Gem and Mineral Club of Scarborough

Gem and Mineral Club of Scarborough The Gem and Mineral Club of Scarborough (GMCS) is a hobby club founded in 1963 to promote the collecting and studying rocks, minerals and fossils.

We are a not for profit club who belongs to the CCFMS The Gem and Mineral Club of Scarborough has a number of different club activities, which appeal to a broad spectrum of collectors and mineral enthusiasts, including:

Monthly Meetings, with speakers, at Knox United Church Hall (Sept-June)
Yearly Club Auction (March)
Yearly Club Show (September)
Microminerals Group
Mineral & Fossil Field Trips
Jewellery Workshops

June Meeting - Collecting Native Copper in Canada -June 3rdThere are many places in the world that are famous for specim...
05/24/2026

June Meeting - Collecting Native Copper in Canada -June 3rd
There are many places in the world that are famous for specimens of well crystallized native copper: Arizona, Keweenaw Peninsula, Itauz, Kazakhstan, etc. Canada has some locations that have produced wonderful, crystallized copper specimens and some of them are within driving distance! This presentation will show you where some of these locations are, collecting methods and examples of excellent native copper specimens. We will also make a quick visit to the Keweenaw Peninsula, since it is so close, with excellent specimens and an amazing museum
David Joyce has been a mineral collector since he was 12 years old, growing up in rock and mineral bereft Scarborough, where he was a member of the Rockids, the junior arm of the Scarborough Gem and Mineral Club.He left Scarborough at 19 years of age to attend the Haileybury School of Mines and upon graduation, worked across Canada in the explosives and mining businesses. He later worked for mining and engineering contractors in the field of designing and building mining complexes, and his last corporate job was Vice President, Business Development for SNC-Lavalin Engineers and Constructors. David was an adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto for eight years, was past vice-president of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (CIM), past Chair of the Toronto Branch of CIM and Past President of the Walker Mineralogical Club.

May Meeting - The Gjerdingen Ekerite, Oslo Rift Valley, Norway presented by Dr. Paula Piilonen The Oslo Rift Valley cove...
04/24/2026

May Meeting - The Gjerdingen Ekerite, Oslo Rift Valley, Norway presented by Dr. Paula Piilonen

The Oslo Rift Valley covers an area of approximately 100,000 km2 and is made up of a wide variety of both volcanic and plutonic rocks. It is most famous for the Larvik Plutonic Complex, which consists of 10 plutons or "rings" from which 260 mineral species, including 35 type mineral species, have been described, and quarrying for larvikite is the main industry. The Oslo Rift Valley has been the subject of geological and mineralogical research since the 1800's, with W.C. Brøgger writing the quintessential monograph on the Larvik area entitled "Die Mineralien der Syentipegmatitgänge der südnorwegischen Augit-und Nephelinsyenite" in 1891. The Gjerdingen ekerite, or alkali granite, is a small (2 x 4 km) intrusion located ~ 30 km north of Oslo, Norway. It is one of the latest phases of magmatism in the Oslo Rift Valley sequence, formed after the Larvik Plutonic Complex. The Gjerdingen ekerite is dominated by quartz, anorthoclase perthite feldspar, Na-amphibole, aegirine and the rare mineral elpidite. It is rich in miarolitic cavities which contain a wide array of rare mineral species including a suite of rare fluoride minerals. To date, 60 mineral species have been found at the locality, including 3 type minerals - janhaugite, gjerdingenite-(Fe) and gjerdingenite-(Mn). Early work by Gunnar Raade from the Natural History Museum in Oslo, now retired, lead to detailed articles on the mineralogy of the cavities and the discovery of three new species. Further work on the ekerite and the neighbouring nordmarkites (syenite) at the Delebekken locality is being conducted in collaboration with the Natural History Museum in Oslo with the goal of shedding light on the paragenesis of these unique and famous mineral collecting sites. This talk will focus on the history of the Oslo Rift Valley and a summary of recent fieldwork in the Gjerdingen area.

04/21/2026

Patiently sculpted by ancient waterways, a
"Conglomerate" forms when rounded gravel and pebbles-smoothed from long river journeys— become cemented together by Silica or Calcite... its spherical clasts revealing transportation over vast distances and serving as geological markers that helped early miners locate buried gold deposits and aquifers.

Violent and immediate, "Breccia" forms when angular rock fragments-broken by cliff collapses, volcanic eruptions, or fault movements-are cemented in place without ever traveling far, its sharp, unweathered edges pointing directly to the site of catastrophic formation and providing the interlocking strength that made it essential for Roman concrete and modern construction aggregate.

The roundness of clasts tells the tale: smooth spheres signal water-worn Conglomerate, while jagged shards mark locally-formed Breccia-two stones, two stories of motion versus stillness, time versus trauma.



🪨 RocknLaser ⚡️

04/05/2026

Creating Cabochons ✨️

Final Auction list has been posted on the website!Hope to see you all there!https://www.scarbgemclub.ca/wp-content/uploa...
04/03/2026

Final Auction list has been posted on the website!
Hope to see you all there!

https://www.scarbgemclub.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/0-2026-Live-Auction-Item-List-Final.pdf

At this coming meeting, Bill Lechner will be speaking about the afore-mentioned Francon quarry in Montreal. The topics w...
03/24/2026

At this coming meeting, Bill Lechner will be speaking about the afore-mentioned Francon quarry in Montreal. The topics will include some insight into the geology and history of the quarry, but the main emphasis will be on the minerals, of course. He has spoken about Francon before, but this time the photos will be stacked, so the depth of field of the photomicrographs has been greatly improved. In the past year he has also learned new information about this quarry, so those of you for whom Francon is a major interest have something to which you can look forward.

03/18/2026

Lapidary 101 Classes Available at the
✨️

Lapidary 101:

This course will teach you the safety measures, considerations, and process involved in how to cut, dop, and cab a stone. You will finish with confidence in using the machines and a lovely cabochon.

The course will be approximately 6 hours, from 10 am to roughly 4 pm.
There will be material you can choose from to work with, but you can also bring your own stones (fist-sized or smaller) to learn to cut and cab.

Our next workshop dates are in April!

03/18/2026

When you're happy about how your lapidary sodalite-rich syenite pendant turned out ✨️

Syenite rocks that contain florescent sodalite were given the trademarked named of "Yooperlite" by Erik Rintamaki in 2017. This mineral glows bright orange or even yellow under UV light.

This Syenite was found along the shores of lake Ontario, Canada. It can also be found along the shores of lake Superior.

Learn more about gems and minerals at the:

January Meeting - Happy dolomite cliffsNext meeting is January 7thAbout this months topic presented by Nigel E. Turner, ...
12/23/2025

January Meeting - Happy dolomite cliffs

Next meeting is January 7th

About this months topic presented by Nigel E. Turner, Ph.D. (not in geology):

When I was a youth, I vacillated between being an artist or a geologist, but somehow ended up as a mental health epidemiologist. Fortunately, my job often takes me around the world and I've used that time to collect rocks and photographs. My art and rock collecting often co-occur. I take numerous photos of landscapes and later at home cobble together the best images to make paintings. When I paint landscapes I'm always mindful of the geology of the subject being painted. In this presentation I will show photographs of some of my geologically informed landscape art as well as some of the source photographs. Paintings will include mountains, cliffs, drumlins, valleys, sea shores, and sea stacks. Instead of Happy Trees like the ones Bob Ross used to paint, I put in the faults, and cirques, and layers of dolomite; Happy dolomite cliffs.

Address

Knox United Church Hall, 2569 Midland Avenue
Toronto, ON
M1S1R3

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Gem and Mineral Club of Scarborough posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organization

Send a message to Gem and Mineral Club of Scarborough:

Shortcuts

Share