I’ve posted a group of spectacular aragonite specimens from a new find in Morocco – these are special.

I’ve added some great new French specimens in this France Update. Several are recently-collected from the Mésage Mine, Saint-Pierre-de-Mésage, Isère, France, along with a bournonite from Saint-Laurent-le-Minier and a gem-clear calcite from Pau, Aquitane.

Every summer, for a few days, the quiet town of Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines transforms into a bustling mineral and gem extravaganza. This is the most beautiful major mineral show setting, and attending is a great experience. This year’s show included some excellent minerals, including some great new finds.

There really is no event in the Mineral World year exactly like the Rochester Mineralogical Symposium. It may sound scientific and formal, but Rochester is perhaps the most welcoming and inclusive mineral gathering I know. The 2016 RMS featured great talks and photos from excellent speakers on a range of subjects.

I’ve posted a small number of beautiful atacamite specimens in this new Peru Atacamite Update. These are sharp, lustrous, terminated atacamite crystals in vugs, from the Lily Mine, near Pisco, Ica.

Excellent new specimens from Mont Saint-Hilaire. The specimens in this update are from finds 1988-2007. This selection of specimens represents several different unique finds, including beautiful serandites, terminated elpidite crystals, twinned rhodochrosite, sodalite var. hackmanite, narsarsukite, leucophanite, analcime and more.

I’ve posted some great new specimens from Tanzania, including excellent alabandite crystals (very large for the species), a beautiful sharp corundum (ruby) crystal, a super twinned orange kyanite, dravite tourmalines, scapolite, spinel and prehnite.

I’ve posted excellent new Kazakhstan dioptase specimens in the Dioptase Update – May 2016.. These beautiful specimens were mined in 2015, and acquired from the team currently conducting specimen mining at Altyn Tyube soon afterward.

I’ve added some excellent specimens of lazulite from the Rapid Creek occurrences in this Yukon Lazulite Update. These occurrences are very remote and the costs are high, so specimen collection efforts are few and far between, and it is hard to obtain fine specimens.

I’ve added some beautiful, gemmy, twinned calcite crystals in this Elmwood Calcite Update. Over the years, the miners referred to the large orange Elmwood calcite crystals as “footballs”, and they referred to the clear gemmy calcites in this update as “jewels”. These are from a pocket found in late 2014 – most specimens were damaged and these are exceptional.

I’ve posted a small group of excellent specimens in the new Russia Update. These include beautiful high-quality crystals of axinite-(Fe) from two localites, intense blue azurite balls and sharp copper crystals from the Rubstovskoe Mine, great calcite crystals from the Dal’negorsk district and more.

I’ve added a few excellent new specimens in this Morocco Update. This update includes some particularly fine and unusual pieces – some are rather colourful!