October 2005 Newsletter
We have now made our home in Kuruman for better and worse. Almost like the couple who gets married, for better or for worse. Well to be honest with you, I like it here. It is not just the occasional good mineral that we find but it is the people. Kuruman people are genuine people. Down to earth people. The community is just beautiful. It took us about three months to be totally integrated in this community. Let me tell you a few stories about Kuruman. Kuruman is a 2 Pep store town with Asian music wafting through the streets. At certain times of the month you avoid town altogether. Everybody from everywhere comes to town on donkeycart and bicycle to come and do their shopping. This is the time when beer flows freely. A 'happy' time for all. Well the happiness only last till the money is gone. Then the big cleanup starts. Papers everywhere. This is Kuruman. On the specimen side it has been slow. But after speaking to the mineral collectors here they told me that this is nothing new. You can have a serious drought for some months and then suddenly there is more than you can cope with. I was also told to stock up when the good ones come. You can buy all that you can find and then stock up and keep it for some time until the mineral world has caught on to the find. Well you know we have to sell to keep on buying. I do not know how easy this is. We saw some mangano calcite a while ago and I was fortunate to get a bit of hausmannite on andradite. I also bought a unique pocket of calcite with scalenahedron phantoms included. Then there were a few ettingite on flat slate like rocks. But the good pockets have not surfaced. They will come. The eternal optimist. I am now buying the rental house. So you will still hear a lot of stories from Kuruman. In this still period I have traveled quite a bit to get new minerals. I was in Zambia and in Namibia. The Zambian trip was 5100 km and the Namibian trip 4000 km. The vehicle took a lot of strain on these long trips. I will write more on my finds from these trips in an article further down the newsletter. I will be visiting China at the end of this week. 21 October 2005 and I will write an article on my finds in the next newsletter. This month we cover the following My trip to Zambia August 2005 My trip to Namibia September 2005 Mineral of the month :Fluorite The Kalahari Manganese fields Spectacular minerals -Part 1 Be blessed as you read this newsletter. Gerdus

My trip to Zambia August 2005 Zambia is pretty far away from Kuruman. Miles and miles away!! Especially when you travel alone. Annalie do not have the stomach for third world countries. Remember South Africa is classified as a developing country. The first day found me crossing the border into Botswana early morning. I made good course to Gabarone. In Gabarone I had a mission. I needed Botswana agate for a client. 5000 kg of it. Well this is enough reason to get away from the PC for a while and go and look for agate. I strolled into the office of the ministry of mines in the middle of the day with big hopes of acquiring a permit for the export of such. The gentleman at the Ministry suggested that I place everything in writing and then return. Off to the Internet cafe where I quickly drew up a set of papers. I returned just before lunch. Here I was suddenly met by 3 gentleman who took a keen interest in my request. I was told that the ministry can never issue a permit for raw stone from Botswana. I then offered them the same price as cut agate. They still refused. I asked why, they said that the processing provides jobs. I offered to pay wages. They still refused and said that electricity is consumed and this is extra income for the country. I offered to pay a certain amount for the electricity. Their argument was that someone out there is going to make the money and not the people of Botswana. I said to please wake up that this is the way that a free economy works. The developed world will always make money out of the raw stone from Africa. Well that was the end of the meeting and thus no permit. So no stone was to be had from Botswana. I then headed for Zambia. The stretch between Maun and Kasane is straight and very boring. Maybe you will get the occasional elephant on the way, other than that it is flat and monotonous. Halfway between the two I slowed down at a disease control post. I unfortunately stopped 3 meters after the official stop sign. I was then asked to pull off the road and disembark my vehicle. I was then harassed because I did not stop on the line. Well I was slightly fed up with the attitude of the policeman and asked him if I could take a picture of the stop sign to show the rest of the world how faded the signage of Botswana was.   I offered to place a picture in my newsletter. This changed his attitude immediately and he offered me a safe journey. It could have turned sour. Sometimes the best defense is attack. Lusaka was busy as always. I reached the city early the morning and decided to just stroll around to see what I can find before my faithful rockhounds find me. What did I find? Absolutely nothing!!! Just piles of low grade rocks in bags that they want a fortune for. Yes and may I say that they tell me how many times they have been to Hong Kong and America. I hate such arrogance. At one stage in the negotiations I told the gentleman in the picture that I have had enough and that his attitude stinks and that I am walking away from the tourmaline pile that I have selected. Well this caused a major change in his attitude. It was not a pleasant shopping experience and I most likely paid too much for the tourmaline anyway. The afternoon found me heading to Kabwe to meet my mine guys who also had collected tourmaline for me. The tourmaline is from the Jagoda mine. The Jagoda mine was neglected for some time and illegal miners decided to occupy the mine. I believe at one stage there was 300 illegal miners. They only collected from the dumps. The normal collecting method was to bash open the pegmatite material to see what is inside. Any tourmaline that is found is then dumped into bags and taken to Lusaka to sell. Most material is low low grade tourmaline that is heavily fractured. I worked through about 300 kg to get 12 kg to sell.  My guys had some items they called specimens. These I bought at a fair price. But let me be frank with you. All have mistakes on them because of the collection method. I have seen the better material from the pit and some are world class gem material. But unfortunately these were already facetted. The next morning I left for Kitwe to see my other contacts. Kitwe is in the copper belt on the way North. On the way to Kitwe I was fined twice for speeding. It placed my nerves on end. The one traffic official told me that he had 5 tons of quartz. So I was able to get a reduction on my fine when I promised him that I will take a look at his quartz upon my return. Everybody in Zambia has stone or knows someone with stone In Kitwe I met up with Kenneth and Ceasar who are two of my guys who collect stuff for me in the DRC. They had some interesting specimens from the DRC. But alas they could not afford the best and so they only obtained the smaller specimens. On top of that they told me that their cost was $1900 for the trip. My pricing brought me to $1000 tops for the specimens. So what happens now. Suspicion on their side. "He is trying to rob us. He does not want to pay". On my side I am thinking of the 5000 km and the time it will take me to sell these specimens. Not enough good stuff in the parcel to make money. So I end up settling in the middle and overpaying just to have stock. It is a viscous cycle. Diesoline cost almost $1.40 for a liter in Zambia and travelling there can be expensive. But I must say that all is not so bleak.  Traveling allows one to get stuff that no one else has. It allows you the opportunity to work your own deposits. To see material for the first time that no one else has ever seen is great. I looked at getting more emerald in matrix. All emerald is chopped up into small pieces for facetting. I did see some interesting items that might work. The yellow topaz is good for collectors and then there is the dravite tourmaline from a new find. Some are rather well formed. The deposits we have gone back to are the tremolite included quartz. This time they are more colorful than before. We have also send people to collect good Kyanite and magnetite on matrix. This we will have later this year. Let me tell you about an incident that happened to me in Kitwe.  As I was traveling from one mineral person to the next I happened to kick up a pebble with my back tyre. This landed on the windscreen of a lady's car. Unfortunately cracking the whole windscreen. I was still driving and not aware of what transpired until she started forcing me off the road. I stopped and got out of the vehicle to see what her problem was. Well this was a mistake because she started screaming at me to ask what I am going to do about the windscreen. I told her that I am going to do nothing about it because her insurance can take care of it. This was not the response she wanted. They advanced on me, there were 3 sturdy colored ladies. I decided to jump into the vehicle and to speed away. They decided to grab my keys and nearly broke my arm in the process. They bend my key until it could not fit into the ignition anymore. They then grabbed me by the throat and nearly choked me to death. I still had blue marks on my neck after a few days. I then proceeded to the police station to make a charge of assault against me. The lady then saw that she might land into serious trouble with this charge and she then phoned husband and friends. Later there was a dozen angry relatives at the police station wanting to do me harm. I just diffused the situation by walking away from it all. It kind of spoiled the day for me. The next morning I left back to Lusaka and South Africa. A long journey that I promise to never make again but I always end up back there after phone calls and promises of bigger and better.

Namibia September 2005 The Zambian specimens lasted two weeks and because things are a bit slow at Kuruman I headed off to Namibia. I was phoned from Uis to ask if I would be interested in a good pocket that has just been found. I saw these beauties in my minds eye and the next day found me on the road to Windhoek. But now I was nursing a leak on the cooling system from the Zambian trip. I had to check the water often. It is a long boring stretch up to Windhoek. Annalie was with me and we reached Windhoek by nightfall. After booking into our room I set off to go and see Andy Bachran who had a collection of his fathers rocks. His dad just passed away because of heart problems. It is very sad. I looked through the boxes and could not believe the depth of quality that I saw. Andy's dad had a great eye and a passion for minerals. It was all contemporary stock. Bernie was a prolific miner and seller of specimens. He was well known with many dealers because of his good eye. I made Andy an offer that I had to adjust upwards slightly but it was still a good deal for me. The next few days you will see some excellent specimens on offer from this fine collection. His Brandberg amethyst is world class. He had access to one of the best pockets that has come out. The evening we whiled away at Joe's Beerhouse. This is definitely the place to eat when in Windhoek. It is a large noisy steakhouse with generous portions. It looked like the United Nations the evening we were there. We sat next to a Swede that was married to an American. Behind us were Asians from Japan and opposite us was a large table full of Dutch tourist. Great evening! The next day I stood in front of the House of Gems and waited for them to open. I then saw my good friends there (Herbert and Ernest) who brought out some boxes of classic specimens from their Kuruman collection that they decided to sell to make room for more Namibian specimens.  I eagerly took all the Kuruman specimens. I believe that many of them might even have been in the Sid Peters collection. It was great to find so many classics together. I unfortunately sold the 2 rhodochrosites already. They went straight from my boxes without even landing on the website. We then made our usual rounds to Uis and Swakopmund where we purchased the rest of the specimens we needed for our wholesale business. I want to thank everybody that ordered from our stocklist of October. Unfortunately I did not have enough for everybody. My aggressive buying placed me in a good position with stock. Now I only have very good specimens left from the Sid Peters collection and the Bachran collection. These will take at least a month to list on the internet. I am willing to take offers on any specimens. As long as it is reasonable. We are listing better pieces that are more expensive at the point of purchase. I have so many good specimens in my store and in my stock boxes that I am almost considering doing a show somewhere. But the cost of traveling from Africa to do a show is just too high for me to justify. I would rather give people deals on the interenet. It is always a scary thing to pass through border post with rocks. We again had some scary moments when they checked the specimens for soil. Sand and soil is no longer allowed to pass through the border.

The Kalahari Manganese fields. We are grateful to Christian Weise for permitting the translation of this article from the original Lapis German text. Spectacular Minerals Labeling a mineral or a mineral find as "spectacular" is somewhat inherently subjective and partly driven by personal bias, Our choice of minerals from the Kalahari manganese field is no exception to this rule, and other collectors may have opted for a different selection. There is no doubt that the finds of some rare--or even unique--minerals in the manganese ores of the Kalahari have to be regarded at least as exceptional, such as mozartite or Sr-piedmontite. These beautiful and rare minerals will not be discussed here because we decided to instead focus on those mineral species that have reached a wide distribution among mineral collectors worldwide and thus constitute the basis for ranking the Kalahari manganese field as a world-class locality for mineral collectors. More complete accounts of the minerals occurring in the Kalahari manganese field have, however, been presented by Wilson and Dunn (1978), von Bezing et al. (1991), von Bezing and Gutzmer (1994a,b), and most recently Cairncross, Beukes, and Gutzmer (1997). Andradite, [Ca.sub.3][Fe.sup.3+.sub.2][(Si[O.sub.4]).sub.3], the calcium-iron-rich end-member of the garnet group, is a ubiquitous constituent in the Wessels-type ore, and it abounds on mineral specimens from Wessels and the N'chwaning I and II mines. Several thousand mineral specimens of andradite-coated high-grade Wessels-type ore have been recovered from the Kalahari manganese field. The andradite crystals are not impressively huge, but they display high luster and variable color that ranges from orange through wine-red to brownish-red. These attributes produce attractive specimens and contrast with the associated minerals, which include black hausmannite, hematite, jacobsite, braunite II, and clinochlore. Especially attractive specimens with andradite are found from N'Chwaning I and II and Wessels. Occurrences at Black Rock and Hotazel, in contrast, are less attractive. The rhombo-dodecahedron form dominates the habit of the crystals, which never exceed 2 cm in size. Many of the crystals are marked by concentric-growth zoning on a submillimeter scale. In 1992 several hundred specimens of andradite and bementite emerged from Wessels mine. In July 1996 very large aggregates of lustrous dark red andradite crystals associated with gaudefoyite and sturmanite were discovered at N'Chwaning II mine. The latter two finds are, however, only a select few examples of a virtually continuous stream of andradite specimens from the mines of the Kalahari manganese field. Calcite, CaC[O.sub.3], is certainly the most common mineral found in all the mines of the Kalahari manganese field. It occurs in many different habits, colors, and sizes, ranging from small pseudocubic crystals and simple rhombohedra to elongated scalenohedra and very large crystals, more than 30 cm, with complex habits. The calcite can be either colorless and transparent or translucent milky-white; it is also pale blue. Some crystals are discolored yellow or red by iron oxide inclusions. Most of the calcite crystals display strong orange fluorescence, in contrast to manganese-bearing calcite that fluoresces a dark red. Calcite occurs in different paragenetic associations that are related to several geological events. The finest specimens, such as tip to 30-cm groups of clear crystals with a complex, stubby habit, are again related to the hydrothermal origin of the Wessels-type ore. A particularly beautiful find was recorded in July 1996, when large sprays of strongly elongated white calcite crystals in association with hematite, hausmanhire, and andradite were recovered at N'Chwaning II mine. In 1998, a handful of specimens was collected from a cavity in the footwall at N'Chwaning II mine. These were blue, elongate crystals, some arranged like candelabras and some studded with brilliant yellow ettringite crystals (see fig. 9), During 2000, perfectly twinned, water-clear crystals were collected from the N'Chwaning II mine. Shortly before this discovery, opaque white twinned calcites, some larger than a football, were recovered from the same mine. Gaudefroyite, [Ca.sub.4][Mn.sup.3+.sub.3-x][(B[O.sub.3]).sub.3](C[O.sub.3]) [(O,OH).sub.3], is a widespread but minor constituent in the hausmannite and braunite-II-rich Wessels-type ore. It occurs in millimeter-sized anhedral grains or as bronze-colored hairlike crystals intimately intergrown with the oxide minerals. Well-formed prismatic crystals of this rare mineral have been found at Wessels and N'Chwaning II mines. A few crystals are up to 5 cm long; sizes of 1 cm are common. Highly lustrous black, needlelike gaudefroyite crystals on carpets of bright red andradite make for visually appealing specimens. Highly lustrous, black needlelike crystals occurring as malted aggregates were discovered at N'Chwaning II mine in 1995. These aggregates were associated with ettringite, hematite, hausmannite, and calcite. In late 2000, some impressive gaudefroyite was found as freestanding groups of crystals. Individual crystals were up to 4 cm long, but these had an attenuated habit, parallel to the c-axis, rather than the more stubby crystals found previously. These recent specimens are jet-black and resemble stibnite specimens. More to follow next month   www.mineralgallery.co.za Minerals F-J Fluorite Name Fluorite Chemistry CaF2, Calcium Fluoride  Uses Fluorite is also used as a source of fluorine for hydrofluoric acid and fluorinated water. Other uses of fluorite include an uncommon use as a gemstone (low hardness and good cleavage reduce its desirability as a gemstone), ornamental carvings (sometimes misleadingly called Green Quartz) and special optical uses. Color A whole bouquet of colors. The range of common colors for fluorite starting from the hallmark color purple, then blue, green, yellow, colorless, brown, pink, black and reddish orange Hardness 4 Specific gravity 3.0-3.3 Fluorite, calcium fluoride is a major industrial mineral used as a flux in steel making as well as in the preparation of hydrofluoric acid and in the ceramics industry. Mainly used for glasses and enamels. Fluorite's vitreous, cubic crystals (isometric system) and cleavable, granular masses have a wide color range (often green, blue, or purple) and may fluoresce under ultraviolet light. Hardness is 4, specific gravity 3.0-3.3. Fluorite deposits form under a wide variety of conditions: as veins produced by hydrothermal alteration, as beds and cavities in sedimentary rocks, in hot spring deposits, and in pegmatites. It forms the typical cube and to a lesser extent, the octahedron as well as combinations of these two and other rarer isometric habits. Always with equate crystals; less common are crusts and botryoidal forms. Twinning also produces penetration twins that look like two cubes grown together. Cleavage is perfect in 4 directions forming octahedrons.  Sometimes the less common habits such as a colored octahedron are seen inside of a colorless cube. One crystal of  Fluorite could potentially have four or five different color zones or bands. Fluorite is frequently fluorescent and, like its normal light colors, its fluorescent colors are extremely variable. Typically it fluoresces blue but other fluorescent colors include yellow, green, red, white and purple. The word fluorescent was derived from fluorite since specimens of  Fluorite were some of the first fluorescent specimens ever studied. The naming followed the naming precedence set by opalescence from opal; ergo fluorescence from Fluorite. Another unique luminescent property of fluorite is its thermoluminescence. Thermoluminescence is the ability to glow when heated. Not all fluorites do this, in fact it is quite a rare phenomenon. A variety of fluorite known as "chlorophane" can demonstrate this property very well and will even thermoluminesce while the specimen is held in a person's hand activated by the person's own body heat (of course in a dark room, as it is not bright enough to be seen in daylight). The thermoluminescence is green to blue-green and can be produced on the coils of a heater or electric stove top. Once seen, the glow will fade away and can no longer by seen in the same specimen again. It is a one shot deal. Fluorite has other qualities besides its great color assortments that make it a popular mineral. It has several different crystal habits that always produce well formed, good, clean crystals. The cube is by far the most recognized habit of fluorite followed by the octahedron which is believed to form at higher temperatures than the cube. Although the cleavage of fluorite can produce an octahedral shape and these cleaved octahedrons are popular in rock shops the world over, the natural (e.g. uncleaved) octahedrons are harder to find. Fluorite, as mention above, has octahedral cleavage. This means that it has four identical directions of cleavage and when cleaved in the right ways can produce a perfect octahedral shape. Many thousands of octahedrons are produced from massive or large undesirable crystals of fluorite (hopefully!) and are sold in rock shops and museum gift shops at a small cost. Fluorite mine workers are reported to sit down at lunch breaks and cleave the octahedrons for the extra cash. The octahedrons are very popular due to their attractive colors, clarity, "diamond-shaped" and low costs, but to a serious collector they are nothing more than "cleavage fragments". Fluorite not only is attractive in its own right but is often associated with other attractive minerals. Fluorite crystals will frequently accompany specimens of silver gray galena, brassy yellow pyrite, chalcopyrite or marcasite, golden barite, black sparkling sphalerite, intricately crystallized calcite and crystal clear quartz, even amethyst. The origin of the word fluorite comes from the use of fluorite as a flux in steel and aluminum processing. It was originally referred to as fluorospar by miners and is still called that today.Fluorite is the most popular mineral for mineral collectors in the world, second only to quartz. Every mineral collection owned by even the newest and youngest of mineral collectors must have a specimen of fluorite. Fluorite is by far one of the most beautiful and interesting minerals available on the mineral markets

UPDATES

To see what we have been up to today please visit the following page and press the updates page button. www.mineralgallery.co.za/updates-min-gallery.htm Or visit our auction site where you are sure to get some of the best deals available anywhere. My son is listing under Rockhound. He is 16 years old. He is busy with exams at the moment so you will see a slowing down of the site. My apologies You can also sell your own minerals here for free. It definitely beats the high cost of e-bay at the moment. 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