rec Ojuela issue, mottramite is a new specie for Mina Ojuela.

Rumor is that the discovery occurred late in 2011 and early 2012 with only a single but large pocket. I have not seen other dealers with such material but the rumor is that a few other pieces escaped Jordi.

Also in Jordi’s room are some aurichalcite specimens on a light lime green austinite base. This is an uncommon association that makes for some pretty nice little specimens.

The close-off this late opener, he had a large cabinet specimen, that when under the sun required sunglasses to be look at. The crystals were so lustrous, sharp and un-damaged. A real smoker. A beautiful plate. I think that Jordi showed it to me simply to make me drool a little.

Cheers

[Jordi Fabre]

[Jordi Fabre]

Due a total absence of time I'm not very active this time publishing posts. I beg to all FMFers to help me a little bit and publish here their thoughts and feelings about this Tucson Show edition. Thank you!

Anyway, super-Gail already started her posts -> https://www.mineral-forum.com/message-board/viewtopic.php?p=21677#21677 , so the fun's level will increase a lot from now! ;-)

[Jesse Fisher]

Very few good English minerals to be found here at the show so far, but here are photos of some that I have seen around.