I am by no means a professional rockhound. My education is as both a gemologist and a geographer, but I believe both rockhounding (collecting minerals) and my other great interest – caving have been in my heart since childhood. And where better to rockhound than Bancroft, but a word of caution, as both rockhounding and caving appear on my site. Both activities are related to rock, but neither should ever meet. Cave mineral deposits must stay in the caves and a caver who shares both interests (and there are many) should never let their inner rockhound loose beneath the surface.
Wearing my rockhound persona this past Saturday afternoon I headed out to the Bancroft Chamber of comerce to get a vibe on the local collecting possibilities. For a place that styles itself as the mineral capital of Canada, they do very little to encourage that reputation. Remembering back to my childhood, rockhounding was everything in Bancroft – now it is just faded memories and hanging onto loose and fragile threads. Fortunately mother nature takes care of basics and continues giving back. I left the Chamber of commerce disillusioned – not by the staff, not their fault, just the general malaise of the people who call the shots. No effort to justify the reputation.
Anyway I picked up an ice Cap from Tim Hortons and headed off on a kind of aimless ramble, and within about half an hour I’d come upon a spectacular crystal vug (cavity) from which I spent the next few hours scooping crystals.
The cavity is shown in my video – Click here for Crystal cavity in Bancroft video
It was a calcite seam within a road cutting that had been opened by someone else and then abandoned as they obviously did not know what they had found and if they had looked within the cavity when they hammered it open it would be they not me who was posting the pictures.
My point is, you just need to know what to look for. Bancroft is famous for its calcite intrusions, a mineral that solidifies last from molten rock and so it acts as a medium for other minerals to grow in. The vug that I extracted crystals from was predominantly filled with amphibole and feldspar crystals and lying loose in the bottom of the part of the cavity that I dug into were a few doubly terminated crystals – having grown in the medium as opposed to being attached to the cavity wall. In retrospect, looking at the video it becomes obvious that the seam runs on an angle and there is likely to be a lot more to be extracted if rockhounds just follow up and down along the incline of the seam. As this rock cut is in a public place I will just leave its exact location for you to figure out, but there is enough in what I have said and shown on the video for you to quickly pin-point the general vicinity of the deposit.
I would enjoy assisting you on a Rock Hound
in the Bancroft area.
I have a property on Buxton Road with some
pretty neat natural rock cuts. (Cliff’s)
I live in Port Perry area. I have poked around
the area and have a decent rock collection.
I have 2 teenage boys we could utilize as slave labour for a day or two. :•)
My cell is 905-706-6906
Let me know if interested, we could meet for
a coffee if interested.
Always interested to meet another rockhound. I will call next time I am up there (spring).
Hello, I enjoy reading through your article post. I wanted to write a little comment to
support you.
Would so love to go collecting crystal I dont have any experience, but so love them very much and have little collection, I would like to find some of my own so that they have not been processed for resale
Kindest regards Melissa
Yes, there is something so amazing about finding crystals for yourself as opposed to buying them.
I am planning on touring Ontario to collect crystals for our honeymoon next year. Im going to hit up Bancroft in a few places. Any other ideas for crystal deposits in Ontario to check out?
Sabrina, If you would like to know the above coordinates (you could plug them into your GPS and literally drive straight to the place) for “The Amazing Discovery of a Crystal Cavity near Bancroft” I can post it for you. I think there are still a few pieces inside the cavity mentioned above, they are clusters of amphibole crystals. You just have to grope around the cavity to find them.
I can’t wait to go somewhere near Niagara Falls in a couple of weeks to dig around.
Even though I am afraid I won’t know exactly where to go.
The crystal cavity near Bancroft is at the point where it is hard to find anything? I would go there if I thought there was a change of finding a crystal or two.
Chance not change.