The line at 10 am to get into opening of this year's Tucson Gem & Mineral Show, stretched down the main mezzanine and out the doors of the Tucson Convention Center. AZGS and other government agencies have information booths lining the mezzanine, so we had a chance to chat with many of the attendees as they waited for the doors to open.
One of our more popular handouts are copper plugs punched from cathode sheets at Freeport McMoRan's Sierrita Mine, south of Tucson. The Arizona chapter of AIPG arranged the donation of a couple buckets of the plugs and AZGS passes them out with a small card describing their origin.
The theme of the show this year is "Mineral Oddities," so I expect to be surprised by some of the displays.
[right, AZGS staffers Mike Conway and Chris Fuentes answer questions at the AZGS booth]