February 2005 Newsletter
It is sweltering hot as I sit and do the newsletter today. It has been exciting living at Kuruman. Yesterday I bought one pocket of attractive minerals with strange needles that I have never seen before. I have a stream of people at my door everyday and I need to make firm choices on items that I buy.  To be a major player you need to be known as a buyer. Sometimes we buy at high prices and make little profit because if you are skimpy the word quickly spread. The danger exsist that you can buy more than you can sell. So we continually look for more outlets. You hope that buying from the more careful collectors will result in something that is unique and sought after. It can be very draining. I hope you enjoy my articles. Please write to me. We will have a stocklist filled with varietu that is coming out later this month. Gerdus This month we cover the following What is happening at Kuruman? Mineral of the month : Sturmanite Good sculpture starts with good stone.  The appreciation of stones The discovery of diamonds in South Africa Humor of the month A few good quotes from the SA Lapidary magazine Issue April 2003 Be blessed as you read this newsletter. Gerdus

What is happening at Kuruman? I have been here a month and do not know how much I should tell and how much I should keep for myself. All dealers are scared that they will be supplanted when they speak too loudly of any new finds. There are rivalries in every locality. Here it is no different. The new shaft at N'Chwaning has delivered some stunning sturmanites in transparent yellows. The bulk of them occurred in small cavities as a drusy yellow xls that shine a lot. The xls are often smaller than 1 mm in size. The yellow looks green on the black background of the manganese ore. The best xls were 1 cm large floaters of transparent yellow hexagonal thumbnails. With this find there were brucite in many colors and ettringite in small yellow xls. They also brought out poldervaartite and Hausmannite with manganvesuvianite. Some pockets are large and may deliver specimens for months on end. It is best to buy what comes out because you never know how large the pocket is.  Good sugilite is scarce and expensive. Supply and demand. Everybody wants it and nobody has it. We are getting a good supply of different minerals. Please check my stock list for the month. Gerdus

Mineral of the month  Sturmanite Sturmanite was described as a new mineral from the Kalahari Manganese field (see Peacor et al 1983) Some controversy surrounds this mineral's type-locality, which was given as Black Rock, but no specimens have ever been recorded from this mine, and the specimens must have originated from one of the other nearby mines. A close morphological and chemical similarity to ettringite and charlesite, which are also found in the manganese field, has added to the confusion of accurately identifying these minerals. Hexagonal, prismatic crystals up to 15 cm in length are known. N'Chwaning II mine is the premier locality for sturmanites where during 1982-1983 excellent specimens were collected. Recently we have started to see xls of flat hexagonal crystals of sturmanite come form the new shaft. The crystals have high luster. They are transparent yellow crystals. The ones found as drusy coatings on the manganese appears green due to the black base on which they are found. The largest xls were just over one cm in length. A few of the specimens appeared on white calcite and these displayed better. I believe that this will still prove to be one of the better finds of gem sturmanite from the N'Chwaning mines. See how complex the chemical make-up is.  Ca6(Fe,AL,Mn)2(So4)2[B(OH)4](OH)12-26H2O, Hydrated Calcium Iron Aluminum Manganese Sulfate Tetrahydroxoborate Hydroxide

Good stone sculpture starts with good stone It is impossible to create a good article from poor rock. When you purchase rock you must realize that the final product is the result of your skill and the quality of the rough that you work with.   I was a studio potter for 15 years. A studio potter creates one-off pieces for his clients. This means that no two items are the same. The quality of the article is determined by the quality of the clay, the purity of the glaze and the expertise when you fire the item. There are philosophies behind the creation of a unique item. It must have spirit. It embodies the spirit of the artist. A good vessel speaks to the viewer. What is good stone? 1.Good stone is solid, no cracks, and no funny holes that will show up in the final polish. 2.Good stone has uniformity of pattern. The pattern must be balanced. No good making a sphere from red jasper that has a white line running through just one third of a stone. No. the white line must be balanced. So you have to study the pattern and discard those stones that do not make the cut. 3.Good stone has some translucency. The soul of the stone must shine through from the inside. It must show some of its inner beauty. Stone that only shows a surface pattern is not as exciting as stone that reveals a deeper dimension. 4.Good stone has presence. As an artist you will experience a gut feeling when you look at good stone. 5.Good stone can be priced higher. Price is not that important when you look at good stone because the end product will reveal the value. Buy from people that have the ability to recognize these features. In Africa our biggest buyers are the people from the Orient. They buy when the price is right. This can be a dangerous practice. You can ask me to quantify this statement in person. I do not want to step on too many toes. We pride ourselves that we can hunt down the best African rough with all of the features above. We often send out selected rocks to satisfied clients in the USA, Japan and Europe.

The appreciation of stone
I believe that the art of collecting can be approached from different views. We all see life through coated lenses. Our appreciation of life is determined by the influences of the past. We are what we have been becoming and our current thoughts will determine who we become tomorrow. So for us to change we often need to be exposed to fresh ideas and this gives us new viewpoints. I hope that my ramblings will help some rockhounds to hone their collecting skills. I came from a background of art. I studied as a fine artist and eventually became a potter. For 15 years I earned my money with things made out of clay. The market is tough and you quickly discover what sells and what does not. I learned to discern the beauty of objects and artifacts. We often copied items and textures from the natural world in our ceramics. Let me get back to collecting and the appreciation of stones. Specimens represent the crystalized form of certain minerals. Given the ideal conditions you will always get the same shapes for a certain mineral. This means that one of the criteria that we look at when we judge a mineral is how true it represents the species. So you need to look at a specific species from many locations and study the best to have a reference point to know what are good and what not. Every locality has a fingerprint. Once you get familiar with a certain mineral you can easily identify which locality it comes from. Some people collect stones for scientific reasons. Some want to collect at least one kind of every species. This is a huge undertaking that may end you up with lots of ugly stones that do not occur in aesthetic minerals. Others collect stones from a certain locality. This is a wonderful focused collection. But it may be boring. You have to collect over many years and the colors may be subdued if you only collect iron sulphides as an example.  Some collect for color and beauty. Such a collection may be very expensive. Aesthetic colorful stones are always expensive. Whatever your focus I want to give you a few important pointers to look at when you buy a mineral on the Internet. 1.Look at the size. Have a mineral close-by, which is in the size that you prefer to collect. Compare the size you see on the description with the actual sample next to you. Some small minerals make excellent pictures but look like nothing when placed next to larger mineral in a collection. 2.Look at the color of the background. Sometimes people use a different background to bring out a color. If the photo was enhanced it can also show on the background. For example. I once bought an alexandrite that was a lovely green on the picture. But in actuality it was grey. The green was caused by enhancement of the picture. Later I saw this on the picture. 3.Look at any damage. Do not buy damaged minerals. They spoil your collection. Be very strict about this. If you think that the item might show damage. Do not hesitate to ask. The seller must divulge this info. A damaged specimen in a collection only shows the damage and not it's beauty. 4.Look at the balance between the host rock and the specimen part. If the host rock is too large rather leave the sample with the seller. 5.Look at luster. A mineral, which is dull, spoils a collection. The luster makes or breaks a mineral. These are just some thought on collecting and points to ponder when buying items on the Internet. I hope this have helped you. Please write to me if it has helped you. gerdus@mineralgallery.co.za The discovery of diamonds in South Africa. Erasmus Jacobs was the son of a farmer in the section of South Africa that used to be called the Transvaal. One day in 1867 when he was out walking Erasmus happened to look down and saw a shiny stone at his feet. He picked it up and found it so pretty that he thought that he would give it to his sister to play with. The pretty stone that Erasmus picked up proved to be an enormous diamond that was very valuable. It weighed 21.25 carats. It was named the Eureka. Eureka is the joyous word in ancient Greek for "I've found it" And Erasmus really found something very important. For South Africans began to look for more diamonds - and they found them. For some of them were found in an area where Erasmus lived. One of these finds was the fabulous gem called the Star of South Africa. It was an 83.50 carat diamond found lying in a streambed. A major diamond rush had started. People from all over the world headed for South Africa when they heard of the treasure to be found there. Some of the other discoveries were almost as dramatic as the find Erasmus made. A young Englishman serving a jail sentence in a British military camp in the Griqualand region was put to work digging. While digging he began to turn up diamonds. He, like Erasmus had made a major discovery. The camp was renamed Kimberley after the British foreign minister and became in later years a center of the diamond-mining industry. In the same part of South Africa, a fortune in diamonds was mined on the farm of a family De Beers. De Beers was to become one of the most famous names in South Africa's diamond industry. A family named Jagers found diamonds in the pond where they watered the livestock on their farm, which was called Jagersfontein. Jagersfontein also became a famous name. And so the quite walk of a bright boy named Erasmus had started a great industry.  Humor of the month When Idi Amin fled Uganda he traveled north to Sudan. In the lower reaches of Sudan he found a small village that was willing to house him for a while. He carried with him his favorite ivory throne in a large bag. He wanted to stay there for a while to rest and because he did not want to be recognized he stowed his ivory throne in the rafters of the grass hut. One night a big storm came up that shook the hut violently. His throne came loose and fell on his head. He died instantly What is the moral of the story? People that live in grass huts should not stow thrones A few good quotes from the SA Lapidary magazine Issue April 2003 ·Rockhounds are people who move mountains by carrying small stones. ·Remember: a friend is someone who can see the star in your sapphire ·Life is like a ladder - every step we take is either up or down. ·You cannot change the past, but you can ruin a perfectly good present by worrying about the future ·When everything is coming your way, you are probably in the wrong lane. ·A house without a tree is not fit for a dog ·A tourist admired an Indian necklace and asked what it was made off. "Alligator teeth" They are more valuable than pearls. Why? Asked the tourist, the Indian replied. "Anyone can open an oyster"
UPDATES	To see what we have been up to today please visit the following page. 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. You can also sell your own minerals here for free. It definitely beats the high cost of e-bay at the moment. We have some fine active buyers using the site. Try it out for yourself and then give me a buzz. www.bidonrocks.com or write to me at gerdus@mineralgallery.co.za Gerdus Brönn