FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[bob kerr]

Stepping into the Stonetrust room of Bob and Stephanie Snyder one is immediately greeted by a major Pakistani Aqua referred to as "The Noble King". Amazing how many major Aquas have been extracted from the Pakistan mountains in the last few years.

Bob informed me that Stephanie "is at the show - but then again not at the show" due to illness - let's hope for a rapid recovery for her - we all miss her smile.

[Herwig]

[mingem]

It is Primary Malachite!

[bob kerr]

In the room of Saphira Minerals were a number of unique barites from Namibia - they appeared more as elongated pencils and quite gemmy. See photos.

[bob kerr]

This very nice calcite spray from Rio Grande do Sol, Brazil in the ROC 3000 booth in the tent north of B2B Minerals really caught my eye. Amazing that this piece made it out of the mine in one piece.

[James Catmur]

I have similar ones from England

[bob kerr]

A Tucson Shows visit is not complete without touring the masterpieces in the Green Mountain Minerals room. These photos are from the Mineral City room but there's more up at the Westward Look show.

[bob kerr]

Safaa Yu of Mintang LLC had some really nice pieces - the sheelite presented here shown like a beacon from the hallway. The interesting "giraffe" calcite came out a year ago but were new to me.

[bob kerr]

Sharing a room with Safaa is Brenden Traw of KRB Exploration who holds claims on some very famous localities including the Spruce Ridge in WA and Hallelujah Junction. He had a really nice set of displays showing recent findings. It's always good to buy from the source!

[bob kerr]

Another "must visit room" is that of Marcus Budil. He has a large showroom in the "Mineral Galleries on Lester" building and is also showing up at the Westward Look.

Many Congo specimens were displayed showing the very large production from the "Copper Crescent" and nearby.

[bob kerr]

Anton Watzl - sharing a room with Adam Wright of the Adelaide crocoite mine - brought his usual terrific selection of worldwide minerals. he's offering a huge selection of Zultanite from Turkey - both single xls and v-twins.

[bob kerr]

The Mineral Angel dealership hidden away in the far end of the B Building had already sold quite a few of these "Tower of Babel" aragonites but I was able to claim one of the last good ones that clearly shows the stepping along the C-axis of the specimen. Very interesting and colorful specimens.

[bob kerr]

Marco Tironi has a large haul of Brazilian minerals including a large undamaged cathedral quartz - light smokey, ultra clear and lustrous. I could not find even a Wilbur on this piece!!

Also, there were numerous heliodors from the Padre Paraiso. (Could they be from Espirito Santo??)

Other interesting quartzes included actinolite inclusions and misc smokey versions.

[bob kerr]

Rob Lavinsky's Arkenstone building had the usual incredible pieces - HUGE ones - and also a new find of colorful yellow fluorite from "under urban Beijing".

[bob kerr]

Here's an example of wonderful mineral art - which can be seen in many rooms throughout the shows - and one very large room in The Arkenstone is dedicated to mineral art.