Minerals from Canada

Canada is a major mining nation, with extensive mineral resources spread across the country. It’s one of the world’s leading producers of nickel, gold, copper, potash, and uranium.

For mineral collectors, Canada is best known for a few specific localities. Mont Saint-Hilaire in Quebec is probably the most famous – it’s one of the most mineralogically diverse places in the world, with hundreds of species, including a number of type localities. Most of the material here is of interest to systematic and micromount collectors, with some rare species represented.

By far my favourite from Mont Saint-Hilaire is the meionite; a brightly fluorescent mineral – so bright I had to use a less powerful UV lamp to photograph it, in fact!

The Bancroft area in Ontario has also produced a good range of pegmatite minerals, including zircon, apatite, feldspar, and titanite. Some of the apatite crystals from here are particularly attractive – large, well-formed, and sometimes fluorescent.

In the Yukon and Northwest Territories, there are diamond-bearing kimberlites, though material from these is rarely available as mineral specimens. The same goes for some of the massive sulphide deposits – important economically, but not often seen in collector quality.

Nova Scotia has produced some good examples of zeolites and associated minerals, especially from basaltic cavities. I’ve seen sharp examples of stilbite, heulandite, and analcime, occasionally with decent aesthetic appeal.

Canada is also known for labradorite, a feldspar variety showing strong labradorescence. While this is often cut and polished, rough blocks or cleaved faces do show up for collectors. The material was named after the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador (originally Labrador).

Specimens are generally well labelled, especially from academic or museum collections, and there’s a strong collecting community in Canada, which helps preserve good provenance.

Canada