Mineralica 2025 - 4 (english)

You may know the feeling: sometimes we sense it even before holding the first crystal in our hands — that faint tingling, that quiet intuition that something special might be about to happen. It doesn’t always lead to a great discovery, but sometimes it does. And in this issue, we devote ourselves to precisely those moments: the rare, the astonishing, the almost unreal encounters with minerals and the stories they carry.

First, there is the red beryl from Utah — a mineral whose very name takes a promise. David Evans takes us into the heat of the Thomas Range, where the air shimmers, the rhyolite burns, and one of the rarest minerals on Earth has waited patiently for millions of years to be found. His report is the chronicle of an adventure made of sweat, geology, and a touch of magic. And it reminds us how improbable each of those tiny, raspberry-red crystals truly is.

Very different wonders await in the contribution by Mark Mauthner and Otmar Wallenta. Gold crystals — those small, gleaming architectural marvels of nature — appear only rarely in their pure, simple forms. All the more extraordinary is the collection that Wallenta has built over many years with patience, method, and a level of scientific ambition far beyond ordinary collecting. We are proud to publish this unusually detailed work on the morphology of gold crystals.

Hidden treasures also play a central role in Matthias Reinhardt’s article on new micromineral finds from the Siegerland region in Germany. The great era of ore mining there is long past; many of its traces have vanished, been built over, or forgotten. And yet, with patience, good maps, and a trained eye, this region still offers surprises. These are small finds with great significance — because they show how alive a seemingly finished mining district can still be.

And finally, allow me a personal moment of joy as I share a reunion that left a lasting impression on me: The King, The Queen, and the Icon Baveno Twin — three legendary amazonite–smoky quartz specimens from Colorado, seen together for the first time since their discovery. On display side by side at the 2025 HardRock Summit in Denver, they radiated all their elegance and individuality: The King, monumental and painstakingly reassembled from more than forty fragments. The Queen, defined by a near-architectural clarity. And the Icon Baveno Twin, a twin crystal of such size and perfection that it has been found only once in all of Colorado.

What unites all of them is the same essence: the fascination with nature’s diversity of form and the joy of discovery. May this issue inspire you, excite you, and perhaps kindle a bit of that sense of wonder that connects us all.