By Gabrielle Liu
Special to The Record
Bishop’s student Erik Morrison brought his Sherbrooke-based small business, Erikord Gems, to a gem and mineral show in Bancroft, ON. Morrison was one of 90 vendors at the Bancroft Gemboree over the weekend, an event that draws collectors across Canada to the small town three hours north of Toronto.
From Thursday to Sunday he displayed an array of gems, minerals and specimens sourced from around the world, including from Morocco, Argentina, Madagascar, and Canada. Morrison also highlighted pieces he found himself in Quebec. These specimens included pyrite in red quartzite from Sherbrooke, grossular garnet in calcite from around the Orford Nickel Mine region, and diopside from the St-Denis-de-Brompton region too.
“The areas around Sherbrooke have a vast variety of minerals to search for. You can commonly find specimens of pyrite. There are also abandoned mines that could be explored with permission from the owners,” he said. He remembers that it took a few months of phone calls, knocking on doors and leaving notes before he and another rockhound gained access to the Orford Nickel Mine. His local finds include other specimens from around his Ontarian hometown, such as green apatite and purple fluorite.
Morrison started his business in 2019. It took a few years for him to be selected for the Gemboree, where prospective vendors are put on a waitlist. “Ever since I started a gem and mineral business, I thought it might be a great opportunity being a vendor at a show I grew up being a visitor of,” Morrison said. He is from Wilberforce, ON, just 30 minutes outside Bancroft. During his time at Bishop’s University, he runs his online business and packs orders to ship worldwide from a small office space in downtown Sherbrooke.
