Collector Spotlight: Aurélien Lubrez
1. How many years have you been collecting and what started your passion?
I am a French mineral collector, this passion started two years and a half ago now. After high school I started studying in a geosciences engineering school and I followed courses about general geology but also at the same time paleontology and mineralogy courses which interested me a lot. Moreover, the fact of having field courses everywhere in France helps the passion to start. Indeed, I love being outside discovering new things. Furthermore, in this school I made friends who transmit me this passion, both collecting and going on the field for prospection. This created the group of passionate students we are now.
2. What's the focus of your collection and has that changed through time? Why?
The focus of my collection is minerals I find by myself on the field, which is in majority fluorites from Massif Central in France. I am mainly collecting European fluorites since the beginning, even if I have some from USA. More recently I started to focus more on French stuff. But I definitely prefer what I find on the field no matter on the species.
As most of you knows minerals from Alps mountains are among the most famous localities in the world (especially for the smoky quartz and pink/red fluorites) and I am more and more interested in those localities. I have the project to focus more on this part of Europe for the next few years. It’s a large area to have fun there and that will also be a new challenge for me.
3. What do you like to do outside of mineral collecting? (hobbies, job, music taste, etc).
I love doing sports, before my studies I played basketball and did horse riding in top level competition. And now I often play football with friends or doing sport to keep good physical condition. I also like to travel; discovering new places, lifestyles or landscapes is what makes me tick.
If I could take the opportunity of this spotlight to give an advice, that would be: Travel as much as you can, it doesn’t have to be on the other side of the world, just make new things.
4. Have you been to any shows? If so, what's your favorite part of them? If not, are there any particular ones you would want to experience one day?
I have been to many shows in France but because of Covid19 it has been difficult to visit them as much as I would have liked. But now mineral shows are restarting, and I suppose everyone with happy with that! My favorite part in mineral shows is to meet passionate people and talk with them about their experience.
As a mineral fan I would like one day travel to Tucson of course but we also have great mineral shows in Europe too! Next June I planned to go to Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines which is the biggest show in France.
To finish on this part, last year we started something new with my team (ACKAM) at Lyon’s gem show, we had our first exhibition, it was a great experience! This year we are part of the organization for Beauvais mineral show (end of March 2022). We had our own stand and for the first time we presented our collection in the “prestigious exhibition” whose theme is “Minerals from Auvergne” we are proud of this!
5. Are you a stay-at-home collector or do you collect on the field too?
As I told before I am a field collector and that’s what I prefer, for me the feeling of finding a perfect, intact piece after hours, days of work is the best award I can have from mineralogy, and this is also this feeling which pushes me to go back on the field as much as possible. My favorites areas to collect at the moment are in Auvergne region, more precisely in Labarre mine area, the place where I went most of the time and I know well. But this is not the only place where I go. I also like going in Tarn department, a well-known place in French mineralogy thanks to Le Burc mine area (famous blue fluorites). During this last two years I visited a lot of mines and quarries all around France.
6. What's your favorite locality? Why?
Labarre mine! By Far!
This is a place where I have a lot of souvenirs with my friends, we had a lot of good time there and great discoveries. This small mine is the place where this mineralogy adventure started more than two years ago, and I have a lot of great souvenirs there. From a discovery perspective this mine is the place where I found my first crystallized pocket in 2020 (I’ll attach a picture of one of the specimens). And then many others followed.
Unfortunately, I made the decision not to return underground at Labarre now because the working area became too dangerous the last few months.
7. Is there a piece/pieces in your collection you’ll never let go off, which and why?
Yes! They are blue and tricolor fluorite from Labarre mine (not so surprising) both found in summer 2020 (I also added a picture of these pieces). I would like to keep them forever because they represent a lot for me, it’s first good memories of exploration and nice rewards of hard work. I hope that in the future I will find other specimens which will provide me similar feelings.