Pretoria Gem and Mineral ClubAffiliated to the Federation of Southern African

Gem and Mineralogical Societies

August 2009 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.fosagams.co.za/pgmc Chairman: Lex Krabbendam, 083 449 6812 Treasurer: Dave de Villiers 083 337 1541 krabben@mweb.co.za pgmctreasurer@fosagams.co.za

Secretary: Di de Villiers 082 562 8983 Vice-Chairman : Dieter Heinichen 012-991 5839 pgmc2@fosagams.co.za dhein@absamail.co.za Editor : Heidi Naudé 072 923 2180 heidi.naude@za.bosch.com

Programme Highlights for August 2009

*** Mineral Meeting – Minerals of the United Kingdom followed by Open Day: Swop & Sell & Social 1 August

*** Monthly Programme: Presentation on Frogs 8 August

*** Silversmithing Course: Textured Cross Pendant 29 August

*** Educational Outing: Tswaing Crater, Pretoria 30 August

A very warm welcome to the following new members who joined recently:

Willem & Mariana van der Merwe, Adri Claasen, Frank Hinda, Yolanda Klopper and Poppy Day.

May your association with the Club be enjoyable, long and productive.

Please remember our new opening/closing times for the clubhouse:

First, third, fourth Saturday of each month: 11:00 am – 15:00 pm Second Saturday of each month: 11:00 am – 13:30 pm (Followed by the Monthly Programme and Club Meeting)

Monthly Mineral Meeting now every first Saturday of the month 12:00 pm – 13:00 pm

Page 2 PGMC Programme for August 2009: (as at 22.07.2009)

Date Event Time Contact Details

1 Aug. Monthly Mineral Meeting – “Minerals of the United Kingdom”

“Open Day”, Swop & Sell and Social – all dealers and non-club members welcome

Lapidary / Silversmithing workshops open

12:00 - 13:00 13:00 – 15:00

11:00 – 15:00

Horst Windisch, 012 – 807 7116

Lex Krabbendam, 083 449 6812

6 Aug. Silversmithing Workshop open 19:00 – 21:00 Bernard Strydom, 078 187 3267

8 Aug. Lapidary and Silversmithing Workshop open

Monthly Programme: Frogs Power Point Presentation by Harold Braack

Monthly Club Meeting

Committee Meeting

11:00 – 13:30

14:00 – 14:45

15:00 – 15:30

15:45 – 17:00

Note – short shift !

Horst Windisch, 012 – 807 7116

Lex Krabbendam, 083 449 6812

Lex Krabbendam, 083 449 6812

13 Aug. Silversmithing Workshop open 19:00 – 21:00 Bernard Strydom, 078 187 3267

15 Aug. Lapidary and Silversmithing Workshops open 11:00 – 15:00

20 Aug. Silversmithing Workshop open 19:00 – 21:00 Bernard Strydom, 078 187 3267

22 Aug. Lapidary and Silversmithing Workshops open 11:00 – 15:00

29 Aug. Silversmithing Course: Textured Cross Pendant 10:00 – 16:00 Bernard Strydom, 078 187 3267

29 Aug. Lapidary Workshop open 11:00 – 15:00

30 Aug. Educational Outing: Tswaing Crater, Pretoria t.b.a. Horst Windisch, 012 – 807 7116

Cabochon classes on Saturdays – by appointment only Linda Stone, 012-803 1398 (after 16h00)

Faceting classes on Saturdays – by appointment only Phillip Alp, 014-574 3488 or 014-571 2159

Pretoria Gem and Mineral Support Group – Ken Treolar www.facebook.com

Peridot - Birthstone of August (amongst others)

Peridot is a clear olive-green gemstone valued for it’s brilliant colour and durability. The gem is said to heal the hart, lend strength and help dreams come true. First popular nearly 4 000 years ago in ancient Egypt, the brilliant Peridot has made a stunning come-back in recent years. Peridot is gemstone-quality olivine, a very abundant mineral but not usually found in high enough quality to be used as gemstone. The name Peridot was derived from either the Greek “peridona” (richness) or the Arabic “faridat” (gem).

When Hawaiian natives first discovered Peridot in the black sands of volcanoes, they believed the clear green stones were the tears of the volcano goddess Pele. Egyptian jewellery featured Peridot as early as two centuries B.C. and it is said to have been the favoured gemstone of their famous queen Cleopatra. Source: wwgemstones.suite101.com Heidi Naudé

Wear a Perdiot for thee, No conjugal fidelity. The August born without this stone, Tis’ said, must live unloved alone. Georgian Birthstone Poem

Page 3 1. Newsletter Distribution / Membership Status

Any queries regarding newsletters not received, or address/email changes should be directed to the membership administrator, Heidi Naudé at heidi.naude@za.bosch.com or tel. number 072 923 2180.

2. Duty Roster – August and September 2009

August 1 8 15 22 29

Open – 11:00 am Heidi Heidi Fay Karin Bernard

Duty Team Felix / Heidi S.Marie / Jean Nico / Fay Wolf / Karin Helmut / Anny

Close – 15:00 pm Heidi Committee Fay Karin Bernard

September 5 12 19 26

Open – 11:00 am Dieter Nick tba Piet

Duty Team Dieter / Linda Nick / Tish S.Marie / Jean Piet / Elize

Close – 15:00 pm Dieter Committee tba Piet

Tea / Coffee will only be served once; this will also be 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.

3. New Book Release Agates II

After a two-year struggle, the Agate collector’s hobby finally won the battle and Agates II was published.

This is a historic event for us because it contains information on our South African Agates and their location, and we are finally part of the “World Agate Family”. Please note that our member, Guido de Beer, contributed the chapter regarding our own South African Agates!

If the critics are right, than this is the best reference book currently available on Agates worldwide. The book is available in English/German and sells for € 90 in Europe (excl. shipping expenses); copies may be ordered directly via Guido or Elisabeth de Beer, Tel. (011) 793 1935 or afrigemtec@mweb.co.za .

4. Personals

Thank You - the Committee would like to thank Erika Wassenaar for her willingness to take minutes of both the Club Meetings and the Committee Meetings during the absence and unavailability of our club secretary. Thank you Erika, we really appreciate your help.

Get Well Wishes go to our honorary member Rob Smith of African Gems and Minerals in Germiston, who had to endure a hip replacement operation recently. His condition raised quite some concerns at the club early this month, but from accounts now received Rob is well on the way of recovery.

Get Well Wishes go to At Naudé who had a nasty fall of the stepladder, while fixing something on the roof. The seriousness of the fall went unrecognised at first, however he had to endure an operation in Pretoria recently but thankfully is now recovering well again at home.

Get Well Wishes go to Chris Stylianou of Valley Gems in Menlo Park who is currently recovering from severe pneumonia in the Pretoria Academic Hospital. His wife Vanessa may be contacted at 072 625 9591 for enquiries.

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1. Monthly Mineral Meeting, 01.08.2009

The next Mineral Meeting is scheduled for Saturday, 01.08.2009 from 12:00 – 13:00 at the clubhouse.

During this session we will discuss the minerals of the United Kingdom and members are kindly requested to bring along their mineral specimens from this country. Let’s see if somebody can show us some Zeolites from Skye (photo left) or any Blue John (photo right)?

Photos: www.wikededia.com

2. Open Day – Swop & Sell, 01.08.2009

The Swop and Sell will follow after the above meeting at approx. 13:00 as usual. Please invite your friends and family to join us at the clubhouse.

3. Monthly Programme – 08.08.2009, 14h00

Presentation on Frogs by Harold Braack

Our member, Harold Braack from the Wild Palms Game Farm in Thabazimbi (previously known as the Bush Academy), will give us a power point presentation on Frogs (mainly from South Africa).

Although not strictly related to our hobby, we do come across these four-legged creatures in our gardens and at club outings occasionally.

Harold will provide interesting insights into the lives of these elusive creatures and share his outstanding photographs, often taken under very difficult conditions, with us.

Please come and join us for an entertaining as well as educational afternoon. See you there.

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4. Silversmithing Course, 29.08.2009

Date/Time: Saturday, 29.08.2009 (10h00 – 16h00)

Project: Textured Cross Pendant

Instructors: Bernard Strydom and Tobias Beyers

Comments: You will be astonished how appealing a simple technique applied on a naïve design can be. It is really easy; efficient workers can make two pendants.

Cost: R 60 per person, incl. tuition, workshop fee, tea/coffee, but excl. materials / stones.

Materials: You need – silver thicker than 1 mm; silver bail; prepared materials will on sale.

Registration: Please book in advance by signing-up and paying your non-refundable deposit of R 30 to Bernard Strydom (078 187 3267).

5. Educational Outing – Tswaing Crater, Pretoria – 30.08.2009

Photo courtesy of MJ Gaylard, www.hartrao.ac.za/tswaing.html

This outing is a definite highlight and not to be missed. The Tswaing or Soutpan Meteor Crater is situated 40 km north of Pretoria. This ring of hills, a kilometer in diameter and 100 meters high, forms the walls of an impact crater left by an asteroid which hit there some 200 000 years ago. The crater is called Tswaing in Setswana or Soutpan in Afrikaans, both names mean Salt Pan, which derives from the lake of salty water that fills its centre (see photo above).

This is an easy and suitable outing for the whole family (children and grandparents included). Marcus van der Neut, a professional geologist, has once again agreed to be our tour guide for the day; please contact him (Tel. 011 - 998 6443 or 083 455 7168) or Horst Windisch (tel. 012 – 807 7116) if you want to participate. We will meet at the N1 Petropoort turnoff for a 09h00 sharp departure.

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1. Club Outing to Bergpan – Soutpansberg, 13 – 16 June 2009 (by Wolf Windisch)

The Soutpansberg mountain range stretches from the Kruger National Park in the East to Vivo in the West. The Bergpan Salt Works and Eco Resort, our base for this glorious club outing, is situated about 14 km north of Vivo. The cottages at the resort run by Sampie and Lettie Froneman, were originally intended to accommodate staff members but have now been converted for tourism. Huge indigenous and exotic trees provide a tranquil environment enhanced by lush green lawns and colourful flowerbeds (and that in June!). A fish pond, two beautiful Muscovy Ducks and four huge black dogs round off the pastoral scene.

Participants arrived from Friday afternoon onwards and by Saturday noon a total of 39 people made up an enthusiastic crowd of rockhounds ready for actions.

Our first trip took us to the farm of Kurt and Ronel Jehle. Kurt is a budding rock and mineral dealer and he displayed his wares on various tables, in boxes and even on heaps around his house. Besides some attractive Agates we saw Jasper, Kyanite and various Quartz varieties. He also showed us an unknown dark grey rock known locally as Dragon Stone, some of which was already crafted into beautifully polished eggs and spheres. Intrigued we vowed to research the origins of the name and try to find the scientific name of the stone by our next visit (hopefully in 2010).

From there we drove along the banks of the Sand River direction Waterpoort, to the farm of Theo Botha, where we searched the river bed for the mystic Dragon Stone. It occurs from fist size pieces up to 2 m² boulders of rock, some showing signs of vugs and cavities and seems to be of volcanic origin. I was able to collect some of this material and microscopic inspection showed inclusions of stunning Epidote crystals, thin Quartz crystals, Ilmenite, Specularite, Calcite and rare traces of Copper mineralization (probably Chrysocolla), as well as at least three other minerals (not yet identified); indeed interesting stuff this Dragon Stone!

The day was concluded with socializing at the resort and a beer tasting offered by Patrick and Godele van den Bon, who brought us four different beer samples from their small brewery for tasting.

Sunday morning we took a different road to Waterpoort, stopping along the way to look at Baobab forest on the mountain slopes in the distance. Once we met up with Kurt and Ronel again we drove to the farm of Pieter le Roux. Pieter took us to an old Corundum site, unfortunately we did not find any specimens except Mica. However, on our way back to the cars we stumbled over some Garnets, previously thought to be Corundum because of the similar colour.

From there we proceeded to Kurt’s quarry where he mines the green Quartz – see photos below.

Photos courtesy of Johann Liebenberg – left: Kurt Jehle at the green Quartz outcrop; right: rockhounds at work !

After admiring the spectacular original outcrop we all rushed into the quarry to collect as much of the “green stuff” as possible. Whether this material is Aventurine or Chrysophrase or even something else, it is certainly very attractive. Let’s say so much – the jury is still divided on this one, but we will reveal the true facts once verified.

The Quartz occurs in veins interspersed with soft Schist containing many Garnets. Dieter Brandt found a spectacular large Garnet on another dump a short distance away from the main quarry.

Page 7

Club Outing to Bergpan – continued from previous page

With cars and bakkies loaded nearly to full capacity we proceeded to a third site where Calcite had been mined in the past. The actual pit containing the “ore-body” was badly eroded with very steep sides and we did not attempt to get at it. For safety reasons we contained ourselves to picking-up the numerous left-over’s lying around on the dirt-road. Apparently a pretty high grade of Calcite was mined here, approaching optical quality “Iceland Spar” and except the typical rhombohedral crystals I also collected nice leaf-like crystals. Kurt gave me some samples coated with green material, which also contain myriads of tiny parallel grown needle crystals.

This exiting day was concluded with a fascinating talk by Sampie on the history of the Bergpan Salt Pan and he described in detail how the salt is extracted by pumping the salt water from various boreholes into evaporating dams.

Monday morning saw us travelling via Alldays to Pontdrif, turning off and driving along the Limpopo River to eventually meet up with Johan Boshoff who had kindly organized permission for us to access the river bed and search for agates. The river bed was not flowing but we noticed numerous large waterholes. A large elephant came down from the Botswana side just as we arrived for our Agate hunt. An hour later we returned again to our cars loading some more stones. On our way back we visited the local crocodile farm and a tourist shop before returning to Pontdrif. From there we made our way to an old digging site and collected beautiful banded Iron Stone, small Agates, tiny bright red Garnets and even some Unakite.

This concluded our rock-hunting activities and after a final night at the camp and an early morning visit to the curio shop the group broke-up and everyone went their own way homewards. Judging from the happy and smiling faces around me, everybody agreed that this was indeed an interesting and very successful outing. Hopefully many of us will get another opportunity to visit this beautiful part of our country.

Photos once again courtesy of Johann Liebenberg Our thanks go to Lettie and Sampie Froneman, Kurt and Ronel Jehle, Piet le Roux and Johan Boshoff for their time and hospitality, and last but not least we thank Linda Stone for an interesting and well organized outing.

2. Monthly Mineral Meeting, 04.07.2009 (by Heidi Naudé)

We had another well attended Mineral Meeting on 4 July at the clubhouse (7 members and 2 newcomers). We started a bit later than planned but nevertheless enthusiastic. Horst, Melinda, Carlo and Frank brought various specimens to be “evaluated” by the attendees and we had lots of fun doing this. Mostly we were quite realistic regarding the current values of the minerals, however the original prices paid for the specimen – sometimes more than 25 years ago – got us all thinking and wishing the “good old times” back again. Thanks to Horst for organizing this meeting.

Correction from the Editor - Mineral Meeting Report 06.06.2009, publ.in the July NL –

The name of Bruce Cairncross was unintentionally misspelled for which we apologize; (thanks to Allan Fraser for pointing that error out).

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1. Museum Africa

The mineralogical section of the Museum Africa is not yet ready for visitors, therefore the planned educational outing had to be cancelled for this month. We will keep you informed and re-schedule this outing once the “green light” has been received from the museum.

2. Jozini Outing

The Natal club has advised that this outing hosted by them took place in June 2009 already and will not be done in August as previously scheduled. We hope to join them again next year.

3. Geelong Competition - Final Reminder

Yes, it is time again to prepare your entries for the International Geelong Competition 2009. The rules and regulations, entry forms and any other details regarding this competition may be obtained from Fay via email at pierides@mweb.co.za. All PGMC entries must reach Fay by end of August for posting to Australia. Other SA clubs must please organize their own shipping of the stones.

4. Information - Geological Society of South Africa

The Geological Society of Southern Africa informed us about the new television series “Shoreline” which may interest earth scientist and geologists alike – see email received below for further details.

“We would like to notify the membership that ‘Shoreline’, a television series of possible interest to earth scientists began airing on SABC2 at 19:30.The program is a travel/factual series which deals with a wide range of topics ranging from archaeology, history, marine biology, natural history and geology. The series will run for 14 weeks. Dr. John Rogers and Prof. John Compton of the University of Cape Town advised on geological aspects of the series. Topics of interest covered in upcoming episodes include:

• Sea Point Contact and Chapman's Peak Drive, with Prof. Compton - Episode 5, 10 August • The Alexandria Dune Fields - Episode 9, 7 September • The Nahoon Point footprints - Episode 10, 14 September • The Pondoland 'Red Desert' as well as the Mzamba Cretaceous Deposits (with Dr. Rodney Maud) -

Episode 11, 21 September Happy viewing!”