47th Annual Rockhound Gemboree
July 29 to Aug 1, 2010
The Rockhound Gemboree
In testament to their mining heritage, the area hosts the Rockhound Gemboree, now in its 44th year. The annual event takes place in August and draws thousands of collectors, rock hounds and geologists. More than 70 dealers from across the globe come with an endless array of mineral specimens, jewellery and crafts designed with dazzling gemstones, lapidary supplies, and a wealth of treasures sure to tempt any visitor.
The Gemboree continues to grow in size and in the number of attraction that it offers to both amateur and serious rock hounders. The most popular show features include expert gem identification, a swapping area, gold panning, and mineral talks.
For more information or booking please contact:
Bancroft & District Chamber of Commerce
P.O. Box 539
Bancroft, Ontario
K0L 1C0
613-332-1513
888-443-9999
Great Attractions! Trade or purchase specimens in the Swapping area
- Pan for Gold!
- Get expert mineral identification with Malcolm Back of the Royal Ontario Museum.
- Listen to rockhound talks with geologists from Natural Resource Canada.
- Take a guided Mineral Collecting Field Trip with a professional geologist. Get all your questions answered.
- Enjoy the wonderful exhibits and carvings of the Mineral Capital Stone Carvers Show & Symposium. Watch Artists carving before your eyes.
Rockhounding
A mining history that draws the world to Bancroft
Every year thousands of mineral enthusiasts flock to Bancroft to experience the annual Rockhound Gemboree. The event was sparked by a rich and unique geological history that can be found in few places in the world. Bancroft is regarded as the "Mineral Capital of Canada" because of the variety and quality of mineral species that occur here. The region lies on top of a portion of the Canadian Shield stretching 400 kilometers wide by 2,000 kilometers long from Lake Huron to Labrador on rock that has been estimated at between 1.1 and 1.8 billion years old. Mineral deposits characteristic of the Bancroft region are of excellent quality, but the veins were small and often difficult to follow. As a result, most of the mining activities which commenced around the 1880's, were limited to smaller mines and quarries, ceased because they could not compete with larger producers across Canada and the United States . After World War II, the search for uranium initiated another mining boom in the Bancroft area. This led to the opening of four major uranium mines - Bicroft, Faraday, Dyno, and Greyhawk - which operated from the mid 1950s to the early 1960s. The increasing costs of mining such as small deposits resulted in their eventual closure. Faraday, the largest producer of uranium, reopened in 1976 under the title of Madawaska Mines and remained open until 1982. Theses old abandoned mine sites still provide a wealth of mineral samples for collectors unlike most other sites which have been mined out of are restricted in their access to the public. In addition to uranium, 1,600 species of minerals have been identified in this region. Other commodities that were central to mining efforts at the turn of the century were corundum, feldspar, nepheline, graphite, talc, quartz, radium, fluorite, gold, iron, lead, barite, apatite, mica, beryl, molybdenum, sodalite and marble. Magnificent marble samples from this area were used in the construction of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa and Toronto . Many types of Bancroft specimens can be found in museums and collections all over the world, including the Smithsonian Institute.
