" THE CORUNDUMINIUM |
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WHAT'S NEW |
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Here, we post new
material or references to it, so that by checking here frequently
you may know what additions we have made to the website.
After a month or two, we will delete them in most cases.
Expect a lot of periodic changes, improvements, and
additions.
We are absorbing the contents of the Original Site, updating the
articles, and adding images whenever time allows.
Earth Treasures, set up to sell or swap redundant specimens to refine the collection and fund the "Corundum Project" has recently been updated. Offerings include not only corundums, but also other minerals and fossils for collecting or lapidary work. We are also back on Ebay, selling under the I.D. "corundumaniac". Images are thumbnailed - left click on one to see the full resolution picture. Last update: September 18, 2015 |
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38: Plans have been made for "Earth Treasures" to be a dealer at the Howard Johnson show in Tucson, January 30 - February 14, 2016 (Rooms 108 and 110). The main inventory will be the foreign specimens from the corundum collection which I have decided to offer for sale. Other items include a nearly complete set of the Mineralogical Record, older issues of Gems and Gemology, and a small library of books, magazines, and articles including proprietary communications you are interested in anything before then, please email me at wheierman@corunduminium.com. Please note that as I have retired, my college (wcjc.edu) email is now invalid. | |||||||||||||||
Manuscripts for a casual series of notes called "Mathematical Pattern and Discovery" are beginning to appear on this website. As the name suggests, the game is to explore mathematical phenomena and disclose patterns which are then given symbolic formulation and logical proof. Anyone interested in "brain teasers" may find the contents interesting and revealing. They will be scanned and thumbnailed, so you make copies as you wish. It is a work in progress. The URL for these notes will be http://www.corunduminium.com/college.html . | |||||||||||||||
37: I have decided to retire from teaching, after 52 years in the classroom, in May, 2015. That will give me more time to prepare specimens for sale. Most of the American specimens will no be sold right away, but just about all the foreign ones can be had. Also, I will try to contact all my friends who have requested information or specimens. | |||||||||||||||
Before the collection is too badly decimated, we will be making some Power Point CD's of the specimens. They should be ready in late 2015. I will announce them here (they won't be expensive, but they should be attractive and informative). The plan is to make them suitable for presentation at mineral club meetings as well as for personal enjoyment (music to be added by the user). As this website will be maintained for at least a while, you can copy any images and information here, except where copyright requests of other contributors are noted. | |||||||||||||||
36: SALE OF COLLECTION | |||||||||||||||
A decision was made in the spring of 2014 to sell the corundum collection, as I could not find a loving future home for it intact. More recently, we have decided to keep the best of Southeastern US and Montana suites for at least a while. If you are interested in a specimen you see here, or something similar we might have, please email me at wheierman@corunduminium.com and I will get back to you so the dealing can begin. This includes you who have asked in the past and gotten lost in the shuffle as I dealt with too many balls in the air at the same time. I will be trying to renew and give first preference my earlier acquaintances. | |||||||||||||||
35: COMING ENGAGEMENTS | |||||||||||||||
July 15 - August 15, 2014 (approximate dates), we'll be digging gold on our claims and looking at several localities for sapphires in Montana. We are also shooting the activities, so look for "Gold Dynasty" soon! | |||||||||||||||
34: DOUG AND CANDY HESS COLLECTION (PROPST FARM, NORTH CAROLINA) | |||||||||||||||
In May, 2014, I acquired this suite of 63 specimens, which I regard as the finest single locality collection of American corundum crystals (with the possible exception of the Gochenour specimens from California). It will be exhibited formally for the first time at the Houston Federation club show in November, 2014. Specimens from the collection, taken in 2007, may be found on the Propst Farm page of this website (more may follow soon). I had been drooling over it ever since first seeing it in a private showing at the Colburn Museum in Asheville in May, 2007. Plans are to keep it intact as part of our Southeastern US collection at least for a while; and then hopefully to find a museum near its source where it would be displayed for many more to enjoy! It will be displayed for the first time at the Houston Gem and MIneral Slow in September, 2015. | |||||||||||||||
33: Tucson, February 2014: This fabulous cavansite showed up at the Westward Look. I also found a neat amethyst flower from a new discovery in India (note extremely lustrous faces and heart of citrine).. I also got some unusual corundum specimens. The first is an offset twinned hex prism from Madagascar, the second is a 90+ pound partially recrystallized sapphire mass from India, and the third, also from India, is a chunk showing what may be hydrothermal rubies in pale blue cordierite (never saw this association before)!. | |||||||||||||||
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31: Large specimens of ruby in amphibiolite, and a huge ruby mass with fuchsite (Tucson, 2013) | |||||||||||||||
Also found were
some old Kashmir sapphire crystals from the classic locality collected before 1957 (according
to the notes in the parcel), some very rare rare fancy-colored
rough, and a partial large blue
sub-gem sapphire crystal from Haksu La (Hakshu La), a new Kashmir locality for us, located
not far from the classic locality but almost
18,000 feet above sea level. Could it be the World's
highest gemstone locality?
The Haksu La mine is located near the summit of the pyramidal peak shown below. One look at the adit explains why even locals rarely go there. Any rumors that the mine was found by crocodile hunters are probably false. (2/19/13) |
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28: Killer Jegdalek, Afghanistan ruby cluster (and a not too shabby tanzanite) | |||||||||||||||
27: The Houston Fine Mineral Show is, as its name suggests, a place where you can lose your shirt, but unlike Las Vegas you come away with more than memories you would rather forget. On the left is a huge Bdakhshan sapphire in matrix (the largest I have seen). It was featured in the Blue Cap video, "What's Hot in Tucson 2012". The conspicuous saw marks will be removed with air abrasives, which should also elevate some of the smaller embedded corundum crystals. The next three pictures show sapphires from the Umba Valley, Tanzania. The caramel color is unusual, and the terminal faces are striking. The attached matrix on the third is unknown right now - may be epidote. The far right photo is a Chinese scheelite crystal - not a corundum, but worth a look (it's in Hermie's collection). | |||||||||||||||
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26: SAD NEWS | |||||||||||||||
Needless to say, underground mining is dangerous business, and recently it claimed the life of a friend and colleague. Mike Roberts, owner and operator of the Roberts Yogo Sapphire Mine, was killed in a mining accident earlier this month. My thoughts go out to his family, those who worked with him, and all his many friends around the world. I cannot say it better than this: http://www.ruby-sapphire.com/mike-roberts-yogo-sapphire.htm . Thank you, Bob and Richard, for such a heartfelt story! 3/25/12 | |||||||||||||||
25: MOROGORO, TANZANIA RUBIES | |||||||||||||||
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23: JANUARY, 2012 SHIPMENT FROM JOHN SAUL | |||||||||||||||
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22: FUCHSIA SAPPHIRES FROM AZAD KASHMIR | |||||||||||||||
21: MORE SPECIMENS FROM JOHN SAUL | |||||||||||||||
In addition to allowing us to acquire specimens from his personal collection, John is scouring Europe for others. On the left are two very old specimens from Madagascar. The incomplete hex prism (first two images) is from Vohitany (Ampanihy), and is ex coll Henry Bessaire. The large laterite coated poker chip is from an unknown locality in Madagascar (ex coll. Alexandre Delerme). The blue oval in the next photo is a 3.55 carat sapphire from Chimwadzulu Hill, Malawi. The last image shows a trio of ruby crystals from "north of Lilongwe, Malawi". | |||||||||||||||
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20: QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA SAPPHIRE | |||||||||||||||
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19: CALIFORNIA SAPPHIRE CLUSTER | |||||||||||||||
Sadly, my truck was burglarized in Tucson in February, 2010, and among other things an iconic "Mount San Jacinto" California sapphire cluster was stolen. Police reports and World-wide searches have not found it, so I am assuming the thieves did not want to deal with it and trashed it. | |||||||||||||||
These crystals occurred in sections in the host rock and had to be laboriously extracted, cleaned, and epoxied together by the two brothers (Ken and Dana Gochenour) who found them. They are not only unique American corundums, but fine examples of "art imitating nature". This coming summer, I will be updating the terribly obsolete information presently found on the SOUTHWESTERN U.S. page of the website. (4/30/11) | |||||||||||||||
18: TUCSON, 2011 SPECIMENS | |||||||||||||||
The two left specimens are from Winza, Tanzania (note gem blue kyanite on the first). Next is a Sri Lankan corundum that resembles a jawbone segment (gift of Rob Lavinsky). Two Mogok, Burma crystals appear next. Last is a ruby in gemmy, deep green fuchsite from Karnataka (Mysore) Province, India (gift of Nikhil Zhaveri). | |||||||||||||||
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17: ACQUISITIONS FROM JOHN SAUL (January 20, 20i0) | |||||||||||||||
I received an email from John Saul, who
had seen our Mineralogical Record article and wanted to know if we
would be interested in some of his old specimens. After the
excited “Do bears go in the woods?” reply, we got down to business;
and now there are several more great specimens from his collection
in ours. Because of this provenance, the suite will be kept
together.
The John Saul Mine in Kenya is well known to collectors, jewelers, and gemologists as a highly regarded source of rubies, including large quantities of sizeable stones suitable for the manufacture of fine cabochons. It is also the one place on Earth I am aware of where secondary deposits included rubies in silicified clay containing fossils (opalized land snails). |
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The Longido, Tanzania locality is famous for its red and green “ruby in zoisite”, also called “anyolite” in the gemstone trade. There is a lot of legend surrounding the discovery of this site, which is well expressed in two Internet articles. One, written by John and published on his sons’ website, is entitled “The first gemstone discovered in East Africa” (URL is http://www.swalagemtraders.com/news/2008/02/06/7-the-first-gemstone-discovered-in-east-africa). Another is “Longido Ruby”, by Ed Swoboda. It can be found on Bill Larson’s website at URL http://www.palagems.com/swoboda_longido.htm. | |||||||||||||||
15 TEXAS CORUNDUM | |||||||||||||||
Once I contact the person who found it and check the provenance, I may be able to say exactly where it came from. | |||||||||||||||
14A: LARGE KASHMIR SAPPHIRES | |||||||||||||||
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13 KILLER YOGO SAPPHIRE | |||||||||||||||
I am greatly indebted to my friend and mining partner Amos Knapstad, who donated this incredible Yogo Gulch, Montana sapphire to our collection in August, 2010. | |||||||||||||||