Meetings Visitors and new members are welcome at all club meetings.

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1 Witwatersrand Gem and Mineral Club Room nd floor Department of Geology University of Johannesburg P O Box 3708 Cresta 2118 Wits Rock Digest A belated Happy Easter, so let s egg on with the world of minerals. Find us on Facebook on: Meetings Visitors and new members are welcome at all club meetings. Mineral Section meetings Second Wednesday of each month (Time: 19h00 for 19h30) The theme for the 10 th April Mineral Meeting is: Minerals of Rosh Pinah and Skorpion Mines It would be great to see all members and visitors getting into the spirit of things by bringing minerals along, in line with the month s theme, to show & share. For more information on the Mineral Section or its themes contact: Damian Kislig (Mineral Section Committee member) on Month-end Meetings Last Wednesday of each month (Time: 19h00 for 19h30) The next Month End Meeting for 2013 will be he held on the April 27 th : Paul Botha has very kindly agreed to give us the inside track, with a presentation on: The Tucson Mineral Show. Allan Fraser has had to postpone his presentation till our winter. Thank you Allan, Bruce and Paul. We all value your contribution and look forward to your very informative interludes into great frontiers. I have been working on some other possibilities, but have yet to confirm them. Please let me know of anyone else you think may be interested in presenting mineral related topics for the last Wednesdays of each month. Wits Newsletter April 2013.Doc [2013] 1

2 Club Raffle The raffles are still taking place, usually at the month end meetings. Raffle tickets are on sale in the meeting room and your attention will be drawn to this. If you are selling minerals at the club meetings, please donate a mineral specimen to the raffle. Contact Keith Bailey in this regard at club meetings. At the end of March, a successful and exciting auction took place of both calendars and minerals. We would love to continue with this theme and therefore, the Club welcomes donations and suggestions. The Club urgently requires CONTINUOUS donations of mineral specimens for raffles. Library Massimo Leone is at still taking care of the library and will give assistance to members wishing to borrow or return books, magazines or CDs. If you have any old books on minerals, geology or lapidary that you wish to donate to our library, please contact Massimo. The library is being updated and rearranged and a register drawn up to maintain proper control. You will be notified of further acquisitions for the library when they are made. At the last meeting, it was discussed that we need to catalogue and list the libraries CDs. We will then be able to list and offer Club CDs on loan. Membership WGMC Membership Cards New membership cards are due for 2013 and will be issued upon payment of 2013 fees. Access Cards The validation of access cards held in 2012 expired at and need to be renewed for A number of members handed their cards to Bruce Cairncross at the end of 2012; these have been renewed. If you have not already collected your card, please give us a shout at the next meeting you attend, and we will let you have it. The remaining cards must please be handed in at the next meeting which you attend. Should you still require a card, kindly provide Bruce with: 2 passport sized photographs, R25.00 in cash, and a certified copy of your ID Document or passport. No DNA sample necessary. New Members If you know of anyone interested in minerals, please bring them along to meetings. New members are always be most welcome. Easter Gemboree 2013 Wits Newsletter April 2013.Doc [2013] 2

3 This year s annual Gemboree will take place over the Easter weekend from 28 th March to 1 st April 2013, in Pitseng, Lesotho. Forthcoming Events Other Events The Wits and Pretoria clubs have a reciprocal arrangement to participate in the outings arranged by each club. Please refer to the PGMC Newsletter which is available to members in our DROP BOX. They can also be found on Facebook at Friends & Acquaintances The Cape Town Gem & Mineral Club exchanges newsletters with a number of societies. Should you be interested in reading any of them please contact Jo who will them onto you. If you wish to join any of the clubs, or attend their lectures and outings, please contact the person listed below, or view the Cape Newsletter in our Dropbox : Astronomical Society Friends of SA Museum - Contact Lia at xtrahand@iafrica.com - Maxine Davies (Wed & Fri only) samfriends@iziko.org.za Club Documents Thank you to Alison Rose for kindly printing over 50 pages of newsletters and miscellaneous documents in March, most of which were pinned on the noticeboard in the Geology Lab. As this is not a sustainable solution (wasting all those poor trees or getting our Al fired ), all future documents will be available online for your convenience, in our club s drop box. Huge thanks and applause to Andrew Haug for helping me set this up. Click here to view WGMC info: Under the heading of WGMC, monthly folders have been created for March and April, so far. So far the list of documents filed online are as follows (items marked as place names are newsletters from other clubs). If there is a document you are looking for, but is not YET in our Dropbox, please drop me an and I ll do my best to find it and pop it in for you : Cape Town Durban FOSAGAMS Agenda March FOSAGAMS Newsletter GEM CLUB Newsletter Jan 2013 GEM CLUB Newsletter Feb 2013 Kimberley Min Chat 46 Nigerian Phenakite (mistaken for diamonds) PGMC Duty Roster 2013 PGMC NL03.13 Pietermaritzburg Port Elizabeth April Cape Town Durban Kimberley PGMC NL04.13 Pietermaritzburg Port Elizabeth Pretoria Walvis Bay FOSAGAMS contacts Wits Newsletter April 2013.Doc [2013] 3

4 Pretoria WGMC Membership fees for 2013 SA Lapidary Magazine Witwatersrand Gem & Mineral Contacts Walvis Bay Witwatersrand Gem & Mineral History WGMC Mineral Themes for 2013 Wits Newsletter March Witwatersrand Gem & Mineral Outline Farewell Philip Alp passed away on Saturday evening, after a long battle with cancer. The funeral will be held on Wednesday, at am, at the Methodist Church, 8 Schuurman Street, Rustenburg. For more details, please contact Donovan Alp at Tel Directions: Take the N4 Highway to Rustenburg Take Exit toward Helen Joseph Drive Turn right onto Helen Joseph Drive Turn right onto Beyers Naude Drive Take the third right onto Unie Street Take the third left onto Brink Street Take the first right onto Schuurman Street Note: Access the church through the parking ground on Brink Street. Constitution It has been unanimously agreed that the WGMC s constitution is outdated and requires urgent replacement. I have obtained a copy of the Cape Town Club s document, with their kind permission to use as a guideline for ours. As the WGMC committee currently comprises 2 committee members, we need to propose a means to review, update and approve our Club s NEW constitution. Crystal Clear Radio Congratulations to Roarke Lessing on the launch of a revolutionary new online radio station, Crystal Clear Radio, launched on Saturday 2 nd March! Listen to interviews with well-known mineral collectors, geologists and meteorologists. Topics include: Minerals, Crystals & Meteorites with some Palaeontology thrown in! Go to - click "Listen Now!" or listen through your Cell Phone or Tablet using the TuneIn App. For iphone, Android and Blackberry or itunes - Search for "Crystal Clear" you will find "Variety" as a Genre. Roarke has asked for your suggestions. Comments can be made on the website, via rock@crystalradio.co.za, Facebook Rock Lessing or on Roarke is keen to interview mineral collectors, dealers and people related to the industry. Wits Newsletter April 2013.Doc [2013] 4

5 Mineral of the Month Rosh Pinah & Scorpion Mines Eye Nose Barite The Sea Horse Rosh Pinah Mine, Namibia 52mm x 30mm x 28mm Picture and Speciman: Romuald Koppert Tips for Storing Your Mineral Collection I came across an article or blog in one of my online mineral groups By Brett Burgell on Storage and cataloguing of mineral specimens, where they discuss a free online database or catalogue I have not checked it out, but apparently it allows up to 3 photos of each specimen as well as a comprehensive listing of other data for each specimen. Each specimen has its own page and the whole program acts as a kind of Rolodex system on your computer. There is also a link to their forum which has hundreds of users posting all the time. Some of the information or categories included locality, size, chemical makeup, name and catalogue number. Apparently there is a bee's wax spray available in the US for use on fine minerals. It is 100% natural with no chemicals so there is very little chance of an adverse reaction. At the coast it is very useful on minerals such as pyrite. Wits Newsletter April 2013.Doc [2013] 5

6 Request for Members contributions Members who have anything related to our hobby to share, please let the newsletter editor, currently Sharon Flax Waddington - lifeisthepresent@gmail.com, have a paragraph or two for insertion in the newsletter. We would welcome input from members. If there is anyone in the club able to give a talk at a month-end meeting, or knows of someone who could provide a talk, members input would be much appreciated. To encourage external speakers (non-members), a once off fee of R is available. Massimo has some presentations and DVDs he has shown previously. If you have missed these, please let me know, so that we can reschedule a showing on month ends that we do not have speakers for. Crash Landite Goboboseb Brandberg on quartz matrix And just for fun in case you only thought meteorites landed on earth. Here s a little spaceship that landed in an egg. See the windows on the left and the 2 fossilised Martians on the front? Picture and Speciman: Romuald Koppert Wits Newsletter April 2013.Doc [2013] 6

7 Mineral Books I have managed to obtain a list of Mineral Books for sale. The list was originally sent to Alison Rose via fax. Anita Wilson has sent a faxed copy to me, which is now available in our Dropbox. Should you be interested in purchasing any of her late husband s books, please contact her directly. Please note that it has taken her about 3 months to produce a clean copy of the list and for some reason, she doesn t have the list (10 pages) on her computer. I suggest contact by phone. Her details are : acmw@mweb.co.za and Committee Members The Club has several vacant committee positions and would welcome new volunteers. Committee members for the year beginning 1 st March 2013 are as follows: Chairman Vice Chairman Mineral Section Treasurer Librarian Vacant Vacant possible volunteers Vacant possible volunteers Jono Hotz jonohotz@gmail.com Massimo Leone mass@thefacetingstudio.co.za Administrator / Newsletter Editor Sharon Flax Waddington Lifeisthepresent@gmail.com If you re unable to reach my cell, please use Rom Koppert s Cell Other Club Contacts Raffle Master Access cards Keith Bailey Bruce Cairncross If you have received this newsletter in error or wish to be added to or removed from the mailing list, please me with UNSUBSCRIBE WGMC in the subject line. Sharon Flax Waddington April 2013 E&OE Wits Newsletter April 2013.Doc [2013] 7