FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[chris]

Hi Folk,

Welcome in Alsace

[chris]

Leading to Ste Marie aux Mines, a little city nested in the Val d'Argent (Silver's Valley), home of the second largest mineral show in Europe. Here for four days about 1000 dealers (minerals, jewelries, ...) meet with collectors from throughout Europe and sometimes even farer.

A show that maybe lives its last time here. Because of safety reasons (firefighters & paramedics accesses) the French authorities would like to move the show next year to the nearby city of Colmar. An inspection was under way during the show to determine if the organisation would be allowed to do it here again next year. Let's hope it will be OK.

My first stop was at the theatre, hosts of the high end mineral dealers and to the Prestige exhibit honouring the French fluorites this year. Before the rush started, I've had the opportunity to take some pictures. Fluorite being difficult to photograph, some pictures might not exactly reflect the true colour of the specimens (especially for the strongest coloured ones).

[chris]

Fluorites from Le Beix.

[parfaitelumiere]

I went there last year here is the proof!

[chris]

Fluorite from Le Burg.

[chris]

Fluorite from Fontsantes

[chris]

Another one from an unknown locality (in fact I forgot to read the label). I have a guess but I prefer not to make a mistake.

[chris]

Fluorite from L'Avellan.

[chris]

Fluorites from different localities.

[chris]

From Chamonix of course !

[chris]

From Peyrebrune.

[chris]

And to complete the list, the last two ones. Unfortunately my camera didn't like Valzergues' fluorites. So I can't pay a homage to those. Let's hope some readers will have better pictures than mine...

More to come.

[ploum]

Hello,

first film on this fluorite exposition.... Dailymotion not very god quality.... On request i can send a good CD.

https://www.dailymotion.com/user/ploum2006/video/x9pnzj_exposition-des-fluorites-de-saintem_tech
(link normalized by FMF)

and 2 films come....

[ploum]

Hello Chris,

I complete your serie ;)

others tomorrow i'm tired...

[ploum]

Hello,

This morning two links with last videos (CD on request).

https://www.dailymotion.com/user/ploum2006/video/x9ppju_exposition-des-fluorites-de-saintem_tech

https://www.dailymotion.com/user/ploum2006/video/x9ppv3_exposition-des-fluorites-saintemari_tech
(links normalized by FMF)

And some photo

[ploum]

And others minerals in international seller (thanks jordi and others)

and numerous photo on my website (in one or two days).....

[chris]

Salut Fred,

Thanks for the beautiful pictures. I was about to post mine, but yours are better. About the Epidotes, they were found in March 2009 and brought to Ste Marie by Watzl minerals from Austria. Unfortunately, not all the specimens came out unrepaired as the explosive blast used to clean the access to the pocket damaged some of them.

To complete Ploum's posts, here are two more. The first one is for me the best which was for sale. The second one is less impressive, but with a combination of epidote, byssolith, calcite and apatite (at the back), it has all the major species that can be found in the area of the discovery.

[chris]

A few other specimens that could be seen in the theatre :

[chris]

After visiting the theatre, it was time to discover the dozens of rows where dealers from all over Europe sold specimens ranging from a few euros to several hundreds and sometimes even more. A paradise for beginners and others who were looking for new specimens to had to their collections...

[chris]

I've been surprised by the number of visitors on that Thursday. It was smaller than the previous years. Can we see here a consequence of the crisis striking Europe right now ? While I was writing this conclusion I received a good news from Jordi : the organisation got a clearance from the authorities. The show will take place again at Ste Marie next year. Let's hope it will be as good as this year.

As Ploum & parfaitelumiere already did, if you have pictures and/or comments of your own about the show, fell free to post then in this thread.

That's all folks.