Very few major new finds this year but lots
of small ones instead. This seems to be the situation nowadays. It is not like
it was a few years ago when novelties were the main things one saw at shows. We
now mainly see classic specimens and pieces that have come from collections but,
while they are less evident, one cannot say that there are no novelties. Here
is an idea of what is out there:
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The classic Tantara mine, Kakounde, Congo,
in manually worked. From the locality, at a depth of 20m, there are some very
brilliant Diopside specimens that have intense color, and are sometimes associated
with Quartz and Shattuckite.
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In the very productive quarries at Artigas,
Uruguay, they have opened some new areas which are producing some really appealing
and more mineralogically interesting specimens, such as unusual combinations of
Amethyst and Calcite including Amethyst that covered former Calcite crystals that
have now dissolved.
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On the frontier between China and Vietnam
they have found some neat Topaz with a color similar to that of the Pakistani
material. Early on no one was sure if they were really Chinese or Vietnamese:
it now looks certain that they are being found on the Chinese side of the border.
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From a very little known locality in Inner
Mongolia, China some spectacular spherical intense blue Fluorite has been found.
Similar material was found in Myanmar, but for both crystal size and quality these
are without doubt far better.
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From a ‘lavra’ (mining location)
that has not been heard of before: lavra do Poço Dantas, Piauí,
Brazil, we have obtained beautiful Childrenite on matrix associated with Roscherite.
While these have been sold as Eosphorite and people say that there is also some
Guimaraesite on them, the ones we have analyzed are only Childrenite and Roscherite.
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Some time ago some unusual Chinese Doyleite
with its polymorph Gibbsite was discovered. This July they found some new specimens
of very high quality and color, and an appearance that differs from the previous
ones.In our view these are the best specimens ever seen for this species.
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Apart from all the things discussed above,
a number of other items were of interest. The polychromatic Corundum in matrix
from Madagascar and the Boracite from the Gröna mine, Germany, which are
more appealing than is typically the case. There were also the Chinese Gold specimens,
such as the first photo on this page – very
bright but their locality is still not very clear.
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