Friday, February 07, 2014

Best of the Best: Prize Minerals From the Vaults of Arizona's Collectors opens at UA's Flandrau


Arizona's mineral collectors brought out some of their most spectacular and prized specimens to put on display at a new show at the Mineral Museum at the University of Arizona's Flandrau Science Center.  Some of them have only rarely been on public display, and decades ago.   We were delighted to get an invite to the premier of the exhibit tonight before the public opening on Saturday, February 8.    Many of the collectors were on hand and sharing stories of how they came to be collectors and how they acquired the pieces on display.

Long-time collector Bob Jones [right] was the featured speaker and gave a wonderful tour of the history of the people and events that made Arizona a haven for mineral collectors and the hobby of collecting, along with the roots of the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show.   

Many of the pieces on display are from Arizona and Mexico, but they come from around the world. One that caught my attention is Les Presmyk's native copper from the Ray mine [left].

The AZGS crew was on hand to film Bob's talk and interview a number of the collectors who have pieces in the exhibit.  This will be made into a special episode of our video magazine "Arizona Mining Review" and posted on our YouTube channel.  Details coming soon on where to view it.

The exhibit opens Feb. 8. Times are: Saturdays, 10 a.m.-9 p.m., Sundays, 1-4 p.m., Mondays-Wednesdays, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. and Thursdays, Fridays, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. & 6-9 p.m. Continues through Dec. 26

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