FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Jordi Fabre]

Barcelona 1/27/2008

Tucson is already here!

The pre-show period this year has been very complex. In the photo we can see Parés, Joan Rosell, Carles Curto and the collector J. Gil in my Barcelona base with boxes all around us, prices, codes to add, specimen appraisal... but finally we are ready and Monday we go to this mega-show.

As we did last year, I will try to publish daily articles about what is going there, but I will start to do it only at Wednesday 30th when I have cleared the initial things. Until then: Viva the minerals!

More to come...

[Jordi Fabre]

Tucson 1/29/2008

No doubt that Tucson is an experience in constant movement, so before things become more complicated I have published this message to start my articles, just in case that tomorrow I can't.

Here and there several rooms are already open, InnSuites will be, as planned, a mega hotel that will concentrate most of the things that will happen at Tucson prior to the Main Show, and in terms of novelties, we don't heard much for the moment.
But today, for example, I discovered a lot of exceptional new smoky Quartz with inclusions from somewhere between the cities of Diamantina and Curvelo, Brazil, and they are of better quality than most of the Swiss or French alpine Quartz.

This is what Tucson is, the supply is so huge that at anytime something new can appear.

More to come...

[Jordi Fabre]

Tucson 1/30/2008

I haven't enough energy today to write a long report. So, just a comment that a few more rooms opened today in the different Hotels and the general atmosphere is already reasonably active. Like fireflies, each new room opened illuminates more of the landscape.

More to come...

[Jordi Fabre]

Tucson 2/1/2008

It is time to open our room #164, so we have to complete the last details. Although the outside temperature is very low, inside the room we are working hard, that is why we couldn’t write on the forum yesterday... the pace is frenetic, but I think that from now on I will be able to publish my usual regular daily chronicle.

I have seen some interesting novelties, I will comment about them in the next post.

More to come…

[Joan R.]

Tucson 2/2/2008

First, I would like to say Welcome to Alfredo Petrov as a new contributor to the forum, a specialist in mineralogy and Bolivian and Japanese minerals (great!). We believe we will enjoy his topics in this forum.

Jordi Fabre has begun to publish his Tucson chronicles. I add my own comments, novelties, points of view… that I believe could be interesting.
Regarding the weather, as a good desert climate, the morning is very very cold (frost even) but the day is very sunny and cold. These days I have been preparing our minerals in InnSuites room 164, where we display what we brought. Long work unpacking, sorting, assembling tables, showcases and more... Good grief! There is a world of minerals calling me outside, but a job is a job. Today, February first I took my first look round.

To European colleagues: mineral prices are like those in Europe or a little bit cheaper due to the Euro/Dollar Exchange rate. It should be possible to find some cheap and interesting specimens.
I have been visiting some dealers from USA displaying interesting surprises. For some it is rarities, the systematic Nevadaite from the Gold Quarry Mine, a phosphate with vanadium and copper, forming very nice pale blue spheres (less than 1 mm.) with Variscite, Fluellite and some delicate brown-orange sprays of Hewettite. Also flats of beautiful Karpatite -hydrocarbon- from Los Picachos, San Benito Co., California, yellow beams and very fluorescents under LW-SW-UV, on Quartz with traces of Cinnabar.
For the larger specimens lovers, really aesthetic native copper growths from Kazakhstan. The Brazilians are still surprising each time with some huge Albite - pure white crystals up to 10 cm on edge, with Epidote-Clinozoisite from Capelinha, Minas Gerais. From Sapo Mine, Goiabeira, new hollow columnar Fluorapatite, not much color, from the same area as the nice ones we saw in Munich Show.

See you tomorrow with more pictures and comments.

[Jordi Fabre]

Tucson 2/3/2008

Still not much time to publish my chronicles. Luckily Joan Rosell is helping and he is also doing his own chronicles

Let's go to the things that people like to know: the show is now in total flow, there are some novelties, the most outstanding will be (they are not yet public) the new Wulfenites from the Ojuela mine, Mapimí, Mexico with a very curious crystallographic habit and color between brown and orange. Also the recent production of Shattuckites from Kaokoveld, Namibia, which are truly exceptional. The owners of the quarries of Artigas, Uruguay, have brought a lot of material and it is very good. The new alpine Quartzes from Diamantina, Brazil, are, as I commented above, extra special, and there are some other novelties that I will commenting on during next days.

More to come ....

[Joan R.]

Tucson 2/4/2008

From Wuzhou Mine, Guangxi Province, China, we can enjoy some Calcites with a distinct hexagonal habit and incredible transparency, and still better, some have inclusions. They come in different sizes, the largest being 10 cm. There are growth lines on the hexagonal prism which do not appear in the interior.

I also like the Azurite "suns" from the Malbunka Copper Mine in Areyonga, Australia. These suns come from mining last September. They occur in a sandy kaolinitic matrix.

Although not a novelty, I chose to add a Willemite because I like Tsumeb specimens very much. It has a deliciously blue color that is not reflected at all in the photo. The Calcites on Amethyst from Artigas (Uruguay) display all kinds of strange growths.

One of the rooms has installed a series of fluorescent lights with minerals that emit all sorts of vibrant colors.

[Jordi Fabre]

Tucson 2/5/2008

Yesterday was a rainy, very cold day. This morning there was frost and the weather is still cold. Curiously it didn´t stop people from walking around and visiting the hotbed of Tucson's sellers: official hotels, unofficial hotels, people selling minerals in homes that they bought in Tucson and also people just placing a carpet on the floor and offering everything to everybody. Tucson is an enormous bazaar and everybody dances with the music that money plays.

Talking about minerals and waiting to have a little bit more time to announce more novelties, I use this post to publish one photo of one of our new Celestines from Torà, La Segarra, Lleida, Catalunya, Spain. Pretty popular, we have just two remaining!

[Jordi Fabre]

Tucson 2/6/2008

Considering that today was the day of the "quiet before the strom," because the first customers have taken a break from buying and the new ones haven't arrived yet, we have had time to take a photo of one of the new Ojuela mine Wulfenites.

Also, in addition to my previous comments, two more novelties: the fine Aldermanites on Minyulite from Tom's Quarry, Kapunda, Australia, and while not actually a novelty but recently mined, an excellent lot of Cassiterites from San Antonio section,Viloco, Bolivia, that I bought from Alfredo Petrov.

More to come...

[Joan R.]

You can find attached below a picture of the new Chinese Calcite from WuZhou Mine, GuangXi Province, China that I mentioned in a previous post.

[Jordi Fabre]

Tucson 2/8/2007

I would like to add to Joan's previous post an image of another kind of Calcite from the same mine: twinned and even more transparent. Excuses for the poor photo, we did it fast in the room.

Things here happen continuously and for that reason I can't publish all the comments that I would like to publish. A good example is the photo below where you can see the organizer of Munich Show, Christoph Keilmann and a partner in the back of my room with my computer. My social life in Tucson is just too intense!

More to come...

[Pete Modreski]

Hello Jordi,
I just wanted to thank you for your posts and pictures from Tucson, updating us at to what's going on. I enjoyed seeing the Torà celestine! I'm leaving today for Tucson myself (a leisurely driving trip), so I will look forward to looking you up there at the Inn Suites in a couple of days.
Those of you who will be at the show, please stop by and say hello too if you care to, at the USGS booth in the Galleria area at the main show. I'll also mention the FM-MSA-TGMS Symposium, a program of 15 talks on "Minerals of the U.S.A.", Saturday Feb. 16 at the Convention Center, which I think will be very good.
I've wanted to post some thoughts on the "quality of specimens" topic on this Forum, but have been just too busy getting ready to leave for Tucson, so, another time when all this is over!
Best regards to everyone,
Pete Modreski, Denver, Colorado, U.S. Geological Survey

[Jordi Fabre]

Tucson 2/10/2008

Today I would like to talk about Marshall Sussman. He is not only a warm, friendly, person but is also one of the main collectors of Tsumeb specimens on the world.
This year he displayed here in Tucson his personal collection at the Westward Look Resort. We took some photos of his show case and although not great photos, they show the high quality of Marshall's collection.

More to come...

[Joan R.]

Already back in Barcelona, but Jordi Fabre and Parés are still at the Show. My stay in Tucson has been short but intense. I hope that next year I can prolong my visit.

To see all (or part) the Mineral Show you need several days. Some hotels do not have a lot offer but you never can be certain that you are not going to find what are you looking for or something new. Some novelties are already advertised on the catalogues (iwe have our own publicity in the two most practical Show guides).


It is not possible to loose yourself - The Show guides.

In the Tucson Show guide there was an ad about the “pretty” pale-brown Fluorite crystals on limestone matrix, from Clay Center, Ottawa County, north of the state of Ohio (near the Lake Erie). I would like to know what quarry they are from, can anybody help me? The fluorite is in cubic crystals with excellent, lustrous faces and sharp edges (some up to 4-5 cm). Some of them are perched on a shard of Celestine. Those which were collected at the top of the vug were without Celestine, but those which came from the vug’s bottom rested on it. It's not easy to find a perfect specimen, which does not have any break or cleavage. Fluoresces white under LW-UV illumination. You could also appreciate the Calcite crystal on the right side of the picture attached.


Fluorite and Calcite on Celestine.
Clay Center, Ottawa County, Ohio, USA. 10.0 x 6.5 cm.
Note the crystal exfoliation cleavage visible in the front
and rear specimen. The "break" on the upper edge is not broken,
but the mold made by a vanished Celestine crystal .


In the Quality Inn, we were able to enjoy thousands of specimens from the Rolf Wein collection, also from the Academy of Philadelphia... Maybe (sure) the most spectacular will appear in the Main Show. The Quality Inn specimens were good but there were too many specimens, I couldn’t see all of them. There were lots of Spanish Fluorites (Berbes, Collada, Moscona...) but with high prices. I had a surprise when in a dealer room I found a Cobaltian Calcite from Solita Mine, Peramea (Lleida, Catalonia, Spain), and it was not bad specimen at all, at reasonable price, and the most interesting thing, it came from an old American collection. Nowadays it is not easy to collect Cobaltian Calcite from this mine.


Long long mineral displaying tables...after rain.

It amazed me the number of old collections that I found on sale at different dealers. This is the way we can get classic minerals from classic mines that otherwise would be impossible to find, only in magazines or Museums. Also you could meet recognized scientists and collectors from the Mineralogy world. And best at all, you make many contacts that, in the future, could become friends of mineralogical adventures.
Tucson is a "Show" full of surprises and it gives its visitors the opportunity to see specimens from around the world, some of them with the highest quality known.


Flying over the snowy Tucson Mountains, going back to Barcelona...

[Jordi Fabre]

Tucson 2/12/2008

On Thursday the Main Show or Convention Center Show begins. This is the one which started the huge market which has become Tucson of today. What started as a small local fair has become a huge focal point for everything that happens in the world of minerals.

This year's theme will be: "American Treasures". Three years ago, during Tucson 2005, the idea was born and the promoter, Gene Meiran, renowned collector from Phoenix, Arizona, has been working hard to carry out this project. In February 2007 a survey was sent to a group of people, of which I had the honor of being included, asking what American localities should be represented in an exhibition of the best in the United States. Once the list was finalized, sommeone was asked to write about each locality, someone who knew it well. This person also had to prepare for a showcase by searching for the best specimens that represent that locality. Also, a very nice book was published with beautiful photographs of these minerals.

So this Thursday we will see for the first time many pieces that have never before been displayed, specimens that should represent the best from each mine, famous or less famous, but which together represent the "crème" of the mineralogy of the United States.

The anticipation here is enormous, and the whole mineral world is like children waiting for the moment when "Santa Claus" will bring us the gift of these visual wonders.

More to come...