FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Jordi Fabre]

Barcelona 06/11/2019

The incomparable Ste. Marie is almost here!🤗

To heating up a little bit I'm publishing the maps of the "Mineral Zone" of the Fair, maps that you can also find in "All the maps" of the web page of the Show.

[Jordi Fabre]

Barcelona 06/16/2019

The Mayor of Ste. Marie Mr. Claude Abel and the General Director of the Show Mr. Jean Patris welcome us in French and English languages.

[Jordi Fabre]

Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines 06/22/2019

Heating up...

[Jordi Fabre]

[Bob Harman]

As I post this, not only is the Ste Marie mineral show in progress, but there is a record breaking heat wave in progress in Europe including France.

Has this heat wave affected the show? Are the dealers and attending customers suffering? How is the attendance? Have sales or even the delicate minerals themselves been affected? Some reports from the show might be interesting. BOB

[Jordi Fabre]

[Philippe Durand]

Yesterday south of France had a weather close to Tucson:with 45 C temperature (113 f)
The top of the Mont Blanc is melting

in Ste Marie, I remember water sprays near the theatre: it was a nice place to stay.

[Fiebre Verde]

A few snapshots from the Prestige exhibition where lead took the lead this year.
As usual, year after year, this exhibition is an amazing virtual museum with specimens from museums, public institutions, and private collections.

[Fiebre Verde]

More from Gilles Emringer's extraordinary case.
Apologies for the poor quality pictures all taken with my smartphone.

[Jordi Fabre]

Barcelona 06/30/2019

This edition of Ste. Marie happened in the midst of the most important heat wave of the history of France with temperatures that had never been reached before, so, many events were suspended throughout France for reasons of safety (and humanity)

And yet this edition of Ste. Marie, made in the closed depression of the Val d'Argent, with the majority of exhibitors in "tents" of thick canvas in which the temperatures up to 52ºC / 125 °F were reached, with lights and spotlights adding heat and without the lightest breeze during all the days of the Show it has been a success, either of the public and of the sales, quality of the specimens and exhibitions, and even of the new discoveries.

The citizens of Ste. Marie managed to create a unique Show 56 years ago and, defending it staunchly, they have managed to overcome all adversities and achieve a Show that remains an extraordinary success.

Congratulations Ste. Marie: a gigantic effort to raise a great Show!

[Don Lum]

Vive la Sainte Marie !!!

[vhairap]

52ºC !
Jordi this is a new world record I think. It is unbelievable!. As a resident to Middle Eastern country (Iran) we have rather a cool summer, reaching today only to 35°C. What is going on the climate change!
Vachik

[Jordi Fabre]

[rweaver]

40C is a standard summer day temp for me here in eastern Kern county California, And 52C is on the cool side in Death Valley this time of the year.
.

[Dany Mabillard]

[Tobi]

This summer is such a horror, we had several days in June close to 40° C. When I was a kid in the 80s and early 90s, "extreme" summer days here in the middle of Germany had 35 or 36°C, now we are at 38/39 ... welcome to climate change :-(

But fortunately July starts much colder, I hope it lasts a while ...

I hope all who were in Ste. Marie survived the heat. Looking forward for many more impressions from the show :-)

[Jordi Fabre]

[Tobi]

Thank you Jordi, great photos, I'm really stunned by that giant siderite from Saint-Pierre-de-Mésage, maybe the best siderite specimen in the world?!:

https://www.foro-minerales.com/forum/download.php?id=213862
https://www.foro-minerales.com/forum/download.php?id=213861

[Jordi Fabre]

Barcelona 07/07/2019

Carles has done a so extraordinary reportage in the Spanish side of FMF that I am happy both because his work is excellent and because I do not have to think about where I would find time to do it myself! 😊

FMF is a gift and I realize it well when I can enjoy it just as a visitor. In the near future we will have to find some way so that without losing its quality, FMF does not depend so much on me. We will need administrators and moderators having computer skills and willingness to work. The current really active are just myself, Michael Shaw, Firmo Espinar and, within their limitations, James Catmur and Carles Millán and we really are very few for the amount of work generated by a big Forum as FMF.

After this whole history, I will now basically reproduce most of what Carles has already said in the FMF Spanish side and since it's difficult to improve it, what I'm going to do is try to make it nice! 😊



The new Moroccan Vanadinites were found in two very prominent findings, one in the area called Mohamedin, in the Coud'a zone, Mibladen and it was made in January-February 2019 and the second one was made in April-May 2019 also in the Coud'a zone but in another area not specified yet, but that seems to be something else to the East that the first find. This video shows one of the red and "architectural" pieces very characteristic of the second find and that are very similar in terms of shape to the historical ones of T-Ouest although the color is very different.




And this is one of the characteristic Vanadinites of the first and spectacular discovery made at about 40 meters deep, in the so-called "second vanadium level". Many pieces, very well dug, and with crystals of up to 3 cm. and that sometimes form large groups of crystals. The color is not red-red but the crystals are usually translucent and with an intense light inside them shows a kind of nice orange tone so with good lighting the pieces are very spectacular as seen in this photo.






Imilchil never disappoints us and this time what it offers is these presumed Apatite crystals allegedly pseudomorphized and with presumed coatings of a presumed carbonate. All very presumed, the analyzes will say what this new find is that in some cases appears associated with nice Epidote crystals.








And we continue with Imilchil, this time with Prehnite of two types different from that previously known. Doubly terminated and isolated crystals and/or groups of green crystals in a matrix that looks like an Ophite, and very large crystals of yellow color of extraordinary quality that are on Calcite and that rival the best Prehnite of any other site. There is some rumor that in fact these last Prehnites could come from Guercif by its matrix of Calcite and by being "too good" to be Imilchil. We will see, but for the moment what is known about them is: Imilchil.






Another new find is the Murdochite, not previously mentioned in the Los Azules Mine in Copiapó, Atacama, Chile and that being associated with Brochantite and Linarite has a nice presence, which can not be said of other Murdochite found previously in other localities...






Now, we have gone from the chapter of strict new finds to things that have not appeared for the first time in this edition of Ste. Marie, but for different reasons I have found them interesting. These quartz from Colombia with inclusions of "something" have been the subject of discussion since they appeared. First it was said that the inclusions were the rare species Humboldtine. That was already discredited. Afterwards Halloysite was talked about but without analytical confirmation, so, the subject is still alive. In the May/June 2019 edition of the always interesting magazine Rocks & Minerals the subject was discussed and John Rakovan also enlightens us in this thread: Quartz and Humboldtine? from Colombia. We will see how the question ends, for now what can be said is that they are very beautiful 😉
Below I copy the cover of the magazine Rocks & Minerals with one of these Quartz in all its splendor.







The Manuelita Mine, has been active for many years and gave many beautiful Rhodochrosites, but had not heard about this mine in the last years. Recently, at 1400 meters deep, unexpectedly the miners found more Rhodochrosite, slightly different from those that had been found before. A great surprise to reappear the Rhodochrosite at such depth!




The Cabeça do Cachorro concession that exploits phosphates in the Brazilian Amazonas has been known for some time by its Vivianite and it was also known that good Ludlamite also came out from there, but in this Ste. Marie we have seen examples of great quality that have made us put this locality among the best in the world for this species.

I leave two more things for my next post: spectacular Proustites that were found again in Aït Ahmane in the month of April of this year and that are somewhat different from the previous ones being in a matrix of something which looks like Safflorite or Rammelsbergite and also by minor associated Actinolite, and the spectacular Fluor-liddicoatite found in the Sahatany Valley area of Madagascar.

More to come...

[Tobi]