I’ve added some great new French specimens in this France Update. Several are recently-collected from the Mésage Mine, Saint-Pierre-de-Mésage, Isère, France, along with a bournonite from Saint-Laurent-le-Minier and a gem-clear calcite from Pau, Aquitane.

Every summer, for a few days, the quiet town of Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines transforms into a bustling mineral and gem extravaganza. This is the most beautiful major mineral show setting, and attending is a great experience. This year’s show included some excellent minerals, including some great new finds.

I’ve added a group of diverse minerals in this Peru Update. I have selected these out over various trips – each is a beautiful specimen for the mineral! This update includes a gorgeous rhodonite from Chiurucu, a brilliant alabandite, a super specimen of bournonite cogwheel twins on matrix, a specimen of scheelite coated with bright green stolzite, fluorescent fluorapatites and more.

I’ve added an Egypt Update, featuring excellent new goethite pseudomorphs after marcasite crystals from the White Desert, north of Farafra Oasis, Egypt.

High in the Andes, Southern Peaks Mining operates one of Peru’s most famous historical mines, the Quiruvilca Mine. Quiruvilca is one of Peru’s most important mineral specimen producing localities. I was invited to go to Quiruvilca, resulting in an adventure that included some amazing time underground to explore the sulfide veins as they were being mined.

We have all had that moment when looking at a pyrite from Navajún, Spain: “No way are those cubes natural!” Well, if you’d like to adventure to the remarkable place where they do in fact come out of the ground, this post will take you to this beautiful region of Spain, and to the Victoria Mine.