"Go To" :
Check out my ebay store,
Flickr, African Adventures &
even buy crystal/mineral
postage & postcards on
Zazzle!
Helpful navigation tips for our site:
REFRESH:  We update frequently so be sure to refresh your browser to see any
changes.
TIME STAMP: On the upper left there is usually a  date and time showing when
the page was created or updated.
CHECK BOTTOM OF PAGE:  If you see a recent date, that indicates something
new is on the page and often it will be added to the BOTTOM OF THE  PAGE.
(that's because it is much easier to simply add it to the bottom as compared to
moving dozens of photos and text boxes to make room at the top of a page).
ENLARGE PHOTOS: Almost all photos will expand when you click on them.  
Those that have a plus sign when you hover your cursor over the photo can be
enlarged even further.
YELLOW LINKS: Links are almost always in YELLOW unless I just happen to
miss  doing that.  Otherwise they will be the standard blue color.
SITE MAP:  It's your friend!  I've been adding pages to this site for years and it
has become a monster.  But, it is a manageable monster.  It's easy to get lost
and confused and the site map will likely help you find your way back home.   
Look for site map links on the upper right of most pages. I've also added it to
most navigation bars as well as the 'go to' drop-down menu.
"GO TO":   Almost every page has a 'go to' drop down menu with a link to home,
the site map, and most of my other presences on the web such as ebay, flickr,
twitter, zazzle, etc.
Click here for info on the Georgia Rock shop : The Mineral Gallery in Mcdonough, Georgia. Just South of Atlanta
There is a block with tents filled with minerals from Morocco on one side of the street on the Southeast corner
of Helen St. and Alder Ave. This is not far from the new Mineral City show.   There are quite a few buildings
and businesses that have slowly accumulated in this area (although now things seem to be moving MUCH
faster).     After looking at the Moroccan stuff on the Helen/Alder corner, cross the street to the side that has
the block building as well as tents.  This building used to house Top Gem years ago but now carries minerals
strictly from Madagascar. The tents in this lot have Moroccan minerals also.
This year there was some above average material in the Morocco tents.   I really don't know where to start as I
saw and bought quite a lot of good things!

There was some spectacular Botryoidal Hematite from the Irhoud Mine.  There was one tent that had some
that was far and away better than the rest. I ended up getting a dozen nice specimens, some of which are
bigger than the one shown here.
All photos will expand at least once
when you click on it. Some will even
expand a second time to fill your
whole screen, so if you see a "+" sign
after clicking once, this means it will
expand even larger.
2019 Tucson Gem Show Report
Updated April 08, 2019
4:00 PM Eastern
Morocco Tents  on Helen Street
You are on Page Five.
Above Left: Vanadinite crystal cluster from Morocco
Above Right: Wulfenite crystals - Morocco
Immediate Left: larger Cerussite with barite - Morocco
lower center- unusual chalcopyrite
from Morocco that I probably should have gotten.
Lower Right- Lower quality hematite flats
There was some galena crystals coated with a sparkling druse
of cerussite and accompanied by bladed Barite.   Some of the
galena crystals had nice octahedral shapes but since there is a
druse coating the galena shape isn't too obvious.  The cerussite
druse varies in size. Some of the druse coating is a very tiny
crystal size and some had larger cerussite crystals on the
druse.  To add further variety, the barite blades varied in color
from white. tan, peach, pink and orange colors!  Some of the
blades made rosettes, some tried to form them and some made
no effort at all.
I ended up buying several flats of this material which hailed from
Mibladen, Morocco.
Some of the vendors (the ones with
poorer material) tried uplifting
messages to encourage a sale.
I wasn't buying what they were selling
in that regard.
As the travel guides sometimes say in
relation to traveling to a foreign land:
"Prepare for a hefty dose of hassle".   
In other words, the Moroccan's
subscribe to the theory that high
pressure sales tactics work.
Sometimes, when I would ask what a
flat of minerals cost they would give me
an answer and if I didn't immediately
pull out my wallet in response to their
answer they would ask "How much do
you want to pay?"  This is a clever
tactic on their part.  If you're not
carefull you'll be "wanting to pay" for
something that you really don't want to
pay for at all.
There was some specimens with much
larger cerussite crystals on the galena
and on barite.  I bought a few of these
but didn't take pictures.
There was also some single cerussite
crystals, presumably some larger ones
that detached from the plates.  I did
buy a flat of those but the quality is
poor. They are good crystals but are
not pretty.
There was some native silver about. Some had herringbone-type crystals and
some were ram's horn wires. Several of the dealers had some in good to great
quality.  There was one guy there that was
crazier than a shithouse rat but Boy
did he have some good silver!
If you're interested in a nice wire silver
specimen be sure to let me know as I
currently have some very good ones
for sale.
With the fear of inducing silver toxicity, I'll now move along to the next item. Vanadinite is synonymous with
Morocco.  Over the years the supply and quality have been cyclical but this year was a return to the lush
times of vanadinite.  I saw specimens similar to the big hits of '06.    The prices are much higher now than
they were back then, but still a relative bargain compared to the last decade of sparse supply.
The larger pieces like the one shown
below were priced at around a
thousand bucks. These will be marked
2 or 3 times that price by most sellers
- if not even higher!
The one shown at right was much
larger than usual but had small
cherry-red vanadinite crystals on the
barite blades.  Most of the pieces of
this type are usually much smaller in
overall size.
Penny for scale. The color is
slightly off on these photos.


Lower right:
I saw several really nice
clusters of quartz crystals that
were red in color and were a
type of "cactus quartz".


Lower Left:
Huge smoky barite crystals.
The next part of my Tucson Report
deals with digging.  Each year I do
some digging when I am Out West.
CLICK HERE to join me in the quest
for wulfenite crystals at the FINCH
MINE.
Cerussite is a lead mineral and it is
shockingly dense and heavy for its
size. People expect the more widely
known lead mineral, galena, to be
heavy but the cerussite, being a
transparent crystal, is usually found to
be surprisingly heavy when picked up
by someone that is unfamiliar with it.
Right: My odometer shows that my Trip
to the Tucson Show and back was
almost FIVE THOUSAND MILES