Canadian Rockhound: Bancroft Lapidary Materials

Home

Lapidary Materials of the Bancroft Area
By Tim Jokela Jr.

There's a fair bit of info on the Bancroft area on the Internet, including the Bancroft Chamber of Commerce and several other websites discussing different collecting areas, so do a thorough search. In addition, there are a number of organized field trips that you can go on during the annual Bancroft Rockhound Gemboree.

For lapidary material, your best bet is probably the pegmatites of Quadeville; not only can you get superb rose quartz ($2 per lb.), some facet grade, but there's lots of nice green microcline and some feldspar with marvelous labrador-escence. Some of the smoky quartz may facet, too. Plus, there's the chance of finding good opaque but glassy beryl, usually green but also rare blue and even, found just this summer, some pink beryl. Apparently, even the euxenite from here has been cabbed, if you're into radioactives. Quadeville is about an hours drive from Bancroft, and is a fee site ($4 per day). The simplest way to get there is to go on the scheduled field trips, or call the owners at 1 (705) 325-1102 for more info.

You'll also want to stop at the Princess Sodalite Mine just outside of Bancroft. The sodalite from here is magnificent. You can collect lower grade material from the rock farm for $1 per lb., or buy high grade gem sodalite for $5 per lb.

Another idea for unusual facet rough would be to head out to the fluorapatite spot at Tory Hill, where you might find some good green clear material.

The Lily Robertson claim is just across from the Princess, on a brand-new logging road. It has produced some black star corundum, if you feel like some very hard work.

There's tons of info on collecting right in Bancroft, including a decent museum and several fair rockshops, so it's not hard get maps and directions. The best reference is Ann Sabina's Rocks and Minerals for the Collector, Geological Survey of Canada Miscellaneous Report 39. It's out of print but it's definitely worth the effort of hunting it down.

If you're up for a nice hike, about a 3 km round trip, mosey down to the Silver Crater Mine, where there's still betafite to be found, if you're lucky. You'll be told of occurrences along the York River, especially the Skarn Zone, but I wouldn't bother with them, since there's not much available anymore. Also, if you ever find out exactly where the sodalite occurrence at Cancrinite Hill disappeared to, let me know. The new logging road has wiped out all signs of the old trail.

Permission is given to freely reprint this article from the Canadian Rockhound for non-commercial and educational purposes, provided the author and the Canadian Rockhound are acknowledged, and that the website URL address of the Canadian Rockhound is cited. The article may not be edited or rewritten to change its meaning or substance without the author's permission. To contact the author, please use the e-mail address provided. Courtesy copies of newsletters using this article are requested for the author.

The preceding article was first published in the November 1997 newsletter of the Saskatoon Lapidary & Mineral Club, with permission from the author.