2021 Speaker Thomas Nagin

PERU PYRITE MINES AND TRAVELS IN THE ANDES

Thomas will share with us his documentary from “Mineral Explorers” filmed in Mundo Nuevo and Pasto Bueno. The documentary shows the difficulties and challenges of working overseas to retrieve many of the wonderful specimens cherished by collectors worldwide – including Pyrite, Fluorite, and Rhodochrosite. He is also focusing on the miners’ lives, and the impact such endeavors have on them.

For more than forty years, Thomas Nagin has been exploring around the world for minerals. Many of his adventures have been throughout LatinAmerica; spending a great deal of time in Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, and Brazil. He has documented many of these adventures in his series, “Mineral Explorers,” which aired nationwide on PBS television, and he recently made a documentary about his most recent adventure as an owner of a mine in Pasto Bueno, Peru, where he mined for Rhodochrosite specimens. He is currently acquiring beautiful Quartz, (his favorite mineral), from independent diggers throughout Colombia and continues to be a major supplier of large decorator Amethyst from Bolivia. And, for collector minerals, he is traveling to Bolivian high altitude mines to get Cassiterite, Bournonite, and Vivianite.