I’ve posted excellent new specimens in this Europe Update with many classics, including superb Alpine smoky quartz, pyromorphite from several localities, fluorite, hematite, specimens from the German silver mines and more.

I’ve posted a new update featuring the first of many specimens to come, from the collection of my friend Tracy A. Kimmel. Tracy built an excellent, substantial collection of fine minerals, and I acquired it this year. I have also written a post about Tracy (see Profiles and Tributes), and I really hope you’ll enjoy reading about her – she was a remarkable person.

I’ve added great specimens from the Pete Richards collection, from localities around the world, including Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Spain, Greece, Bolivia, Peru, Mexico and more.

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.

Recently, excellent specimens of anhydrite and probertite were found in a pocket at the Kohnstein Quarry, Niedersachswerfen, Nordhausen, Harz, Thuringia, Germany. I have added a small number of great ones in the new Anhydrite/Probertite Update.