Silver Crater Mine – Bancroft

Silver Crater Mine – Bancroft, originally uploaded by Mic2006. I paid my $2 at the house of the landowner whose property I had to cross and then headed off into the woods. I’d heard that the path to the mine was about 4 miles long (it was not), but possibly longer, and the route was [...]

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2011 Bancroft Gemboree – Rubellite tourmaline

IMGP1080, originally uploaded by Mic2006. I picked up some beautiful red Rubellite tourmaline at the 2011 Bancroft Gemboree yesterday. This fellow had 2 grades, the lesser grade he was selling at $40/carat and by weight the specimen that I picked out amounted to $64. Admittedly the color was not quite on a par with the [...]

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Bancroft Gemboree -crystals, labgrown synthetics and other oddities

P1010585, originally uploaded by Mic2006. One of the more exciting events of my rock-related year is the Bancroft Gemboree where i can schmoose with other rock-focused people. You absolutely know that this weekend the accommodation in Bancroft and for miles around will be booked solid so either I will be staying with my sister or [...]

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Fluor-richterite – Rockhound in Bancroft, Ontario

  Fluor-richterite – Rockhound in Bancroft Ontario At first glance the Essonville Road Cut looked much like many others in the area – gnawed upon by rockhounds and strewn with shards of calcite and sand. Most immediately obvious were the huge black crystals that protruded from the calcite – a dyke that is theorized to [...]

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Lovely Juicy Tourmalines at the Bancroft Gemboree

  Tourmaline – Bancroft Gemboree If I was asked to pick one gem as my favorite, it would definitely be tourmaline. Look at these colors. These cabs are in a tray that was displayed by a merchant at the Bancroft Gemboree. Red tourmalines are known as “rubellite”, one of the better known deposits being some [...]

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cabbed and rough corundum crystal

finding sapphires in Ontario Faceted and rough corundum crystal, originally uploaded by Mic2006. This is what ruby and sapphire looks like in their rougher forms. They are hexagonal crystals, generally displaying a six sided shape and in the case of the cabbed ruby in the fore-ground, also showing some pretty obvious hexagonal zoning. Zoning indicates the [...]

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Natural Silver Wire

Raw silver found as wire – sold at the Bancroft Gemboree P1010606, originally uploaded by Mic2006. If you want it you can find it at the Bancroft Gemboree. Yeah – they look like fletched arrow spines, barbs on fish hooks or just poorly made hooks but as the vendor explained, they are naturally occuring pieces [...]

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Pink Buddhas a hot commodity at the Bancroft Gemboree?

Bancroft Gemboree 2008 P1010580, originally uploaded by Mic2006. This lady was selling pink buddhas at the Bancroft Gemboree. I have just got back from spending the weekend there and I have taken a number of interesting photos of the people and the minerals that were being sold. This was the first person that I saw [...]

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The Bancroft Gemboree

An experience of the northern rockhound culture gemboree1 008, originally uploaded by Mic2006. Ontario rockhounds look forward to the Bancroft Gemboree, it is the biggest rock and gem show in Canada. I have taken a week off work to attend the gemboree and visit various rock collecting sites up in that area. In my book (as [...]

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Abandoned Rare Earth Mine near Bancroft Ontario

looking down the abandoned shaft deep into the earth   IMG_1286, originally uploaded by Mic2006. On my hunt for zircon in the Bancroft area I managed to find this old mine that had reputedly unearthed some pretty interesting mineral specimens – many of which were said to be radioactive – some of which are reported [...]

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