I grew up in South Africa in the mining town of Phalaborwa and later in Cerro de Pasco, Peru.  It was in Peru at a young age that I developed an interest in minerals and geology and have been collecting minerals ever since. With a collection of over 3000 specimens, my area of interest is in the minerals of the Kalahari Manganese Field, the Phalaborwa Carbonatite, Nambia and in general southern African minerals including the rather esoteric minerals of the late Bushveld Igneous events such as the Vergenoeg Fluorite deposit. I have a special interest in the minerals of Peru, especially its sulphides. I have had many opportunities to collect minerals at Vergenoeg Mine and several other South African localities including the Pering Mine and Nchwaning II Mine.  I love the tactile immediacy of collecting minerals and consider it to be the most enjoyable of hobbies and also the most challenging.     I am also very interested in geology with my main areas of interest in the rocks of Archean age, the origin of the Earth and the enigmatic processes leading to the origin of Life on Earth.  Other interests include meteorite impacts and their relation to extinction events (the Cretaceous - Tertiary extinction event in particular) and the geology of Mars and our Moon.   I am past chairperson of the Witwatersrand Gem and Mineral Club and currently the editor of the South African Lapidary magazine.  I hold a National Diploma in Analytical Chemistry, and am registered as a Professional Natural Scientist with the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions, a member of the South African Chemical Institute and an affiliate member of the Geological Society of South Africa and a member of the Mineralogical Society of America.    In 2001 I became a hobby mineral dealer and started www.onlineminerals.com  I am a Consulting Analytical Chemist and I am co-owner of Analytical and Technical Consultants, a consultancy services company specialising in education and training for laboratory analysts and analytical chemists in industry.   My web site offers  mineral specimens mainly from southern Africa and minerals from some international localities. Over the last year the focus of the web site has changed to include more specimens from Namibia and the Kalahari Manganese Field. I also buy and evaluate mineral collections, so please contact me if you are interested in selling or simply having your collection valued for which I will charge a nominal rate.  I hope that you enjoy my web site and stop to visit it from time to time.  If you feel I could improve the site in any way please let me know. If there are any particular minerals you wish me to search for I will do my best in sourcing them for you. I have an extensive network of dealers, miners and collectors.  You can email me at mineralman@telkomsa.net or info@onlineminerals.com   Below is a collection of photographs of various collecting expeditions, mineral shows, fellow mineral collecting enthusiasts and an assortment of intriguing geology. I have added a few of my favourite specimens from my own collection from various sites.   Allan Fraser 2007   July 2007, Pilanesberg National Park - one of my most favourite places on the planet   My mineral collection in Peru, circa 1972     My Peruvian collection as it is today (July 2008) displayed on 3 shelves of a glass and aluminium cabinet   John Brodley and my father Bob Fraser in the Cerro de Pasco Open pit mine. 1973   Cobija Copper Mine, Peru, circa 1969    The mining town of Cerro de Pasco with open pit and mine shafts in the distance. Peru.  Picture taken circa 1970   Bosque de Piedra, near Cerro de Pasco, Peru. Picture taken circa 1970.  These rocks are composed of ignimbrite - an assortment of volcanic glass and pumice ejected during a pyroclastic flow.  Erosion created the unusual shapes.   Galena with Quartz, Pasto Bueno, Peru.  Specimen size: 6 x 4 cm. Specimen and picture: A. Fraser   Realgar, Orpiment, Quartz replacing Barite, Palomo Mine, Peru. Specimen size: 12 x 8 cm.  Specimen and picture: A.Fraser   Tetrahedrite with Quartz. Pasto Bueno, Peru. Specimen size: 8 x 5 cm. Picture and specimen: A. Fraser   Barite on Dolomite. Cerro Warihuyn, Miraflores, Peru. The Barite is 7 x 4 cm in size.  Ex- Geoff Krasnov collection.  Picture and specimen: A. Fraser     Collecting trip to Vergenoeg Mine, October 2004. Allan, Bruce Cairncross and Wolf Windisch (kneeling).  Picture: Henk Smit   Wolf Windisch, micromounter extraordinaire, at Vergenoeg Mine, January 2006. Picture by Henk Smit.   Henk Smit, in classic rockhound pose at Vergenoeg Mine chipping away at the Siderite and Pyrite site.  February 2006. Picture by A. Fraser   Jens Gutzmer and Allan at Vergenoeg Mine, May 2004   Jens Gutzmer and Bruce Cairncross at Vergenoeg Mine, May 2004. Picture: A.Fraser   Bruce Cairncross, Vergenoeg Mine, Azurite and Malachite vein. Picture: A.Fraser   With a little help from technology ......   ..... opening cavities at Vergenoeg Mine. May 2007    Vergenoeg Mine. Me collecting at an freshly opened cavity containing goethite.  January 2008. Picture by Bruce Cairncross.    Vergenoeg Mine. Collecting at an freshly opened cavity containing goethite.  January 2008. Picture by Bruce Cairncross.   Vergenoeg Mine. Examining a freshly exposed cavity lined with iridescent goethite. January 2008. Picture Bruce Cairncross   A specimen I collected at Vergenoeg Mine - iridescent goethite with transluscent fluorite. Specimen size: 6 x 4 cm.  Picture by Bruce Cairncross   Azurite with white balls of Kaolinite in brecciated fluorite and goethite matrix. Vergenoeg Mine.  Specimen and Picture: A.Fraser   Iridescent blue goethite from Vergenoeg mine. Specimen size: 7 x 5 cm. Specimen and picture: A. Fraser    Siderite with iridescent Pyrite.  Specimen size: 6 x 5 cm.  Vergenoeg mine, Picture and specimen: A. Fraser    Iridescent Goethite,  Vergenoeg Mine, Specimen and picture Bruce Cairncross.   Vergenoeg mine - a 30 cm vug lined with stalictitic transluscent fluorite which is on iridescent goethite.  Note the roof of the vug which has crystals of red iridescent goethite.  2007. Picture: A. Fraser   Picking through the Azurite and Malachite site at Vergenoeg Mine, Wolf, Henk and Bruce.  The Azurite vein runs near vertically through the orebody at this point. May 2007   Azurite in Goethite vugs with white Kaolinite, Vergenoeg Mine, South Africa. Collected in May 2007.  Specimen and picture by A. Fraser   Underground at N'chwaning II Mine, April 2007.   Bruce Cairncross, Allan Fraser and Paul Balayer about to descend with the night shift at N'chwaning II Mine, November 2004   Paul Balayer inspecting the Hanging Wall for mineralisation, November 2004 at N'chwaning II Mine.    Bruce Cairncross, Paul Balayer and Allan at Black Rock Mine office departing for N'chwaning II Mine to collect minerals.  November 2004   N'chwaning II Mine, cavity in brecciated Manganese ore lined with needles of bultfonteinite and poldervaartite. Picture A. Fraser   Bultfonteinite and a new mineral Olmiite. 5 x 6 cm. N'chwaning II Mine.  Specimen and picture: A. Fraser. Specimen collected in 2007 by Paul Balayer.   Inesite fan with pink Datolite.  Kalahari Manganese Field. Specimen size: 8 x 5 cm.  Specimen and picture: A. Fraser   Brucite on Goethite.  3.9 x 2.6 x 2.2 cm. N'Chwaning II mine. Specimen and picture: A.Fraser   Inesite and Calcite from the Hotazel mine.  From a find in 1965.  Specimen size: 6 x 4 cm.  Specimen and picture: A. Fraser   Pyrite spheres on brown brecciated goethite.  Specimen size: 5 x 3 cm. Picture and specimen: A. Fraser   Fibrous Todorokite from the Smartt Mine, Kalahari Manganese Field. Ex- Pieter du Bruyn collection.  Specimen size: 7 x 5 cm. Specimen and picture: A.Fraser   5 mm spray of white bultfonteinite in a cavity of brecciated manganese ore. Picture: A. Fraser.  Specimen from N'chwaning II Mine, Kalahari Manganese Field.   Kutnahorite, Groutite and Caryopilite from the Wessels Mine, Kalahari Manganese Field.  Specimen size: 7 x 5 cm.  Specimen and picture: A. Fraser   Impressive calcite vein in banded iron-stone, N'chwaning II Mine. Picture: A. Fraser   Dusk ... N'chwaning II Mine, November 2004. Picture: A. Fraser   Kalahari Dawn: N'chwaning II Mine in the distance with Kalahari sand and scrub in the foreground with rising moon.  Picture: A. Fraser August 2008   Oyelite pseudomorph after Calcite on calcite druse.  Specimen size: 5 x 4 cm.  Picture and specimen: A. Fraser   Pale blue Celestite on pitch black manganese ore with minor Celestite. Specimen size is ~ 6 cm.  Specimen and picture: A. Fraser   Allan, Craig, Paul ... mineral talk.  Assmang Lodge, Black Rock, November 2004. Pic ture B. Cairncross   Abandoned workings at the Black Rock Mine, Kalahari Manganese Field. 2004. Picture: A. Fraser   Buffalo Fluorite mine, Naboomspruit, Limpopo Province.  The mine has been closed for several years now and was the source of only a limited number of collectible fluorite specimens (as in the specimen below). Picture taken in June 2007, by A. Fraser   Specimen (11 x 6 cm) of deep purple fluorite from Buffalo Mine. Specimen and picture A. Fraser   Mineral collecting at Monarch Cinnabar Mine, Gravellote, Murchison Range, July 2005. Picture: Richard Tasker   Native antimony with stibiconite from Consolidated Murchison Mine, Gravellote, South Africa. Specimen size: 8 x 6 cm. Specimen and picture: A.Fraser   Red Cinnabar as thin layers in a talc carbonate schist from Monarch Cinnabar Mine. Specimen is 15 cm. Specimen and picture: Bruce Cairncross    Monarch Antimony Mine, Gravellote, Murchison Range. Picure: A.Fraser    At the summit of Mount Vesuvius, Napoli, Italy, September 2004   Palabora Mining headgear, Phalaborwa. Picture: A. Fraser   Palabora Open Pit mine as it was in May 2004. Most of the far left side has now collapsed. Town of Phalaborwa in the distance. Picture: A. Fraser. Read more on the minerals of Palabora here http://www.onlineminerals.com/article18.htm   Analcite with Fluorapophyllite and Pyrite.  Specimen size: 6 x 4 cm. Bench 28 Main Dyke, Palabora Open Pit mine, Phalaborwa. Specimen and Picture: A. Fraser.  Ex - John Gliddon specimen   Phlogopite, Apatite and Diopside at Vermiculite Pit, Palabora Mine. Picture: A. Fraser   Foskor Open Pit Mine at Phalaborwa.  Picture taken in April 2007 by Steve Gomersall.    Stilbite in solution cavities in basalt of Jurassic age, Cyferfontein Calcite Mine,  Springbok Flats, October 2002   Danilo Rolando at the Onlineminerals.com booth at the 2007 Bologna Mineral and Fossil Show, Italy.   Onlineminerals.com booth at the Bologna Mineral and Fossil Show, Italy, March 2007   November 2006, Dinner in Torino with my Italian mineral friends after the Torino Mineral Show. Right of me is Athos Locatelli, left of me is Fabrizio Ferrero then Fulvio Giachino, Francesco Bedogne, Ezio Gianoli and closest to the camera on the right is my good friend, Danilo Rolando.     Rosh Pinah Mine, Rosh Pinah, Namibia. September 2006. Picture: A.Fraser   Road to Rosh Pinah from Orangemund, Namibia.  Rare covering of grasses and flowers to due to the good summer rains.  September 2006. Picture: A. Fraser   The Fish River Canyon, Namibia - rocks deeply incised by the Fish River over millions of years. Picture: A. Fraser   Okorusu Fluorite mine, Namibia. Picture Horst Windisch, April 2008   Quartz (amethyst smoky gem), Goboboseb Mountains, Namibia. 5 x 2.9 cm.  Specimen and picture:  Ernst Schnaitmann   Mineral dealers near Uis, Namibia. Picture A. Fraser.  Circa 2002   The vastness of Namibia - road somewhere between Vioolsdrift and Granau. Picture: A. Fraser   Quartz,  Goboboseb Mountains, Namibia. 4.8 x 4.2 cm.  Specimen and picture:  Ernst Schnaitmann    Quartz (double terminated amethyst) on matrix, Goboboseb Mountains, Namibia. 5.7 x 4 cm.  Specimen and picture:  Ernst Schnaitmann   Stilbite with Heulendite from the basalts of the Grooteberg Pass, Namibia. Specimen and Picture: A.Fraser. Specimen size: 10 x 6 cm.   Skorpion Zinc mine near Rosh Pinah, Namibia. 2002. Photo courtesy J.Gutzmer. Read more on the Skorpion deposit at this link: http://www.petrology.de/Dissertation/diss_kaerner.html   Green Tarbuttite with white Hydrozincite and small needle-like crystals of the type-locality mineral, Skorpionite. Skorpion Zinc mine, Namibia. Specimen size: 6 x 4 cm. Specimen and picture: A. Fraser.    Green Tarbuttite with covering of white Hydrozincite. Skorpion Mine, Namibia. Specimen size: 5 x 4 cm.  Specimen and picture A. Fraser   Grey Smithsonite with black Hetaerolite (a Zinc Hausmannite mineral) from Skorpion Zinc mine, Namibia.  Specimen size: 8 cm.  Specimen and picture:A.Fraser.   A thumbnail sized specimen of blue-green tarbutite with clear sugary crystals of hydrozincite from Skorpion mine, Namibia.  Specimen and picture: A. Fraser   SEM image of crystals of Skorpionite from Skorpion mine. Image courtesy J. Gutzmer   Broken Hill Mine, Aggenys, South Africa. 2006. Picture: A. Fraser   8 x 6.5 x 6 cm.  A carbonate and sulphide epimorph cast (4 x 4 cm) of calcite. Broken Hill mine, Aggenys. Unknown white mineral. Specimen and picture: A. Fraser   Sphalerite and Siderite epimorph after Calcite.  Broken Hill Mine, Aggenys. This specimen is actually hollow--it consists of a siderite/sphalerite cast, which has retained the shape of the calcite crystal that it once enclosed. Size: 11 x 7 cm.  Picture and specimen: A.Fraser   Octahedral magnetite crystal (~2 x 2 cm) from Broken Hill Mine, Aggenys. Specimen and Picture: A.Fraser   Picking through fluorite for herringbone fluorite at Moepe Mine, Pilanesberg National Park   Read more .. http://www.onlineminerals.com/article13.htm         Witkop Fluorite Mine. November 2005.  Left to right: My Dad, Bob Fraser who was the Mine Manager at this mine in the mid 1970's, Allan Fraser, Louis Coetzee, Herman van Niekerk. Large stromatolite domes in the background with filled paleocaves.    Left to Right:Gerdus Bronn, Allan Fraser, Frank Hissong and Paul Balayer at Black Rock Mine, May 2006   Viewing the collection of Pieter du Bruyn; Left to Right: Frank Hissong, Allan and Pieter du Bruyn, May 2006   Frank closes in on heaven.  Viewing Des Sacco's collection.  Frank Hissong and Bruce Cairncross   Geoff Krasnov at road cutting near Kuruman, May 2006     Geoff Krasnov and Des Sacco, May 2006   Frank Hissong, Erongo, May 2006. Picture: G. Krasnov   Allan, Don Riekert, Frank Hissong at Don's house in Kuruman.  Looking through material from Wessels and N'chwaning Mines. May 2006   Pink and red Rhodochrosite just brought to the surface from the N'chwaning I mine. May 2006. Picture: A. Fraser   250 million year old glacial pavements at Barkly West. Read more at this link http://www.onlineminerals.com/article19.htm   Collecting natrolite from Drakensberg Basalt. Witsieshoek. September 2007   Natrolite filling solution cavity in basalt. Coin for size.  Witsieshoek, Drakensberg Mountains. Picture: A.Fraser   Pits dug by artisinal quartz miners at Boekenhouthoek, KwaNdebele. November 2004. Picture: A. Fraser   Colin Corser with artisinal quartz miners at Boekenhouthoek, KwaNdebele with large rock covered with literally hundreds of quartz-amethyst crystals.  Today this piece is part of my 'larger-specimens' collection.  November 2004 Two black quartz crystals with multiple terminations from Boekenhouthoek.  Size: 9 x 5 cm. Pitcure and specimen: A.Fraser   Large 11 x 12 cm quartz - amethyst in which the red orange colours fuse into the lilac amethyst. Specimen from Boekenhouthoek, KwaNdebele Picture A. Fraser   Large box-cuts in the ore at Ryedale Manganese Mine near Ventersdorp. 2006. Fossils leaves of the extinct glossopteris tree are found in abundance here along with the mineral, pyrolusite.  The remains of an a delta during the Permian period ~250 million years ago. Picture: A. Fraser. Wolf Windisch and mine owner Hennie Lombard in the picture.   Needles of Pyrolusite from Ryedale mine.  Specimen size: 5 x 4 cm.  Specimen and picture: A. Fraser   Uwe Konig, Allan, Wolf Windisch, Henk Smit at Big Ben Mine in 2006   Witwatersrand Gem and Mineral Club meeting at University of Johannesburg 2004   Sunrise on the Rio Negro, Brazilian Rain Forest, August 2002. Picture: A.Fraser   Impressive syenite plug forming a lone hill above the Lowveld plain at Phalaborwa. Picture: A. Fraser, April 2007   The Water Tower Magnetic shale forms part of the Witwatersrand Supergroup of rocks.  The magnetic properites of these rocks lead to the discovery of the Klerksdorp and Free State Gold Field. Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens.  Picture: A.Fraser   Headgear of the old Blyvooruitzicht Mine, Far West Rand, Witwatersrand field. A gold-uranium mine located 40 miles SW of Johannesburg. Both my grandfather and father worked at this mine.  Picture: A.Fraser, January 2008   Old sign to the Zaaiplaats Tin Mine.  Tin was mined here from the Bushveld granites. Picture: J. Potgieter. 2005   Columns of Dolerite on the road from Beaufort West to Fraserburg, Karoo, South Africa. Picture by Garth Blake, 2008.   Outcrop of Red Syenite in the Pilanesberg Alkaline Intrusion.  Picture: A. Fraser    A sawn and etched meteorite, 14.7 cm, from the Gibeon fall in Namibia. The surface has been etched with nitric acid and clearly shows the nickel-iron Widmanstatten structure typical of metal meteorites. What makes this specimen particularly interesting is that is contains a small cavity, in the centre, filled with brown coloured tridymite. Tridymite is the high-temperature polymorph of quartz and is stable between 870 and 1470 degrees Celsius. Department of Geology collection, University of Johannesburg. Photograph by Bruce Cairncross.   Green silky Riebeckite fibres folded by tectonic forces.  6 cm. Barberton region, South Africa. Specimen and picture: A.Fraser   A 10 cm specimen of chromite bearing schist with sprays of white to grey bundles of Stilbite and white rod-like Laumontite crystals. Very rare specimen from the Mooinooi Chrome Mine, NW Province, South Africa.  Specimen and Picture: A. Fraser   Pering open cast mine near Reivilo, South Africa. September 2008.  The Pering deposit is the oldest Mississippi-Valley-Type deposit on earth and is of Paleoproterozoic age. Picture: A. Fraser   Pering mine, September 2008.  Mineral specimen collecting. Left to right: Colin Corser, Wolf Windisch, Owen Garvie, Martin Hengstberger, Allan Fraser   Martin Hengstberger at Pering mine with the best specimen find.  September 2008. Picture: A.Fraser   Martin holding the large Galena, Quartz and Dolomite specimen he found at Pering Mine. September 2008.  Picture: A.Fraser   Stromatolite dome (~ 5 cm across) at Pering Mine. September 2008.  Picture: A.Fraser   One of the collecting sites at Pering mine.  Huge dumps in the background. September 2008.  Picture: A.Fraser   Pering Open pit mine.  Collecting specimens of Sphalerite, Dolomite and Quartz. Note people for scale.  September 2008. Picture: A.Fraser   Pering mine - me with large (~ 2 meter) rock with a mass of stromalite domes. Picture: Martin Hengstberger, September 2008   Quartz coated with grey Dolomite.  The larger Quartz crystal has yellow micro rhombs of secondary dolomite. Collected in-person from Pering mine, September 2008. Specimen size: 6 cm. Specimen and picture: A.Fraser   Tennantite (?) and unknown green-blue mineral on Dolomite from Pering Mine. Specimen size: 4 cm.  Specimen and picture: A.Fraser   Natrolite on matrix.  Jagersfontein Diamond Mine.  Specimen ex-Herbert Nagele. Size: 7 x 6 cm. Specimen and picture: A. Fraser   EuroMineral Show 2008, Torino Italy, 2008.  Left to Right: Danielle Respino, Athos Locateli, Sandro Maggia, Allan Fraser   My good friends, Danilo and Anna Rolando with part of their impressive collection.  Torino, Italy October 2008.   Picture: A.Fraser Danilo's mineral web page at http://www.minservice.com/store/Scripts/rolando.asp