At the beginning of March we participated to the Bologna mineral show. In this section you can read some of our impressions about this mineral show, that is one of the most important in Italy. You can also find  some pictures of the specimens that we have more appreciated.

General view of the mineral show	Our stand at the Bologna mineral show

This year the  section of the mineral show Sold to the private exhibitors was reduced respect to other years since a part was Sold to a special exposition of italian minerals from museums . The specimens were very interesting but the quality and the lay out of the exposition were scanty. This part of the exihibition appeared an "appendix" not connected to the mineral show more that a real part of it. The stands were mainly of international exhibitors and sellers, but the rockhounders were almost completely absent. In our opinion the organisation should reserve a space to these stands , possibly at cheaper prices.  The type of the exposed minerals was mainly international specimens, aesthetic and of good to very good average quality.  There were also some stands of good italian minerals, particularily sicilian sulphur, Demantoids from Malenco valley, Gold from Brusson and gypsum on pyrite from Niccioleta mine.  Among the remarkable new specimens exposed, fantastic Ilvaite from Elba island, Pyromorphite from China , fluorescent green fluorite from Cumberland. There were also some very interesting german stands, specialized in Indian zeolites.

Here below we will show some of the most interesting new specimens we found . Clearly the choice is strictly subjective, and we apologize with the exhibitors that aren't present in this personal selection. We gave preference to the italian minerals , since this is one of the best occasion to find some very interesting italian minerals and .....they aren't so well known. .....

XX Ortoclase with a large blue cubic fluorite from Baveno quarry ( Novara - Italy )	Scheelite X ( 6 cm ) well evident on talc, from Traversella  mine (Ivrea - Italy)
XX (6-7 cm ) of ottaedric pyrite with hematite XX from Brosso mine (Ivrea - Italy)	Hessonite ( more than centimetric ) with diopside from Ala Valley (Turin - Italy)
Large ( 2-5 cm ) barite XX yellow trasparent from  Narcao ( Sardegna - Italy)	Fantastic Barite  X well evident ( 6-7 cm ) Narcao ( Sardegna - Italy)
Large Pirite cubic  XX   ( 4 cm side ) with a large trasparent gypsum X ( 14 cm ) from Niccioleta mine  ( Grosseto - Italy)	Large pirite cubic XX ( 4 - 5 cm )  from Niccioleta  ( Grosseto - Italy)
Almandine large X ( 4-5 cm ) from Rombo Pass	Gold dendrites pluricentimetric from Brusson mine
Sulphur ( 4-5 cm ) with bitumen from Cozzodisi mine, Sicily	Sulphur ( 4-5 cm ) trasparent and very bright from Cozzodisi mine, Sicily
Bipiramidal sulphur ( 3-4 cm ) from Perticara mine, Marche	Fantastic cluster of Antimonite needles very bright, 10-15 cm long from Manciano mine, Tuscany
Ilavaite of 7 cm from Elba island	Other Ilvaite from Elba Island
Classic quartz X  perfectly trasparent and behind a sulphur crystal on the Carrara Marble	A large( 70x40 cm , kg 35 ) piece completely covered of extremely bright, brilliant XX of yellow mimetite, from Thailand

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