Click anything blue and underlined like this to see photos.

The Latest Additions:

July 14

New thumbnails:

ARAGONITE, Rockville Quarry, Montgomery County, Maryland - A nice colorless prismatic 26mm long crystal, half clear, and terminated. A common mineral, but seldom seen in good crystals outside of the Spanish twins. $6

BAVENITE, Foote Mine, Kings Mtn., North Carolina - Chalk white bavenite, minutely acic, fairly abundantly covering xlized albite matrix. $8

BOULANGERITE, Cleveland Mine, Stevens County, Washington - Rich bluish-metallic needles to a few mm in vugs in siderite or ankerite matrix. Sawn to fit in box. $6

CANAVESITE, Brosso, Italy - Stark white acicular micro xls on dark matrix, nice under scope. $8

CHALCOPHYLLITE, Teniente Mine, Chile - A small knob of matrix, 10mm across, carpeted with tiny green blades to 1mm or so. $6

DUMORTIERITE, San Diego, California - 20mm purple spray embedded in matrix, $5

EOSPHORITE, Pimentel Mendez, Minas Gerais, Brazil - A rather large single terminated xl, 17x12x6mm, a bit rough, pinkish, with a bit of translucency. Big for the species! $12

FERRO-AXINITE, La Rempe des Commaire, Bourg D'Oisans, France - A cute little brown 7mm xl, sharp and very lustrous, on contrasting matrix. Small, but classic locality! $9

GRATONITE, Rio Tinto, Huelva Province, Spain - Tiny silvery black prismatic xls, some terminated, in small clumps on sulfide matrix. $12

GYROLITE, Bombay district, India - A lovely cream colored 20mm xl ball, no matrix $5

HYDROXYL-APATITE, Palermo #1 Mine, North Groton, New Hampshire - A bizarre sort of stalactitic formation of stacked white crystals, both ends of the growth showing two tiny channels. 35mm long. About as odd an apatite as I've ever seen. $16

LOLLINGITE, New South Wales, Australia - A small but razor sharp and brilliant metallic 6mm xl perched on small matrix;  pinched in the middle to look like two xls stacked. $8

LUZONITE, Tai Pai Hsien, Taiwan - An 18mm blackish chip of this uncommon sulfide. $8

PECTOLITE, THAUMASITE, Upper New Street Quarry, Patterson, New Jersey - A brilliantly white 15mm conical sheaf of pectolite in a matrix of tightly intergrown sparkling white micro thaumasite xls. Neat piece, quite unusual. $10

PYROCHLORE, Myeba, Tanganyika - A brownish, quite sharp, 7mm octahedron. Floater xl, corners modified. Unusual locality, and not a bad size for the mineral. $12

SCHOLZITE, Reaphook Hill, South Australia - Wildly radiating colorless long prismatic xls to 7mm or so; almost no rock matrix, nearly filling the entire tn box. $9

SILVER, Cobalt, Ontario - A fairly attractive, chunky, 12mm nugget, collected in 1902. $10

July 7

CORDIERITE, AMPHIBOLE, GARNET, 20km south of Angajurjualuk Lake, northern Baffin Island, 180km south of Pond Inlet, Nunavut, Canada - Interesting specimens from Canada's far, far North, new stuff available nowhere else. Heavy, rich chunks, primarily sprays of brown to black amphibole, intermixed with greyish to blue to blackish cordierite, some with massive granular reddish garnet. 

A 7cm piece with nice glassy pods to 2cm, some faceting potential, $15

A big 12x10x6cm piece with a 6cm mass of cordierite on one face, best of the lot, $25

Good reference specimens, 8-12cm across, lots of greyish granular cordierite, interesting but not pretty, $10 each

June 30

FLUORAPATITE, Rasvumchorr plateau, Khibiny Massif, Kola Peninsula, Russia - A 40mm fragment of drill core composed entirely of glassy granular yellowish/green fluorapatite. Odd specimen. 40x20x15mm, $8

FLUORNATROMICROLITE on ALBITE, Mokrusha Mine, Yekaterinburg Oblast, near Murzinka, Alabashka pegmatite field, Central Ural Mountains, Russia - A modest yellow crystal, ~2mm, showing a few faces, tucked back in a vug in bladed white albite matrix, associated with a bit of lepidolite, cookeite, and what might be bertrandite. 20x20x15mm, $35

GLADIUSITE, Iron Mine, Kovdor Massif, Kola Peninsula, Russia - Several small patches of rusty brown acicular gladiusite, very tiny needles, in little vugs and hollows, in a 20mm matrix. Type locality. $65

HENRYMEYERITE, Mt.Yukspor, Khibiny Massif, Kola Peninsula, Russia - Many sharp black lustrous micro xls in white natrolite matrix, exposed by light etching, 18mm across. Three localities known. $75

JUONNIITE, KOVDORSKITE, Iron Mine, Kovdor Massif, Kola Peninsula, Russia - Neat tiny pinkish pod-like xls, sort of flattened spheres, of this rarity, under 0.5mm, with xln brown kovdorskite. 40x40x20mm, $60. One micromount available, nice, at $30.

NORSETITE, BAKHCHISARAITSEVITE, Iron mine, Kovdor Massif, Kola Peninsula, Russia - A clear colorless 5mm mass of norsetite with much flaky massive brown bakhchisaraitsevite. 25x10x10mm, $50

OLENITE, Uvildy Lake, Southern Ural Mountains, Russia - A very modest unterminated blackish xl, about 3mm long, embedded with massive olenite in matrix. One of the members of the tourmaline group that is seldom seen. 35x25x20mm, $20

RIMKOROLGITE, Iron Mine, Kovdor Massif, Kola Peninsula, Russia - Very rich pearly pinkish tabular xl clumps in vugs on most sides of the matrix, enough to be seen if not totally appreciated by the naked eye. Magnification reveals some nice tabular xls. Extra nice piece. 30x25x20mm, $60

TETRANATROLITE, Njorkpahk Mountain, Khibiny Massif, Kola Peninsula, Russia - Poorly xlized white prisms to ~5mm, clear natrolite cores and white tetranatrolite exteriors, not much but rarity to recommend it, 30x20x20mm, $10

June 23

Some interesting and unusual thumbnails, nothing too aesthetic hence no photos.

ANDESINE, Dubois, Idaho - Tabular brown crystal 15mm across, no matrix, a seldom-seen feldspar, TN, $10

ARFVEDSONITE, Washington Pass, Okanogan County, Washington - A long lustrous black crystal, 18x2mm, no matrix, TN, $9

BAHIANITE, near Paramirim das Crioulas, Bahia State, Brazil - A small brown pebble of stream-rounded brown bahianite from the type locality. TN, $12

BOUSSINGAULTITE, Geyser Creek Canyon, Sonoma County, California - An inconspicuous 15mm mass of white boussingaultite attached to tannish matrix, TN, $15

BRAUNITE, Gunnison County, Colorado - Minutely xln sparkling black braunite richly coating what might be a conglomerate matrix, $8

BUKOVSKYITE, Panshk Sachty, Kank, near Kutha Hora, Czech Republic - A chalky, yellowish cream colored nodule of 15mm, $12

DACHIARDITE on MORDENITE, Cape Lookout, Tillamook County, Oregon - A small vug lining of stark white mordenite contains an 8mm ball of  white dachiardite, no matrix. small TN, $9

DOMEYKITE, Seneca Mine, Mohawk, Michigan - Nice heavy bronzey chunk of massive sulfide, 30mm across. TN, $6

EDINGTONITE, CALCITE, Ice River Alkaline Complex, Yoho National Park, near Golden, British Columbia -  Numerous prismatic white edingtonite xls to 5mm long, with a nice golden calcite xl of 10mm on matrix. Rare stuff, from a site that is now completely off-limits to collectors. TN, $20

FRESNOITE, ANALCIME, Junnila Property, San Benito County, California - A golden yellow 5mm xl, vein-squeezed so only a couple of xl faces are present, with a similarly-sized mass next to it; with massive white to micro xln analcime. Brilliant cream/yellow FL under SW UV. Rare stuff. TN, $25

KULANITE, BRAZILIANITE, APATITE, SIDERITE, QUARTZ, Rapid Creek area, 120 km W of Inuvik, Yukon Territory, Canada - A few small blackish blades of kulanite, to a few mm, almost buried under well xlized micro associates, great with magnification. TN, $12

KURNAKOVITE, Boron, Kern County, California - A good but imperfect colorless transparent 20mm crystal, faces a bit altered to chalk white; hasn't changed in the long time I've had it so apparently stable. TN, $15

LATRAPPITE, St.Lawrence Columbium and Metals Corp. Mine, near La Trappe, Quebec, Canada - An excellent sharp loose opaque black 4mm pseudocubic crystal from the type locality. $25

LULZACITE, ANKERITE, St. Aubin des Chateaux, Loire, France - A 10mm long mass of blue-grey lulzacite with tan ankerite cleavages in black matrix. Very rare. TN, $25

June 16

ACTINOLITE, variety mountain leather, Mal Pasa Quarry, Cordoba, Argentina - A bizarre white flexible mat of so-called mountain leather, 80x50x5mm, one of the oddities of the mineral kingdom. $15

CHALCOSTIBITE, ZINKENITE, TETRAHEDRITE, SIDERITE, Saint-Pons deposit, 1km NW of Barcelonnette, Haute-Provence, French Alps, France - A steely black tabular 15mm long chalcostibite xl is tucked away amongst brown siderite crystals, with thick acicular zinkenite to 12mm or so, a partial tetrahedrite xl, and rich coverage of massive/xln silvery black sulfides. Some decent micro xls present. 60x40x20mm, $75

CYLINDRITE, Poopo District, Oruro Province, Bolivia - An amazing solid mass of cylindrical cylindrite crystals to 20m or so, no matrix, just this incredibly weird Pb, Sn, Sb, Fe sulfide. One of the strangest minerals you'll ever see - each crystal is a slightly tapered, concentricly layered cylinder! 70x50x40mm, $145

ELBAITE, Himalaya Mine, 83 km NE of San Diego, San Diego County, California - A classic fat pink prism, with a twist; it's growth has been hindered by a bit of white albite on the backside of the termination, yet the xl has kept on growing, and is partially hollow! A wonderful deep pink chubby miniature xl, undamaged, 34x20mm. $95

FLUORORICHTERITE, PHLOGOPITE, George Earle Farm, ~3km SW of Wilberforce, Monmouth Township, Haliburton County, Ontario, Canada - A very large doubly terminated black crystal of this unusual amphibole, with a neat 15mm phlogopite book attached to add a little interest. The bottom termination and bottom left side are malformed, but there's no actual breakage anywhere. 140x35x12mm - that's 5.5 inches long! I've seen a bunch of these, this is an exceptional crystal. $120

SILVER, COPPER, DATOLITE, HYDROCARBON, White Pine Mine, Nonesuch Lode, Ontonagon County, Keewenaw Peninsula, Michigan - A cute small miniature size arborescent silver. Magnification reveals superb silver xls, scruffy bits of copper, resinous films of hydrocarbon, and colorless datolite crystals. Nifty specimen! 33x15x7mm, $65

STIBNITE, Wells Fargo Mine, SW of Chewelah, Stevens County, Washington - Matrixless group of big, thick, silvery-grey prismatic unterminated crystal, with distinctive subdued lustre. Extremely unusual locality; very few localities in the US known for this caliber of stibnite. 88x20x13mm, $45

STIBNITE, BARITE, Herja Mine, Chuizbaia, Maramures, Romania - A lovely combination specimen; a rosette of slightly yellowish, transparent, thin barite blades skewered by ~ ten matchstick size grey stibnite crystals to 50mm long. Some damage to the barite blades; this is a fairly delicate and old piece. Comes with a Ernest Holloway collection label, a Min. Research label, and a neat old handwritten label. 50x40x25mm, $125 (same price I paid for it back in '92)

KILLER THUMBNAILS:

CUPRITE, Mashamba West Mine, Shaba Province, Congo/Zaire - A tight matrixless cluster of 4 octahedra, sharp, steely black, to 9mm on edge. TN, 20mm across, $45

EPIDOTE, QUARTZ, Julie claim, Hawthorne (Pamlico) District, Mineral County, Nevada - An exquisite, minimalist pairing of a 26mm long dark green/black epidote prism with a colorless tapering 16mm long quartz prism, no matrix. See MR V16#1 for details on this locality. Very sexy TN! $45

LEGRANDITE, Ojuela Mine, Mapimi, Durango, Mexico - A lovely thumbnail showing brilliant yellow sheaves to 7mm or so in a little vug in contrasting brown matrix. They aren't making any more of these beauties. 25mm TN, $125

PYROMORPHITE, Society Girl Mine, Moyie, British Columbia, Canada - A lovely 25x11mm glistening yellowish-green xl spray, only the shorter 16mm long xl in the foreground is terminated. No matrix. Collected long ago, rare old locality, and this is pretty big for the locality! TN, $75

PYROMORPHITE, Yang Shao, near Guilin, Guangxi Province, China - Exquisite apple-green radiating xls to about 10mm long, simply gorgeous! A couple of missing crystals detract not at all from this delicate beauty. Outrageous stuff. TN, $125

WELOGANITE, Francon Quarry, Montreal, Quebec - Three major and a few minor crystals on matrix, the typical whitish undulating hexagonal prisms, to 13mm long. Very nice for the locality, one seldom sees a good tn with sizeable xls on matrix. TN, $45

June 9

FLUORITE, La Cabana, Berbes District, Asturias, Spain - A magnificent matrixless plate of water-clear razor-sharp purple cubes to 17mm on edge. Many of the crystals show phantoms; the only damage is on the edges where a few xls are contacted or slightly cleaved, very minor stuff. Almost a floater plate, the crystals on the back side are frosted and smaller, and micro quartz and barite are present. What sets this piece apart from the million other fluorites out there is the lack of matrix - the entire crystal plate is transparent. Hold it up to the light and it is stunning! 110x90x15mm, $750

HUTCHINSONITE, ORPIMENT, BAUMHAUERITE-2a, Quiruvilca District, Santiago de Chuco Province, La Libertad Department, Peru - A heavy, pyrite-rich matrix is coated on one face by a carpet of minute dull orange orpiment crystals, upon which are scattered countless superb lustrous sharp terminated hutchinsonite prisms to 6mm. Minute, matted, finely acicular reddish baumhauerite-2a is found in the nooks and crannies at 45x, as are pyrite and quartz xls. An excellent, rich specimen of this interesting thallium sulfide, known from only a few localities, nowhere else in this quality. Fantastic under the scope. 70x60x20mm, $175

KERMESITE, STIBNITE, Pezinok district, 20km NE of Bratislava, Slovakia - A fine cabinet specimen with one face completely covered in flat-lying radiating silvery-red kermesite crystals. Known in this quality from only a few localities, none of which have produced much recently. A nice complement to the thick free-standing Chinese specimens. 145x70x55mm, $175

LIVEINGITE, SPHALERITE, PYRITE, TOURMALINE, MUSCOVITE, Lengenbach Quarry, Binna Valley, Canton Valais, Switzerland - Lustrous black metallic patches to 15mm and micro xls to a few mm of liveingite on the front and side of sugary white dolomite matrix. Good micro xls of various other species are found in vugs here and there, including one or two other unidentified sulfosalts. Great fun under the scope. 70x40x20mm, $45

SIEGENITE coating CHALCOPYRITE with GALENA, DOLOMITE, West Fork Mine, Viburnum Trend, Reynolds County, Missouri - A weirdly amorphous, blobby matrix of massive chalcopyrite is almost entirely coated by countless minute grey octahedrons of siegenite to perhaps 0.5mm. A 15mm cluster of galena crystals and many small sharp dolomite rhombs are associated; no rock matrix. Rich for the mineral. 60x30x15mm, $25

SPHALERITE, Sa Dena Hes Mine, 45km north of Watson Lake, Yukon Territory, Canada - A big black cluster of matte luster crystals to 30mm across. Etched from calcite hence almost pure sphalerite. A bad ding in the middle but it doesn't detract terribly, this was no beauty to begin with. The Sa Dena Hes is a little known lead-zinc mine that I believe is presently inactive. 90x70x40mm, $35

SPHALERITE on CALCITE floater, Aliva Mine, Santander, Picos de Europa, Cantabria, Spain - A somewhat bizarre floater pair of crystals; a 60mm greenish/yellowish brown sphalerite crystal alongside a 50mm doubly-terminated whiteish calcite crystal. A small cleave on the calcite and minor edge wear on the sphalerite but no point of attachment. Not immensely attractive, but strange and rather unique for the locality. 70x40x30mm, $150

TROILITE, Mt. Tachtarvumchorr, Khibiny Massif, Kola Peninsula, Russia - A polished slab of green, grey, to black rock called tinguaite hosts a dozen metallic sections of troilite, FeS, to 6mm. An odd and interesting specimen. 120x50x10mm, $60

June 2 

TUGTUPITE, CHKALOVITE, AEGIRINE, Kvanefjeld Plateau, Narsaq, Greenland - A superb cabinet specimen with rich dark pink tugtupite in albite/aegirine matrix. Superb fluorescence under SW UV, with oodles of bright red tugtupite accented by bits of brilliant green chkalovite. Unusually large specimen for the locality, the only one known for tugtupite of this size and richness. 180x140x50mm (seven inches across!) $399

BISMUTHINITE, Moly Hill Mine, La Motte, Quebec - Nice small miniature specimens of quite rich brilliant silvery metallic massive bismuthinite in quartz matrix. Collected by a friend of mine who spent quite a bit of time here mining the world-class molybdenite xls. 40mm specimens, $10 each

FERRONIGERITE-6N6S, Uis, near Brandberg, Namibia - The nigerite polytypes have been ironed out, see Armbruster and Feenstra, European Journal of Mineralogy 16 (2004) 247-254. Tabular hexagonal black crystals, crystal sections, in nicely contrasting white matrix, excellent specimens of this rarity. Micro to miniature sizes available, $20-$125

WELOGANITE, Francon Quarry, Montreal, Quebec - Excellent big crystals from a locality that is no more. 

May 26, 2006

Some small but nice thumbnails from Mont Saint-Hilaire:

CATAPLEIITE - An off-white 14mm tabular xl section, $10

CARLETONITE - A 12mm xl fragment, striking blue with white rind; photographed looking down the c axis, $14

EPIDIDYMITE - A 10x5mm pure white partial sixling twin, small TN but good for the species $25 

LEUCOPHANITE - A nice selection of loose yellow tabular xls included by black aegirine.

NARSARSUKITE - A very sharp, lustrous 12mm olive/yellow xl section with nicely bevelled edges, $15

And a few things from good old Russia:

DIOPSIDE, Phlogopite Mine, Kovdor Massif, Kola Peninsula, Russia - A couple of nice tabular dark green terminated xls, haloed by contrasting white calcite, in solid diopside/mica matrix, sawn at the base. The main xl is 27x12x5mm; the termination isn't quite perfect but seems to show some sort of weird twinning going on. 50x40x40mm, $19

FERSMANITE, LAMPROPHYLLITE, Mt. Eveslogchorr, Khibiny Massif, Kola Peninsula, Russia - A 5mm brown tablet in 30x20x15mm matrix, decent affordable largish TN. $15

KOVDORSKITE, Iron Mine, Kovdor Massif, Kola Peninsula, Russia - A stout little TN xl, 12x11x7mm, slightly smoky tint, nicely terminated, $10

PHLOGOPITE - A few greenish-black sharp xls to 15mm in a matrix of granular fluorapatite. 50x30x15m, $8

ZIRCON, Mt. Kukisvumchorr, Khibiny Massif, Kola Peninsula, Russia - A 30mm long chain of half a dozen lustrous dark brown xls to 11mm on edge. Aesthetically challenged, but not bad for the mineral. 70x40x40mm, $14

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Everything below this line will soon be sorted out into the proper categories, and I'll try to get some more photos. 

Prices will be reduced in some cases, and sold stuff will be yanked.

BRUCITE, Bazhenovskoe, Asbest, Yekaterinburg Oblast’, Central Urals - Interesting colorless cleavage fragments, no matrix, highly lustrous. A glass-clear 20mm piece, $15. Specimens of the same size, but only transparent in small areas are $10 each.

CALCITE, APOPHYLLITE, Dalnegorsk, Primorskiy Kraj, Russia - A transparent colorless thick prismatic calcite crystal, 20x15mm, with a highly unusual termination, associated with a bit of sparkling colorless apophyllite, beautiful xls under the scope. The termination on the calcite crystal is a crystallographers dream, some faces are lustrous and some matte, and I'm not even going to guess at what is going on crystallography-wise. About as cool a TN calcite as I've ever seen! $20

COPPER in GYPSUM, Mission Mine, Pima County, Arizona - I lucked into finding a couple of large specimens of this incredibly cool and unusual inclusion. As far as I can see, copper in gypsum is only known from this one locality; being protected from oxidation the copper retains its natural bright coppery color. The xlization at 45x is remarkable, radiating bunches of extremely long, thin xls, kind of odd for the mineral.

A) A 90x60x10mm colorless slab of gypsum loaded with lovely micro acicular copper crystal groups. Simply incredible under the scope! $30 

B) A 60x40x10mm slab of gypsum, about half gunked-up with brown matrix, the other half quite clear, with nice micro copper needles and groups. $20

VIVIANITE, Kerch, Crimea Oblast, Northern Black Sea - A lovely TN of lustrous radiating xl aggregates, so dark green that they look black. The four main xls, each composed of a dozen or more sub-parallel individuals, radiate like fingers from the base. The luster is really nice, the xls are beautifully exposed and undamaged. TN, 25mm across, $20

Looking for something you saw here? If it's gone, it's either sold or I've moved it to another page, species, TN's, or min-cabs, etc., to keep this page from getting too large.