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The Desmond Sacco Collection; Focus on Southern Africa by Bruce Cairncross. Published (2000) by Desmond Sacco; available through the author at Dept. of Geology, Rand Afrikaans University, P.O. Box 524, Auckland Park, 2006 Gauteng, Republic of South Africa. Visa/MC fax orders: 011-27-11-489-2309. Hardcover, 25 x 30 cm, 408 pages, edition limited to 1,000 copies; price: US $160 plus US $25 surface postage (airmail rates on request); ISBN 0-620-24340-6.
Desmond Sacco was born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa, the son of a successful Italian mining engineer who had been responsible in part for the discovery and development of the Kalahari Manganese Field. Having a strong interest in his father's profession, he studied geology and geography at the University of Witwatersrand and was awarded a B.S. degree in 1966; during those years as a student he also began seriously collecting minerals. His work as a field geologist at places such as the Beeshoek mine (Cape Province), mines in Zimbabwe, and various other southern African properties fueled his interest, built his knowledge base, and afforded him plenty of opportunities for field collecting.
Although he still retains a number of superb self-collected specimens in his collection of 3000 pieces, he found that it was also necessary to buy other specimens and other entire collections in order to fill his own with the best minerals southern Africa had to offer. That was his specialty, and he has avoided the temptation to broaden into worldwide collecting.
Perhaps the high point in his field collecting was the discovery of wonderful rhodochrosite specimens at the N'Chwaning I mine in 1978. The property was being mined by his company, Associated Ore and Metal Ltd., so he was called in as soon as the pockets began to be encountered. He spent two weeks...