It is important to note that most new mineral collectors today have never been in a working mine and consequently have never seen their favorite minerals in place; nor do they realize what it takes to get the specimens out and prepared for display. Having seen minerals being mined around the world at mines of all sorts, and very intimately at the Pederneira mine for over a decade now, I have acquired an immense appreciation for what it takes to bring a mineral specimen to market, and for the processes by which minerals themselves form in the earth. When you look at minerals displayed at shows you can hardly comprehend all the forces that had to be in perfect unison to allow those objects to be sitting before you. Their formation in the earth's crust is just the first step in the process of bringing them to collectors; next comes locating them, then extracting them in good condition, then reconstructing them as they grew in nature, then properly cleaning and trimming them in the lab, then finally transporting them to a marketing venue.
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