ROCKS AND FOSSILSWhen I was a kid, I collected rocks and fossils. Since my family had a cottage in the great white north (near Bancroft Ontario) I found lots of rocks.
Later it became a hobby and later still I took a geology course. Along the way I met a Croatian chap who was a Gem Cutter. Bancroft has an annual Rock and Gem show... its the capital of odd formations in Canada.
Its like when God finished creating the planet, he dumped all the left overs in Bancroft
So I met this chap and he taught me gem cutting. He stayed with us at the cottage and I helped him set up the booth. In return he gave me a small spot to sell my rocks and the few pieces of jewelry I had learned to make. Well that first show I made $900.00 a lot of money back then to a 14 year old
and I was hooked
So as I collected, I hit famous sites that have no long ago been covered over. While setting up my web store I started looking up current prices on some similar specimens and got quite a shock. Stuff that was selling for a couple bucks back then is up in the hundreds of dollars these days... and most of the pieces I see listed are sold...
So then I look in my garage and recall that I have several boxes of those same specimens, collected when the sites were open
So this is why I say that while right now I am short on cash, I am 'rich' in minerals. Now I just have to sell them
For others out there that have some free time, there are collecting sites all over the country. Fun outings for a family... join up with a local club at first. In Toronto area there are several cement quarries. Limestone pits that are very deep... in fact the one in Bowmanville is 4 levels deep going back 400 million years
Now I can't describe how much fun it is to drive your car into such a quarry and pull over for those huge mining trucks. Yes the quarries allow you to go in, except on blasting days... So tons of fresh dirt and trilobites to be found.
Bowmanville Quarry is operated by St Mary's Cement
On the west side of Toronto you have Dundas Quarry and Beamsville Quarry. These two are crystaline limestone and have no fossils, but pockets of awesome crystals, like these calcite crystals
All blasted out... you drive in and pick them up. or chip them out of pockets that the quarry sets aside for collectors. Elderly and children have no problems digging here
So as to making money? Well here is an example
Sphalerite Crystal. They are small orange crystals that sometime produce gem quality...
This small specimen is not that pretty per say
Overall size of mineral specimen: 18x15x12 mm.
Price: $28 (plus shipping)
So in a good days picking at that quarry you can easily find several dozen specimens
Here in North Nevada is an opal mine... you pay $50-$100 for a bulldozer scoop of earth. That dirt is now yours and what ever you find in it is yours to keep. I plan to get up there this next season once I solve my car issues
Delta Utah has Topaz crystals, fish fossils and trilobites at dig your own locations. Also Dugway geodes near the army base
Thomas Range Topaz Utah
cm: 4.0 x 2.5 x 3.0
$465.00
New York has the Herkimer Diamond public quarries (Quarts crystals and a lot of work with a hammer
California has the Himalaya Tourmaline mine. I bought some bags of mine run years ago in Canada I just HAVE to check that one out
So you can find collection sites almost anywhere easily accessible to the public. years ago I would not have shared all the locations, but these are well known public sites anyway and are in all the rock hound books so I am not handing out any secrets.
But with the advent of Ebay, you can easily sell what you find. Good idea to identify it properly though
So another example... here is one from my favorite site (well one of them) Jeffrey Mine in Quebec An orange Hessonite Garnet crystal. This is very small;
1.6cm x 1.25cm x 1.2cm
Jeffrey mine, Asbestos, Les Sources RCM, Estrie, Québec, Canada
Sold on Ebay for $110.00Now those I have a bunch of, somewhere in the garage
Time to get my ass in gear now that its cool out there., the main reason for not getting with it over this summer