WELCOME TO "THE CORUNDUMINIUM" ! IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: There is a new "Corunduminium" coming! We are preparing to add much information and to reorganize the website to accomodate several new features. The most substantial one will be a comprehensive, geographic arrangement of the corundum localities known to us, with information and images about as many as possible. Another will be a series of articles regarding science and history related to corundum, featuring contributions by experts in the field. A third will be links to other websites which add further knowledge. Fourth will be a page where people may connect to buy, sell, or swap corundum specimens. Finally, we will include a search engine to assist with the navigation. The changes will be gradual, and we shall publish periodic notice of recent ones on our "What's New" page so you can tell where to look for them. By early 2006, we hope you will notice and appreciate the improvements. This is not a commercial website, but we have started up a small business, "Earth Treasures", intended to provide funding for project activities such as specimen acquisitions and website maintenance. Our "Catalogue" page offers some of the inventory; but please inquire if you think we might help you find something not offered for sale. We plan, eventually, to have a separate website for our commercial ventures; so that The Corunduminium may remain a source of pure information and enjoyment for our visitors. If you have any input as our new incarnation takes shape, we would like to hear from you. Please email us at webmaster@corunduminium.com with your contributions, comments, or suggestions. Let us all make this website the best it can be! (10/25/05) This website is devoted to those of us who collect, study, or otherwise enjoy the beauty and diversity of one of the World's great minerals, CORUNDUM. In gem form, CORUNDUM is known as RUBY or SAPPHIRE. The rough materials from which gemstones are produced, especially the well-formed crystals and clusters, can be spectacular; but the mineral can also be found in astonishingly many other strange and beautiful "sub-gem" forms, in association with many other minerals, and from literally hundreds of different localities around the World. To this collector (Will Heierman, seen above holding a 55 pound sapphire crystal from Madagascar), CORUNDUM seems to be one of the World's must underappreciated minerals. I have watched people react with amazement to our illustrated talks and displays, and I hope this website will enable even more to share that experience. Drum roll, please ... I am pleased to welcome Brenda LaCroix to the "THE CORUNDUM PROJECT" team, beginning January 3, 2005! Brenda is, as I am, an obsessive corundum collector. She will be collaborating with me on PROJECT research, data management, and website organization. Brenda will be dividing her time between the PROJECT and her other passion, assisting abused and neglected Boston terriers; through fundraising, fostering, and placement services. We will all benefit from her enthusiasm, boundless energy, corundumological expertise, and a degree of computer literacy far greater than my own. Expect to see improvements to "THE CORUNDUMINIUM" in the near future. We hope our combined efforts will provide an even more useful and enjoyable description of this remarkable member of the mineral kingdom. You cannot imagine my happiness, when I realized: "Egad! There are two of us!" Mount San Jacinto, California "THE CORUNDUM PROJECT" What began more than twenty years ago as a mineral collecting hobby has grown into "THE CORUNDUM PROJECT", of which this website is just one manifestation. The project goals, simply stated, are 1: to assemble the finest possible collection of CORUNDUM specimens and related library materials our resources will allow, 2: to share visual appreciation and understanding through talks, displays, loans, and publications (principally, through this website), and 3: to find a permanent home for the collection where it may remain on display and continue to be actively involved in scientific and historical research. Burma (Myanmar) SERVICES In addition to photographs and articles, "THE CORUNDUMINIUM" offers links to others with similar interests, news and messages, humor, specimens available for sale or trade, and personal attention to your requests or suggestions. Please do not hesitate to contact us by email at collector@corunduminium.com (for Will) or corundogs@charter.net (for Brenda) for information about localities, specimens, photographs, etc. If you have comments or suggestions about website content, or any items you would like posted here, please direct them to webmaster@corunduminium.com or to corundogs@charter.net. . North Carolina ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am greatly indebted to several Friends of the Project, without whose contributions it would not have reached this stage. Though too many acknowledgements, like too many CORUNDUM crystals, seem to lack a termination, I must thank a few very special ones. 1: For their provision of valued information and substantial gifts to the collection: F. John Barlow, Anil Dholakia, Bill Larson, Rajeesh Shrestha. 2: For sharing knowledge of collection sites and rockhounds from whom specimens were obtained: all my fellow mineral club members in New York, Montana, and Texas. 3: For their appreciation and encouragement which motivated the development of "THE CORUNDUM PROJECT": the staffs of the American Museum of Natural History and the Gemological Institute of America. 4: For his indispensable help with the designing and construction of this website for a "computer illiterate": webmaster Mike Billingsley of Ewebdesigning. Crystal habits COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS There are no copyright restrictions whatsoever on any of my own text or images here, though in any publication or distribution proper credit to the source is requested. However, links to other sites may access material which is the property of others, and the rights and restrictions of these owners must be respected. Tanzania (Umba Valley?) This is a "Work in Progress", and as time allows I hope to upgrade these preliminary pages and insert additional articles, news items, and links to other sites of related interest. So, please "Pardon Our Appearance", and come on in! Montana Mix