Orpiment is not a particularly raremineral. It occurs in many places in lowtemperature hydrothermal veins and inhot spring deposits but is rarely of specimenquality. However,when it occurs aswell-formed lustrous crystals it is highlyprized by collectors on account of itsstriking, honey-yellow to orange-browncoloration. Unfortunately, such specimensaredifficult to extract withoutdamage because orpiment is soft, andthe crystals have perfect cle..

　　During Denver 2011, the author soldthree specimens to lucky collectors andkept two specimens for himself, before John Veevaert acquired the remaining 60pieces. (Please note that John has sincedispersed all of these specimens). Duringthat same 2011 Denver show, Paul Pohwatobtained one of the best piecesfrom Dan Weinrich for the Smithsoniancollection.The intrigue started when the authorreturned to the University of Arizonaafter the Denver show...

　　The vast majority of new mineralspecies occur as microscopic grains orcrystals. These are of little interest tocollectors of aesthetic minerals, and aresought-after only by locality specialists orthe most die-hard of systematic enthusiasts.Marshall Sussman with a specimen of the new mineral marshallsussmanite,in Tucson, 2014.　　The discovery of new minerals isexciting on the one hand, but somewhat routine on the other. In 2013, the Internati..

When I saw the aquamarine, friends are shocked, unexpectedly aquamarine can to this extent, there is no way to estimate the value of it, the owner can buy a country.

The Care and Feeding of your Benitoite SpecimenHelpful Etching TechniquesBackgroundGeology(reprinted from the 1977 California issue of The Mineralogical Record)“The Benitoite Gem Mine is located at the southern end or the Diablo Range, a belt of mountains along the west side of California‘s San Joaquin Valley. The range is built of rocks of the Jurassic Franciscan Formation (graywacke, shale, chert and basalt) and serpentine with Cretaceous and..

SusanniteFrongoch Mine (Bron-y-Goch Mine; Llawynwnwch Mine), Pontrhydygroes, Upper Llanfihangell-y-Creuddyn, Ceredigion (Dyfed; Cardiganshire), Wales, UKOver the last 20 years or so I have collected from the dumps of this mine . I am amazed at the variety of crystal forms susannite occurs in, and the number of associations it has with other species. This article I hope brings to notice the habits this mineral can have from one of my favorite loca..

The following is a kind of experiment. I’m not a professional writer. Actually, I’m not even an amateur writer. I just wrote these pages because I wanted to learn something about optical crystallography, specifically how to make use of a polarizing microscope to identify minerals without destroying them. My idea is based on the often repeated observation that the best way to learn something is to try to explain it to someone else. The..

Rhombohedra Stepped rhombohedraFlattened rhombohedraStrongly trigonal habitsHexagonal plates“Roses“ScalenohedraSelective epitaxiesSheavesLenticular aggregatesBotryoidsSpherical aggregates“Stalactites“PseudomorphsFossils

The Canary islands have not been well known for any minerals as I first visited Lanzarote in 1983, with the exception of Olivine xenolithes which are offered to the tourists on the road to El Golfo. At that time most of tourism took place at Puerto del Carmen. Playa Blanca at the south coast was a small village at the end of the paved road on the way to the Playa de Papagayo. There was a small hotel, a restaurant, a supermarket, the ferry harbour..

The “Book of Precious Stones” was written by Arabic scholar Mohammed Ben Mansur in the 13th Century AD. It was in no small way derived from a book written by another early Arabic mineralogist named Tëifaschi, which predated Mansur’s work by about 50 years.Mansur’s book was translated into German and published in 1818 by Joseph Freiherr von Hammer-Purgstall, an Austrian with a life-long interest in Asian studies. Soon ..