Mineral Collecting
The Bancroft area is famous for its great variety of minerals and the quality
of mineral specimens that can be found. Bancroft specimens can be found in displays
all over the world, including the Smithsonian Institution.
 The
region has been subject to many geological processes and the geology of the
region is a complex mixture of different rock types which give rise to many
different minerals that bring rockhounds from all over the world. The Bancroft/North
Hastings region lies within the Grenville Structural Province of the Canadian
Shield, a northwesterly trending belt, roughly 400 kilometres wide and 2,000
kilometres long, extending from Lake Huron to the Labrador coast. The rock beneath
Bancroft is between 1.1 and 1.8 billion years old, and has been subject to volcanic
activity, glacial scouring, extreme heat and pressure, and intense faulting
and folding.
The Grenville Province can be subdivided into separate areas or terranes, which
exhibit certain characteristics (type of rocks, degree of metamorphism).
The Bancroft area is located in the
Bancroft terrane, consisting of deformed carbonate
metasedimentary rocks, a minor amount of volcanic
rock, and a distinctive suite of nepheline syenites,
syenites, as well as, skarn pyroxenites, calcite cored
veins, and uranium-bearing nepheline rocks.
Bancroft is regarded as the "Mineral Capital
of Canada" because of the well known variety
and quality of mineral species which occur here. A
list of commodities that have been mined in the Bancroft
area include: corundum, feldspar, uranium, graphite,
iron, nepheline syenite, mica, marble, granite, lead,
gold, molybdenite, apatite, beryl, fluorite, talc
and sodalite. Mining in most cases was carried out
on a limited scale, between 1880 and 1935, and was
largely confined to open cuts and quarries.
If you are new to rockhounding, all you need are
safety glasses, a rock hammer and appropriate clothing
to get started. Begin your visit with a stop in
the Mineral Museum and see excellent examples of
local minerals. Information and directions to 30
popular collecting sites in the Bancroft area, in
the Bancroft and District Mineral Collecting Guidebook,
which is on sale at the Mineral Capital Gift Shop.
Collecting equipment is also available for sale
in the gift shop.
Geology
The North Hastings region lies within
the Grenville Structural Province of the Canadian Shield, a northwesterly trending belt, roughly
400 kin wide and 2,000 kin long, extending from Lake
Huron to the Labrador coast.
The Grenville is characterized by
metamorphosed, and contorted, sedimentary and igneous
intrusive rocks, which are seen today as bands and
lenses of marble, bands of flat lying quartz ofeldspathic
gneisses and crumbly paragneisses, and masses of erosion
resistant syenite, granite and gabbro plutons.
These metasediments were subjected
to extreme heat and pressure, caused by one or more
mountain building events, which were brought about
by northwesterly directed thrusting and crustal deformation,
presumably as a result of a continental collision
about 1.1 billion years ago. The mountain chain which
was formed would have been as high as the Rocky Mountains
are today. The rocks we see at surface today are the
roots of these mountains exposed by millions of years
of erosion.
Sir William Logan of the Geological
Survey of Canada, one of Canada!s geological pioneers,
covered eastern Ontario & Quebec in 1863 and described
a typical "Grenville Series" exposed in
rock found at Grenville, Quebec, a town 96 kin east
of Ottawa, on the Ottawa River.
The Grenville Province can be subdivided
into separate areas or terranes, which exhibit certain
characteristics, (type of rocks; degree of metamorphism,
etc.). The Bancroft area is located in the Bancroft
terrane, consisting of deformed carbonate metasedimentary
rocks, a minor amount of volcanic rock, and a distinctive
suite of nepheline syenites, syenites, as well as,
skarn pyroxenites, calcite cored veins, uranium-bearing
pegmatite and sodalite and corundum-bearing nephelinerocks.
Bancroft is regarded as the "Mineral
Capital of Canada!' because of the well known variety
and quality of mineral species which occur here.
A list of commodities that have been mined in the
past include: corundum, feldspar, uranium,
graphite, iron, nepheline syenite, mica, marble, granite,
lead, gold, molybdenite, apatite, beryl, fluorite,
tale & sodalite. Mining in most cases, was carried
out on a limited scale, between 1880 and 1935, and
was largely confined to open cuts and small quarries.
Bancroft & District Mineral
Collecting Guidebook
This guidebook provides mineral
collecting tips, mineral descriptions and directions
to over 30 popular collecting sites in the Bancroft
area. This Guidebook may be purchased in the Mineral
Capital Gift Shop in the "Old Station "in
Bancroft or ordered and delivered through the mail.
The Guidebook is $12.00 at the Chamber, $16.00 by
mail (Canadian funds for Canadian orders US funds
for orders to US).
Send cheque or money order to:
Bancroft & District
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Box 539
Bancroft, Ontario
KOL 1CO
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