In 1998, I offered a miner US$35,000 for less than 0.5 kilos of copper ore and he rejected my offer.

The piece of copper ore that I offered US$35,000 for was an elite specimen of crystallized cuprite from the Red Dome Mine, Chillagoe, Queensland, Australia.  It was a rich copper-gold mine with a cap of limonitic gossan.  This deposit produced some of the world's best cuprite specimens during the late 1990's.  The best piece measured around 3" x 3" x 1 1/2" and the crystal faces had no contact points with pocket wall or other crystals.  Such a mineral specimen is described as a "floater."  After I photographed the elite specimen, I sent the photo to Wayne Thompson and he would have financed my purchase of the cuprite based on my high quality photographs, my judgement and my integrity as the young and up and coming mineral collector/dealer that I was in 1998 before I morphed into a wealthier retail pharmacy business proprietor. 

When I saw this piece in 1998, it was in the hands of an itinerant mine employee named Len Wilson.  Despite the fact that I offered to pay him US$35,000 in cash which would be delivered to him by me in person, he rejected my offer on his cuprite specimen.  This was despite the offer being one that was at the top of the market in 1998.  Wilson continually asserted that his piece was worth $250,000 when it was not.  In 1998, $35,000 was a lot of money to pay for any mineral specimen that was not a big gem crystal containing lots of facet rough.  Considering the fact that Wilson picked the jewel up at his workplace at a cost of $0 while he was being paid a high hourly rate by his employer for probably doing almost nothing, I found his attitude to be extremely greedy with his continual demands for $250,000.  This imbecile also continually asserted to me that he was a great collector when he was really just some perpetually booze affected loud mouth who had stumbled over a fine mineral specimen.  It was little wonder that this fool died before the elite cuprite specimen was sold.  It was also small wonder that this bloke was aged in his fifties and could not seem to afford to live in anything more substantial than a shed with a corrugated iron roof and could not seem to afford to buy a cheap pair of shoes or even socks.  After work, he just padded along on the ground with bare and unwashed feet.  Since he seemed to spend less than US$150 per week on food, shelter and clothing, what the US$35,000 that I offered him for his cuprite could have sustained him for around 4 1/2 years!!

Cuprite (copper oxide) is a highly sought after mineral species by elite mineral collectors.  Historically and up until the late 1980's, Tsumeb, Namibia; The Onganja Mine, Namibia; Cornwall, England; Bisbee, Arizona; Moonta-Wallaroo, South Australia; Kapunda, South Australia and Chessy, France were considered the world's important cuprite localities.  The cuprite pictured here is no taller than 2" and is part of the renowned Bisbee collection of Richard Graeme.  The late John Barlow offered Mr Graeme US$100,000 for this piece during the 1980's and this generous offer was rejected.  When the offer was made, Mr Barlow owned one of the world's top private mineral collections and some of the finest pieces in the Barlow collection were celebrated in "The F John Barlow Mineral Collection" published by Sanco of Appleton, Wisconsin.  As a matter of interest, Mr Barlow was a very wealthy industrial contractor and businessman.   

The Onganja Mine, Emke Farm, Namibia is also a relatively old cuprite locality that produced some of the world's largest and finest cuprite crystals and clusters.  Cuprite crystals from Onganja were almost always covered with a thin crystalline coating of malachite.  One of the elite Onganja cuprite specimens is in the collection of Mr Edde Salim who is the owner of MIM Museum, Lebanon.

The MIM Cuprite is elite because the specimen is one of the largest removed from this famous mineral locality.  The crystals are also large, separated from each other, sharp and with a pleasing color contrast with the white matrix (host rock).  Other elite Onganja Mine cuprite specimens are also in the collections of Desmond Sacco of Johannesburg (Assore) .  .