The entrance to the Smuggler's Inn off of Speedway.


Once in the Smuggler's Inn you see these ponds complete with ducks and carp.

Alfredo had some interesting material including a new "old" find of large Andorite crystals from the San Jose mine in Oruro, Bolivia. These were found sometime in the 1970s at the mine and stashed and forgotten about until this past year. These are an order of magnitude better than any previous find of this rare silver bearing sulfosalt. The chemical formula is: PbAgSb3S6.  The best one I selected is a doubly terminated (floater) crystal that is 4.1 x 4.1 x 0.3 cm in dimension.  This specimen also has microscopic crystals of what turn out to be ferrokesterite - a VERY rare mineral comprised of: Cu2(Fe,Zn)SnS4. He also had some interesting odds and ends including a fine thumbnail specimen of pyroxmangite from the Taguchi mine in Japan.  

This is a superb specimen of andorite a doubly terminated floater that is
4.2 x 4.2 x 0.3 cm with several small crystals of ferrokesterite to 0.2 mm across.
This specimen is available SOLD for $1500.00.

Here's a shot of Alfredo Petrov wondering where he is
going to find more minerals to sell for the rest of the show!

I visited with one Chinese dealers - Da Zhong Crystal Mineral Museum - and found two interesting specimens from Fujian with nice crystals of fluorite associated with smoky quartz and spessartine.  These specimens are different from most of the others I have seen from there are the crystals were etched from encasing calcite.  My first thought was that these were probably "built" but they were clearly not.

This 11 x 9 x 4 cm specimen was etched from encasing calcite
to expose spessartine, smoky quartz and fluorite crystals.
This specimen is available for $225.00

There are many good deals on Russian and Chinese material and it was well worth the visit. But, back to the Clarion Hotel...

After a few stops on Speedway including this one on the corner of Speedway and Alvernon...

I stopped by to see Jordi Fabre in room 107 who had one of the largest crystals of chalcopyrite I have ever seen from Panesqueira, Portugal or anywhere else for that matter.

That is a US quarter for scale next to this beast of a chalcopyrite!

This year Paul Botha has Ray Van Staden working in his room and he had some fine specimens of aquamarine from the Erongo Mountains of Namibia.  These have been coming out for some time but generally the color and luster are rather drab.  These specimens he had were lustrous and of rich aquamarine color.  I found several specimens and moved on down the hall. 

Here are two aquamarine specimens I picked up from Ray. The specimen on the left
is a fine combination specimen of schorl and aquamarine crystals both fully terminated.
It is 5.5 x 4 x 2.2 cm and the aqua is 4 cm in length. The specimen on the right is of
two beryl crystals - the longest being doubly terminated and 3.8 cm in length. The piece on
the left is available SOLD for $425 and the specimen on the right is available SOLD also for $225.  

This year Brazilian dealer Luiz Menezes is at the Clarion Hotel.  Luiz never fails to have interesting new things from Brazil and 2005 was no different.  This year he has four new finds of minerals.  #1 is a find of fairfieldite on albite from the Cigana Mine in Galileia, Minas Gerais.  The fairfieldite occurs as arching grayish crystals on lustrous albite.  The crystals do not get large only 3-4 mm at best but for a typically drab mineral these are sort of attractive with the contrast.  He also had a new find of chrysoberyl with muscovite from Ipiau, Bahia. The chrysoberyl tends to develop encased in muscovite but there were a few with crystals growing on edge.  Several of the chrysoberyl crystals I saw had an attractive cats eye effect when viewed on edge.  His next two new finds were of microlite.  Recall that Luiz had a new find of microlite at the Munich show also last October. The first is a find with almost solid microlite from the Ipe Mine, Governador Valadares, Minas Gerais.  The rock has been moderately fractured and it is all cinnamon colored microlite except for these small acicular sprays of needle form zircon.  Luiz had it tested thinking it might be something new or exotic... Well, this sort of zircon fits that definition I think.  His second find of microlite is also from the Ipe Mine, Governador Valadares, Minas Gerais however the crystals from this find are isolated, though small, and found with attractive muscovite crystals.

This 4.5 x 3 x 2 cm specimen of albite has heavy coverage of gray
fairfieldite crystals to 4 mm across.This specimen is available SOLD for $65.00.

This 8 x 6 x 4 cm specimen of albite has crystals of muscovite with oriented groupings
of microlite crystals to 3 mm across.This specimen is available SOLD for $175.00.

This 4.3 x 3 x 2.5 cm specimen of brecciated microlite hosts scattered acicular crystal groups of white zircon.
This specimen is available SOLD for $165.00.

 
This 2.8 x 2.7 x 0.4 cm specimen of muscovite hosts a gemmy crystal of cats eye chrysoberyl
that is 1 cm in length.This specimen is available SOLD for $50.00.

While Luiz (background) was working up my order I yelled out to Kiyoshi Kiikuni who was in the room.  
At that instant I "got him".  I am sure that I owed him this "favor" for some past deed of his... ;^)

This year I am staying in a place near the base of the Catalina Mountains at the San Ventana apartments.  These are great places to stay at when you have to hang around Tucson for more than a week.  One thing though... Sometimes all of the modern conveniences are not so convenient.  This afternoon I was running the dishwasher when I heard a noise - the kind of noise that conveys to you that all is not right... I ventured into the kitchen to see suds boiling out of the dishwasher and covering the kitchen floor.   Next move was to grab towels and then my camera to record this delightful moment in the life of a mineral dealer... Yeee Haaww!

More to come over the next several days!