Moore's Compendium of Mineral Discoveries 1960-2015 (2-Volume Set)

About this book

Moore's Compendium of Mineral Discoveries 1960-2015 is one of the most important publications for mineral collectors since Dana's System of Mineralogy. It can be thought of as a "What's New in Minerals" covering the last 55 years. Detailed information on mineral specimen discoveries made worldwide since 1960 has been gleaned from every major mineral collector magazine in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian, as well as books, mineral dealer catalogs and unpublished manuscripts – all meticulously referenced. The vast majority of publications have never been indexed and are not available online, so this information has been inaccessible to all collectors lacking a personal library of such journals and the ability to read five languages.

The description of each occurrence covers as many aspects as possible, beginning with the general appearance and style of specimens; the sizes, morphologies and habits of major crystals; associated species; geological settings; the histories of the localities; the circumstances of the discoveries, including the names of collectors; interesting or amusing collecting stories; marketing information (i.e. where, when and how specimens have been offered for sale); and whatever else may seem in some way noteworthy.

Abstracted journals include the following:
Mineralogical Record, Rocks & MineralsLapidary Journal, Gems & Gemology, Gems & Minerals, Rock & Gem, The Australian Journal of Mineralogy, ExtraLapis (English), Lithographie monographs, Mineral News, Mineral Observer, Mineralogical Almanac, World of Stones, The Picking Table, The UK Journal of Mines and Minerals, Mineral Up, Tomasz Praszkier’s Minerals, Lapis, ExtraLapis (German), Mineralien Welt, Der Aufschluss, Magma, Schweizer Strahler, The Munich Show Catalogs, Monde et Minéraux, Le Règne Minéral, Bocamina, Revista de Minerales, and Rivista Mineralogica Italiana.

Mineralogical Record editor Tom Moore, drawing on the resources of the extensive 3,200-volume Mineralogical Record Library, has spent the last 14 years compiling this unique reference. He has included information from state and national mineralogies covering Maine, New York, Pennsylvania (Chester County), Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Washington, Colorado (two), New Mexico (the Bingham Canyon mine), Nevada, Arizona (two), Mexico, Brazil, Northern England, Cornwall and Devon, Ste-Marie-aux-Mines, East and West Germany, Switzerland (three!), the Hohe Tauern of Austria, Príbram in the Czech Republic, the Carpathian Mountains region, Laurium, Morocco, Namibia (two), Tsumeb (two), Southern Africa and the Kalahari Manganese Field, the Lovozero Massif in Russia, China (two), Broken Hill in Australia, and Tasmania.

Other more general books consulted include Minerals and Their Localities, American Mineral Treasures, Masterpieces of the Mineral World, Kievlenko's Geology of Gems, The F. John Barlow Mineral Collection, Zeolites of the World, and Sinkankas's Gemstones of North America. In addition to all of these resources, the Mineralogical Record Library provided various printed lists and catalogs of mineral dealers. Tom also scoured the Mindat database, as well as mineral dealer websites.

Information gathered has been restricted to specimens with crystals 1-cm or larger, discovered since 1960, representing a remarkable 1,079 mineral species. The two volumes of text (no illustrations), amount to roughly ten times the amount of locality-specific mineral information that was included in Dana's System or Sinkankas's Mineralogy for Amateurs.

Information on each species is organized geographically under the following major headings: the US and Canada, Latin America, Europe, Africa, the former Soviet Union, Asia, Australia and Antarctica. Under each of these headings are sub-headings for states and countries, and within those the localities are arranged alphabetically. Full discussions are included for each find.

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