January 2005 Newsletter
With this newsletter we want to wish all our clients and subscribers to this newsletter a prosperous 2005. It is said that only one thing is certain and that is change. As a mineral dealer we have our own problems. Ours is supply. Minerals are scarce and the demand is high.  So we sit with a major decision at the moment. One needs to be where the minerals are. If you are in the USA you can visit shows and buy from those who come from areas where minerals are abundant. We don't have any shows, but we have the minerals. Previously we were 580 km from the closest mineral deposit for specimens. This leaves you with decisions to make: 1. pay a premium and have people deliver the minerals to your doorstep OR 2. go to where the minerals are to be found and establish your business there. Well this is exactly what we have done. The Mineral Gallery is moved their base of operations to Kuruman. More on our move further down. This month we cover the following What is happening in the mineral world in Southern Africa - News Mineral of the month  Cuprosklodowskite Clearing out your storeroom after 10 years of trading minerals. Zambia October 2004 Be blessed as you read this newsletter. Gerdus

What is happening in the mineral world in Southern Africa - News I am directly in contact with all that is happening in Southern Africa and decided to start my newsletters with news from here. Kalahari Manganese fields. I have moved to Kuruman. So I am right on top of all that is happening there. I moved some stones, some machinery and then my household goods. I will be leaving the bulk of my stones in Hartbeespoort where we have our retail shop. The next stocklist might appear a bit watered down because I will be sending this from our new base of operations in Kuruman and most of our rocks are still in Hartbeespoort. We will rectify this when I ship the bulk from Zambia A move like this is not without risks. We might get nothing for months and then we might get swamped with a mineral that comes out. Who knows. At times pockets have stayed away for months at Kuruman. We believe that we are positioning ourselves to be in the right spot when things do happen. So what is happening in Kuruman? A bit of Ettringite came out. I missed the pocket due to my absence. More of the bultfonteinite and poldervaartite will soon see the light. I believe that the rights to mine this has been given to a Frenchman. If the mine and the collector can agree on the way to go about it we will see some poldervaartite pockets professionally collected. This might be very exciting. Some mayor pieces might be collected and sold at mayor prices. Any enterprise like that is expensive. Some Sturmanite was found in small pockets. Nobody knew what it was at first. These had high luster. The exciting thing was an associated mineral on the Sturmanite in green. I believe that the mineral came out in fine sprays of green. This is only hearsay. We mineral guys are often like ladies at a tea party. We spread and tell our own stories. Sugelite: Sugelite can be found. Most of the material are of lower quality. I did get some top grade material but these sold within the hour. I am excited that I am now close to this source. Any enquiries will be welcome. Boekenhouthoek Cactus quartz. Nothing has changed since my last newsletter. The real purple quartz is selling for $ 50 per kg at the site. It is coming out in drips and drabs but at prices that are a bit steep for me. If you want some and you are willing to add 20% handling fee on top I can get you some. That means you will cough up $ 60 per kg for the dark spirit quartz. Let me know if you think this is expensive. Namibia. I will be visiting Namibia in January or February of 2005. I did happen to visit a fellow collector who were just there and who sold me five good flats of minerals. You can view some of these on the website. Erongo. This locality has again produced a profusion of fine aquamarine specimens. The ones I saw had crystal the size of your fingers on matrix. The prices were in the vicinity of $ 160 for smaller pieces and upwards to $ 800 for the larger matrix specimens. This was a bit steep for me. Good topaz pockets were found. Some topaz formed cluster up to 2 inches in size. Impressive. The green fluorite from Erongo also came out in larger cubes with incredible colors. Tafelkop.  I bought and saw a few good Tafelkop amethyst. Some with water inclusions. They never cease to impress me. I still believe that some of the best amethyst crystals collected anywhere in the world has been found here. Brandberg. Amethyst in dark purple are still being dug. When you use a back light you get an amazing effect with this amethyst. They have incredible color.  Okuruso. Still the same news as in my last newsletter. I bought some fine pieces and these were sold on my website. I discovered something I want to share. Some of the fluorite that came out lately were very dark in color. I left these out in the sun for two weeks. The UV rays bleached them to an incredible light green color. Well remember that the sun in Africa is fierce. Rossing. A colleague of mine told me that they exposed an area that was bright yellow with uranium specimens. I would have liked to have some of these but I do not know what channels to follow to get some. Berg Aukas. People are still extracting fine descloisites from here but this might be clandestine mining operations. Zambia. Zambia might just turn out to be the next great mineral producing site. I visited Zambia since my last newsletter and I would not like to disclose everything that came my way. I even made a brief clandestine visit into the Congo. This is still dark Africa. Here they lock you up and throw away the key. I pursued a large pocket of honey quartz and discovered that somebody at the mine chopped off all the crystals from the bases with a chisel as we were reaching the mine. He was just finished defacing all the good specimens to sell the loose crystals to China for cutting. Can you believe this. Our mine for Japanese twins is producing some fine twins. We discovered a new pit that will give us even better material. The Japanese law twins have red hemantoid tips. I am very excited about the rutile in quartz that are coming from our own mine in Zambia. The rutile is to be found as thick needles in clear white quartz. Some rutile are red in color. This is very exciting. I believe that my guys have dug 60+ kg's of good specimens. I am arranging for delivery of these. I also have staurolite and golden rutile still to come from the different sites that we are mining. I even visited Tanzania in search of fluorite. We did find fluorite but it turned out to be of poor quality and it cost us more in the end than we got out of the deal. I am excited about the ruby that we will soon have from Tanzania. I visited a gold mine and saw lots of small packets with gem type material everywhere. Specimens were tough to find. Musina. I saw some new quartz with exciting phantoms from there. I will have stock soon. My guys are just getting enough together to make it worth my while. Zimbabwe.  Not much is coming out of Zimbabwe at the moment. This is due to the poor infrastructure, lack of fuel and degenerating political situation. I did get a large 4 inch blue topaz in brilliant blue. This was sold to a local dealer. Democratic Republic of the Congo. I still get specimens from the DRC. I bought some good carrollite that will be offered in my next stocklist. I bought 130 specimens of carrollite. I have some uranium minerals I did a course on rough diamond grading and might have my own rough diamond buying licence in a few months from now. I invite anybody who have need for rough diamonds as specimens and as cutting material to get in contact with me so that I can determine the demand. I must first get my licence to be able to buy and sell rough diamonds. More on the different sites next month.

Mineral of the month  Cuprosklodowskite Cuprosklodowskite is an extremely rare mineral that can form breathtaking specimens, its a rare uranium mineral that formed from the oxidation of copper and uranium bearing minerals. The first time I heard the name I was surprised. It was named for it's composition and affinity with sklodowskite and cupro points to the copper content It forms needles of radiating-fibrous, acicular crystals, more commonly as powdered aggregates or crusts. Do note that Cuprosklodowskite is a radioactive mineral and should be stored away from other minerals. It is a popular mineral that is very hard to find.

Clearing out your storeroom after ten years of mineral trading. I decided to have a store room sale to clear out some of the many boxes filled with minerals that we have accumulated over the years. This is never an easy decision. In Africa your wealth is measured by the amount of cattle you own. I look at all the boxes filled with minerals and it gives me a sense of security. But we decided, they have to go. So we arranged with the local mineral clubs to have a sale. No mineral was priced higher than R5 ( 86 cents US). I even chucked in some flats, 140 of them that was priced at this low figure of 86 cents US. There were bargains galore. The preparation was hard work. I did most of the sorting. A box filled with Tsumeb goodies would be put in front of me and now it was decision time. Do I keep it or do I sell it for a bargain? I think that I paid more for most of the items than I sold them for. People do not often appreciate what costs goes into acquiring minerals. Minerals are expensive everywhere.  Every mineral tells its own story. There are minerals that can be trimmed into micros. There are quartz that was bought four years ago and never seen since. Then there are items that just have sentimental value, each with their own story of where it was collected.  I really struggled to sort them. I do not know if any of you have ever been in such a position. Please write to me and tell me about it. The day arrived for the sale. About 30 club members pitched and some of the Rock Shop clients also came. We opened the gates at 10:00 sharp. There were a scramble as they grabbed the best boxes. One of our customers took about 40 of the R 5 boxes. They had a field day. Everybody had loads of fun. I guess the fun is identifying the minerals and sorting through the low grade and trimming the specimens for possible items that may go into their collections.  We only netted about R 6800 for the day. I have enough material that we did not put on this sale to have another sales day. Maybe we will do so in April next year. Thanks to all who made it such an enjoyable day.

Zambia October 2004
I visited Zambia again to check up on our mines. This is a story of the effort that we rockhound's go through to get material for you out there. Zambia was a natural point of development for me. We felt as if we exhausted our options here in South Africa. Zambia was seen as a place with untapped mineral resources. I travelled to Zambia with my Colt pick-up. I have to cross two borders to get to Zambia. I decided to travel through Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe was an unknown. Is it safe? I was travelling alone. I left home early to try and get to Zambia in the shortest possible time. I reached the border of South Africa early morning. Four hours later I was heading North into Zimbabwe. The border was headlum. Thousands of people seemed stranded. Only a bribe got me through the border in 'record time' Harare was thus reached by nightfall. This is halfway to Lusaka. Early the next morning I drove around looking for diesel fuel. It took me two hours to locate a gas station that had fuel. This was kind of scarry. Harare was like a ghost city without resources. I also had some problems crossing the border to Zambia. They look for problems with your paperwork so that they could squeeze you for a bribe. Lusaka, Old Mkushi, Mkonshi, Mkushi, Serenje, Mansa, Gwenche, Kaputa, Kalalushi, Mbeja, Mpika are all places I searched for the elusive gems. The one day my Zambian partner and I, travelled 480 km on bad dirt roads. This was trying. My vehicle cost me more than $ 450 to fix on my return. Broken rubbers, Aircon failure, Windows and doors refuse to open. This gives you an idea of the bad state of the roads. The worst problem in Africa is the lies. 2 tons of material becomes 40 kg when you get to a collecting site. Gem material turns out to be low grade tumble material. Undamaged material is actually buggered up specimens. So I can continue. I ask them why they destroy the items after they have gone through all the effort of mining. The reply is always one of ignorance. It can be compared to their regard for all things natural. Any animal are all killed for food. Anything that moves is killed and eaten. Littering is rife. A person driving with me has the audacity to open the window and discard their rubbish into the street or in the field. When asked why they do it they look at you as if you come from Mars. I might sound a bit negative but that is how I often feel after you have travelled 8000 km's and you take a look at what you have bought. Travelling long distances never assures you of any success. It is not travelling alone that assures success, it is travelling to the right places where collecting is a lifestyle. Tanzania turned out to be just as bad. We saw many small bags with broken bits and pieces with eager sellers looking at you with hope in their eyes. They hope that you will see what they saw in the junk that lies before you. I guess we get more cynical as time goes on. Our standards get higher and higher as well. I have a yard and a shop full of material. But we judge many items and then decides that it is not good enough for export. We then chuck it in a corner and so we accumulate.
UPDATES	I installed an air conditioning unit in the shop. So your buying experience is now more pleasant. We are now pricing our goods in Euros but you can pay in US Dollars. The exchange rate is about 1.33. www.mineralgallery.co.za/updates.htm Or visit our auction site where you are sure to get some of the best deals available anywhere. We have over 50 auctions running at the moment. My son has now started listing under Rockhound. He is 15 years old. He wants to earn extra pocket money. www.bidonrocks.com or write to me at gerdus@mineralgallery.co.za Gerdus Brönn