Be sure to hit [RE-LOAD] or [REFRESH] often.

The following are brief introductions to the people who will be posting minerals on my auction.
These are good folks and they have my 100% backing.
 
 
 

March 1997                                                                            December 2006
John Veevaert - Trinity Mineral Company

I have been an avid mineral collector - primarily a field collector since 1975.  My first love was with gold but in 1977, while taking mineralogy, I discovered benitoite and there was no going back.  I have had the opportunity to see just about every nook and cranny in the Mojave Desert in both California and Nevada.  My education is in Geology and my undergraduate work was done at Fullerton College and Humboldt State University in Arcata California.  My graduate work was also done at Humboldt State.  I was gainfully employed as an exploration geologist working for two mining companies - one out of Anchorage, Alaska and one out of Reno, Nevada.  After grad school I went to work for Redwood National Park for three years and then transfered to the US Forest Service as a geologist on the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.  I started Trinity Mineral Company in 1996 with the intent of losing money but enjoying my hobbies of computers and mineralogy so that I would pay fewer taxes. It was one of those rare situations in a person's life where they are at the right place at the right time.  The Internet was in its infintile stages and I was able to get in while the "gettin' was good". 

In 1997 I quit my government job at the GS-12 level and plunged head on into full time mineral dealing. My wife, Colleen (we've been married since 1985) quit her day job a year later in 1998 to join me on this adventure and we've been doing it ever since.

The two pictures above have me rather concerned about how the mineral specimen (a self collected benitoite and neptunite from 1986) is aging... hmm...YIKES!


 

Keith Hayes (Auction Manager) & Luciana Barbosa

I know you're used to seeing just KQ Minerals here, but I've decided to try something new.  Brazilian gem dealer Luciana Barbosa and I got to talking in Denver and decided that we'd have more fun working together.  You're used to seeing her at shows selling gemstones (especially rare ones) for her family's business, Gemological Center.  We've put together a couple new web pages: kqandlugems.com to sell gemstones and kqandluminerals.com to sell gem minerals.  My own page kqminerals.com will continue to present general mineral specimens.  Anyway, I think you will like the expanded offerings.

Keith has been in the mineral business since 1992.  Initially, he was field collector in the quarries of Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana.  After visiting a few local shows in Michigan, he figured out that the selection was small and the prices were way too high.  He decided to visit Tucson and discovered there were lots of great pieces at reasonable prices if one is willing to do lots of looking.  His focus remains on presenting attractive specimens at reasonable prices.  When he is not managing the auction, he is a chemical engineer in Paducah (say what?), Kentucky.

Luciana has been in the mineral business even longer than Keith, even though many people still think she is really young (don't ask her if she is 21 yet!)  She and her family have supplied fine gem stone and cutting rough at major shows for many years now.  She lives in Belo Horizonte and travels frequently to the gem-producing regions of Brazil.  She loves to travel and is quite talented when it comes to photography.
 


 
 

Dr. Alessandro Genazzani - Italian Minerals

I started collecting "rocks and stones" when I was about 10 ... you can imagine, really rocks and stones ! My mama was very "happy"... Nevertheless the love for the perfection of the shapes of the crystals was growing,  So little by little I became more expert and after several years I found myself deeply involved in mineralogy, with a growing collection and a lot of friends. The problem today is that my real job is on the other side of the moon compared to my love for minerals as I am a medical doctor.  I am involved in science and research at the University of  Modena, Italy. 

About 10 years ago I met a growing number of collectors and new friends while using Internet (among those there was John Veevaert !) and during those months the final step to create my own website was made. ItalianMinerals.com started little by little in 1997 and came on with full steam in June 1998. It is a full operating website to show and offer good rocks from Italy and other global locations to the Internet world of collectors ! My primary goal of the website is to create a condition so that my hobby helps pay for itself, at present it partly works but being an avid collector of nice specimens .... sometimes it doesn't!
 


 

Giorgio Spiga & his wife Marisa - Best Minerals

Different to most collectors and rockhounds, my attraction to minerals began when I was not any more a child but after I had finished my degree in Chemistry at the Cagliari University in 1966.  Until then, my time was divided between study and Sports.  At 15 years I began Greek-Roman Wrestling and three years later I was selected as a reserve in the Italian team for the 1960 Rome Olympic Games.  The following year, I became the 52 kg. Italian champion and successfully fought for the first time in the national team versus Hungary.  At the end of 1963, I gave up top-level wrestling because, following a training accident that year, I failed to participate in the Naples Mediterranean Games, which was a sort of passport for the following Tokyo Olympics.  Back to Sardinia after eighteen months spent in Sweden and England, for scientific and professional development.  In 1968 I began teaching Analytical Chemistry at the Iglesias Mining School where there was a very good mineralogical museum and a many collectors among the collegues; from then on, I started my activity as a mineral collector and rockhound. During the following twelve to fifteen years, I spent most of my weekends and vacations digging in the tail dumps of the old mines and around the vulcanites and granites in Sardinia. My professional activity absorbed all my time and energies from 1982 up to 1994 when I started again with revived enthusiasm for minerals and in 2000, with the cooperation of my son Bruno, I started www.bestminerals.com, where you can see my own collection, including a suit of 45 top class sardinian samples of my preferred mineral: Barite.  Actually, for the next 2.5 years, I am heavily engrossed in the clean up of a large contaminated site in Sardinia.  I hope it will be my last professional work and after it I want to dedicate all my time to my three hobbies: minerals, photography and roses.
 


 

Dave Douglass - douglassminerals.com

Unlike other dealers, I got interested in minerals as a "big kid" at age 58 in 1989 while on a trip to Brazil to do collaborative research with a colleague in Rio de Janeiro.  Although I had taken a mineralogy course as an undergraduate in 1952 and liked minerals, I hadn't done anything until I saw some stuff for sale on a street corner in Rio.  I bought my first piece, subsequently became an avid collector and eventually got a resale license and became a dealer  I retired in 1992 from UCLA where I was a longtime professor of materials science and engineering, moved to Tucson and started doing shows.  I have had a website, douglassminerals.com,  for five years and am thoroughly "hooked" by the beauty of aesthetic minerals.  I lead tour groups to Brazil nearly every summer to visit gem and mineral mines.

Ironically, my research work at UCLA was in high-temperature corrosion of metals and alloys during which I produced "minerals" as oxide and/or sulfide scales on  metallic substrates.  I am presently an adjunct professor at the University of Arizona and have been the editor of Oxidation of Metals, an international journal involving gas-solid reactions, since its inception in 1968.  My research work resulted in over 140 publications.  Honors include:  Fellow, American Society for Metals; Chairman, Gordon Research Conference in Corrosion, 1975; ASTM "Russ Ogden" award for outstanding contributions to refractory-metal technology, 2004.

Personal interests are many (I wonder how I ever had time to work), such as masters track and field competition (four age-group national championships - decathlon 1987, indoor pentathlon twice and 4 x 800 relay).  I compete about 12 times per year in such things as the 80M hurdles, 300M hurdles, 400M run, high jump, pole vault, long jump, hammer throw, discus, shot put, and javelin.  In 2003 I finished 5th in the world masters championships in Puerto Rico in the decathlon, 8th in the pole vault and 8th in the hammer throw.

I'm hooked on tournament bridge (silver life master), took up golf at age 64 (sheer frustration!!),  and classical music.

My wife Liz is a PhD licensed psychologist, who assists me at some mineral shows when it doesn't conflict with her work. 


 

Isaias Casanova - icminerals.com

I was born in a crossfire hurricane....only kidding!

Actually, I was born in Havana, Cuba in 1951 and came to the states in 1961. Lived in Miami until 1987 when I moved to Orlando. Developed an interest in minerals early and then forgot about it until 1986 during a Colorado vacation. I have been dealing in minerals since 1989 and became a full time dealer in 1998. I obtained a Bachelor's Degree in Mass Communications (Film) in 1974 from the University of South Florida, but had a 20 year career in Finance, before attacking the minerals full time. I am divorced with three girls, that are now all grown up (most of the time)! 


 
 
 
 

Steve Perry at the Denver Show - Steve Perry Gems

Always hunting for great rocks!  I first was introduced to gem and mineral collecting when I was five years old on the agate beaches California and Oregon.   The hook was set deep when Bruce Runner (a prominent CA dealer for many, many years) gave me a benitoite specimen at the Turlock Gem and Mineral Show thirty-five years ago; and I was sure then (at seven years old) what I would be doing as a profession.  After literally more than five hundred mining and collecting trips I still relish the treasure hunt.  My greatest passion will always be benitoite and the minerals of San Benito County, though my interest includes all varieties of gemstones and gem crystals..


 
 
 

Giovanni & the rest of Webmineral Shop - Webmineralshop.com

We are a group of friends from Italy with the hobby of mineral collecting , here is a picture of us  at the famous Hofbrau house  during the last Munich Show in 2004 from left to right: Giuseppe, Giovanni, Carlo, and Gianfranco. 

We all started collecting minerals from 25 to 10 years ago and we have our own collections.  We started  the first version of the webmineralshop site early in 1997 and finally got the site on the web in 2002.  Our primary goal was to create a condition whereby our hobby would pay for itself so as to improve our own collection, allow us to do research and collecting trips, various mineral shows and so on.

We aren't full time dealers but we do it in our free time so that now it's a second job. We attend all the main shows in Italy and Europe were it's always a pleasure to meet our web-customers and doing business with other dealers. Three years ago our group founded the Genova Mineral Show as it organizers.  It is a growing show in Italy. 

Thanks to John to give us the opportunity to be part of the new mineral-auctions site.


 
 

Tom Loomis - DakotaMatix.com

Thirty-seven years after picking up my first rock in my friends driveway in south suburban Chicago, I find myself still picking up rocks. This time I'm out west in South Dakota. That's right, not many rocks in Chicago, just good pizza and hot dogs. I call this my "out-of-control hobby" or Dakota Matrix Minerals, which went online in 1999. At that time I was working for the largest producing silver mine in the country and driving an hour and half one way everyday to the Coeur-Rochester mine in Nevada. It was a lovely place, but my wife, Vicki, and I yearned for the Black Hills and back we went to start Dakota Matrix full-time at the turn of the century. I dragged Vicki around with me from Deadwood to Tucson to Mexico and Nevada and so we are glad to be "home" in the Black Hills. And here we are, with not many collectors in sight but thousands of mines to choose from (darn the bad luck!).

Black Hills mineralogy is my passion and I am devoted to it. We began mining the Tip Top mine in 2005 to recover more of those rare beauties (not uglies). You may remember my Sincosite article (MR 1999 V. 30 N. 3), that was truly the pinnacle of my field collecting and propelled me into dealership. Most recently, you may have seen my publications in MATRIX Magazine. There were two volumes devoted to South Dakota minerals (2002, V. 10, N. 2 and 3). That was a lot of fun and I will forever be in debt to the late Jay Lininger, publisher and editor. I'm a graduate of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City with a BS in geological engineering. My work experience includes coal, gold and silver mining from Mine Engineer to Superintendent of Engineering. It was all fun, and I miss mining but not the spreadsheets and corporate games. Vicki works as an X-Ray technologist, and I am the stay at home husband working the web with my little dog "Kara".

On the web, we specialize in South Dakota phosphates. Outside of that, we sell just about anything but keep it mostly to the unique, old or hard to find. I like diversity and don't cater to the collecting elite. We sell low-end to high-end, rare species to micromounts, micro-bags, and plain old representative minerals. We like to foster beginner collections, while building more advanced collections. Give us a ring, drop me an email or visit us on the web. I'm happy and honored to be involved with Mineral Auctions.com, especially with such a group of dealers as this.


 
 
 

Ed Rosenzweig - Edwards Minerals

I have been collecting since 1966 - starting at the ripe old age of six.  My fascination was encouraged by a much older cousin who attended college in the area.  I was hooked for good when he gave me Mineralogy for Amateurs by John Sinkankas in 1968 - I still have my original copy!  I started out collecting pyrites and Herkimer diamonds as I lived in Western New York until I was 13.  Now, I collect old German and Italian specimens and rare faceted gemstones.  The combination of history and mineralogy fascinates me!

Unfortunately, I never pursued my interests in mineralogy and lapidary work in college.  I graduated from MIT with a degree in finance, of all things, and worked in financial services for many years.  Luckily, my family encouraged me to do something I actually enjoyed and I have been a dealer since 2002.  It has definitely been fun so far - the collecting community is a fantastic group of people.  Also, the contacts with collectors, miners, and dealers on almost every continent (except Antartica)  would be hard to duplicate anywhere else!


 

Shields & Frances Flyyn - Trafford-Flynn Minerals

My interest in minerals started when I was 8 years old in the mountains of western North Carolina.  After many years of collecting in the southern states, learning to facet and make jewelry the die was cast and I knew geology and minerals was my way forward.  In 1960 I obtained a BS in Geology from UNC Chapel Hill only to discover there was little demand for geologists.  After three years in the Army in Germany I returned home and found out that the job market was still lean for geologists, so I expanded on skills learned in the army and entered the world of computers and software.

My next 40 years was primarily consumed by the computer/software business, however, in 1968 I started doing mineral shows, primarily in New England, as this permitted me to pursue my interest in minerals which gave me time to think about the future  while maintaining my day job in the growing and competitive computer industry.  During this time there were frequent opportunities to visit England for business as well as visiting my wife's relatives, so an English mineral collection started to evolve that included many Cornish classics like liroconite, clinoclase, ludlamite, and a large Siderite "lady slipper".

In 1997 I found myself on the losing side of a corporate merger.  At this point I decided to try minerals full time and formed with my wife Frances, TRAFFORD-FLYNN Minerals, with (Trafford being my wife's maiden name).  Shortly thereafter I started a web site, www.trafford-flynn.com, and began selling minerals online as well as attending minerals shows. In addition to US shows we also did shows in England and Europe for over 10 years.

I like to build and sell collections as well as seeking out  good individual specimens.  To date I have sold an extensive collection of English minerals, and a collection of old German classics. I am currently building Chinese and Namibian collections. My special interest is in old classics, unusual crystal associations and forms, and a thumbnail collection that now numbers over 1,400 specimens.
 


 
 

Andrei & Kim Rykoff - AA Rock Shop.Com

 Hi, my name is Kim and I'm Andrei's wife. I have been a jewelry designer and goldsmith for 22 years in the Pacific Northwest.  I specialize in custom jewelry made with gold, platinum, silver, precious and semi-precious gemstones. I work with clients to design a functional piece of art that can be worn for many a generation. I have participated, founded, presided over and been a board member of several high-end art shows in the Pacific Northwest such as; Creative Metal Arts Guild, Art in the Pearl and Best of the Northwest. Hi, I'm Andrei and as far back as I can remember I've always loved rocks. By training and profession, I'm a Forester and Natural Resources Professional. I graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1980 and currently work for the US Forest Service in Northwestern Oregon (near Portland). I'm the District Ranger for the Clackamas River Ranger District on the Mount Hood National Forest. It's a great job and one that I love. Where else do you get paid to work out in the woods and stumble across an occasional rock? As much as I love my day job, I love minerals just as much.  
Together, we make up AA Rockshop.  We try and travel together to various mineral shows throughout the year to not only increase or stock, but to purchase specimens for our collection while increasing our knowledge of mineralogy.  We make a good team when it comes to selecting specimens for sale or for ourselves as Andrei is drawn to Rhodochrosite while Kim is drawn to metallic minerals. One of the things we've really enjoyed is getting the chance to meet and become friends with many a dealer, collector and some of you as well.  We all share a love of minerals and mineral collecting and enjoy sharing our treasures with you via these auctions and through our site as well. Thanks for taking a moment to get to know a little about us and perhaps we'll run into you at a show someday.  All the Best!
Kim and Andrei


 
 

Geoff Krasnov - Geokrazy Minerals

I have been interested in minerals since I absconded with a specimen of tigers eye in the 3rd grade. My interests led me to find attractive roadside specimens until the day my mother took me to a local mineral shop. It was not long until I had a collection of a few dozen display quality specimens. In the early 1980's my interests picked up with field collecting in the Blue Ridge Mountains and near Hiddenite NC. My collecting grew with my attendance at mineral shows. In the early 1990's I sold off the bulk of my collection and re-invested it in calcite specimens. By 1996 I was selling at local shows in Pennsylvania. I now live in Wilmington NC and show in Raleigh, Asheville and Cartersville Georgia. Geokrazy minerals was born in 1997 and my website www.geokrazy.com was launched in September 2009. 


 
 
 

The Crystal Miners

On the left is the wife of Ingo Loffler, Annett, in the middle Ingo, and on the right, Peter Maurer. Together, Ingo and myself, have over 50 years of mineral experience. Ingo's special interest is the kingdom of Calcite and my interest are good quality specimens worldwide, especially from Brazil, Mexico, Cornwall, Czech Republic, Romania, and Germany.


 
 

Diana & Mike Hopkins - Mad Mineralz
Mike's Story:
Shortly after my father was transferred to Ft. Huachuca Arizona in the mid 1970's, he soon became smitten by regional tales of gold.  We'd make the short drive to Gleeson and to the old silver mines behind Tombstone in search of treasure.  I was thirteen at the time and it was here that I experienced my first forays into mineral collecting.  I spent a lot of time puttering around on the dumps and picking up copper minerals.  On one adventure, we found a large vug lined with small stubby quartz points that was large enough for both of us to stand inside.  Our collecting adventures mostly yielded Azurite and Malachite which decorated my room and our yard.

Seventeen years later, married and living in Kansas, I noticed Diana had minerals in storage that she had acquired while living in Arizona.  An Illinois Fluorite, a large dog tooth Calcite from Chihuahua, Quartz from the Huachucas, and Calcite from Bisbee. She told me if I really wanted to see minerals, we'd need to attend the next Tucson Gem and Mineral Show.  WOW!  I was hooked. 

Diana's Story:
I first became interested in minerals as a result of my third grade science class.  I was fascinated by the natural occurring processes and the minerals that were formed as a byproduct of these processes.  Encouraging me, my mother brought me to my first mineral show where I purchased my first minerals for the science class project.  Even back then I was attracted to specimens that were unique and aesthetic. 

Knowing I wanted to live in Arizona before I was even in kindergarten, I managed to secure a guaranteed duty station at Ft. Huachuca, Arizona the late 70's.  Bisbee in at that time was still somewhat of an artist mecca, and when I wasn't hiking the Huachuca Mountains, I was exploring Bisbee.  Hanging out in Bisbee back then was a treasure hunt for me; what a great location to feed my appreciation for aesthetic mineral specimens.  Ditto for the Tucson Show.

We've since combined our interest in minerals, Diana keeps an eye out for the uniquely aesthetic specimens, and Mike identifies and catalogues our finds.  The challenge of capturing the details of each specimen for display on the website is a labor of love for Mike. Our decision to offer minerals for sale came about as a way to share our enthusiasm for minerals with others who are interested in building a collection.  As Mike states, "the decision to start selling minerals came about as a way for me to admire a hundred or so minerals at a time on a rotating basis!"


 
 

Rick Kennedy - Earth's Treasures

I've been a collector ever since I was able to pick anything up with my hands.  I've collected everything from stamps and coins to bottle caps. Minerals and rare gemstones became my passion for several reasons: their natural beauty, the fact that I could never learn everything about the hobby and the adventures involved in collecting these beauties in the field.

I received my BS degree in Earth Sciences from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1994, seven years after finishing my course work (It is a long story!).  I started Earth's Treasures in 1985 as a part time buisiness while I was still in school and continued it as a part time business while I worked managing a small business for one of my mineral collecting partners.  In March of 2006, I left that world for good and became a full time mineral and rare gemstone dealer and have never been so happy!

Personally, I collect "rough and cut" suites of rare gem minerals, but my passion will always be for Benitoite, and I proudly flaunt my status as the poster boy for the Benitoite Mine Run sales that John and Steve did a few years ago, my 5.06 carat flawless cut Benitoite is indeed the "Jewel" of my collection.


 
 

Bill Logan - Spectrum Minerals

My life as a collector started at age 8. Living in Florida, my attention turned to fossils and shells. When I went to college in mineral-rich North Carolina, I discovered many new things, such as seasons and snow, but I mainly I discovered minerals. Here one could easily prospect for amethyst, garnets, rubies, emeralds and even gold. My knowledge was rudimentary and I relied on the guidance of others for many years, knowing little of what I was collecting except that they were pretty. A long hiatus ensued as I followed my educational pursuits. I received an MD from Duke University and subsequently an additional Masters degree in dermatologic research through a Fellowship at the Mayo Clinic.

I then returned to North Carolina and renewed my interest in minerals. I voraciously devoured Sinkakas' Mineralogy for Amateurs, discovering the extent of what I did not know. My main interest then, as now, was the breathtaking colors and the mysterious, spellbinding crystals. I joined the Charlotte Gem and Mineral Club in 1974, finding members with much more expertise in collecting whose collective experience I followed, collecting locally off and on for many years. For a while I did some lapidary work, chiefly competitive carving. I remained entranced by the gemmy colors of my, retrospectively, meager collection of mineral specimens. Perhaps this led to my obtaining certification in diamond appraisal from the GIA, which I have never used.

All of this was put aside for years when my life completely revolved around my wife and children. During this time, I ceased field collecting, except on family trips, and was content with very casually expanding my collection from the local club show. This interlude took another couple of decades.

For all the concern that the Internet has diminished attendance at club shows, resulting in fewer young collectors, my experience has been quite the opposite. Although my age resulted in my missing the cut in the technology revolution, it was the Internet that re-ignited my love of minerals as I became exposed to the jaw-dropping beauty of superb mineral specimens from around the world. It became obvious that my casual approach had resulted in a very provincial knowledge and experience. I was hooked!

For the last 10 years or so, I have aggressively expanded my collection, guided more by a personal preference for spectacular color and brilliance, as well as some indefinable predilection, best termed "aesthetics", rather than any particular rarity or unique crystals. This is due mostly to ignorance, still never having taken a single course in the earth sciences. Fortunately, this results in a continuing fascination with all there is that I don't know and an endless opportunity to learn.

Now, nearly 60 years later, newly retired after 40 years of practice, the kids are gone (the wife is still here) and my collection has expanded past even the basement. So I started my business, Spectrum Minerals, named for my love of color. I continue to collect and learn, but now have added the thrill of setting up (which is really hard work!) at 4-5 shows a year plus manning the Website as well as my severely limited technological skills will allow. 

So, my qualifications are simply that of a collector, much like you, and I offer cherry-picked mineral specimens which have caught my eye for reasons of dramatic color or other qualities derived from my vision of aesthetics. Beauty is clearly in the eye of the beholder, but these are mineral specimens which I like, and I sincerely hope that you will like them too.
 


 
 
 

Simon Hildred - SimonHildredFineMinerals.Com

My interest in minerals began at the age of 10. My parents would holiday in Swanage , Devon, and at a little village nearby called Corfe Castle there was a Rock Shop. Every night my parents would ask what I wanted to do?? Go to Corfe I would say. I would then spend a whopping $2 on a specimen. They were good days that I remember with great fondness.  For my own collection, I only collect Wulfenite. Nothing else. I recently sold it and am now starting it over.  Whatever I sell is usually hand picked for its aesthetics. I now attend the Tucson, Denver, Munich shows and this year I exhibited for the 1st time in Munich.  A massive learning curve. I hope you find the specimens I sell to be to your taste.
 


 
 

Doug Coulter- Geodite Minerals


Douglas Coulter has been a mineral dealer since 1994 with a company name of Geodite Minerals. With his Geology from the Univ. of Georgia, he has always had a love of rocks and thought being a dealer would be both fun and profitable. What he did not expect was the wide range of new friends he has made both among dealers and collectors.

In the late 90's he started going to southern Africa with a friend and future partner, Colin Corser. He has gone at least once every year since 1997. The trips usually involve South Africa and Namibia. Since 2005 he has been offering African Mineral Safaris every year to the area. He advertises these tours on his web site www.geodite.com. 80% of his inventory now comes from the southern third of Africa.



  
 


Zahir Bouday- Afpakminerals

Hi.  My name is Zahir Bouday  I grew up in the family gem and mineral business which has operated for more than 30 years. I was able to observe and learn much about minerals as I grew up.  My father is a well-known Emerald dealer in Peshawar, Pakistan..  My Brothers, Riaz and Fayyaz Nazeer, are the main buyers for our business as they are located Pakistan.  They provide minerals to many dealers in the United States and other countries.  

 

I can remember watching my father, Haji Moahmmod Nazeer, and my uncle, Haji Akbar Khanwe cleaning Jagdalak rubies when I was in 4th grade.  I joined the business in 1988 when I began traveling to Northern Pakistan.  I can remember meeting Gary Bowersox when he traveled to Afghanistan in 1998.  If you have his book, you might be able to find pictures of some of my relatives.

 

We have direct contacts and lots of experience with Swat emeralds, Jagdalak rubies, Pansher Valley emeralds, Supat Peridot, Badkhshan lapis, Kunar kunzite, and Paprok elbaites.  And of course, we see many new specimens from new and old locations.

We are relatively new to the web, but we look forward to meeting new people and helping them find the gems and minerals they are searching for.

 
 
 

Walter Kellogg - M&W Minerals

 

I started collecting minerals at the age of 5 when our family lived in the Tucson Mountains (1958 and 1959). I would wander around the desert and bring back the most amazing things. Eventually, it became apparent I had stumbled onto someone's discarded mineral collection. Some of these specimens were nice enough I still have them. While in Tucson, we attended the then rather small Tucson show.

In 1960, we moved back to southeastern Michigan where I still live. The collection went on a shelf and was only occasionally added to. In the late 80s, I went on a vacation to Utah. I picked up a collecting location book and proceeded to fill my van with agates, petrified wood, azurite, malachite, etc. A few months after the vacation, I stumbled upon an outdoor show sponsored by one of the local clubs. This led to the idea that I could sell minerals instead of having a job.


For the next few years, I sold minerals anywhere I could. At first at craft shows, farmer's markets, swap meets. The local mineral shows were impossible to get into. Eventually, I started picking up club shows in the Midwest. By then, I had met and later married my wife Maryann. She joined me in this enterprise, thus the name M&W Minerals.


In the winter of 1995, I was accepted into the Denver, Springfield, and Detroit shows. In March, I left my job as a project manager of software development with a large payroll company, opened a rock shop and hit the road. We did shows in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, South Carolina, New York, and Maine.


Within two years, we moved the store to a larger location and had two children. My wife went to work as a full time teacher after the second child was born. I raised my two daughters in the store for a few years. I continued to do shows by myself. After 5 years, I closed the store to devout more time to the shows.


Now, I do shows primarily in the Midwest along with the main show in Denver, Springfield and Syracuse NY.


Over the years, I have field collected in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Maine, Ontario, Utah, Arizona, California, Colorado, and Massachusetts.


  

 


Tim Sherburn- Clean Rocks

While taking a minerology class at a local Junior College I met and was introduced to the hobby of mineral collecting in 1981 by Cal and Kerith Graeber. For the next ten years I learned the art of mineral cleaning and preperation by working for Bill Larson (Himalaya Mine material) and Cal (everything under the sun). The last ten years I've been working mainly on cleaning fluorite from the Rogerley Mine in England and doing work for Don & Gloria Olson with the Clay Center Fluorites from Ohio.


 
 
 
 

Take the time and visit their websites.
Thanks!


 

All graphics, design & mineral text & specimen images copyright 2001-2008 - John Veevaert - Trinity Mineral Company