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Hi all!
There is a new photo contest on the way, the second Mineral Photo Contest MinerElx is open for entries until 30th of November.
This year there are two categories: macro photos and micromount photos.
No age limit and every participant can submit...
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This leiteite specimen from the Uerpmann collection recently posted on Facebook brought back fond memories of the man who's name was given to the mineral back in 1977.
Leiteite was named to honour Luis Antonio Bravo Teixeira-Leite (1942–1999), Portuguese...
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As it is my birthday today I thought this little bit of mineral related trivia would brighten up the day.
Early last year I was listing an aragonite (and gypsum) specimen from Tomnadashan Mine, Wester Tullich, Loch Tay, Scotland.
An intrguing...
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This unusual specimen featured in my Christmas auction in 2013/2014.
Smithsonite Psm Calcite.
Whatley Quarry, Somerset, UK.
Size: H:12.7cm x W:9.4cm x D:6.6cm
Largest Crystal: 2cm
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It is always interesting when a seller messages me because a mineral isn't listed on our main database.
Jason Boyd Smith, AKA Bucket of Holes made such a request for the mineral "Schmidite" yesterday.
Sure enough it was not listed with us, and further...
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Introduction:
A few months ago I came across the mineral aldridegeite in the IMA list of minerals whilst doing some research. This sulphate mineral is a member of the develline group first discovered and only found at Broken Hill, New South Wales,...
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I have had this little box of granular and crystalline gold on my desk since 2007. It originates from Pilgrims Rest, Witwatersrand in South Africa.
It belonged to the Warren Taylor collection part of which will be making a splash later on in the year....
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Our man of action George (and partner Sam) have had a busy few months getting themselves organised for a house move.
Today finally it is the big day and everything is set to move into the new place.
Of course we are all happy; with new house comes a...
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Burn's Night comes along every year and is mostly a Scottish based celebration of the poet Robbie Burns, so I try to get some "haggis neeps and tatties" in my diet during this time.
It also serves to remind us that another e-Rocks anniversary is coming...
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These pictures posted on Facebook by Vasilis Stergiou Losanda feature the diversity of colour and form of smithsonite from the mines of Lavrion in Greece.
Some really nice specimens and colour on view, looking particularly brilliant in the Greek Sunshine...
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Giuseppe Siccardi of Yourmineral Collection in Italy emailed me at the end of last month to tell me of some changes with his business.
Giuseppe has been trading under Yourmineral collection (item code YMC) with e-Rocks since the end of 2007.
Now 10 years...
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Weishanite is a very rare gold-silver amalgam, which had two localities. Recent investigations of a unknown metallic hexagonal phase on an old sample hosting verified magnolite showed that this is Weishanite in beautiful hexagonal crystals.
I have not...
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For those of you who check out my personal timeline on Facebook you will already be aware that I keep this fed with a steady stream of mineral photographs and sometimes (not so) witty captions!
I just do this for a bit of entertainment and interaction as...
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Munich Show is coming up in a week's time.
We are looking forward to being there as a guest of/helping with Christian Rewitzer in Hall A6.551 - the usual place.
We will be there from Wednesday 28th October to close time on 31st October.
Buyers,...
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e-Rocks seller and Austrian collector Andreas Wallisch has been showing off a new addition to his collection.
A fine specimen of a variety of Lumachelle, called Bleiberg Shell Marble (Muschelmarmor)from Bleiberg in Carinthia in Austria.
This particular...
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The other day we added the new mineral wildenauerite to the database.
This phosphate mineral with the formula:
Zn(Fe3+,Mn2+)2MnFe3+(PO4)3(OH)3(H2O)6·2H2O was approved pending being published by the IMA in August/September 2017.
Isostructural with new...
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In the last month we have enlisted the support of 2 new dealers, both husband and wife teams based in South Africa.
First we have Pierre and Riana Joubert of Namibian Brandberg Crystals and second we have Francois and Lorriane Retief of South Sky...
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March Oxford show is the first of the 2016 series of Oxford shows.
A small show but quite well attended this time was no different; it is a good opportunity to meet up with people after the winter months and Tucson.
Personally suffering from "Manflu" I...
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Six o'clock tonight was the end of our last full day at Munich 2016.
We are back tomorrow but will be leaving early to travel back to the UK.
Some great memories of the show this year but only just enough time for meeting and speaking to everyone we...
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A couple of weeks ago we were contacted by a collector who had stopped collecting and was interested in moving his specimens on.
After completing a purchase last week and having been away in Bakewell all weekend, today was the day we had arranged to pick...
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Organised by the Sussex Mineral & Lapidary Society www.smls.org.uk
Saturday 18th November 10.00am - 4.30pm
Clair Hall, Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath, RH16 3DN
Over 40 dealers with minerals, gems, fossils, meteorites, flints, books, &...
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Mineralogy’s greatest curiosity was not how Dr. John Woodward (1665 - 1728, above) obtained a pallasite meteorite for his collection, decades before the meteorite was actually discovered in Siberia….
Also it was not how Britain’s first true...
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Congratulations to Chris Spiromitros of Greekrocks - he has just updated/upgraded his website.
He is also the first Dealer to put his e-Rocks auctions on his website using our Page App.
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Calamaite is the third natural Ti dominant sulfate mineral known yet. Russian scientists recognized this phase, occuring as filigrane colourless sprays, while doing some analytical investigations in a matrix of coquimbite / römerite. Type locality is...
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Hi everybody! Next December 16, 17 and 18 there will be celebrate MinerELX MineralShow in Elche (Alicante) Spain.
We have opened a Mineral Photo Contest and we would like to invite you to participate.
Mineral Contest with 3 categoies:
- Alicante mineral...
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As I posted yesterday's blog covering Roger's venture into Scottish gold panning I decided to share it into the excellent Facebook group Collectors of British Minerals - also known as COBM.
I am sure I have mentioned this before; COBM is an excellent...
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The Christmas Holidays are nearly upon us and it is time to launch "Mark & Christian's Christmas Cracker 2015".
This is the 9th annual cracker auction and this year Christian Rewitzer and I have filled it with some diverse and interesting minerals....
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As it is 31st December no auctions will be closing today on e-Rocks, however the holiday program continues tomorrow with the first auctions in 2016.
Many thanks to all our customers, sellers and buyers for all your contributions and our success in 2015...
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Last weekend was the last planned road trip for George and I for 2017. We were off to sunny Kent to pick up Norman Cogger's collection, and so there is it all packed and ready to come back.
Remarkably we have found space to store it!
At TV Towers we have...
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Or maybe a better question "What did Monty Python ever do for us?" - well they gave us the wonderful quote "What did the Romans..." to introduce any article about Roman civilisation or technology!
Seller Baltasar Sanchez from Spain has been kind enough...
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El Teniente mine is reportedly the largest underground copper mine in the world with some 3000km of tunnels and 1500km.
The mine started in the the 1820s and named from Braden mine from 1904 until it was changed to El Teniente mine in 1973.
The link...
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A little bit of excitement for a new discovery/identification of bazzite in the Western Alps, Piedmont, Italy.
Usually highly sought after by collectors, bazzite is a rare scandium rich type of beryl usually small with a charateristic strong baby blue...
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This Sunday is the Paul Lowe Memorial Oxford Show.
I am sure it will be a great show and a good opportunity to remember Paul with fellow mineral people.
These are the details;
Venue: Exeter Hall, Kidlington, North Oxford, OX5 1AB
Sunday 27th November...
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A little self indulgence here; not only is liroconite one of the "holy grail" UK minerals, it is one of my favourites!
This specimen listed by Carsten is small but exhibits excellent crystals, and is beautifully photographed!
Check out the other photos...
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We got our new xray diffractometer this week. It will come with a two dimensional detector which enables out of plane bragg peak measurement. This allows ultra fast measurements or extremely low concentrations of mineral samples.
In 2018 we will offer a...
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This weekend three of my friends visited me for some analytical work on their self collected and collection material.
One of them had an old Tsumeb sample hosting filigrane silky masses on germanite renierite matrix. Not very beautiful, but obviously...
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We came across this this specimen of bright pine green chalcosiderite with goethite in a box yesterday.
Very dirty, but with its label in the box. The specimen has cleaned and trimmed well to reveal its interest.
Chalcosiderite was first noted as coming...
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Ever had a discussion along the lines of "I have this old specimen, but it has no labels so I am not sure of where or what it is?"
Most of us have and the mystery sometimes never gets solved, we have quite a pile here, which sometimes has a happy ending...
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Mineral photography continues to be well written up in many places, and no doubt will get a few mentions here from time to time; we do have one or two expert photographers selling and contributing to our pages.
Personally we have photographing minerals...
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During September we undertook the appraisal and purchase of Peter Uuerpmann's collection located in Guadamar Del Segura near Alicante, Spain.
As the collection was in secure storage there were some challenges in getting access and seeing the minerals,...
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George and I were on the road early today to visit the 2017 Sussex Mineral & Lapidary Society Show (SMLS) at Haywards Heath.
This was the first time we have been to the show since 2010; e-Rocker Trevor Devon also Treasurer of the SMLS suggested we...
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Former e-Rocks seller and gemstone dealer from downunder, Klaus Brucksch has just been showing off some grizzly remains trapped in amber.
These amber specimens come from Myanmar and the creatures are a bit different to the flies ants and other insects we...
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A nice photograph of our home for 2 nights over the Bakewell Show weekend.
This has been our regular stop over for 14 years - now equipped with WiFi we will be online answering emails etc and hopefully adding some news from the show.
Looking forward to a...
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It is January 1st 2018 and welcome back to a new year of minerals and other things going on, on e-Rocks.
I promised Carsten last week to make sure there was a "liroconite alert" in place for his auction closing tonight. A fitting start to the New Year...
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Back in 2009 the late Paul Lowe was disposing of the mineral collection of the late Dr Fred Armitage.
Dr Armitage lectured in Chemistry at London Universities from the 1970s until the early 2000s. He had a huge interest in puzzles particularly polycube...
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At Oxford show last weekend Geologist Nick Eastwood was selling a small batch of fluorite specimens he has collected in the 1970s when he was working in the Dale.
The specimens are from the Red Vein Lead Mine (or Level) a separate portal onto the Red...
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Here we are with another auction close coming up for a specimen of liroconite.
This specimen is a nice thumbnail with abundant blue crystals from German seller Karin’s Mineral Shop.
Liroconite is a comparatively rare mineral and because of this and it’s...
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The Birmingham Auction house Fellows recently conducted an auction of some 257 lots of worked Blue John.
The group photo must almost be without precedent!
The catalogue contained just about every type of object that has ever been fashioned from Blue John...
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A feature of the new website is the ability of our Database and your catalogue to hold and display items by Provenance.
Behind the scenes we provide a whole inventory system that connects minerals to people, collectors, historic dealers and institutions...
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As previously mentioned yesterday's show was dedicated to the memory of Paul Lowe who had organised the show since 1993. It was great to see so many people there.
Paul's children Matt and Emma had arranged some photo tributes to Paul as well as being on...
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So goes the advertising strapline, and my reaction to seeing this photograph of gold bars, coins, nuggets and mineral ore/specimens.
The haul of 30,000lbs, approx 1.5 tonnes was recovered from the wreck of the SS Central America from deep of off the...
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Peshawar based Imran Bangash of Spin Ghar Minerals has just returned from an exciting trip to the mining locality at Marki Khel in Khogyani, Afghanistan.
The locality is well reknowned for its wonderful specimens of andradite, epidote, diopside, and...
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Story covered by BBC local news for Derbyshire.
I am not sure if this is the same "discovery" made a few years back or something new.
Certainly it looks a good deposit of usable Blue John, brilliant news for the Blue John fraternity and crafts people....
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Coming up on 18th May 2016 is a huge auction of antique books at the German Auction house Reis & Sohn, Königstein, Germany.
Within the "Manuscript & Geography" section there are a number of fascinating early books (18th to 20th century) on...
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Back in early 2004 I offered a suite of minerals from Palabora mine collected by John Gliddon when he worked there.
This specimen was part of that collection that never sold and became misplaced in our stock system.
It was discovered recently dusty and...
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Okoruso Fluorspar Mine From The Air - (Gecko Namibia (Pty) Ltd)
Collectors of fluorite will already know of the vast array and plentiful supply of beautiful fluorite from Okoruso in Namibia.
Specimen mining has been managed under license to Peter...
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Greenockite from Tsumeb forms beautiful hexagonal orange crystals in cavities of Cd rich galena. Often the specimens host brownish Cd rich smithsonite. Crystal size is usually around 50-100µm.
Studies under the electron beam reveal the details of the...
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Everyone who is connected to the world of minerals will surely have heard by now of the tragic and early death of John Veevaert.
Reading the tributes over on Facebook you really get the feeling of what an important and inspirational figure he had become...
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In 1985 I had acquired some palladium metal, as a by-product of some illicit platinum reclamation I was undertaking. I made the above quarter-ounce "nugget" with it, drilled to be worn as a pendant.
Natural Pd specimens below, from the type locality, ...
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At this time on Thursday 3rd September 2015 we were busy finishing the change over from the old e-Rocks site to the new.
Later that evening the first sold specimen, CMM220188 Pentagonite from India hit the order table.
Since that time another 103380...
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My friend Paul and I recently went to The Weardale Mineral Show at St. Johns Chapel, a small village 7 miles west of Stanhope, here in the North East of England. I primarily went there to meet up with e-Rocks boss Mark. Paul went there because I don't...
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Since we launched the new e-Rocks in September 2015 we have been busy behind the scenes working on small revisions and tweaks, plus of course doing all the other work in running the show.
Today we have just upgraded the site to unleash a whole lot of new...
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Last month we blogged about the acquisition of an important Wheal Maudlin "Horsetooth" siderite specimen from an unspecified lot of minerals at an auction in North Yorkshire.
Siderite - Wheal Maudlin, Lanlivery, Cornwall
The provenance of the piece has...
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I was asking Colleen Thomson about the latest from the Greenlaws project at the last Oxford show - she did say that an announcement was imminent and here it is, courtesy of Peter Ward on their Facebook page.
"Hi everyone...
We are delighted to announce...
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A few weeks ago I was contacted by a local family who had a quantity of minerals, fossils and shells they had acquired during their times abroad in the Arabian Gulf.
They live only a few minutes from TV Towers so there was no difficulty in visiting to...
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A large block of native iron and weighing approx 20 tonnes. It was brought to the Naturhistoriska riksmuseet in Stockholm Sweden in 1870 by boat and horse-drawn carriage from Greenland's West Coast by Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld to a large fanfare.
Naturally...
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The project to open a pit to extract tungsten at Hemerdon has been going for a few years, but now it has entered into production with the first concentrate being produced.
As reported by the Plymouth Herald "it represents another major milestone in the...
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This week we are planning to make some upgrades to e-Rocks.
Everything will be going on behind the scenes.
There maybe a few occasions you will find a page to slow to load or will need a "refresh" for this to complete as the new software synchronises...
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In November 1777 French botanist Joseph Dombey, above, set sail for Peru and Chile, as part of the joint Spanish-French Ruiz & Pavón Expedition. The arduous eleven year botanical exploration provided a wealth of plant specimens, an international...
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Today is Halloween, a fun time of dressing up, lighting lanterns and "trick or treating".
Our own ghoul face agate lives all year round on a shelf with the family pictures above our stairs. We bought him back in 2000 when Christian (my wife) and I were...
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Not really a new year's resolution as such, but to make space for new projects, it is time to sell my old collection/hoard of Romanian minerals.
Back in the day, before 2002 I put together quite a large selection of Romanian pieces, traveling there when...
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We just put this specimen of realgar and quartz out onto the website for an upcoming auction.
Recovered in circa 2000 just before the "big find" of realgar at Baia Sprie, this specimen displays wonderful contrast between the white and greys of the...
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Last week I took a few days out to visit some favourite old haunts up in Weardale.
I have always loved the place and the mining and mineral heritage have created an enduring strange feeling of home from home when ever I visit.
The central purpose of my...
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As we push back on May and head into June a final quick blog with 2 bits of new information.
Nollmotzite (Mg[U5+(U6+O2)2O4F3]·4H2O)
A new mineral, IMA approved pending publication due.
Nollmotzite is the first naturally occurring uranium, uranyl...
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It is time to announce the latest 10,000 minerals have been added to the e-Rocks database, this time it is an all American honour - or should I say honor?
Michael Cline of Uravan Minerals (USA) brought up item 660000 earlier today with his listing of a...
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The new year continues this week with a full program of auctions from the e-Rocks sellers.
As usual a huge and diverse range covering most aspects of collecting.
This diamond listed in the latest SAL minerals auction is a good example, weighing in at 57....
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When water freezes, it forms the mineral ice. The most beautiful specimens soon melt, so e-Rocks has never sold any. Don’t be dismayed by the prospect of an article on ice though, just wade through a next bit about snowflakes, then the post livens up...
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I was working on a new mineral the other day and spotted an interesting question raised shared by various sources.
Tredouxite (IMA approved pending publication) is named for professor Marian Tredoux in the Department of Geology, University of the Free...
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Recently e-Rocks enabled the sale of a very rare mineral - Ramazzoite. The specimen above, measuring 1 × 2.5 × 1.2 cm, sold by Ligurian Minerals for £681. Found so far only at the type locality, Mount Ramazzo Mine, Genoa, Italy, the specimen is part of...
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Crystals to cosmetics, this post is about various minerals which have been used, without chemical alteration, as makeup.
OCHRE
Evidence of the use of minerals to adorn human skin has been gathered back to around 7000 years ago, although there is little...
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In our current TVM auction we have added a few specimens from the Warren Taylor collection.
We have known Warren for 15 years and have handled and advised on the disposal of a great number of his minerals since 2007.
Within our database we have set up a...
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As Facebook does, this fantastic specimen photo posted by Val Collins in May 2012 appeared in my timeline today.
Not many of these specimens of cerussite with pyromorphite from Daoping Mine appeared, this must be one of the best examples.
Thanks to...
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This wulfenite specimen was news at Ste Marie Show in 2005, it was part of small find brought to the show by Guangha (George) Liu.
The locality was given as Mian Ning Mine in Sichuan, China. At the time there was a lot of discussion, but the find was...
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Every alpine collector's dream (and most other people too) is to find the perfect pocket.
Austrian Strahler Peter Eberhard has been busy on the Alps at Habachtal.
Earlier this month Peter was investigating a previously worked opening high up in the...
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How the days and months seem to fly by, and now summer has passed we are into the autumn season of mineral shows. We start our outings as usual by visiting Bakewell show next week end.
Arguably Bakewell (Rock Exchange) is the UK's largest show for...
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I have been interested in and collected Romanian minerals since 1975, I don't recall seeing a quartz crystal in section before.
This novelty specimen of quartz from Herja Romania shows some interesting internal features.
A crystal section cut and...
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Analytical investigations of the germanite and renierite associated secondary minerals have lead to the discoveries of many unique minerals eg. otjisumeite, bartelkeite, stottite from the Tsumeb Mine, Otavi Highlands, Namibia in the past decades.
There...
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Carsten Slotta, of Mineral Treasure has this specimen of fluorite currently listed on e-Rocks.
From the lesser known Black Forest locality of Igelschlatt Mine, Waldshut the piece is covered in amazingly perfect hexakis-octahedral crystals.
(It should be...
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Our visit to Bakewell Show for another year is sadly over; but what an eventful couple of days it has been.
We arrived on the Friday night and after getting e-Rocks organised we headed off for the first meal out of the weekend.
The Friday night "Curry...
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Above is a picture from a few days ago of our last pallet of minerals to arrive for 2016.
What a busy year it has been and now it is nearly over. Christmas and the holiday period are all set and there are some terrific contributions this year our...
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These amazing images recently appeared in the Journal of American Chemistry Society.
The picture shows individual molecules obtained by microscopy - the scale is mindblowing - 1 Angstrom length is 1 X 10-10m.
Amazing to see how the structures that have...
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It is approaching the second anniversary of George joining the e-Rocks team; so after a record 24 consecutive "Employee of the Month" awards we thought it time to reward him with a nice trip to Spain.
The upshot to this will be that we are going to be...
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Liroconite is just one of those minerals that attracts attention; it is rare, colourful and good specimens usually only found in old collections.
When a piece is listed on e-Rocks we usually get excited and this one is definitely no exception.
We saw...
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GPSmineral, located mineralogy, is a new project that wants to share mineralogy passion all around the world, we have started with a few articles about spanish, italian and USA mineralogy.
We have a map to locate.
For the moment we only have one...
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The other day I was checking through some minerals from last year's fluorite find at Shannapheasteen in the Irish Republic.
Within the base of some quartz crystals were some small 2mm clear to white flat crystals. These were isolated and well dispersed...
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2 weeks to go until this year's Rock Exchange - AKA Bakewell Show.
Always great to attend for 2 show days of minerals and catch-up with people from all over the UK and further afield.
10th and 11th October, 2015
Lady Manners School,
Bakewell,...
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One of Germany's most diverse sources of minerals, and still open here is a specimen of "plain old" baryte with inclusions of limonite etc.
Makes a pretty and elegant display.
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This discovery in the Ted Smithson Collection and a previous entry by Mike Brooke led me to look into the background of these microscopic grains of gold from Sutherland in Scotland.
The sheer amount of time - 24 hours - required to pan 100 or so flakes...
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I was visiting an e-Rocks customer the other day, and was awestruck by his collection of radio-active artefacts.
Many things have changed over the years as learning and science have made our lives safer, but looking back some of these are just incredible...
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e-Rocks seller and well traveled field collector Tasos Tsinidis from Greece, has some wonderful minerals and stories to tell about his exploits.
He is knowledge of all things mineralogical and Greek is immense, he also is excellent at preparing and...
Blog entryHi all! There is a new photo contest on the way, the second Mineral Photo Contest MinerElx is open for entries until 30th of November. This year there are two categories: macro photos and micromount photos. No age limit and every participant can submit...
Blog entryThis leiteite specimen from the Uerpmann collection recently posted on Facebook brought back fond memories of the man who's name was given to the mineral back in 1977. Leiteite was named to honour Luis Antonio Bravo Teixeira-Leite (1942–1999), Portuguese...
Blog entryAs it is my birthday today I thought this little bit of mineral related trivia would brighten up the day. Early last year I was listing an aragonite (and gypsum) specimen from Tomnadashan Mine, Wester Tullich, Loch Tay, Scotland. An intrguing...
Blog entryThis unusual specimen featured in my Christmas auction in 2013/2014. Smithsonite Psm Calcite. Whatley Quarry, Somerset, UK. Size: H:12.7cm x W:9.4cm x D:6.6cm Largest Crystal: 2cm
Blog entryIt is always interesting when a seller messages me because a mineral isn't listed on our main database. Jason Boyd Smith, AKA Bucket of Holes made such a request for the mineral "Schmidite" yesterday. Sure enough it was not listed with us, and further...
Blog entryIntroduction: A few months ago I came across the mineral aldridegeite in the IMA list of minerals whilst doing some research. This sulphate mineral is a member of the develline group first discovered and only found at Broken Hill, New South Wales,...
Blog entryI have had this little box of granular and crystalline gold on my desk since 2007. It originates from Pilgrims Rest, Witwatersrand in South Africa. It belonged to the Warren Taylor collection part of which will be making a splash later on in the year....
Blog entryOur man of action George (and partner Sam) have had a busy few months getting themselves organised for a house move. Today finally it is the big day and everything is set to move into the new place. Of course we are all happy; with new house comes a...
Blog entryBurn's Night comes along every year and is mostly a Scottish based celebration of the poet Robbie Burns, so I try to get some "haggis neeps and tatties" in my diet during this time. It also serves to remind us that another e-Rocks anniversary is coming...
Blog entryThese pictures posted on Facebook by Vasilis Stergiou Losanda feature the diversity of colour and form of smithsonite from the mines of Lavrion in Greece. Some really nice specimens and colour on view, looking particularly brilliant in the Greek Sunshine...
Blog entryGiuseppe Siccardi of Yourmineral Collection in Italy emailed me at the end of last month to tell me of some changes with his business. Giuseppe has been trading under Yourmineral collection (item code YMC) with e-Rocks since the end of 2007. Now 10 years...
Blog entryWeishanite is a very rare gold-silver amalgam, which had two localities. Recent investigations of a unknown metallic hexagonal phase on an old sample hosting verified magnolite showed that this is Weishanite in beautiful hexagonal crystals. I have not...
Blog entryFor those of you who check out my personal timeline on Facebook you will already be aware that I keep this fed with a steady stream of mineral photographs and sometimes (not so) witty captions! I just do this for a bit of entertainment and interaction as...
Blog entryMunich Show is coming up in a week's time. We are looking forward to being there as a guest of/helping with Christian Rewitzer in Hall A6.551 - the usual place. We will be there from Wednesday 28th October to close time on 31st October. Buyers,...
Blog entrye-Rocks seller and Austrian collector Andreas Wallisch has been showing off a new addition to his collection. A fine specimen of a variety of Lumachelle, called Bleiberg Shell Marble (Muschelmarmor)from Bleiberg in Carinthia in Austria. This particular...
Blog entryThe other day we added the new mineral wildenauerite to the database. This phosphate mineral with the formula: Zn(Fe3+,Mn2+)2MnFe3+(PO4)3(OH)3(H2O)6·2H2O was approved pending being published by the IMA in August/September 2017. Isostructural with new...
Blog entryIn the last month we have enlisted the support of 2 new dealers, both husband and wife teams based in South Africa. First we have Pierre and Riana Joubert of Namibian Brandberg Crystals and second we have Francois and Lorriane Retief of South Sky...
Blog entryMarch Oxford show is the first of the 2016 series of Oxford shows. A small show but quite well attended this time was no different; it is a good opportunity to meet up with people after the winter months and Tucson. Personally suffering from "Manflu" I...
Blog entrySix o'clock tonight was the end of our last full day at Munich 2016. We are back tomorrow but will be leaving early to travel back to the UK. Some great memories of the show this year but only just enough time for meeting and speaking to everyone we...
Blog entryA couple of weeks ago we were contacted by a collector who had stopped collecting and was interested in moving his specimens on. After completing a purchase last week and having been away in Bakewell all weekend, today was the day we had arranged to pick...
Blog entryOrganised by the Sussex Mineral & Lapidary Society www.smls.org.uk Saturday 18th November 10.00am - 4.30pm Clair Hall, Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath, RH16 3DN Over 40 dealers with minerals, gems, fossils, meteorites, flints, books, &...
Blog entryMineralogy’s greatest curiosity was not how Dr. John Woodward (1665 - 1728, above) obtained a pallasite meteorite for his collection, decades before the meteorite was actually discovered in Siberia…. Also it was not how Britain’s first true...
Blog entryCongratulations to Chris Spiromitros of Greekrocks - he has just updated/upgraded his website. He is also the first Dealer to put his e-Rocks auctions on his website using our Page App.
Blog entryCalamaite is the third natural Ti dominant sulfate mineral known yet. Russian scientists recognized this phase, occuring as filigrane colourless sprays, while doing some analytical investigations in a matrix of coquimbite / römerite. Type locality is...
Blog entryHi everybody! Next December 16, 17 and 18 there will be celebrate MinerELX MineralShow in Elche (Alicante) Spain. We have opened a Mineral Photo Contest and we would like to invite you to participate. Mineral Contest with 3 categoies: - Alicante mineral...
Blog entryAs I posted yesterday's blog covering Roger's venture into Scottish gold panning I decided to share it into the excellent Facebook group Collectors of British Minerals - also known as COBM. I am sure I have mentioned this before; COBM is an excellent...
Blog entryThe Christmas Holidays are nearly upon us and it is time to launch "Mark & Christian's Christmas Cracker 2015". This is the 9th annual cracker auction and this year Christian Rewitzer and I have filled it with some diverse and interesting minerals....
Blog entryAs it is 31st December no auctions will be closing today on e-Rocks, however the holiday program continues tomorrow with the first auctions in 2016. Many thanks to all our customers, sellers and buyers for all your contributions and our success in 2015...
Blog entryLast weekend was the last planned road trip for George and I for 2017. We were off to sunny Kent to pick up Norman Cogger's collection, and so there is it all packed and ready to come back. Remarkably we have found space to store it! At TV Towers we have...
Blog entryOr maybe a better question "What did Monty Python ever do for us?" - well they gave us the wonderful quote "What did the Romans..." to introduce any article about Roman civilisation or technology! Seller Baltasar Sanchez from Spain has been kind enough...
Blog entryEl Teniente mine is reportedly the largest underground copper mine in the world with some 3000km of tunnels and 1500km. The mine started in the the 1820s and named from Braden mine from 1904 until it was changed to El Teniente mine in 1973. The link...
Blog entryA little bit of excitement for a new discovery/identification of bazzite in the Western Alps, Piedmont, Italy. Usually highly sought after by collectors, bazzite is a rare scandium rich type of beryl usually small with a charateristic strong baby blue...
Blog entryThis Sunday is the Paul Lowe Memorial Oxford Show. I am sure it will be a great show and a good opportunity to remember Paul with fellow mineral people. These are the details; Venue: Exeter Hall, Kidlington, North Oxford, OX5 1AB Sunday 27th November...
Blog entryA little self indulgence here; not only is liroconite one of the "holy grail" UK minerals, it is one of my favourites! This specimen listed by Carsten is small but exhibits excellent crystals, and is beautifully photographed! Check out the other photos...
Blog entryWe got our new xray diffractometer this week. It will come with a two dimensional detector which enables out of plane bragg peak measurement. This allows ultra fast measurements or extremely low concentrations of mineral samples. In 2018 we will offer a...
Blog entryThis weekend three of my friends visited me for some analytical work on their self collected and collection material. One of them had an old Tsumeb sample hosting filigrane silky masses on germanite renierite matrix. Not very beautiful, but obviously...
Blog entryWe came across this this specimen of bright pine green chalcosiderite with goethite in a box yesterday. Very dirty, but with its label in the box. The specimen has cleaned and trimmed well to reveal its interest. Chalcosiderite was first noted as coming...
Blog entryEver had a discussion along the lines of "I have this old specimen, but it has no labels so I am not sure of where or what it is?" Most of us have and the mystery sometimes never gets solved, we have quite a pile here, which sometimes has a happy ending...
Blog entryMineral photography continues to be well written up in many places, and no doubt will get a few mentions here from time to time; we do have one or two expert photographers selling and contributing to our pages. Personally we have photographing minerals...
Blog entryDuring September we undertook the appraisal and purchase of Peter Uuerpmann's collection located in Guadamar Del Segura near Alicante, Spain. As the collection was in secure storage there were some challenges in getting access and seeing the minerals,...
Blog entryGeorge and I were on the road early today to visit the 2017 Sussex Mineral & Lapidary Society Show (SMLS) at Haywards Heath. This was the first time we have been to the show since 2010; e-Rocker Trevor Devon also Treasurer of the SMLS suggested we...
Blog entryFormer e-Rocks seller and gemstone dealer from downunder, Klaus Brucksch has just been showing off some grizzly remains trapped in amber. These amber specimens come from Myanmar and the creatures are a bit different to the flies ants and other insects we...
Blog entryA nice photograph of our home for 2 nights over the Bakewell Show weekend. This has been our regular stop over for 14 years - now equipped with WiFi we will be online answering emails etc and hopefully adding some news from the show. Looking forward to a...
Blog entryIt is January 1st 2018 and welcome back to a new year of minerals and other things going on, on e-Rocks. I promised Carsten last week to make sure there was a "liroconite alert" in place for his auction closing tonight. A fitting start to the New Year...
Blog entryBack in 2009 the late Paul Lowe was disposing of the mineral collection of the late Dr Fred Armitage. Dr Armitage lectured in Chemistry at London Universities from the 1970s until the early 2000s. He had a huge interest in puzzles particularly polycube...
Blog entryAt Oxford show last weekend Geologist Nick Eastwood was selling a small batch of fluorite specimens he has collected in the 1970s when he was working in the Dale. The specimens are from the Red Vein Lead Mine (or Level) a separate portal onto the Red...
Blog entryHere we are with another auction close coming up for a specimen of liroconite. This specimen is a nice thumbnail with abundant blue crystals from German seller Karin’s Mineral Shop. Liroconite is a comparatively rare mineral and because of this and it’s...
Blog entryThe Birmingham Auction house Fellows recently conducted an auction of some 257 lots of worked Blue John. The group photo must almost be without precedent! The catalogue contained just about every type of object that has ever been fashioned from Blue John...
Blog entryA feature of the new website is the ability of our Database and your catalogue to hold and display items by Provenance. Behind the scenes we provide a whole inventory system that connects minerals to people, collectors, historic dealers and institutions...
Blog entryAs previously mentioned yesterday's show was dedicated to the memory of Paul Lowe who had organised the show since 1993. It was great to see so many people there. Paul's children Matt and Emma had arranged some photo tributes to Paul as well as being on...
Blog entrySo goes the advertising strapline, and my reaction to seeing this photograph of gold bars, coins, nuggets and mineral ore/specimens. The haul of 30,000lbs, approx 1.5 tonnes was recovered from the wreck of the SS Central America from deep of off the...
Blog entryPeshawar based Imran Bangash of Spin Ghar Minerals has just returned from an exciting trip to the mining locality at Marki Khel in Khogyani, Afghanistan. The locality is well reknowned for its wonderful specimens of andradite, epidote, diopside, and...
Blog entryStory covered by BBC local news for Derbyshire. I am not sure if this is the same "discovery" made a few years back or something new. Certainly it looks a good deposit of usable Blue John, brilliant news for the Blue John fraternity and crafts people....
Blog entryComing up on 18th May 2016 is a huge auction of antique books at the German Auction house Reis & Sohn, Königstein, Germany. Within the "Manuscript & Geography" section there are a number of fascinating early books (18th to 20th century) on...
Blog entryBack in early 2004 I offered a suite of minerals from Palabora mine collected by John Gliddon when he worked there. This specimen was part of that collection that never sold and became misplaced in our stock system. It was discovered recently dusty and...
Blog entryOkoruso Fluorspar Mine From The Air - (Gecko Namibia (Pty) Ltd) Collectors of fluorite will already know of the vast array and plentiful supply of beautiful fluorite from Okoruso in Namibia. Specimen mining has been managed under license to Peter...
Blog entryGreenockite from Tsumeb forms beautiful hexagonal orange crystals in cavities of Cd rich galena. Often the specimens host brownish Cd rich smithsonite. Crystal size is usually around 50-100µm. Studies under the electron beam reveal the details of the...
Blog entryEveryone who is connected to the world of minerals will surely have heard by now of the tragic and early death of John Veevaert. Reading the tributes over on Facebook you really get the feeling of what an important and inspirational figure he had become...
Blog entryIn 1985 I had acquired some palladium metal, as a by-product of some illicit platinum reclamation I was undertaking. I made the above quarter-ounce "nugget" with it, drilled to be worn as a pendant. Natural Pd specimens below, from the type locality, ...
Blog entryAt this time on Thursday 3rd September 2015 we were busy finishing the change over from the old e-Rocks site to the new. Later that evening the first sold specimen, CMM220188 Pentagonite from India hit the order table. Since that time another 103380...
Blog entryMy friend Paul and I recently went to The Weardale Mineral Show at St. Johns Chapel, a small village 7 miles west of Stanhope, here in the North East of England. I primarily went there to meet up with e-Rocks boss Mark. Paul went there because I don't...
Blog entrySince we launched the new e-Rocks in September 2015 we have been busy behind the scenes working on small revisions and tweaks, plus of course doing all the other work in running the show. Today we have just upgraded the site to unleash a whole lot of new...
Blog entryLast month we blogged about the acquisition of an important Wheal Maudlin "Horsetooth" siderite specimen from an unspecified lot of minerals at an auction in North Yorkshire. Siderite - Wheal Maudlin, Lanlivery, Cornwall The provenance of the piece has...
Blog entryI was asking Colleen Thomson about the latest from the Greenlaws project at the last Oxford show - she did say that an announcement was imminent and here it is, courtesy of Peter Ward on their Facebook page. "Hi everyone... We are delighted to announce...
Blog entryA few weeks ago I was contacted by a local family who had a quantity of minerals, fossils and shells they had acquired during their times abroad in the Arabian Gulf. They live only a few minutes from TV Towers so there was no difficulty in visiting to...
Blog entryA large block of native iron and weighing approx 20 tonnes. It was brought to the Naturhistoriska riksmuseet in Stockholm Sweden in 1870 by boat and horse-drawn carriage from Greenland's West Coast by Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld to a large fanfare. Naturally...
Blog entryThe project to open a pit to extract tungsten at Hemerdon has been going for a few years, but now it has entered into production with the first concentrate being produced. As reported by the Plymouth Herald "it represents another major milestone in the...
Blog entryThis week we are planning to make some upgrades to e-Rocks. Everything will be going on behind the scenes. There maybe a few occasions you will find a page to slow to load or will need a "refresh" for this to complete as the new software synchronises...
Blog entryIn November 1777 French botanist Joseph Dombey, above, set sail for Peru and Chile, as part of the joint Spanish-French Ruiz & Pavón Expedition. The arduous eleven year botanical exploration provided a wealth of plant specimens, an international...
Blog entryToday is Halloween, a fun time of dressing up, lighting lanterns and "trick or treating". Our own ghoul face agate lives all year round on a shelf with the family pictures above our stairs. We bought him back in 2000 when Christian (my wife) and I were...
Blog entryNot really a new year's resolution as such, but to make space for new projects, it is time to sell my old collection/hoard of Romanian minerals. Back in the day, before 2002 I put together quite a large selection of Romanian pieces, traveling there when...
Blog entryWe just put this specimen of realgar and quartz out onto the website for an upcoming auction. Recovered in circa 2000 just before the "big find" of realgar at Baia Sprie, this specimen displays wonderful contrast between the white and greys of the...
Blog entryLast week I took a few days out to visit some favourite old haunts up in Weardale. I have always loved the place and the mining and mineral heritage have created an enduring strange feeling of home from home when ever I visit. The central purpose of my...
Blog entryAs we push back on May and head into June a final quick blog with 2 bits of new information. Nollmotzite (Mg[U5+(U6+O2)2O4F3]·4H2O) A new mineral, IMA approved pending publication due. Nollmotzite is the first naturally occurring uranium, uranyl...
Blog entryIt is time to announce the latest 10,000 minerals have been added to the e-Rocks database, this time it is an all American honour - or should I say honor? Michael Cline of Uravan Minerals (USA) brought up item 660000 earlier today with his listing of a...
Blog entryThe new year continues this week with a full program of auctions from the e-Rocks sellers. As usual a huge and diverse range covering most aspects of collecting. This diamond listed in the latest SAL minerals auction is a good example, weighing in at 57....
Blog entryWhen water freezes, it forms the mineral ice. The most beautiful specimens soon melt, so e-Rocks has never sold any. Don’t be dismayed by the prospect of an article on ice though, just wade through a next bit about snowflakes, then the post livens up...
Blog entryI was working on a new mineral the other day and spotted an interesting question raised shared by various sources. Tredouxite (IMA approved pending publication) is named for professor Marian Tredoux in the Department of Geology, University of the Free...
Blog entryRecently e-Rocks enabled the sale of a very rare mineral - Ramazzoite. The specimen above, measuring 1 × 2.5 × 1.2 cm, sold by Ligurian Minerals for £681. Found so far only at the type locality, Mount Ramazzo Mine, Genoa, Italy, the specimen is part of...
Blog entryCrystals to cosmetics, this post is about various minerals which have been used, without chemical alteration, as makeup. OCHRE Evidence of the use of minerals to adorn human skin has been gathered back to around 7000 years ago, although there is little...
Blog entryIn our current TVM auction we have added a few specimens from the Warren Taylor collection. We have known Warren for 15 years and have handled and advised on the disposal of a great number of his minerals since 2007. Within our database we have set up a...
Blog entryAs Facebook does, this fantastic specimen photo posted by Val Collins in May 2012 appeared in my timeline today. Not many of these specimens of cerussite with pyromorphite from Daoping Mine appeared, this must be one of the best examples. Thanks to...
Blog entryThis wulfenite specimen was news at Ste Marie Show in 2005, it was part of small find brought to the show by Guangha (George) Liu. The locality was given as Mian Ning Mine in Sichuan, China. At the time there was a lot of discussion, but the find was...
Blog entryEvery alpine collector's dream (and most other people too) is to find the perfect pocket. Austrian Strahler Peter Eberhard has been busy on the Alps at Habachtal. Earlier this month Peter was investigating a previously worked opening high up in the...
Blog entryHow the days and months seem to fly by, and now summer has passed we are into the autumn season of mineral shows. We start our outings as usual by visiting Bakewell show next week end. Arguably Bakewell (Rock Exchange) is the UK's largest show for...
Blog entryI have been interested in and collected Romanian minerals since 1975, I don't recall seeing a quartz crystal in section before. This novelty specimen of quartz from Herja Romania shows some interesting internal features. A crystal section cut and...
Blog entryAnalytical investigations of the germanite and renierite associated secondary minerals have lead to the discoveries of many unique minerals eg. otjisumeite, bartelkeite, stottite from the Tsumeb Mine, Otavi Highlands, Namibia in the past decades. There...
Blog entryCarsten Slotta, of Mineral Treasure has this specimen of fluorite currently listed on e-Rocks. From the lesser known Black Forest locality of Igelschlatt Mine, Waldshut the piece is covered in amazingly perfect hexakis-octahedral crystals. (It should be...
Blog entryOur visit to Bakewell Show for another year is sadly over; but what an eventful couple of days it has been. We arrived on the Friday night and after getting e-Rocks organised we headed off for the first meal out of the weekend. The Friday night "Curry...
Blog entryAbove is a picture from a few days ago of our last pallet of minerals to arrive for 2016. What a busy year it has been and now it is nearly over. Christmas and the holiday period are all set and there are some terrific contributions this year our...
Blog entryThese amazing images recently appeared in the Journal of American Chemistry Society. The picture shows individual molecules obtained by microscopy - the scale is mindblowing - 1 Angstrom length is 1 X 10-10m. Amazing to see how the structures that have...
Blog entryIt is approaching the second anniversary of George joining the e-Rocks team; so after a record 24 consecutive "Employee of the Month" awards we thought it time to reward him with a nice trip to Spain. The upshot to this will be that we are going to be...
Blog entryLiroconite is just one of those minerals that attracts attention; it is rare, colourful and good specimens usually only found in old collections. When a piece is listed on e-Rocks we usually get excited and this one is definitely no exception. We saw...
Blog entryGPSmineral, located mineralogy, is a new project that wants to share mineralogy passion all around the world, we have started with a few articles about spanish, italian and USA mineralogy. We have a map to locate. For the moment we only have one...
Blog entryThe other day I was checking through some minerals from last year's fluorite find at Shannapheasteen in the Irish Republic. Within the base of some quartz crystals were some small 2mm clear to white flat crystals. These were isolated and well dispersed...
Blog entry2 weeks to go until this year's Rock Exchange - AKA Bakewell Show. Always great to attend for 2 show days of minerals and catch-up with people from all over the UK and further afield. 10th and 11th October, 2015 Lady Manners School, Bakewell,...
Blog entryOne of Germany's most diverse sources of minerals, and still open here is a specimen of "plain old" baryte with inclusions of limonite etc. Makes a pretty and elegant display.
Blog entryThis discovery in the Ted Smithson Collection and a previous entry by Mike Brooke led me to look into the background of these microscopic grains of gold from Sutherland in Scotland. The sheer amount of time - 24 hours - required to pan 100 or so flakes...
Blog entryI was visiting an e-Rocks customer the other day, and was awestruck by his collection of radio-active artefacts. Many things have changed over the years as learning and science have made our lives safer, but looking back some of these are just incredible...
Blog entrye-Rocks seller and well traveled field collector Tasos Tsinidis from Greece, has some wonderful minerals and stories to tell about his exploits. He is knowledge of all things mineralogical and Greek is immense, he also is excellent at preparing and...