A fairly large and well terminated polychrome tourmaline from the Malchan pegmatite field in Eastern Siberia.

This crystal grades from an orangish red, to yellowish green, to a darker brown green near the base.  There is no damage; all the edges are sharp and the faces intact.

Typically I have shied away from these as the prices asked by the Russian dealers usually start right about (or above) where I have priced this one.

The Malchan deposit is actually a fairly recent discovery, having been discovered southeast of Lake Baikal (near the Mongolian border) in 1980.  The locality has been producing in small amounts since, though on a scale far smaller than either the Brazilian or Afghan tourmaline deposits.  I will also add that the "warmer" colored tourmalines (reds, yellows, oranges) are known from fewer deposits than the greens and blues (which account for the bulk of the Afghan/Brazilian production.) To my knowlege the main producers of these colors are currently Malchan (where this one is from), and the various pegmatites in Madagascar and Nigeria.

This piece really lights up when backlit correctly.

A rich cabinet specimen of autunite, covered in deep yellow bundles of sheave-like crystals.

As mentioned in the text at the top of the page, this piece comes from the collection of Jean Chervet (chervetite), which would date this piece to before 1962.  Today, you would be much more likely to see a similar piece from Washington, than from France.

The Margnac Mine closed in 1995, though this was found decades before.

An exceedingly rare specimen of sabugalite on autunite, in an abnormally large size.  There were only a few of these in the collection, the bulk of the specimens were just autunite.

I have only ever seen a few sabugalites for sale, almost always from France.

A cabinet specimen hosting multiple ball-shaped aggregates of calcite on a plate of quartz crystals.  

When I started collecting in the mid-1990"s, Romanian minerals were as common as the similar Bulgarian or Peruvian specimens are today.  

With Romania"s entrance the EU in 2007 however, the main specimen producing mines (and many others) were forced to close as they were not compatible with EU regulations.  Even for some years before that, output had been decreased,  These days the specimens are still seen for sale, just not as often as before, as the mines are sealed shut.

An exceedingly rare specimen of sabugalite on autunite, in an abnormally large size.  There were only a few of these in the collection, the bulk of the specimens were just autunite.

I have only ever seen a few sabugalites for sale, almost always from France.

A classic, light brown pyromorphite from the Freidrichsegen Mine, that closed is the first half of the 20th century. Pyromorphites from Bad Ems among the most sought after in the world, and given their age, they are many times harder to obtain than the modern Chinese pieces, or even the Les Farges or Bunker Hill pieces that were recovered in the 70"s and 80"s.

This specimen appears to be a nearly solid mass of crystals, growing in various directions.

Among my top 2 favorite specimens from a find made in November of 2012, this is a sheet-like cluster of purple fluorite crystals, some displaying interesting zoning.

I would consider this to be one of the most significant finds of the show, especially considering that Dal"Negorsk is among the world"s foremost specimen producing localities, and that new or unusual occurrences of fluorite typically merit extra attention.  

What makes these pieces unusual and significant (apart from the interesting forms) is their color.  Fluorite has been known from Dal"Negorsk for decades, though almost all of those have been either colorless or light green.  Purple fluorites have only been found a couple times in the area-- a prominent Austrian fluorite collector told me that a couple decades ago there had been one find, and I saw a single specimen on Mindat dating to the early 2000"s.  None had the color saturation of these pieces.

In short, these pieces are significant for the locality, certainly quite rare and I would imagine of some interest to collectors of either fluorite or Dal"Negorsk / Russian minerals.

Among my top 2 favorite specimens from a find made in November of 2012, this is a sheet-like cluster of purple fluorite crystals, some displaying interesting zoning.

This piece also displays interesting crystal forms, the closest I can come to describing it would be elongated cubo-dodecahedrons, but not quite... (see close-up image)

I would consider this to be one of the most significant finds of the show, especially considering that Dal"Negorsk is among the world"s foremost specimen producing localities, and that new or unusual occurrences of fluorite typically merit extra attention.  

What makes these pieces unusual and significant (apart from the interesting forms) is their color.  Fluorite has been known from Dal"Negorsk for decades, though almost all of those have been either colorless or light green.  Purple fluorites have only been found a couple times in the area-- a prominent Austrian fluorite collector told me that a couple decades ago there had been one find, and I saw a single specimen on Mindat dating to the early 2000"s.  None had the color saturation of these pieces.

In short, these pieces are significant for the locality, certainly quite rare and I would imagine of some interest to collectors of either fluorite or Dal"Negorsk / Russian minerals.

A beautiful specimen of pink calcite, composed of three tapered sprays clustered together.  About 3-4 years ago there was a similar find of tapered pink calcites, I purchased a few at that time, though all were individual clusters.  

The arrangement of the calcite sprays is particularly beautiful, the third smaller spray hangs off the edge of the middle spray.  Of all the pieces in cases of one of the Russian dealers in Denver, my eye was immediately drawn to this one.  There were a couple other manganocalcites in the pocket, but none were nearly as well put together as this one.

I would consider this to be one of the most significant finds of the show, especially considering that Dal"Negorsk is among the world"s foremost specimen producing localities, and that new or unusual occurrences of fluorite typically merit extra attention.  

What makes these pieces unusual and significant (apart from the interesting forms) is their color.  Fluorite has been known from Dal"Negorsk for decades, though almost all of those have been either colorless or light green.  Purple fluorites have only been found a couple times in the area-- a prominent Austrian fluorite collector told me that a couple decades ago there had been one find, and I saw a single specimen on Mindat dating to the early 2000"s.  None had the color saturation of these pieces.

In short, these pieces are significant for the locality, certainly quite rare and I would imagine of some interest to collectors of either fluorite or Dal"Negorsk / Russian minerals.

An classic cabinet specimen of Italian cerussite, featuring several sprays on a marble matrix.  The sprays are not all terminated, but the condition of the piece is still remarkable, particularly given its age, and how delicate these "jackstraw" cerussites tend to be.  This is certainly one of the nicer Italian cerussites I've seen around for a while.

There was a new pocket of colorless fluorite debuted at this year's Tucson show.  They are not 100% optical grade, but you can easily see clear through to the matrix, and the clarity/ crystal size combination is much better than most of what has been available over the past few years 

There were not all that many available, I picked the two pieces that had the least damage.  This one has a single ding on  the edge of one of the crystals, this is shown in the bottom close-up. 

A very large and sharp crystal of pyrrhotite from Dal'Negorsk.  The crystal displays textbook form and is remarkably well exposed-- usually they are half embedded in matrix.

There is a sizable chip on the upper right of the specimen (this is visible in the lower two images) but this is almost invisible when the specimen is displayed as shown in the image to the right of this description  

I would consider this to be one of the most significant finds of the show, especially considering that Dal"Negorsk is among the world"s foremost specimen producing localities, and that new or unusual occurrences of fluorite typically merit extra attention.  

What makes these pieces unusual and significant (apart from the interesting forms) is their color.  Fluorite has been known from Dal"Negorsk for decades, though almost all of those have been either colorless or light green.  Purple fluorites have only been found a couple times in the area-- a prominent Austrian fluorite collector told me that a couple decades ago there had been one find, and I saw a single specimen on Mindat dating to the early 2000"s.  None had the color saturation of these pieces.

In short, these pieces are significant for the locality, certainly quite rare and I would imagine of some interest to collectors of either fluorite or Dal"Negorsk / Russian minerals.

A cabinet sized plate of bright yellow autunite crystals, on a thin matrix.  The color is much brighter in person.

This material is rarely seen today-- most autunite on the market is from Washington, and a few years ago there was a small pulse from Germany, to say nothing of the less-well-crystallized examples from Portugal.

A cabinet sized plate of bright yellow autunite crystals, on a thin matrix.  The color is much brighter in person.

This material is rarely seen today-- most autunite on the market is from Washington, and a few years ago there was a small pulse from Germany, to say nothing of the less-well-crystallized examples from Portugal.

There was a new pocket of colorless fluorite debuted at this year"s Tucson show.  They are not 100% optical grade, but the clarity/ crystal size combination is much better than most of what has been available over the past few years This one is very sharp, though it is worth noting that the piece is more transparent than it looks in the pictures.  The transparency is comparable to the preceding specimen (internal cleave aside) though the camera focuses on all internal and surface reflections of flaws. 

There were not all that many available, I picked the two pieces that had the least damage.  This one has a single ding on  one of the corners, this is visible in the bottom right image. 

These cuprites have been around for the last three years,  more or less, but the prices have been very, very high.  

While the price has temporarily dipped low enough for me to be able to offer them (relatively) cheaply, it is worth noting that mining operations have passed through the zone where these cuprites occur, and they are no longer being found.  The market was temporarily flooded, but as I have learned from repeated experience with the various Chinese mineral floods, these pieces WILL disappear from the market.  

For the species, this find should certainly be considered world class, at least as far as crystal size is concerned.  There are only a few localities that produced comparably sized pieces (albeit with better color), in all cases long ago.  In all of those cases, the prices also seldom now dip below a few thousand dollars.

This is a decently sized cluster from the find-- I felt that this was probably the low point as far as where the prices would reach, so I picked up a few.

A miniature specimen hosting numerous autunite crystals, from a classic French locality.

These cuprites have been around for the last three years,  more or less, but the prices have been very, very high.  

While the price has temporarily dipped low enough for me to be able to offer them (relatively) cheaply, it is worth noting that mining operations have passed through the zone where these cuprites occur, and they are no longer being found.  The market was temporarily flooded, but as I have learned from repeated experience with the various Chinese mineral floods, these pieces WILL disappear from the market.  

For the species, this find should certainly be considered world class, at least as far as crystal size is concerned.  There are only a few localities that produced comparably sized pieces (albeit with better color), in all cases long ago.  In all of those cases, the prices also seldom now dip below a few thousand dollars.

This is a decently sized crystal from the find-- it is not a complete octahedron (the pictures are all of the top) but it is not broken, and there is actually a small silver leaf on the bottom.

A beautiful specimen of more isolated greenish-yellow autunite crystals on a nicely contrasting matrix. 

A red, well terminated tourmaline from the Malchan pegmatite field in Eastern Siberia. There is no damage; all the edges are sharp and the faces intact.

The Malchan deposit is actually a fairly recent discovery, having been discovered southeast of Lake Baikal (near the Mongolian border) in 1980.  The locality has been producing in small amounts since, though on a scale far smaller than either the Brazilian or Afghan tourmaline deposits.  I will also add that the "warmer" colored tourmalines (reds, yellows, oranges) are known from fewer deposits than the greens and blues (which account for the bulk of the Afghan/Brazilian production.) To my knowlege the main producers of these colors are currently Malchan (where this one is from), and the various pegmatites in Madagascar and Nigeria.

A beautiful English classic, a pair of aragonite sprays, with the terminations almost all intact.  

A showy small-cabinet example of this old time material.

A miniature specimen hosting numerous autunite crystals, from a classic French locality.

A well terminated polychrome tourmaline from the Malchan pegmatite field in Eastern Siberia. There is no damage; all the edges are sharp and the faces intact.  The color grades from a maroon red at the base, to a yellowish orange near the top.

The Malchan deposit is actually a fairly recent discovery, having been discovered southeast of Lake Baikal (near the Mongolian border) in 1980.  The locality has been producing in small amounts since, though on a scale far smaller than either the Brazilian or Afghan tourmaline deposits.  I will also add that the "warmer" colored tourmalines (reds, yellows, oranges) are known from fewer deposits than the greens and blues (which account for the bulk of the Afghan/Brazilian production.) To my knowlege the main producers of these colors are currently Malchan (where this one is from), and the various pegmatites in Madagascar and Nigeria.

These cuprites have been around for the last three years,  more or less, but the prices have been very, very high.  

While the price has temporarily dipped low enough for me to be able to offer them (relatively) cheaply, it is worth noting that mining operations have passed through the zone where these cuprites occur, and they are no longer being found.  The market was temporarily flooded, but as I have learned from repeated experience with the various Chinese mineral floods, these pieces WILL disappear from the market.  

For the species, this find should certainly be considered world class, at least as far as crystal size is concerned.  There are only a few localities that produced comparably sized pieces (albeit with better color), in all cases long ago.  In all of those cases, the prices also seldom now dip below a few thousand dollars.

This is a decently sized cluster from the find-- I felt that this was probably the low point as far as where the prices would reach, so I picked up a few.

These cuprites have been around for the last three years,  more or less, but the prices have been very, very high.  

While the price has temporarily dipped low enough for me to be able to offer them (relatively) cheaply, it is worth noting that mining operations have passed through the zone where these cuprites occur, and they are no longer being found.  The market was temporarily flooded, but as I have learned from repeated experience with the various Chinese mineral floods, these pieces WILL disappear from the market.  

For the species, this find should certainly be considered world class, at least as far as crystal size is concerned.  There are only a few localities that produced comparably sized pieces (albeit with better color), in all cases long ago.  In all of those cases, the prices also seldom now dip below a few thousand dollars.

This is a decently sized cluster from the find-- I felt that this was probably the low point as far as where the prices would reach, so I picked up a few

A miniature sized plate of bright yellow autunite crystals. Radioactive.