I’ve posted a new Brazil Update with superb, diverse specimens, including a spectacular morganite, remarkable new synchysites, blue montebrasite, pleochroic uvite, elbaite, brazilianite, hydroxylherderite and more.

I’ve added a new Morocco Update featuring a small number of excellent quality blue barite specimens from the Sidi Lahcen Mine, from beautiful cabinet specimens to super miniatures. These specimens are from a 2013 find of amazing top-quality crystals and crystal groups.

I’ve added a new USA Update, with excellent specimens of microcline var. amazonite and a rhodochrosite from Colorado, purple fluorapatites from South Dakota, a Missouri millerite, Arizona chrysocolla and more.

I’ve added an Egypt Update, featuring excellent new goethite pseudomorphs after marcasite crystals from the White Desert, north of Farafra Oasis, Egypt.

I’ve added some excellent yellow stilbites on the website in the new Mali Update. Among the nicest and most distinctive stilbites I’ve ever seen from anywhere, specimens from Diamonkara have beautiful colour and form. These new Mali stilbites are perhaps not yet appreciated for what they are – these are striking, colourful display specimens of a mineral that is often pale and drab.

I’ve added some super new specimens of erythrite from Bou Azzer, along with excellent new, very different, barite specimens from Bou Nahas. These are beautiful erythrite specimens from the contemporary classic locality generally regarded as having produced the world’s finest erythrites, and the barites are from a locality that has been known for quite some time but has been the source of a few very fine specimens more recently.

This is a great time of year in Bancroft. The woods are full of deep green, the lake is warm enough that it’s no longer only the dog who thinks swimming is a good idea, and… it’s our mineral show season. Every summer, on the last Sunday of July we host the Bancroft Gem and Mineral Club Show, and the following Thursday marks the beginning of the four-day Bancroft Rockhound Gemboree.

I’ve added beautiful elbaite tourmaline specimens in this Stak Nala Tourmaline Update – I’ve also included a great lepidolite. The elbaites are highly aesthetic, in combination with albite, and there is some good colour zoning among these pieces. I was fortunate to acquire these from a member of the family that mines them.

In this France Update, I am including the first of the specimens from the 2015 Ste. Marie Show. Despite the host country, the show is truly not full of French mineral specimens, given their relative scarcity, and the ones that are there are highly prized. Nonetheless, I was able to acquire a few excellent French pieces.

The annual mineral show at Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines is so different from all others. Sure, we all love the large exciting mineral-filled halls and general mineral mayhem of the large shows, and the hotel shows in Tucson and Denver. But Ste Marie’s character and charm, from the theatre and the tent-lined streets within the show, to the town and the countryside beyond, make this an experience not to be missed.

In this Broken Hill Update, I’ve added a small group of fine specimens from the classic Australian locality. Today the best sources for classic specimens from Broken Hill are old collections – these are from the collection of Milton Lavers, who was a well-known collector from Broken Hill.

I’ve added a new Namibia Update with selected excellent specimens from the Tsumeb Mine and also from the Kaokoveld Plateau in Namibia.