Pretoria Gem and Mineral Club
Affiliated to the Federation of Southern African
Gem and Mineralogical Societies
June 2011 Pretoria Rockhound Digest
Pretoria Gem and Mineral Club Clubhouse: P.O. Box 36 888 No. 29, 26th Street, Menlo Park, Pretoria Menlo Park 0102 Tel. 012 – 460 1494 (only Sat. 11:00 – 15:00) South Africa website: www.pgmc.co.za
Chairman: Lex Krabbendam, 083 449 6812 Treasurer: Dave de Villiers [email protected] Secretary: Di de Villiers 082 562 8983 Vice-Chairman: Dieter Heinichen 012-991 5839 Editor : Heidi Naudé, 072 923 2180 [email protected] [email protected]
Programme Highlights for June 2011
*** Monthly Mineral Meeting – “Calcite” followed by Swop and Sell and Social 4 June
*** Fourways Gem & Mineral Show still ongoing until 5 June
*** Lapidary Course (Sunday) 12 June
*** Silversmithing Course 18 June
*** Faceting Course 25 June
*** Club Outing: Vivo 29 June – 3 July
A very warm welcome to the new members who joined recently: Dieter Brunner and Lana Cruger May your association with the Club be enjoyable, long and productive.
New member/s are invited for free boere-wors rolls on 4 June 2011 (afternoon) to socialize and get to know the “old-hands”, i.e. existing members. All other members are very welcome to join this occasion on a bring-and-braai basis. Let’s welcome the newcomers and show them what we do at our club.
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PGMC Programme for June 2011: (as 28.05.2011)
Date Event Time Contact Details
2 June Silversmithing Workshop open 18:30 – 21:00 Bernard Strydom, 078 187 3267
4 June Monthly Mineral Meeting – Calcite 12:00 – 13:00 Piet Reitz, 012 – 998 5452
Swop & Sell and Social 11:00 – 15:00
Lapidary & Silversmithing Workshops open 11:00 – 15:00
until The Fourways Mall Gem & Mineral Show Fourways Mall - 5 Jun
9 June Silversmithing Workshop open 18:30 – 21:00 Bernard Strydom, 078 187 3267
11 June Committee Meeting 14.00 – 16.00 Lex Krabbendam, 083 449 6812 Lapidary & Silversmithing Workshops open 11:00 – 13:30 Note – Short Shift!
12 June Special Lapidary Course – pre-booking essential phone Lex Krabbendam, 083 449 6812
16 June Silversmithing Workshop open (please confirm with B.S.) 18:30 – 21:00 Bernard Strydom, 078 187 3267
18 June Silversmithing Course – pre-booking essential 10:00 – 16.00 Bernard Strydom, 078 187 3267 Lapidary Workshops open 11:00 – 15:00
23 June Silversmithing Workshop open 18:30 – 21:00 Bernard Strydom, 078 187 3267
25 June Faceting Course 10:00 – 16.00 Philip Alp, 014-5743488 or 014-571 2143 or Lapidary & Silversmithing Workshops open 11:00 – 15:00 079 952 4061
29 June Club Outing: Vivo Wed.- Sunday Linda Stone, 082 598 9117 - 3 July weekdays only after 13.30, weekends all hours
Alexandrite - Birthstone of June (amongst others) The Gemstone Alexandrite is the color changing variety of the mineral Chrysoberyl, its colour varies from red to green depending upon the light source. It is an alternate (modern) Zodiac stone for the constellation of Gemini. Alexandrite is associated with balance, confidence, and joy. Alexandrite, named after the former czar Alexander II, was first discovered in the Alexandrite viewed under Ural Mountains of Russia. Chromium gives alexandrite its colour and while, in most minerals, a trace element like chromium would provide only one color to the mineral, different lights sources. in alexandrite it gives it two! Colouring agents are dependent on the wavelength of
light and the chemical bonds in the crystal to determine the colour that they will cause. An element like copper, in normal light, can cause a green colour in malachite and a blue colour in azurite, it all depends on the character of the chemical bonding. In a single specimen of alexandrite, the chromium is in such a balanced situation that the colour of the specimen depends on the character of light that hits the crystal. If the light is natural sunlight or fluorescent light, the crystal will be green; however, if the light is incandescent light from a common indoor light bulb, then the crystal will appear red. (Source and photos: www.-galleries/minerals.com)
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1. Duty Roster – May/June 2011
June 4 11 18 25 Open – 11:00 am Dieter Nick Bernard Philip Duty Team Dieter Heinichen Nick Pettit Stella-Marie Laredo Andre Rossouw Karin Mayerl Tish Pettit Jean Schutz Gloria Schulenburg Close – 15:00 pm Dieter Committee Bernard Philip
July 2 9 16 23 30 Open – 11:00 am Fay Heidi Linda Will Dieter Duty Team Nico Roux Felix Wulff Wolf Windisch Will v/d Berg Dieter Heinichen Fay Pierides Heidi Naudé Linda Stone Jean Snyman Linda Stone Close – 15:00 pm Fay Committee Linda Will Dieter
Tea/Coffee will be served once; this is also applicable on course days. Fridge sales and workshop material sales will stop at 14:30 pm to allow for sufficient time to reconcile/close the cash box.
2. Membership Fees 2011
R 350 Principal Member
R 320 Pensioners (over 60’s)
R 50 per additional Family Member
R 30 Joining Fee (new members only)
Payment can be made at the clubhouse on Saturdays or via bank transfer into the club’s bank account at ABSA Bank, branch code 335 345, account no. 405 584 9839. Please put your name or membership number as reference to ensure the correct allocation of your payment.
3. Personals Get Well Wishes go to Horst Windisch who had to endure another hip replacement and will be absent from the various mineral activities for a few weeks. We wish you a speedy recovery Horst, and hope to see you soon again at the clubhouse.
Get Well Wishes are also extended to Hettie Grové, who is also recovering well from her recent sickness.
4. Reminder: “Out of the Box” Exhibits at the Museum of the Council for Geoscience
May 2011 Piet Reitz – …….. June 2011 Dieter Brandt - ……
Members are invited to book their exhibits for the remaining months (July – November) and share some of their “hidden” specimens with fellow collectors and the public. If you wish to view these temporary “OUT OF THE BOX” exhibits, the four show cases are situated in the South-Western corner of the main exhibition hall of the Museum of Geoscience. For more queries or to book your own exhibit please contact Anke Raath (Tel. 012 – 322 7122).
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1. Monthly Mineral Meeting, 04.06.2011 The next Mineral Meeting is scheduled for Saturday, 04.06.2011 at 12.00 at the clubhouse. We will discuss the mineral Calcite. This is a fairly common mineral, but has over 3 000 shapes and lots of coulour variety. Please show us your unusual and priced specimens at this meeting.
2. The Fourways Mall – Gem and Mineral Show, still ongoing until 05.06.2011
This Gem and Mineral Show has been relocated from previously the Cresta Shopping Centre in Randburg to the new venue of the Fourways Mall in Fourways, Midrand. African Gems and Minerals (Rob Smith) and various other dealers offer their goods (minerals, gemstones, jewellery, arte facts etc., etc. for sale and it promised to be bigger and better than ever.
3. Lapidary, Silversmithing, Facetting Courses – June 2011
Please remember to pre-book your places for the above courses as demand is quite high and only a certain amount of people can be accommodated at a time. For dates and contact details of the various events and their organizers/instructors please refer to page 2 of this newsletter.
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4. Club Outing to VIVO, 29th June to 3rd July 2011
Following the initial announcement in the previous newsletter, below some additional updates:
Permission has now been granted to visit the following sites: - Marble (apricot colour) and Chalcedony - An old lead mine – Cerrusite Crystals, Platinum Quartz (white quartz with silver needles). All these sites are new sites and have never been visited. Other sites are still being negotiated. David Minster will bring along an 18 megapixel DSLR camera with a macro lens, which will be able to print A3 pictures directly. If anyone finds something really nice David can photograph it, either as a “trophy shot” or as a specimen picture. He can also photograph any other stuff which might be found, depending on the time (e.g. daylight). Since we are visiting an old diamond mine next to Mapungubwe, we will also pay a visit to this internationally renowned heritage site (entrance fee = R 20/person). On Sunday we will visit the Blouberg Nature Reserve, which is relatively obscure as it lies in the midst of rural villages and farming communities at the eastern foothills of the Blouberg Mountains. The plains below the dry bushveld savannah are interspersed with gigantic Baobab and Mashata trees, which are home to a variety of antelope, zebra and giraffe. The Blouberg Nature Reserve has a bird list of well over 225 species which include the rare melanistic Gabon goshawk, Verreau’s eagle-owl, brown snake eagle and many more. Visitors can also admire the world’s largest breeding colony of Cape vultures. There is a vulture restaurant with bird hides and a view of the scenic beauty of the Blouberg Krans. The entrance fee is R 30 per vehicle and R 20 per person. The closing date for the pre-booked accommodation as well as the deposit is Tuesday, 31st May 2011. However, late enquiries for accommodation are welcome and must be made directly with Lettie Froneman at Bergpan Eco Resort, tel. 015 – 593 0127 or 082 211 3213. Once arrangements are confirmed with her please let me also know that I can update the attendance list accordingly. For more details/directions please refer back to our May Newsletter (www.pgmc.co.za). See you all at Bergpan ! Linda Stone (tel. 082 598 9117 w-days after 13.30, w-ends all hours)
5. Open Day, African Gems & Minerals (Rob Smith) – 3rd July 2011
The latest date received regarding this event is as follows: Sunday, 3rd July 2011 at the premises of Rob Smith in Ostend Rd., Klipoortjie, Germiston. We will however reconfirm and advise more details with the next newsletter.
The Groot Marico Experience – by Linda Stone Part 1
Our annual Marico bushveld rockhunt and cultural experience took place from 19th to 21st March 2011. Once again we made out “headquarters” at the farm of Hannes Palm, whose hospitality was augmented this year by Carlo Heinz’s guitar music and song – what a beautiful combination! Our first morning excursion was to Lichtenburg during a terrific thunderstorm, to the home of Johan & Charlotte Strumper. We were royally treated to milk tart, chocolate cake, cheese cake and tea and coffee. Johan is a mineral collector and showed us his beautiful self-tumbled carnelians and agates from the Bakerville area, where he was a diamond digger some time ago. In his store he has garnets, blue/yellow tiger’s eye, vogesite, carnelians, hydrogrossular garnet, buddstone and green quartz. We were allowed to select from the available materials, some of which was already cut into slices.
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Johan exchanged ideas and experiences regarding cutting and polishing methods, which were enjoyed by all. Thereafter he took us into the veld to search for fluorite, which was found in this area a couple of years ago. Unfortunately no fluorite could be located but some specimens of Galena (in the cave) and Magnetite were found.
Our next stop was to “Slate Classics” a beautiful slate showroom owned by Mauritius Claase. Displays included beautiful tiles, furniture, lamps, paintings and other curio items all made of the slate quarried on his on farm. During a short “pit-stop” for a delicious lunch at the next-door coffee shop, owned by his wife Henriette, we were treated to some more life entertainment by Carlo and his guitar; even Mauritius could not resist and joined with his guitar.
Due to email size restrictions we have to continue part 2 of this report in our next newsletter.