Since 1964 the London Gem & Mineral Society of Ontario, Canada, has been dedicated to the promotion of all facets of the earth sciences, especially mineral and fossil collecting.

Our programs are informal, educational and generally non-technical, ranging from slide shows to hands-on demonstrations presented by advanced collectors and earth science professionals.

Club members have a wide range of interests, including field-collecting minerals and fossils, geology, meteorites, crystal growing, polishing gemstones, and making jewellery.

Auctions of inexpensive minerals and fossils are held every other month.

New members are always welcome, and the club is open to anybody. Feel free to attend a meeting to get acquainted, no charge.

Meetings are  held from 7:30 to 9:30 on the first Thursday of each month, September to June (January excluded). We meet at Banting High School, Room 137; just off Wonderland Road, 125 Sherwood Forest Square, London, Ontario.

Click here for maps to our meeting location

The club's newsletter, The Chippings, is distributed monthly to all members. Thanks to our dedicated and hard-working editor, John Sholdice, you'll find our newsletter informative, entertaining, and wide-ranging. We try to limit John's writing to mineralogy, geology, and paleontology, but he does occasionally slip something in on the anatomy of Albanian hagfish, his first love.

LGMS Program Schedule, 2008-2009

Scolecite, India

Barite, Italy

Rhodochrosite, Argentina

Upcoming Shows & Field Trips

Devonian fossils, four hundred million years old, found under an hour's drive from London, Ontario:

Trilobite, Arkona, Ontario

Gastropod, Arkona, Ontario

Horn Coral, Arkona, Ontario

LGMS Executive Committee
Have a question? Simply email or call us.

Gem sodalite in situ at the Princess Sodalite Mine, Bancroft, Ontario

Manganite, Atikokan, Ontario

Things to do in Southern Ontario

- The best rock shop in the area is Robert Hall Originals, where you'll find an abundance of lapidary material and equipment, minerals, beads, and every kind of pewter product imaginable. It's less than an hour's drive from London, near St.George. Highly recommended!

- Head to Sarnia to see the Stones 'n Bones Museum, a treasurehouse of minerals, fossils, gemstones, butterflies, insects, etc., great for kids or anybody interested in nature or the earth sciences, at 223 N.Christina St., Sarnia. Hours: March to December, Thursday to Sunday, 10-5, for more info call 519-336-2100

- Check out the mineral, meteorite, and gem displays, plus the cross-Canada rock garden at the University of Western Ontario

- Visit the world-class gem & mineral galleries at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto

- Have a picnic, check out a  fossil museum, and then go look for your own 400 million year old dead critters (brachiopods, cephalopods, crinoids, etc.) at the Rock Glen Conservation Area. Maps, pix, etc. are at http://www.ontariorocks.ca/blms/

- Visit Toth's Rock Shop for minerals and fossils - R.R. 5, Ingersoll, N5C 3J8, phone 485-1351

- Visit the museum at Petrolia, where North America's first oil was produced

- Visit one of the many good mineral shows within driving distance - see the list above

- Take a night school geology course at the University of Western Ontario

- Club members can go on biannual mineral collecting fieldtrips to two productive limestone quarries near Hamilton - a field trip report with photos of the minerals available is here

  hits since 2002