Recent activities blog 

In this section I will try to report on the activities that I take part in. Collecting trips, meetings, symposia, lectures. Click on the photos to see the whole message. If you would like to comment or have questions,  please use the guest book to do so. 

New mineral !

24/02/2024

This is one of the very few specimens of the sulfosalt baiamareite, a newly discovered mineral that is only recently been approved by the IMA. On the photo one of the pieces from the original batch, found by Gábor Koller, that was analysed at Harvard University. This particular specimen is in the collection of André Robbemond. From the Sāsar Mine,...

Yesterday evening I had the opportunity to do a presentation titled "Microminerals from Italy, from Aosta to Sicily", on invitation from the LVGA West-Brabant, in Breda, Netherlands. The audience was very interested and enthousiastic, which made the evening very pleasant, and made giving the presentation a pleasure. Here are a few impressions.

As I already told in an earlier blog, three of my friends and I last may went on a collecting trip the Azores Islands. In september I was given the opportunity to do an online presentation of the trip and the mineral finds there in the Micromount Zoom Club Meetings. Here is the link to the recording on YouTube: ...

Minerant 2024

15/09/2023

In may 2024 just like every year the Minerant will take place, the well known mineral show in Antwerp, organized by the Mineralogische Kring Antwerpen, of which I am a member. It pleases me much to show one of the flyers for the show, the photo on which is one of mine.... Click on the photo to see the whole flyer....

On saturday September 30 2023, the second micromounts exchange fair in Eemnes, Netherlands will take place. In the program of the day three presentations are foreseen, one of which will be done by me, the subject being our recent collecting trip and the finds on the Azores Islands in may this year. Click on the photo to see the whole flyer....

In the first week of may 2023 three of my collecting buddies and I spent a week on São Miguel, the largest island of the Azores archipelago, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. There are two interesting collecting sites: the Vale das Lombadas (the picture on the right) and the so-called Pumice Quarry, both on the flanks of the...

New book

10/01/2023

In december 2020 I made the first book with a 100 photos from microminerals in my collection at the time. Now I have produced a new book, 50 pages with 195 photos of new arrivals since then, ranked by 24 countries and areas. Below pictures of the title page and an example page. If there are people who would like...

Just recently my partner Inge and I did a holiday trip on Tasmania and the southern part of the Australian mainland. On Tasmania I had the opportunity, with the kind permission of the owner Adam Wright, to roam for a day on the dumps of the Adelaide mine, searching for good crocoite crystals. And with much success as you can...

From 15th to 17th September the 41th edition of the symposium of the British Micromount Society took place in Leicester. As a member I attended the event, which is a mix of presentations, exchanging microminerals, different contests, an auction, and most of all a pleasant gathering of old and new friends. Especially because the symposium due to the...

Just returned from our summer holiday in Italy, in Tuscany and Lazio. Besides enjoying the great Italian dolce vita I have been collecting in a few very interesting locations: the Podere dei Castellini slags near Sassetta, the La Marsiliana slags and the Serrabottini mine dumps near Massa Marittima. All trips were very successful, but it will be a...