Welcome to the Nova Scotia Mineral and Gem Society.

Our membership possesses a wealth of knowledge about identifying rocks, minerals, and fossils; collecting locations throughout the province; and techniques for turning rough material into beautiful gemstones. Such knowledge is shared at our monthly meetings when members bring in specimens for identification and make presentations on topics they’re most interested in.

The Society holds a regular business meeting on the last Saturday of every month (except June, July, August, and December). Meetings are held at the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History on Summer Street in Halifax, and begin at 7:30pm. Guests are always welcome to any of our meetings. Every meeting has a mineral theme and is followed by a presentation or some other hobby related activity. Door prizes are usually specimens collected by members and donated to the Society.

Membership

Membership in the Nova Scotia Mineral and Gem Society costs $20.00 per year per family. Membership fees help pay the costs of the Society’s membership in the Gem and Mineral Federation of Canada, rental fees for our meeting space, and funds to make purchases for our library or buy useful equipment for members to use. If you are interested in becoming a member, you can fill out the application form and send it along with your membership dues to the society’s mailing address or simply bring it to the next meeting.

Member Benefits

Our library collection contains books, magazines, maps, and videos covering topics such as geology, mineralogy, gemology, rockhounding, and lapidary arts.

The greatest benefit of all is meeting people involved with the hobby and learning from them. Our membership possesses a wealth of knowledge about identifying rocks, minerals, and fossils; collecting locations throughout the province; and techniques for turning rough material into beautiful gemstones. Such knowledge is shared every month when members bring in specimens for identification and members make presentations on topics they’re most interested in.

Newsletter

The Rockhound’s Bark has been published electronically since November of 2000. Click on the image of the current issue to download it. As of January 2004, the electronic version will be in portable document format. Free PDF readers for a variety of platforms are available from Adobe. Previous issues are in HTML format.

Activities

Activities are the fun things we do as a club, such as mineral theme nights, guest speakers, and field trips. This section of the web site is meant to both promote upcoming activities and be a record of past events.

In recent years we’ve had presentations on global positioning systems, mineral preparation, crystallography, pseudomorphs, fossils of Blue Beach, fluorescent minerals, the Pinch Mineral Collection, minerals from Italy, Illinois fluorite, geology of the southwest U.S.A., and caves of West Virginia; had a tour of the N.S. Museum’s mineral collection; as well as held several mineral auctions and watched videos about dinosaurs and caves.

Photo Gallery


Related Links

Please submit any web links you think are appropriate to the topics we are all interested in.

Local Information

The Mineralogy of Nova Scotia (Club member Ronnie Van Dommelen runs this informative site about mineral collecting localities in Nova Scotia.)
Nova Scotia Mineral Database (by the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources)
Fossils of Nova Scotia (by the Nova Scotia Museum)
The Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History (where we meet)
Fundy Geological Museum (in Parrsboro, N.S.)

Other Societies

Gem & Mineral Federation of Canada (As a members of the Nova Scotia Mineral and Gem Society, we are also members of the Gem & Mineral Federation of Canada. This page tells more about the federation.)
Central Canadian Federation of Mineralogical Societies (similar to the GMFC, but not affiliated with it or us)
Nova Scotia Prospectors Association (Many members of our club are also members of this club.)
Atlantic Geoscience Society
Mining Society of Nova Scotia

Reference

Mindat.org (minerals and localities, edited by users)
Prix du Cuivre, Or & Argent
Mineralogy Database (data on all known minerals, including name pronunciations)

Others

Rockhoundkids.com
Rock & Gem Magazine
Rock Collecting Sites
All About Gemstones
The Mineral and Gemstone Kingdom
Mineral Collectors Page
Bob’s Rock Shop Link List
Lapidary World

Resources

Minerals and Collecting

M-1 Dana’s Minerals & How to Study Them, E.S. Dana, 3rd Edition , 1967. Donated by Gary Bashaw
M-2 Information for Collectors, Energy Mines and Resources, 1987.
M-3 How to Know the Minerals and Rocks, Richard M. Pearl, 1955. Donated by Kate Waugh
M-4 Mineral Kingdom, Paul Desautels, Madison Square Press, 252pgs, 1968. Donated by Kate Waugh
M-5 Stones and Minerals, W. Schumann, 1974. Donated by Ken Asprey
M-6 The Prospectors Handbook, W.L. Goodwin, 1956.
M-7 Hamlyn Guide to Minerals, Rocks and Fossils, W.R. Hamilton, A.R. Woolley, A.C. Bishop, 320pgs, 1974.
M-8 Famous Mineral Localities of Canada, Joel Grice, Museum of Natural Sciences, 190 pgs, 1989.
M-9a Rocks and Minerals for the Collector: Northeast Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, and Prince Edward Island, A.P. Sabina, GSC Paper 65-10, 1965.
M-9b Rocks and Minerals for the Collector: Bay of Fundy Area, A.P. Sabina, GSC Paper 64-10, 1964.
M-10 A Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals, Frederick Pough.
M-11 Handbook of Crystal and Mineral Collecting, William B. Sanborn, 1966. Donated by Harry Tuckey
M-12 Discovering Rocks, Minerals and Fossils in Atlantic Canada, Peter Wallace, Editor, 1998.
M-13 The World of Minerals, Bounty Books, 128pgs, 1973. Donated by Kate Waugh
M-14 Minerals of the World, Rudolf Dud’a & Lubos Rejl, Spring Books, 520pgs, 1989.
M-15 Encyclopedia of Minerals, Willard Roberts, Thomas Campbell, George Rapp Jr., Van Nostrand Reinhold, 980pgs, 1990.
M-16 Crystals and Crystal Growing, Alan Holden and Phylis Morrison, MIT Press, 318pgs, 1982. Donated by Ken McKenzie

Fossils

F-1 Fossils, A Guide to Prehistoric Life, F.H.T. Rhodes, H.S. Zim, and P.R. Shaffe, 1962.
F-2 Hunting for Fossils - A Guide to Finding & Collecting Fossils in All 50 States, Marian Murray. Donated by Fred Brannen
F-3 Fossils for Amateurs, A Handbook for Collectors, Russell MacFall and Jay Wollin, Litton Educational Publishing Inc., 341pgs, 1972.
F-4 Fossils of the World, V. Turek, J. Marek, J. Benes, Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd., 495pgs, 1989. Donated by Dr. Patti Dauphinee-Bentley

Geology

G-1 Physical Geology, Robert J. Foster, 1966. Donated by Gary Bashaw
G-2 Geological Background & Physiography of Nova Scotia, Albert Rowland, Nova Scotia Institute of Science, 311pgs,1982. Donated by Andrew Brock
G-3 Ancient Environments, LaPorte.
G-4 Geologic Time, Eicher.
G-5 Rocks and Their Stories, Fenton.
G-6 Stratigraphy & Geologic Time, John Harbaugh.
G-7 Physical Geology, Robert J. Foster, 550pgs,1971. Donated by Paul Springer
G-8 The Last Billion Years - A Geological History of the Maritime Provinces of Canada, Atlantic Geoscience Society, 2001.

Jewelry

J-1 Crown Jewels of Iran, V.B. Meem & A.D. Tushingham, 1968. Donated by Paul Springer.
J-2 English Silver, Judith Bannister, 1966. Donated by Dr. Joyce Coldwell and F. Harrington
J-3 Greek and Roman Jewelry, Filipo Courelli, 1966. Donated by Dr. Joyce Coldwell and F. Harrington
J-4 Gemstones of North America, John Sinkankas, 675pgs, 1961. Donated by Dr. Joyce Coldwell and F. Harrington
J-5 Cabochon Cutting, Jack R. Cox, 1986. Donated by Andrew Brock
J-6 Advanced Cabochon Cutting, Jack R. Cox, 1986. Donated By Andrew Brock
J-7 How to Use Diamond Abrasives to Cut Gemstones, Arthur L. Riggle, 1996.
J-8 Making Silver Jewelry, Nona Ziek, 1973.
J-9 Jewelry Making and Design, Agustus Rose and Antonio Cirino, 1967. Donated by Dr. Joyce Coldwell and F. Harrington
J-10 Jewelry, Del Fairfield.
J-11 Silver - Instructional Guide to Silversmiths Art, Ruel D. Redinger, 1981.
J-12 Medieval Goldsmiths Work, Isa Belli Barsali.
J-13 The Art of Jewelry, Graham Hughes, 1972. Donated by Dr. Joyce Coldwell and F. Harrington
J-14 The Paul Hamlyn Dictionary of Australian Gemstones, Bill Myatt, Paul Hamlyn Pty. Ltd., 191pgs, 1974. Donated by Dr. Joyce Coldwell and F. Harrington
J-15 Color Encyclopedia of Gemstones, Joel Arem, Litton Educational Publishing Inc., 147pgs, 1977.
J-16 The Gem Kingdom, Paul Desautels, Random House, 252pgs. Donated by Dr. Joyce Coldwell and F. Harrington

Mineralogical Record Magazine

Volume # 31, Number 5, September-October 2000
Volume # 31, Number 6, November-December 2000
Volume # 32, Number 1, January-February 2001
Volume # 32, Number 2, March-April 2001
Volume # 32, Number 3, May-June 2001
Volume # 32, Number 4, July-August 2001
Volume # 32, Number 5, September-October 2001
Volume # 32, Number 6, November-December 2001
Volume # 33, Number 1, January-February 2002

Contact Us

The Nova Scotia Mineral and Gem Society
Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History
1747 Summer Street
Halifax, N.S.
B3H 3A6

FAQ

Meetings

When: Last Saturday of each month from September to May, 7:30 PM to about 10:00 PM. There is no meeting in December.

Where: Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History, 1747 Summer St., Halifax, N.S., Auditorium (Lower Level, entrance adjacent to visitors’ parking lot).

Mailing Address

The Nova Scotia Mineral and Gem Society
Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History
1747 Summer Street
Halifax, N.S.
B3H 3A6

Membership

Membership fees are $20.00 per year per family.

Membership fees help pay the costs of the Society’s membership in the Gem and Mineral Federation of Canada, rental fees for our meeting space, and funds to make purchases for our library or buy useful equipment for members to use.

If you are interested in becoming a member, you can fill out the application form and send it along with your membership dues to the society’s mailing address or simply bring it to the next meeting.

Constitution

The Nova Scotia Mineral and Gem Society adopted a new, simpler constitution in 2000 (revised in 2009).

The Rockhound’s Bark Newsletter of the Nova Scotia Mineral and Gem Society
March 2013Minutes from February 2013 MeetingThere was continued discussion on getting an email list to all membersso they could carpool when going field collecting. Herb and Ron willtry to complete this task.It has been decided that we will again do a table at the Parrsboro showin August. We will do a presentation of the most common mineralsfound in Nova Scotia plus agate, and have the usual draw for a MineralSample Kit.Note: Although not discussed at the last meeting, there IS a meetingEaster weekend.The Nova ScotiaMineral and GemSocietyMeetingsMeetings are held the lastSaturday of each month,September-November andJanuary-May, 7-10 PM in theauditorium (Lower Level) of theNS Museum of Natural HistoryMembership Fees$20 per yearMailing AddressThe Nova Scotia Mineral andGem Societyc/o NS Museum of Natural History1747 Summer Street,Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 3A6ExecutivePresident: Bill BlinnVice President: Fred WalshSecretary: Carol PendergastEditor: Ronnie Van DommelenTreasurer: Herb MalleLibrarian:

SurveyI will be doing survey at the March meeting to determine where the interests of members lie, so we come upwith programs that will interest everyone. All members are urged to attend so we can get a truer picture ofwhere interests lie.Bill BlinnProgramsRonnie Van Dommelen will do a slide presentation on the East Kemptville Tin Mine at the March meeting.April – Where to Look – Bill BlinnMay – Show and Tell or a video presentationOther potential programs for future meetings are videos (the Adeliade Mine (collecting crocoites), and others)and collecting tools and methods (this is one that I could do). If members would like to learn about othertopics – anything at all – let us know.Gilles PoulinOnce again we have the sad loss of a member.Gilles was a long time member of the NSMGS and held variousexecutive positions including President. He was exceptionallyknowledgeable and keen about minerals, and an avid fieldcollector. In recent years he was not able to collect, due to hishealth, but was still very interested in minerals.You could tell Gilles was engrossed in minerals. He was both aconnoisseur collector, with many high-end specimens in hiscollection, and was still interested in micros and the scienceside of the hobby.He loved field collecting. I was lucky to have collected with himoften after I first joined the club. He will be missed.Ronnie Van Dommelen