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 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.

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.

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.

I’ve made no secret of my belief that excellent black crystals are very cool. But colour is great too, and the latest update has lots! The new DR Congo Update features some amazing hues of pink in beautiful specimens of cobaltoan dolomite from Katanga, some of which have green malachite in association. The update also includes a specimen with exquisite twinned calcite crystals from Mashamba West.

Although arrivals in Rochester were initially greeted by lingering recent snow, with winter’s last breath still upon us, a few signs of spring were beginning to show in this part of the world. And yet once the mineral fun starts, who cares what the weather is doing? [Note to Mother Nature: that is not a dare for next year’s Symposium. I mean unless you want to rain fine mineral specimens.] This post is all about this year’s super Rochester Mineralogical Symposium.

This Malawi Update features a small number of selected, different, specimens from well-known Mount Malosa (the world’s top locality for fine aegirine crystals), and two super aegirine crystals from a recent find at the Mulanje Massif, over 100 km to the south of Mount Malosa.

Just north of Lake Superior, the Thunder Bay District of Ontario is world famous for its distinctive, ancient amethyst crystals. Thunder Bay amethyst is remarkable for its variety – it occurs in all shades of purple and it is often further coloured by red hematite inclusions, the classic look of Thunder Bay amethyst. It is a long journey to the amethyst mines of the Thunder Bay District, and hopefully this article will bring this beautiful region, its history, geology, mines and collecting experience a bit closer!