Minerals.net

The 22nd Street Show, run by Lowell Carhart and his crew at Eon Expos, does a fantastic job organizing a gigantic, ever-growing tent just south of downtown Tucson, calling it the 22nd Street Show. The tent is open before and during the main show, and has a multitude of mineral, gemstone, and jewelry dealers present from all parts of the world.

There are many dealers with gemstone rough, beads, lapidary material, and common foreign material. But scattered throughout the show are several significant mineral dealers with interesting findings. Many great deals and hidden treasures can be found if you comb carefully through the giant tent.

Some of the interesting material I witnessed at this show included more of the yellow-tipped Quartz with Halloysite from Cabiche, Colombia. Schwartz Fine Minerals contained several displays of very large and aesthetic material mined this year, labelled, ironically, as "Corona Quartz." (Perhaps this was a precursor of what was yet to come after the show!) Schwartz Fine Minerals also had a new find of lightly-colored Amethyst in "cactus" like formations, from the famous amethyst locality of Piedra Parada, Veracruz.

The Gneiss Guys (they are some nice guys out of Canada) had Apophyllite with an unusual orange color, from Nashik, India. There is an abundance of Moroccan dealers at this show, all pretty much looking the same with the same material (Vanadinite, Aragonite, Barite, Quartz, wrapped in a very typical format.) However, this year surprised me with several of these Moroccan dealers having giant mineral matrixes covered with hundreds of Vanadinite crystals. These are highly impressive for the color and quality, and surpass any previous level of this popular Moroccan mineral.

A new vendor was present at the Showcase tent under the company name of Sonoranite. This company has discovered, polished, and marketed a new gemstones that they have given the trade name "Sonoranite". The material, discovered by Scottsdale natives John and Steve Hornewer, describes a dark metamorphic rock containing Epidote, Pumpellyite, sulfides, and gold ore. The specific locality was not provided, but presumably it is somewhere in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona.

I recently received a big box that was delivered to my home. It was heavy, with three large books inside. My set of Fifty Years of What’s New in Minerals had arrived. This set, comprised of 2 large volumes and and an index, is a compendium of "What’s New in Minerals" and Related Columns in the Mineralogical Record from 1970-2019. (I had no idea that "What’s New in Minerals" went that far back!)

This compilation is an amazing feat by Tom Moore. Aside from the historical context and reference of having all these articles in one central publication, the index is a masterpiece. At 184 pages, the index was too large to include within the original books, and needed to be its own separate book. The index lists all minerals organized by localities from all the “What’s New in Minerals.”

Browsing through some of the older articles in the first volume is a trip through mineralogical history. It is fascinating to see “new” discoveries that have now become mainstream, as well as some historical specimens. On Page 177 in the first volume, there is a black and white photo of the famous Rhodochrosite “worm” on Pyrite from Santa Eulalia, Chihuahua, Mexico, belonging to Ken and Betty Roberts and displayed at the 1979 Detroit show. This specimen was one of the highlight specimens at the Jim and Gail Spann collection display this year at the Tucson 2020 show.

It is also interesting viewing photos of renowned mineral personalities in their younger years. On the same page as the above-referenced Rhodochrosite is a young and perky Dave Wilber smiling in front of his case of minerals at the 1974 Lincoln, Nebraska federation show.

Seeing the history and developments of earlier shows in a different era is an experience you get going through the volumes. Many smaller shows and events are represented, before all the current mega shows have fully developed into the powerhouses they are today dominating the mineral showplace.

I had the privilege of contributing both photos and articles in this compilation, and am honored to be part of this exciting and historical piece of work. I only wish that in earlier years, I would have written more and taken more photos of shows that I attended and had more information to provide. 

The 3-volume set is available and in-stock from the Mineralogical Record website. Wendell Wilson, editor-in-chief of the Mineralogical Record, told me that there are only 500 sets that were printed, and there isn't any additional printing planned. All those with an interest in mineral discoveries in the past 50 years and their history should take the opportunity to purchase this set before it is too late.    

This page serves as an index to our posts on the 2020 Tucson Gem and Mineral Show®. Our reports include show displays, individual display minerals, and dealer minerals.

• The 2020 Tucson Gem and Mineral Show® Introduction
• The 2020 Tucson Gem and Mineral Show® Displays Part 1
• The 2020 Tucson Gem and Mineral Show® Displays Part 2
  
  
• The 2020 Tucson Gem and Mineral Show® Display Minerals Part 1
• The 2020 Tucson Gem and Mineral Show® Display Minerals Part 2
  
  
• The 2020 Tucson Gem and Mineral Show® Dealer Minerals Part 1
• The 2020 Tucson Gem and Mineral Show® Dealer Minerals Part 2
• The 2020 Tucson Gem and Mineral Show® Dealer Minerals Part 3: Collector's Edge

One of my highlights in Tucson is seeing the new minerals from new discoveries each year. Many dealers wait for Tucson to bring out their new finds, keeping it a secret and preparing the specimens in advance, and having them ready on display for sale at the Tucson shows. 

I try to highlight these finds in my show report, taking pictures of the new finds, or impressive or classic material that I encounter while walking through the dealer booths and seeing their minerals on display. Many dealers are by now accustomed to excitedly show me their new material when I stop by and say hello.

It turns out that this year, some of the new finds were already seen at the end of 2019 at the Denver and Munich shows. However, I am still including those finds here in this report because they were a first for me to see and photograph.

Some of the more remarkable new minerals I encountered were large Quartz crystals with hoppered growth and smoky zones from the Uluguru Mountaisn, Morogoro Region, Tanzania. These were offered by Corrado Vietti Minerals, and reminded me of the Herkimer Diamond style Quartz. Fine Art Minerals once again had amazing surprises for me from the high mountains in Northern Pakistan. These included an amazing array of very large Rutile crystals, some twinned, from Tormiq, Shigar Valley, Pakistan, as well as Aegirine from the same find, some associated together with the Rutile.

The Arkenstone had lots of interesting material, most notably the large and aesthetic grayish-pink Fluorite octahedral crystals from Inner Mongolia, China. This was my first time seeing these minerals, and they were beautifully displayed in a case at the Arkestone. Several other dealers also had this material available. The Arkenstone also had beautiful clusters of rounded sparkling Chalcopyrite Balls from Daye, Huangshi, Hubei Province, China.

This is the first of our three posts of the dealer minerals. Stay part for part 2 and part 3 for additional reporting on some of the new and exciting minerals of late 2019 and 2020.

Our reporting of the 2020 Tucson Gem and Mineral Show® continues with more of the new and interesting dealer minerals seen at the show this year. From our experience at Tucson, year after year, the show is too big to take notice of all the new material -- but what is noticed just has too much to photograph! And of those lucky specimens that do get photographed, there are just too many to post!

So here goes our second post on the dealer minerals -- the ones we noticed at the show, and that we  were able to photograph, and that were deemed worthy of posting!

Azurite seems to be having an unending yield at the Milpillas Mine, in Sonora Mexico. The specimens just get bigger and better, and many dealers have top notch material. However, Unique Mineralshad the largest crystal from Milpillas I have ever seen (apparently from a recent find.)

Spirifer Minerals had a full display case of new minerals from the Mindouli region in the Pool Department, Republic of Congo, including Wulfenite, Cerussite, and some of the best Dioptase examples. Spirifer Minerals also had exceptional green Fluorite cubes on Barite from a place called Jebel Tighemi, Tauourirt, Morocco.

Rhodochrosite is now being mined once again from the Alma area. Considered to be among the most valuable of minerals, Rhodochrosite from this location is highly revered and cherished by collectors. High-end dealer Collector's Edge recently started specimen mining operations at a new portal called the Detroit City portal. (More later about this in our designated Collector's Edge post.) Big Rock Minerals, a relatively new player in the game, had a new find of Rhodochrosite from a different location in the same area, at the Sara Rose Mine in Alma. Many of these were associated with bluish-purple Fluorite.

First appearing on the market several years ago, the new find in Colombia of what has been called by many "Mango Quartz" - i.e. Quartz with bright yellow Halloysite inclusions - has been yielding increasingly exceptional specimens. This year's mining crop has produced some of the biggest crystals with the deepest color. Several dealers had this material from Cabiche, in Boyaca Dept. available, but the biggest and the best seemed to have been observed at Ziga Mineral.

Enchanted Minerals always has surprises from the west. This year, owner Phil Simmons treated show-goers to a new find from Garfield Co., Utah of green Dogtooth Calcite colored by vanadium inclusions.

Perhaps the most memorable new mineral seen this year was the fragile golden Rutile needles, larger than any of these previously seen, from Ibiajara, Bahia, Brazil at the booth of Miner's Lunchbox. This location has been producing the jackstraw Rutile needs for many years now, but this year's find was on a whole new level, with giant crystal sizes and very well-defined thin needles.