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Why are Geodes Hollow?

By Neville Ryan When I was showing a friend a beautiful Brazilian Amethyst geode he asked me why they were hollow. After stumbling around and mumbling about volcano’s, I had to admit that I really wasn’t sure.  A bit embarrassing to say the least, so I decided to find out how they actually were formed. […]

Hazards of Mining in the Australian Bush-Part 2

By Neville Ryan   While Australia didn’t have have the problems surrounding the mining of CRYSTALS in South America or the difficulties of mining MINERALS in the Africa or even the problems faced by LAPIS miners in Afghanistan, we did have our own set of problems mining in north west Western Australia.  As people travel through the Australian bush in the northwest they often remark […]

Hazards of Mining in the Australian Bush-Part 1

By Neville Ryan  While Australia doesn’t have have the political problems surrounding the mining of LAPIS in Afghanistan or the physical extremes of hand mining NEPALI CRYSTALS in the Himalayas, we did have our own set of problems mining in north west Western Australia.  Distance is the first problem to overcome. If traveling from Perth, […]

The Hunt for Tiger Eye – Mining in the Australian Bush in “The Good Old Days”-Part 3

By Neville Ryan The stories in this series are a compilation of events that took place over several trips while mining Tiger Eye, Snakeskin Jasper and Rainforest Jasper in the Pilbara region of northwest Western Australia. We were about 250 miles from the nearest town driving the truck and towing the generator across a flat, […]

The Hunt for Tiger Eye ( or Mining in the Australian Bush in “The Good Old Days”) – Part 1

By Neville Ryan The stories in this series are a compilation of events that took place over several trips while mining Tiger Eye, Snakeskin Jasper and Rainforest Jasper in the Pilbara region of northwest Western Australia. When most people hear the word mining they imagine huge machines churning the earth, giant trucks moving many tons […]

Valley Springs Pow Wow at Snyder Ranch

In our newsletter we mentioned attending the Valley Springs Pow Wow at Snyder’s Ranch and saying that this was the final year. It turns out that they will hold their 40th, and final, annual show in 2014. Over the last 40 years this show has been the biggest of its type in Northern California. Set […]

The Story of Lingam Stones

Printed with permission by Peter Biskup Men have collected stones since the beginning of time and have assumed that certain ones were containers of the life force with all its mystery. The Narmadeshwara Lingam is such a stone. It has been highly venerated and used extensively throughout history for both worship and ritual. It is […]

Collector Mineral Specimens

We carry a large variety of minerals and mineral specimens from around the world. From dioptase to tourmaline, ruby to apophyllite, we have quite the selection. We carry all shapes and sizes like lapis crystals, galena cubes, and fluorite octahedrons. We have heliodor, aquamarine and emeralds. Hiddenite, kunzite and tanzanite are available not to mention […]