KOFA Wildlife Refuge - March, 2007 - photo by John Veevaert
John Veevaert    PO BOX 2182   Weaverville, California  96093  USA  (888) 689-8402



Return to the 2009 Tucson Show Homepage 

Show Reports
Report 1   Report 2   Report 3   Report 4  Report 5  Report 6  Report 7  Report 8

 
 
 

Tucson 2009 Report 1

Well it is Tucson time again and here we go.  I will start with the trip down here.  This year I stopped briefly in Davis to see my benitoite partner Steve Perry.  Together we have amassed a large selection of specimens that will be available at our Tucson show in my apartment on January 31st & February 7th (If you have time either day and are looking for benitoite mine material I would encourage you to drop by for a visit on either of those two days as we will have new material for each show.).   I usually look for an alternative to Interstate 5 or US HWY 99.  Either trip is stifling to the senses with hundreds of miles of flat, boring farmland. But this year, well sometimes you can't always get what you want... After leaving Steve's it was on to Sacramento and and Hwy 99.  One thing that the central valley of California is noted for this time of year is Tule Fog.   If you are not familiar with Tule fog - that is what we call the thick, opaque, gray soup that clings to the first 50 feet above the ground - it is a dynamic thrill to "enjoy" it.  The travel goes from dreadfully boring to a heart beat away from oblivion as a statistic on one of America's highways. I don't understand what the problem is with people who feel that they are somehow shielded by some imaginary force field which will protect them from a collision. Visibility in this stuff varies from 250 feet to maybe 75 feet or less without warning.  After emerging from the fog I rejoined I-5 south of Bakersfield and headed for the crawl over the Grapevine and descent into purgatory a.k.a. LA.  I can say that with impunity as I grew up in the greater Los Angeles area and still maintain that the best view of LA is in the rear view mirror.  

Below are some of the vistas on my way to mineral mecca...

 


Some of the stunning scenery along Hwy 99 north of Bakersfield
 

Changing fog conditions still north of Bakersfield
 

The grand entrance to Bakersfield on Hwy 99
 
View the YouTube video to hear my evaluation of my decision to drive through Los Angeles instead of heading east at Bakersfield and turning south at Kraemer Junction very near the town of Boron...   
 
 
 

Is that Emerald City ? Uh nope.  Just the heart of smogsville...
 
 

This building along I-5 was your classic 1930s Art Decco style which was all the rage.  It was originally
a tire factory for Goodyear.  I remember countless times as a kid going to the Sports Arena and later
 the "Fabulous" Forum to watch the Lakers play basketball and admiring this building.
  Today it has been converted to a large boutique shopping mall... progress....?
 

The controversial (still) San Onofre Nuclear power station in northern San Diego County along I-5.
It is situated right on the Pacific Ocean.
 
 

Camp Pendleton Marine base eats up a HUGE area of land in northern San Diego County and it abuts southern Orange County.
If the Fed is looking to make some coin they could sell this chunk of land and just about retire the national debt.
It is the last large tract of land left between LA and San Diego that isn't a mall or someone's backyard.  
 

Once in Arizona I turned off of Interstate 8 and headed south towards Ajo.  This is more like it.
 

Downtown Ajo at 25 mph with the old church in the side mirror.
 

On Arizona Hwy 86 40 miles west of Tucson is a road memorial to someone who didn't complete the trip.
I have never seen as many small crosses on a state highway in my life anywhere else.  I counted over 150 of them
between Ajo and Tucson.  I wonder if there is a message there for the Az State Department of Transportation?   
 
 
Ok, enough of the road trip.
 

Two views of the Inn Suites - a small portion of the court yard with downtown Tucson in the background and a strip of rooms during set up.
 
One of the dealers who sets up first is John Cornish from Idaho.  John digs at the Rat's Nest Claim in Custer County, Idaho.  He recovers gorgeous specimens of salmon colored heulandite and snow white mordenite.  For the past several years I have tended to bypass these but this year John has an especially high quality group of specimens of rich salmon color.  Heulandite is not particularly important in the mineral world but the material John offers is likely some of the best heulandite to be found anywhere from North America.
 


A 4.5 cm specimen of heulandite from the Rat's Nest Claim.

 
While wandering about somewhat aimlessly Luiz Menezes popped out of a closed room to alert me of some new material he had brought from Brazil.  First are some of the deepest indigo blue apatite specimens I have seen for some time from Golconda District, Governador Valdares in Minas Gerais, Brazil. All of the specimens he had were miniatures to large thumbnails.  They are found on one or all of the following matrix combinations: cookeite, muscovite and microcline.  Luiz explained to me that the specimens were found around 1990 and hoarded by the miner. Luiz just obtained them this past fall and made them available for Tucson.  I bought all five that he had.
 

Two of the specimens from this find - 2.5 cm across on the left and 4.3 cm across on the right.
 
Next Luiz pointed out that he had some very rare and unusual specimens of magenta colored topaz on quartz from Brumado, Bahia, Brazil.  Topaz has been found there in the past as dull orange or colorless crystals but never in this rich magenta color.  The locality is the same as where the uvite and magnesite material has come from in the past.  Many of the specimens have a magnesite association as well.  Precious few crystals exceed 1 cm in length unfortunately but the color is intense in these ever for such small crystals!  So far it is one of the more interesting new finds here that I have seen.  Luiz stated that only 75 +/- of these were recovered.  And as far he knows no one else has any here at Tucson. I bought ten specimens in all from Luiz.
 

This is a 7 cm specimen with a magnesite crystal hosting a doubly terminated quartz with a couple of
these richly colored crystals of topaz.  The featured topaz is 0.7 cm across and doubly terminated.
 
 
I had heard about a few exceptional specimens of spinel law twinned fluorite specimens that were found at Naica recently.  Large crystals to 6 cm across were found in the mid 1980s and this small (10-12 specimens) find came out this past summer.  Gemini Minerals (Joe and Susan Kilbaso) had the largest group of them (six in all). I bought one for the show and Joe showed me the one he is keeping. The crystals are a pleasing mix of blue and lavender and are gem.  The crystals in this new find did not exceed 2.5 cm across.
 

Two views of the one specimen I bought (this is now sold for $750).  Three gem crystals comprise this 3.2 x 2.1 x 1.9 cm specimen. 
Easily one of the best from this find.
 

This is probably the largest crystal  at 3 cm from the find and the one that Joe and Susan are keeping.
 
Spanish dealer Luis Burillo has consistently managed to bring some very high quality material to every show I see him at.  This year is no exception.  He has several things to report on.  First are some of the best crystals of pearceite I have seen for a very long time!  These come from the famous Uchucchacua mine, Oyon, Lima, Peru.  Pearceite which is an uncommon silver bearing mineral, was originally thought to be an arsenic analogue of polybasite. Now it is considered a polytype of arsenopolybasite. All were thumbnail specimens only and a few were associated with pyrargyite.  These crystals are brilliantly lustrous.
 
 
Two specimens of the five I bought the one on the left is 1.7 cm across.  The specimen on the right is 2.5 cm across.
 
 
Luis had a huge supply of good material from Panasqueira and he also had some new scheelite specimens with quartz from Tamboras, La Libertad, Peru. The scheelite is steel gray in color and set on spiky quartz crystals.  I did not buy any for an update but here is one that he had available.
 

A 5.5 cm specimen of the new scheelite.
 
I ventured down the road to the Quality Inn show to see what was happening there (briefly, the I-10 freeway is still a hopeless mess.  I don't get it.  All of the on and off ramps in the downtown area are sealed shut while they, I guess work (?) on them??? They have been working on this thing since 1996 and STILL haven't finished it!! What the heck?!?!?!?).
 

The Quality Inn on the left and a small fraction of the construction zone on I-10.
 
I always head straight to Mineral Decor to see what Dr. Merchant and his wife Priah have found.  As with most of the planet not much new but he had some very unusual specimens of calcite from Jalgaon.  Usually calcite fails to hit my radar but these gemmy crystals associated with stilbite required a second look.  The crystals were evidently fractured while under ground eons ago and then most likely swept up in mineralizing fluids that precipitated the zeoilites.  Well the fractures were completely healed with secondary calcite mineralization.  I checked these under the scope and they are 100% crystal faces.  Dr. Merchant had four total and I bought three specimens as Mike Bergman had been there just moments before me and bought one.   I showed these to Victor Yount (aka as Mr. Calcite). He initially thought them to be cleaved also but agreed on the whole rehealed nature of these after viewing them through a hand lense.
 

Two of the three specimens I bought. The specimen on the left is 7.5 cm from one end to the other and the right specimen is 4 cm across.
 
 
Ok, this is the first taste of what's new here in Tucson.  Much more to come over the next couple weeks. 


Past Shows & Reports
PLEASE NOTE: The minerals that were offered on these pages are all sold
1999
Munich Show
2000
Sainte Marie Show
Munich Show
2001
Sainte Marie Show
Munich Show
2002
Tucson Show
Sainte Marie Show
Denver Show
Munich Show
2003
Tucson Show
Sainte Marie Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show
Munich Show
2004
Tucson Show
West Coast Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show
Munich Show
2005
Tucson Show
West Coast Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show
Munich Show
2006
Tucson Show
Bologna Show
Sainte Marie Show
East Coast Show
Munich Show
2007
Tucson Show
Dallas Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show
Munich Show
2008
Tucson Show
West Coast Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show
Munich Show
2009
Tucson Show
West Coast Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show
Munich Show

2010
Tucson Show
San Francisco Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show

Munich Show

2011
Tucson Show
San Francisco Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show
Munich Show

2012
Tucson Show
West Coast Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show 
Munich Show

2013
Tucson Show
Sainte Marie Show
Crystal Days (Poland)
Munich Show  

 

 
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