FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Les Presmyk]

Paula and I attended Munich for the first time. We spent 2-1/2 days wandering mainly the 5A and 5B halls (where the minerals and fossil dealers are) and along with the fabulous displays both of minerals and fossils.

Your photographs are extremely well done considering the conditions you were shooting under. We saw many of the specimens you selected from the various dealers as well.

There were several that caught my eye including the Elba elbaite. By the way, the dimension he notes at 6cm is for the crystal not the entire specimen. The photo does not do justice to the large free-form polished ruby. The piece must weigh at least 25 kg and is 25 to 30cm tall.

The Munich Show is a fabulous event. I am glad we finally made it there.

[Jordi Fabre]

Barcelona 11/08/2015

While waiting until we can list the novelties from Munich 2015, I can go ahead and give you my thoughts on the show.

While it might be a surprise due the circumstances, Munich 2015 was good or very good for most of the dealers, and most collectors were happy too. All this while taking into account the high cost of attending the show, and the less than wonderful economic situation in most of Europe, along with the issue of immigration from the Middle East/Africa which would touch even the hardest hearts.

To my modest understanding, the reasons that might explain this include two, above others:

- The advantageous exchange rate for the US$ against the Euro means that many US dealers and collectors decided to attend the show, and this injected a significant amount of funds.

- The second reason mentioned is due to the need, in difficult economic times, for people to find refuges for their money, with collectibles one such refuge, and nowadays this includes art and even minerals. I am not that certain about this, but it is a coherent explanation. It also explains why, even though the show went well for most, the dealers in the lower middle range had some difficulties, while those in the medium-high, very high and incredibly high rages, as well as those selling cheap or wholesale did well. It could be that the life time collectors, who tend to move in the low-middle range, have had problems given the economic situation, but those with better funding buy minerals as they please, either as a simple pleasure or as an investment (or both reasons). At the same time the very cheap items were easy to sell as given the current uncertainty people are happy to spend a small amount on minerals instead of other things....

I would add to these two main factors a third, rather subtle, reason that I have observed over the last few years:

It is widely noted that large shows work well, while the small to medium shows are finding life more difficult or are just vanishing. This may be because at large shows there is so much on offer, an offer that can meet all the possibilities of all the attendees, that the hordes of people just cannot see all the material and some will always remain available right until the end of the show. So desirable items can remain that have just not been spotted among all the material on offer.

Two personal experiences: right at the end of the show, while packing up, more than one person we know has gone by the stand and taken home specimens, which were not the cheapest and had no ‘end of show’ discount. When asked why they did this, the answer was more or less “I had not noticed them before”. Among tens (or even hundreds) of thousands of specimens it is almost impossible for our brains to absorb and process so much information and it is very easy for us to pass over some specimens.
Another personal example, but this time almost the in the opposite sense, happened on Sunday morning, which is the period when I get some free time and simply walk around the show. While doing this I found (and bought) specimens that I was surprised to see still there. I did not get great discounts, and it looked like the prices had been the same right from the start of the show as the labels looked like they had not changed.... they were just there, lost among all the thousands of others and unnoticed as ‘no one had seen them’.

That is the advantage of such a large show, and may be one of the reasons for its success. The enormity of what is on offer means that opportunities exist for everyone that attends and is willing the work hard and review over many hours each and every stand. So one way or another, everyone has the chance to find a marvel and return home satisfied (and poorer ;-)

More to come...

PS: thanks to James Catmur for the transaltion of this text and make it comprehensible.

[Don Lum]

Dear Jordi,

I read your thoughts on the Munich Show with great interest.

Many thanks for your insightful and clear writing.

Regards,

Don

[Don Lum]

P.S. beautiful Wulfenite from Iran.

[vhairap]

Yes Jordi! We are dealing with new finds from Iran monthly. For instance we are mineralogically examining new mimetite-vanadinite series from Iran which are similar to Chinese specimens.

I just published a co-author paper with (Tim Welting and Herwig Pelckmans) on Iranian wulfenites (see ref below). I can provide its pdf or an eprint link by the publisher to get a free copy for a limited number (up to 50) upon request.

Hairapetian, V., Welting, T. and Pelkmans, H. 2015. Wulfenite from central Iran: A review and some new observations. Rocks and Minerals, 90: 426-434.


There is another article, may be of your interest on Iranian wulfenite from AhmadAbad mine:

Grüll, M. 2015. Auf wulfenite-suche in der Ahmad Abad-mine im Bahabad county, Yazd-provinz, Iran. Mineralien-Welt, 5: 50-61.


Vachik

[Jordi Fabre]

Barcelona 11/08/2015

Here you have a list of the novelties I saw in Munich 2015. As said before, this is just MY list, it doesn't mean that many other novelties did not escape my avid control ;-)

• Iran: in my opinion the future paradise for mineral collecting. For the moment real red Wulfenites from the Chah Kharboze Mine, spectacular Descloizites with Willemite from the Chah Milleh Mine and the recently offered Mimetites on Cerussite from the Nakhlak Mine, but I'm sure many more species and specimens will arrive in the market soon.

• Portugal: new Phurcalite from the Senhora da Assunção mine, with and without Quartz of excellent quality, probably among the world's best, if not the world's best.
From Panasqueira the regular array of specimens from recent years but from the last months more Fluroapatites and very fine Siderites than "different" things

• Kosovo: the Stan Terg mine in Trepça is producing again and in 2014-2015 it produced some marvelous specimens. Mostly iridescent Pyrites and related Calcite, Siderite and Quartz.

• Greece: green and sharp Andalusites (the magnesian variety viridine) recently mined in Theologos area, Thasos Island. Very different than any other Andalusite I have seen.

• Germany: some more extraordinary Strontioginorite from the Kohnstein Quarry. Without doubt the world's best.

• Morocco: a large array of all kinds of Vanadinites from the Mibladen area, plenty of fresh material from Bouismas mine (colorful Barytes, Löllingites, Chalcocites-Djurleites...) and Aït Ahman (mostly Gersdorffites), plenty of medium-low quality green Pyromorphites from Moulay Bou Azza and more Gypsums on Quartz from the Agadir area.

• Pakistan: unusual yellow Brucite with Hydromagnesite and/or Dypingite

• Spain: all kinds of Fluorites from the still active mines in Asturias: Emilio Mine, Moscona Mine, Villabona Mine and La Viesca Mine

• China: new colorful Aragonites from (probably) some place in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

• and without doubt much more... stay tuned and read other info in all the worldwide mineral magazines when them appear!

[John S. White]

Alfredo Petrov with his 9 month old daughter Rumi who is pulling his hair.

[John S. White]

I collect single crystals so I was very happy to find this one in Munich, a fluorapatite crystal from the Panasqueira mines, Beira Baixa, Portugal. It is 4 cm across. I was intrigued by the growth features on the pinacoid face, seen here.

[John S. White]

One of my favorite photos.

[Jordi Fabre]

[Roger Warin]

More pictures...

[Roger Warin]

more

[Pierre Joubert]

[Roger Warin]

Trapiche emerald. Muzo area.
A single emerald crystal gave these two cross sections.
The faces of the hexagonal prism are natural.

[Roger Warin]

Also galena.