I made ten trips to Dalnegorsk to buy minerals in the 1990's. <u>Every</u> trip was a dream for a rock collector! There were so many minerals to choose from. Many I had never seen before. Dalnegorsk is a mining town with a dozen or so mines surrounding large Soviet block housing. Many of the people in town were miners or geologists. For fun, the built rock collections. At the time I didn't realize it, but I was buying rocks from people who had been collecting them for 10, 20, 30 or even more years. Very quickly, many of the best specimens had been bought by a handful of foreign dealers. Since then, several of the mines in Dalnegorsk have closed, and the appearance of new specimens has slowed to a trickle.<BR><BR>
Ilvaite specimens from Dalnegorsk are recognized as some of the best ever found, and local collectors prized their ilvaites. While I was there, a small number of special quartz groups were found at the Second Sovietskii mine. These specimens were plates of clear quartz crystals with greenish-grey phantoms. What made them so special were the inclusions of jet black ilvaite sprays on top of the greenish-grey quartz phantoms. These plates were highly prized when they came out. Every Dalnegorsk collector wanted one, and there weren't enough to go around. This is one of those plates, which I obtained from my friend Pavel Bantsekov. It is one of the largest plates I remember. It is in very good shape despite a little (hard to find) damage to a couple of quartz tips. Some of the quartz crystals have a druse of apophyllite crystals on top of them. But the starring attraction of this specimen is the ilvaite inclusions in the clear quartz. This is a cabinet specimen which measures 13.4 x 9 x 6.5 cm. It has excellent luster and a wonderful hilly terrain. A treasure from Dalnegorsk that brings back many good memories...