Bancroft Gemboree 2015 (Canada’s largest Rock and Mineral Show)

I just attended the Bancroft Gemboree 2015, Canada’s largest gem and mineral show. There are 3 distinct areas where rockhounds can explore their interest, the curling rink and the hockey arena which are both indoors and the outdoors trading stalls. In my experience the trading stalls are the best places to purchase minerals. Dealers come from all across the country, they have incredible    stories and the prices are phenomenal. Check out my youtube video on the Bancroft Gemboree here.

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Gem Discovery in Bancroft, (Rocks and Minerals in Ontario)

Well as you’ve probably gathered by the above picture, I’ve just discovered some pretty incredible mineral specimens – a pocket of gem quality tremolite at the contact between quartz and calcite veins. Tremolite evolves to actinolite under the right conditions, and sometimes changes to diopside. Anyway, the finer points of the discovery are detailed on my youtube site (caver461) and within the video details are provided for the purchase of my latest book on minerals – ‘Rockhound: An Experience of the North’. In the book I detail how to find gemstones and something of the experience of finding rocks and minerals in the north.

To see purchase details or for a preview, just type the book name into Google and click on the link, it will take you directly to the print company (Lulu), or click this link here for immediate access to the book on Lulu.

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fluor – richterite; its pretty rare and amazing orthoclase

Just scattered in the woods so densely you can hardly walk without standing on a crystal

P1020064, originally uploaded by Mic2006.

Check out these orthoclase feldspar crystals – or at least my guide told me they were orthoclase crystals. I have not had the chance to verify this.

I met an interesting gent who runs ecotours for mineral collectors. His philosophy is that the minerals should remain in-situ so that future generations can enjoy them. I had been picking away at a road cutting when my host approached me to introduce himself. Are you a rockhound? I asked.

I have since learned that Mark is more focused on preservation than collecting – which is good. It would be a crime to whack away at this beautiful specimens and turn them into dusty old rocks in someone’s basement. I will be visiting Mark again and if he is agreeable I will display some of his other amazing mineral wonders – all “in-situ” “As god has made them”. On Mark’s tour I saw huge horneblende crystals, long thin spines of fluor – richterite and plenty of red zircon.

Both the fluor – richterite and hornblende are amphiboles though they can be quite easily distinguished apart by the more squat and blocky nature of the hornblende. Fluor – richterite has a diamond shaped cross-section and so it is simply distinguished from a pyroxene family member which tends to have crystal angles at close to 90 degrees.

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