Minerals.net

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.