Memoirs of a Mineral Collector--Part 3: TREASURE-HUNTING IN MINAS GERAIS SINCE 2000

摘要

My 2007 collecting tour of localities in Minas Gerais was devoted chiefly to investigating and photographing any new developments that might have taken place there since my last visit. Times change and, as it turned out, many things in Minas Gerais had changed radically. Production of crystals and gem rough had fallen off very steeply, primarily as a result of fiscal over-regulation by the Brazilian government. The garimpieros have had their necks wrung like chickens! Their discoveries and claims have been confiscated, and consequently their offerings to the dealers have dried up. The production of collector specimens and of cutting material is limited now to mines worked legally by dealers. This situation has raised the (already high) prices of uncut crystals to such a point that acquiring top-quality crystal specimens is possible only for the especially well-funded collectors, universities or museums; collectors of average means have almost no chance of acquiring very good specimens for reasonable prices.