HCMC – The HCMC Minerals Show (second edition) has returned to HCMC, attracting strong interest from young visitors, including students and attendees eager to learn more about natural gemstones, minerals and crystal specimens.
This year’s HCMC Minerals Show features around 30 exhibition booths, bringing together some 60 organizations and individual collectors from HCMC and other localities.
Speaking to The Saigon Times, Vo Thanh Lam, chairman of the HCMC Gemstones Association, the exhibition is distinctive in that all items on display are entirely natural. “This is a highly specialized exhibition, gathering people who truly have knowledge, passion and capacity in the gemstone field,” Lam said.
Lam added that the association has deliberately made efforts to bring the exhibition closer to the public. Previously, gemstones were mostly associated with gold shops and diamonds, while the wider world of colored stones and valuable minerals remained little known. “There are many types of gemstones and minerals, including those found in Vietnam. Through exhibitions like this, we want to popularize knowledge and help the public approach gemstones in a more accessible way,” he noted.
From a business perspective, Lam acknowledged that the gemstone and feng shui product market has faced difficulties this year, reflecting broader economic challenges. “Compared to previous years, this year has been quite tough for those in the gemstone sector,” he said.
One encouraging sign, Lam noted, is the strong presence of students and young visitors at this year’s exhibition. This interest has prompted the association to plan training courses in gemstones and gemology in 2026, in cooperation with the Vietnam Gemstone Association in Hanoi and universities such as the University of Science and the University of Technology. The aim, Lam said, is to spread knowledge and nurture a love for nature among younger generations.
Among the visitors was Nguyen Phuc Dien, a second-year geology student at the University of Science, Vietnam National University-HCMC. Dien said his interest in gemstones began in his first year of study. “At first it was because of what we learned at school, but then I explored more on my own because I found the field very interesting,” he said.
Dien attended the exhibition mainly to gain hands-on experience. “In class, we mostly learn from textbooks and have very few chances to directly see real specimens,” he said. “Here, we can observe and even hold actual minerals and gemstones, which makes the knowledge much easier to understand.”
He added that practical exposure at exhibitions offers a clear contrast to theoretical learning. “The difference is huge. Seeing and touching real samples helps us grasp things much faster,” Dien said. He currently does part-time work related to gemstone photography, which he said further deepens his understanding of clarity, color and structure beyond academic study.
“If there are training courses as planned next year, I will definitely join,” Dien said. “I really love this field, and gemstone knowledge at university is still quite limited. Such courses would be very useful for students and young people.”
The exhibition also attracted international collectors. François de Bouverie, a French national who has been living in Vietnam for about three years, said this was his first time attending a gemstone and mineral exhibition in HCMC. A private collector with nearly 30 years of experience, he said collecting is purely a personal passion.
“I collect a lot of aquamarine, tourmaline and hard stones in general,” de Bouverie said. He praised Vietnamese minerals for their quality. “Vietnamese minerals are very high quality, with beautiful crystals. It’s a mining market that is still quite unspoiled and not very industrialized, so quantities are limited. That often pushes prices higher, but the quality is also very high.”
The two-day event is being held on December 20–21, 2025, at Edenstar Hotel, 38 Bui Thi Xuan Street, Ben Thanh Ward, HCMC. The exhibition takes place on the 11th floor and is open to the public from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. each day.
