minerals

Sophia Zail is a master goldsmith and custom jewelry designer. She makes high-end jewelry through her company, Sozai. Sophia has a passion for creating jewelry that accentuates the beauty and form of gemstones and precious metals.  

The Chinese are crazy for ceramic tiles. Recent estimates suggest they are laying an amazing 2.8 billion square metres of tiles a year. And as the "floor space" in the country rises exponentially, in line with the massive urbanisation under way, the figure is only going to get bigger.  

2010 marks the 41st year for the Che-Hanna Rock and Mineral Club's Gem and Mineral Show, which will be held on March 27 and 28 in the Valley. The show will feature thousands of rocks and minerals in displays as well as rock and mineral vendors, according to club member Sandy Keener. Keener will be at the show herself, with some of the gemstone trees she creates.  

Papua New Guinea landowners have won a David and Goliath battle to freeze a Chinese nickel miner's construction of a massive pipeline to dump waste into the sea. The national court in Madang on Friday ordered work to stop on the nickel mine's previously approved submarine tailings disposal system. The Ramu mine in Madang Province, on PNG's northwest coast, operated by the Chinese Metallurgical Construction Group Co (MCC), plans to dump five million tonnes of slurry waste annually into Basamuk Bay. T  

A PARIS jeweller is selling a 40,000 euro (S$80,000) 18-carat diamond ring mounted in a sex toy that it claims is the world's most expensive erotic novelty. 'This sex toy was designed for rich people who want to declare their love in a special way,' said Jean-Francois Tokars, a manager at Maison Victor on Paris' posh place Vendome. The luxury sex toy is a white gold dildo that comes in various sizes and comes apart to release the ring studded with 117 diamonds.

This sex toy was designed for rich people who want to declare their love in a special way   -Jean Francois Tokars

 

More than 20 years, $29 million and 14 permits later, Oregon Resources Corp. finally has the go-ahead to begin construction on its Bunker Hill ore processing plant. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has issued the definitive operating permit, giving the Portland-based firm approval to mine chromite, zircon, high-iron and garnet off Seven Devils Road between Charleston and Bandon. 'Everything fell into place," said Dan Smith, Oregon Resources' chief operating officer.  

I originally intended to submit this as a Christmas list, but I got sidetracked and forgot about it. So I bring it to your attention now with a few amendments from my original list. Hope you enjoy the items I've selected, please feel free to add your own in the comments section.  

By name alone, you'd think the Gem and Mineral Show would have all the draw of a calculus conference, but thousands of visitors prove otherwise. The Timpanogos Gem and Mineral Society kicked off its 51st annual show -- a three-day roundup of some of the country's finest rocks, gems, stones and bones -- at the Spanish Fork Fairgrounds on Friday. About 18 vendors of rock-related odds and ends were piled into the Fairgrounds indoor tennis court, the entrance of which was made to look like a creaky old mi  

OGDEN — Gems, minerals and fossils, oh my! The 59th Gemstone Junction will be April 9 to 11 at the Golden Spike Event Center at the Weber County Fairgrounds. The Golden Spike Gem & Mineral Society, Ogden, puts on the annual event.