I’ve posted fun new specimens in this Mali Update. This update features particularly good clinochlore crystals, and also specimens of prehnite, grossular and andradite specimens, with some distinctive finds and a couple of unusual Mali localities.

In the heart of France’s Vosges Mountains, each June, Mineral World assembles at Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, for what is always a great mineral show. This post gives a glimpse of some of this year’s finds, including gorgeous red zircon crystals, bi-coloured spodumene, clinochlore crystals and some classic French hematites from just outside of Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines.