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

Ronna Veevaert - mineral-auctions.com

My background in collecting goes back to S. California beaches collecting shells, sand dollars, beach glass and pretty rocks. I tried to get my sons interested in minerals but collecting is individual to each person. I had only attended a few local gem & mineral shows on my own over the years so, when John Veevaert took me to a show, he introduced me to a whole new world. Now sadly, I move forward with his blessing and his wish for the auctions to continue.

My work in life has included ten years as president of the Brea Sister City Association as the coordinator of student and adult exchanges with Hanno, Japan. I have been selling online since 1995 with one of the first auto parts websites on the internet and I have created 4 small businesses, two of which are still in operation besides this site. I was an independent contractor as a hair stylist for 20 years and I assisted John with his mineral business while I built my own successful agate business.

I now reside in Tucson, Arizona.



IN MEMORIAM


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.  Most of my field collecting was in southern California, Nevada and Arizona.  I have had the opportunity to see just about every nook and cranny in the Mojave Desert, almost all of Nevada and all of western Arizona.  Living in southern California in the 1970s was worth it as Pala was virtually wide open and easy to visit as were the myriad mines all over the Mojave desert.  I can even put collecting in the Red Cloud mine for wulfenite on my check list.  It was rather easy to find good zones back in the 70s. 

My education is in Geology and my undergraduate work was done at Fullerton College and Humboldt State University in Arcata - both in California.  My graduate work, centered around fluvial geomorphology, was also done at Humboldt State University. 

After completing my bachelors degree 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. The idea was to lose money and pay fewer taxes.  But 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". You can read more about my life here and here.

In 1997 I quit my government job at the GS-12 level and plunged head on into full time mineral dealing. and have 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!



IN MEMORIAM

 
Keith Hayes
 
I happened to look over my description the other day and realized that a lot of things have changed since I wrote it. It's been over 6 years since I started working with John on Mineral-Auctions.com.  At first, I auctioned some rocks while I was in the process of changing jobs.  It was a lot of fun and I met a lot of nice people which led me to push John to expand the scope of the auction site.  My role expanded along with the site and I am the auction administrator.  In addition to auctioning items, I plan most of the theme auctions and many of the special auctions outside of Tucson and Denver.  I also work with John to improve the site and make it more enjoyable for the users and dealers.

Before getting involved in the auction, I have spent a long time collecting minerals. I was introduced to minerals by my grandfather's friend when I was very young, but my interest really took off when I found my first geodes and fossils on a family trip when I was about 7 years old.  After that, I would beg to stop at every road cut and drive the family crazy.  I ended up choosing chemical engineering in college, so I forgot about minerals for awhile until I visited Australia and saw an exhibition at the Earth Exchange that featured some awesome minerals from Broken Hill.  After I returned to Michigan, I started looking for quarries and collecting sites to hunt in.  I have been collecting and selling for about 17 or so years now. 

I actually met John shortly before he quit his day job and started into the mineral business.  We made a trade or two after meeting on the rockhounds mailing list and look where it ended up.  :)   


 
Luciana Barbosa
 
I was born in Brazil and lived there for most of my life. My father, Jose Eduardo Barbosa is a Mining Engineer and Gemologist. Since a very young age, I was around gems and crystals and just loved it. I started working at his company, Gemological Center, as a teenager and have been working with gems and minerals for almost 40 years. 2023 was my 35th consecutive Tucson Show.

I specialize in thumbnails, which I also collect, rare gems for collectors, special inclusions in Quartz and anything that catches my eye. I have been living in the US since 2008 but try to go back to Brazil every year on buying trips. My father does send me shipments regularly, so I always have new things coming in.

I love cooking, traveling and talking rocks!

If you go to the Tucson Show, you can find us at GJX and Mineral City.

In 2006 John Veevaert invited me to join mineral-auctions.com. In 2023 I acquired it from Ronna Veevaert and hope to keep this great site alive for many years to come.


My website is lucianabarbosa.com.  I also have a blog about rocks and food. Check it out:
http://betweenarockandaheartyplace.blogspot.com/  


 
Mike Kiem
 
Minerals have been a passion of mine since I first bought a small amethyst cluster at a local flea market when I was 7 years old - I have been involved in collecting, trading, and/or dealing minerals ever since. I started my company, Marin Mineral (www.marinmineral.com), in 1999. I provide fine mineral specimens to collectors, scientists, and museums. My minerals are sourced directly from miners and dealers all over the world, from other collectors, and by attending mineral shows. The minerals in my auctions include both excess inventory from large purchases and liquidation of minerals from my regular website galleries. I strive to provide a good variety of minerals in my auctions including gem crystals, rarities, large and small pieces, psuedomorphs, aesthetic beauties and the not so pretty, and perhaps even a fossil. Feel free to email me with suggestions for minerals you hope to see in my auctions in the future.

I graduated from UC San Diego with a degree in Biology, including coursework in Geology and Oceanography at the Scripps Institute in Oceanography. I currently live in Marin County in northern California. Besides minerals, other interests include worldwide travel, swimming, surfing, fishing, skiing, wildlife, and freediving.  



 
Doug Wallace and his wife Terri -  Gold & Mineral Diggers

I have been a field collector for some 50 years.  I have also been a mineral dealer for over 35 years primarily selling at mineral shows around the United States.  I hold a B.S. degree in Economic Mining, Petroleum Geology and accounting from Oregon State University. 

My interest in minerals began when I lived in northern British Columbia, Canada for seven years in a little town called Stewart near Hyder, Alaska which was just across the border.  This area is still a major gold, silver and base metal producing area. 

I owned a gold mine in Mariposa County, California and also a quartz mine in Montgomery County, Arkansas.  My son Matt worked with me at he quartz mine in Arkansas. Matt also has extensive experience field collecting minerals.  I am still a very active field collector with main interest being metal detecting for gold and silver.   

I have considerable knowledge of mineral species, mineral values and the history of many mineral deposits around the golbe.  Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or requests at 214 - 232 - 9262.  
 


 
Joe and Michele Weisberg - J.W. Minerals
 

I was around ten years old when my interest in minerals began and I started collecting.  My parents and I joined the North Shore Rock & Mineral Club (Massachusetts) in the mid 1960’s which enabled me to go on many field collecting trips in New England.  This fueled my interest in mineral collecting.  I pursued and earned a degree in geology from Boston University. As part of the degree program I chose to do field camp in Mexico, hiking and collecting in the Sierra Madres Mountains in locations such as Zacatecas and Conception Del Oro.  After college I took a hiatus from mineral collecting and worked in jewelry repair, manufacturing, and sales.  I rejoined the North Shore Rock & Mineral club about 25 years ago and have been an active member since—serving two terms as president, and now I am the chairman in charge of the club’s annual mineral show.

 

I have collected in many sites in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and currently hunt Herkimer Diamonds in New York.  I attend most of the New England mineral shows, and the Tucson shows when possible.  Over the years I have put together a large and varied collection.


 
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.



Dan Evanich - Dan Evanich Fine Minerals

My first exposure to geology and mineralogy was while I lived in New Mexico around the time I was seven or eight years old. My parents had moved to Farmington in 1959, located in the 4-corners area, just south of the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. Turquoise, fossilized dinosaur bones, and petrified wood were among every young boys' treasures then, and it was about this time that a strong level of curiosity to understand more about the formation of rocks and minerals first developed.

I was born in Springfield, Illinois, in 1951, and migrated west with my family, first to Colorado, then New Mexico, and finally to California. After graduating from High School in 1969, I chose a career in electronics that would last some 35+ years. These were the early days in the history of the electronics industry in Silicon Valley. I was fortunate to be involved in many aspects of the evolution of modern consumer electronics products from the manufacture of silicon wafers for early IC chips through the introduction of 70-inch LCD Televisions and high resolution digital cameras.

Early in my career, I completed my Bachelor degree in business and split the next 23 years working for Panasonic and Sony. I finally retired from the world of corporate business as Sony Electronics National Account Manager in 2012, and have since been able to devote more time to furthering of my knowledge of Western U.S. rare mineral species as well as continued active field collecting.

In 1998, I was introduced to BAM (Bay Area Mineralogists) by two long time members. Since then, I have been an integral part in the coordination of many BAM field collecting trips throughout the Western U.S. including the states of California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Idaho. In 2003 I launched a part time mineral business under the name California Mineral Connection (Calminco). In 2020 I closed the Calminco business and today I maintain my presence in the mineral community occasionally buying, selling, and trading as Daniel Evanich Fine Minerals. My concentration is on Western U.S. minerals, especially those from Butte, Montana, Tiger Arizona, and Bisbee copper and cuprite. Majuba Hill, Nevada, and Cripple Creek, Colorado, are also areas of high interest. In addition to BAM, I am an active member of Northern California Mineralogical Association (NCMA) and Crystal Gazers of San Francisco, and several other micro-mineral organizations.


 
Harry Zondervan (right) with Jurgen Margraf
 

When I was 7 years old, my father gave me a mineral book. Since then I'm hooked of their beauty and my parents took me to a lot of mineral shows in the Netherlands (this was booming in the 70's and 80's). This first collection of minerals were mostly big rocks and I sold it in 1989.

After I got my medical degree and became a company doctor, I visit mineral shows again since 1990. I met Mario Pauwels, a famous Belgian collector, at the Dutch show in The Hague and he told me how to collect fine to great pieces.

In 2013 my collection grow to big and I decided to bring it down in numbers but upgrade the quality. Since then I also visit the shows in Belgium, Bad Ems (Germany), Sainte Marie aux Mines and Munchen. But to keep the collection in control and fitting in the showcases I must sell pieces out of the collection and John is kind enough to give me a platform for that.

Most of my pieces are aesthetic, have no damage and are surely above average.

So see what the "Dutch Collectors Eye" can do for you.

On my photo I'm the guy on the right, taken at the Bad Ems show in front of the showcases from Jürgen Margraf (he is the guy on the left).



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.


 
Bob & Lisa Williamson - BandLminerals.com

 

I got hooked on mineral collecting at about 10 years old in Monterey, California. Actually, I started on fossils, as there are a lot of fossil beds in that general area. I quickly branched out into mineral collecting, and remember fondly my parents taking me and the rest of the family down the coast to Jade Cove in Big Sur to collect Jade where it washes up on the beach.  As we all know, most kids like rocks and fossils, but not many keep this passion for collecting when they 'grow up'.  I was one of those few, and obtained a BS and MS in Geology from the University of Arizona, and then worked for 10 years as a mine geologist for various copper companies in Arizona.  I gave that up several years back and am now teaching earth and environmental science at a school in Tucson.  Lisa's "real" job is as an RN, but she has joined me in my passion and hobby of mineral collecting.  We started selling mineral specimens online at BandLMinerals.com in 2004.  We are lucky enough to live in Tucson, and so, every February, dealers from all over the world bring their beauties to us!
 

   
   
 

Take the time and visit their websites.
Thanks!

Luciana Barbosa