Recent Activities

We are fortunate to undertake some interesting activities from time to time in our travels and mineral collecting projects. We thought that you might like a glimpse of our “Recent Activities”. This way we can share share some of our experiences with you. We hope that you find the entries entertaining and/or useful.

The Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum

03/24/2024

by David K. Joyce Bisbee is a famous mining town, once a major source of copper metal. The area was discovered as a copper rich […]

Collecting Quartz Epimorphs near Patagonia, AZ

03/15/2024

by: Daniel and David Joyce We have been to an area near Patagonia, Arizona several times searching for quartz crystals. We've found many quartz crystals, […]

Bentley Lake Magnetite/Ilmenite

01/31/2023

A year and a half ago (hard to believe!), Chris, Matt and I visited the famous ilmenite and magnetite location that is located adjacent to […]

Safford, Spring, 2022, for Fluorescent Chalcedony/Opal

01/19/2023

I visited this locality with the D'Oliveiras a few years ago. There is another Recent Activity installment on that memorable trip at https://djoyceminerals.com/activities/recent-activities-safford-arizona-trip/, if you'd […]

Washington Camp, Arizona

01/17/2023

The "Washington Camp" mining area is famous for a number of mines, particularly the Duquesne and Holland Mines, amongst others. The deposits in the area […]

Patagonia-Gringo Gulch Area Quartz

01/16/2023

The town of Patagonia is relatively close to my Vail, AZ home and, so, it is an area that I often visit or pass through. […]

Iron Cap Mine, 2021, 2022

01/15/2023

My highly competent collecting friend Chris Rayburn and I visited the Iron Cap Mine during 2021 and 2022. We enjoyed our first trip there in […]

Cobalt-Gowganda Trips, Fall, 2022

10/27/2022

This fall, I made two trips to the Cobalt-Gowganda areas: one with Normand Breton and the other with both Normand and Daniel Joyce. We visited […]

Recent Activities - Red Cloud Mine Reprise February 2022

02/05/2022

The Red Cloud Mine is one of the best localities for wulfenite and one of the premier localities of the world to boot! (in my […]

Recent Activities -Keuhl Lake

09/14/2021

The old Keuhl Lake Mine was actually a small mine that was worked for Zircon Crystals. I'm not sure what the original motivation was but […]

Recent Activities -Titanite Hill, Tory Hill, Ontario, 2021

07/30/2021

During 2021, Daniel Joyce and I visited Titanite Hill, as it is popularly known, on Gibson Road East, near Tory Hill. Early in the year, […]

Recent Activities -Return to the Planet Mine, Winter, 2020

12/01/2020

I've been to the Planet Mine before with Paul Wray, the Yukon miner, Yukon Rock Shop owner and rockhound extrordinaire. I did NOT find the […]

Recent Activities -Return to Gibson Road East, Fall, 2020

10/15/2020

Every Fall, a group of us descend on Gibson Road east to collect minerals. We go at it very hard and usually end up with […]

Recent Activities -Return to Craigmont Corundum Mine!

07/10/2020

Daniel and I decided to give the Craigmont Corundum Mine a shot. The last time I was there was 11 years ago with Ray McDougall […]

Recent Activities -BBC Mine, La Paz County, Arizona

04/05/2020

Recently, I visited the BBC Mine, near Bouse, in La Paz County, Arizona. The BBC Mine is also called the BCC Mine and I've heard […]

Recent Activities -Red Cloud Mine Visit, February, 2020

02/15/2020

The Red Cloud Mine is one of the most famous and recognizable mineral localities in the world. It is famous for the many iconic red […]

Recent Activities -Total Wreck Mine Visit, January, 2020

01/10/2020

I've always wanted to explore the Total Wreck Mine. Which is fairly close to my Arizona home. The opportunity came when a mindat acquaintance, Chris […]

Recent Activities -Safford, Arizona Trip

09/10/2019

In mid-March of 2019, I went on a collecting trip with friends Joe and Jinette D'Oliveira from Sudbury, Ontario. They spend a significant amount of […]

Recent Activities -Keweenaw Week

04/15/2019

During August, 2018, I had the opportunity to go on a field trip of the Walker Mineralogical Club that was tied in with "Keweenaw Week", […]

Recent Activities -Keweenaw, Copper Harbour Iron Manganese Mine

04/10/2019

After the Keweenaw Week copper collecting activities, Dr. Chris Stefano was kind enough to escort members of the Walker Mineralogical Club to the old Manganese […]

Recent Activities -Dog Lake, Collecting Diopside

07/06/2018

During July, 2018 the Walker Mineralogical Club went on a field trip to Dog Lake, near Battersea, north of Kingston, OntarioThe goal was to find […]

Recent Activities -Alice Mine Visit, California

06/16/2018

This past April, my friend Paul Wray, of Quartzite/Whitehorse, and I visited the Alice Mine, Riverside County, just north of Blythe, CA. Paul and his […]

Recent Activities -Nova Scotia, Spring, 2016

06/17/2016

Ray McDougall and I made a trip to Nova Scotia recently to meet up with some of our collecting buddies there and try and find […]

Recent Activities -Flamboro Quarry, June, 2016

06/05/2016

I recently had the opportunity to visit and collect a the wonderful Flamboro Quarry. The Flamboro operating management do not allow collectors into the quarry […]

Recent Activities -Trip to Poland, July, 2014

07/14/2014

As you may know, I recently released a CD recording of mineral collecting and mining songs called "Nuggets and High Grade". As a result, I […]

Recent Activities -Planet Mine, Arizona

02/18/2013

Every January-February, I head to the big Mineral Show at Tucson Arizona in search of unique specimens for my minerals business and to meet other […]

Recent Activities -Silver Crater Mine Collecting

10/20/2012

During October, 2012, Michal Adamowicz, Andrew Johns and I visited the Silver Crater Mine near Bancroft, Ontario. My two collecting companions have been into the […]

Recent Activities, Fall Colours !

10/18/2012

Recent Activities, Fall Colours ! We are lucky to live in a part of the world where, in the early Fall season, the green leaves, […]

Recent Activities -Antimony Mine, West Gore, Hants Co., Nova Scotia

05/30/2012

The Antimony Mine near West Gore, started operations in 1884 and operated off and on until 1917. Antimony was mined and shipped to Wales for […]

Recent Activities -Collecting Zeolites in Nova Scotia

05/10/2012

Recent Activities -Collecting Zeolites in Nova Scotia During May, 2012, I visited the Bay of Fundy area to collect minerals. The trip was actually a […]

Recent Activities -Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, 2012 -A Little Bit of It!

01/20/2012

Here are a few images from my recent trip to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show. I did not take a lot of pictures but […]

Recent Activities -A vist to the Milan Museum of Natural History

05/20/2011

The Milan Museum of Natural History or "Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano" as it is properly known in Italian is a beautiful old […]

Recent Activities -Michael Bainbridge Comes to Visit!

03/30/2011

I've known Michael Bainbridge for many years but somehow he had never been to my home or had a look at my collection. We had […]

Recent Activities -Ecole des Mines, Paris, France

03/10/2011

The Ecole des Mines is a famous school of mines and, over the years, has acumulated a wonderful mineral collection. While in Paris, recently, I […]

Recent Activities -Craigmont Corundum Mine

02/20/2011

This fall, I visited the old Mine at Craigmont, Ontario, with my collecting partner Raymond McDougall, in an attempt to collect curundum crystals. Hopefully, we'd […]

Recent Activities -A visit to Kongsberg, Norway

11/20/2010

In 1996, I was fortunate to attend a conference on mining in the Arctic in Svalbard, Norway. On the way back from Svalbard, I stopped […]

Recent Activities -Cobalt, October, 2010 Trip

10/20/2010

I try to visit Cobalt a couple of times a year, at least. This year, I had just a short visit in September and then […]

Recent Activities -Tucson, 2010

09/21/2010

A few weeks ago, I made the annual pilgrimage to Tucson for the "Gem and Mineral Show". In fact there are several dozen shows, mostly […]

Recent Activities -Whitehorse Area, Yukon Territory Visit

05/10/2010

Carol and I made a trip to the Yukon Territory in late May, 2010. What a beautiful place! We saw only a small portion of […]

Recent Activities -Collecting Corundum at the Logan Cuts

01/06/2010

The Walker Mineralogical Club, of which I am a member, is active in organizing field trips. One of the field trips this past year was […]

Recent Activities -British Columbia Collecting, 2009

06/21/2009

Last Summer, I went to British Columbia (BC), to collect quartz crystals at Foley Peak with Lloyd Twaites and Dave van Dieren. Unfortunately, the weather […]

Recent Activities -Collecting at the Lost Mine, Eganville, Ontario

06/20/2009

The "Lost Mine" is a calcite vein-dyke locality in the vicinity of the Smart and Meany Mines, close to Lake Clear. This calcite vein-dyke locality […]

Recent Activities -ROM Mineral Gallery

06/10/2008

Finally, the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in partnership with Teck Corporation, the large, Canadian mining company, has opened the Teck Suite of Galleries: Earth's Treasures. […]

Recent Activities -Tucson Show, 2007

07/10/2007

OK, so it is NOT so recent now!! Better late than never. While in Tucson, in February I tried to capture some images of some […]

Recent Activities - Timmins and Cobalt Trip, October, 2006

10/15/2006

Every once in a while, I head to the north country to talk to mining companies, to collect and to buy specimens. Last month, I […]

Recent Activities -Aguathuna, Newfoundland Barite Locality

09/10/2006

This isn't exactly a "Recent Activity" but I thought that you might like a look at the Aguathuna barite locality from a visit that I […]

Recent Activities -Rogers Mine-Marmora Mine-Ackerman Mine Field Trip

08/22/2006

Recently, the Kitchener Waterloo Gem and Mineral Club undertook a field trip to the Madoc-Marmora area of Southern Ontario. We visited three localities and recovered […]

Recent Activities - Summer, 2006 Trip to Nova Scotia

07/10/2006

Nova Scotia is one of my favourite parts of Canada. Four out of the past five summers, I have spent at least one week in […]

Recent Activities -July, 2005 and March and May, 2006 Trips to Red Lake

05/22/2006

I have been to Balmertown twice, so far, in 2006. I always enjoy these trips, NOT just because I get to handle and prepare all […]

Recent Activities -Tucson, 2006

02/22/2006

This news is not as recent as I'd like but here are a few images of people and minerals from the Tucson Gem and Mineral […]

Recent Activities -Collecting at the Bear Lake Diggings

12/10/2005

Well this may not be a "recent" activity but since I have some decent photo's I thought I'd offer a glimpse into collecting at the […]

Recent Activities -Collecting at the Lafarge Quarry, Clappison's Corners, Ontario

10/22/2005

There is a limestone quarry near Dundas, Onrtario, actually closer to a crossroads called "Clappison's Corners" where I have been collecting since I was a […]

Recent Activities -Trip to Peru

10/01/2005

Late last year, I went to Peru to buy minerals and to see some of the wonderful sights that Peru is famous for. I was […]

Recent Activities -Collecting Howlite Crystals, Iona, Cape Breton Island

09/29/2005

Years ago, I purchased the mineral collection of Peter Von Bitter, of Toronto, Ontario. There were some very nice crystals of a clourless mineral that […]