Canadian Rockhound: ROM Acquires Two of the World's Top Mineral Collections

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ROM Acquires Two of the World's Top Mineral Collections

Royal Ontario Museum News Release
March 8, 2004

2,400 rare and remarkable specimens significantly boost one of North America's best mineral collections

The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) has acquired collections from two of the world's most famous mineral producing localities. The acquisition of the Namibian Mineral Collection and the Mont Saint-Hilaire Suite of Minerals strengthens one of the top five mineral collections in North America and reaffirms the ROM's international reputation as a leader in the field of mineralogy.

Consisting of over 2,200 display and reference minerals from the Tsumeb mine in Namibia, the Namibian Mineral Collection brings together spectacular examples from a site renowned for its rare and beautifully coloured specimens. The Mont Saint-Hilaire Suite of Minerals is the finest group of specimens ever to become available from the world famous Mont Saint-Hilaire locality in Quebec, and consists of almost 200 of the highest display quality minerals.

Quartz, Amethyst
Quartz variety amethyst with prehnite (green), Brandberg, Namibia. Gift of Louise Hawley Stone Charitable Trust and Friends of Mineralogy Group. Photo by Brian Boyle. Copyright © 2004 Royal Ontario Museum.

"These two acquisitions, made possible through the ROM's Louise Hawley Stone Charitable Trust Strategic Acquisitions Fund as well as the generosity of private donors, will significantly enhance the ROM's already outstanding Earth Sciences holdings," noted ROM Director & CEO William Thorsell. "These beautiful minerals tell an important story about the earth's history, and we look forward to sharing them with the public through Renaissance ROM."

A selection of specimens from each of these collections will be displayed in the ROM's upcoming new Inco Limited Gallery of Earth's Treasures, a 7,000 square foot gallery opening December 2006 as part of the Museum's major capital transformation, Renaissance ROM.

The Louise Hawley Stone Charitable Trust supported the purchase of both collections. Established by the late ROM benefactor Louise Hawley Stone, who bequeathed a $45 million to the Museum in April 1998, the Trust funds the purchase of objects and the production of Museum publications.

Serandite Twin, Mont-Saint Hilaire, Quebec
Serandite twin, Mont St Hilaire, Québec. Funded by the Louise Hawley Stone Charitable Trust and Canadian Cultural Properties and Review Board. Photo by Brian Boyle. Copyright © 2004 Royal Ontario Museum.

Jean-Raymond Boulle helped kick off the drive to purchase the Namibian Mineral Collection through a substantial personal donation. Mr. Boulle is a well known mining figure throughout the world with many mining successes to his name, including the founding of Diamond Fields Resources, which discovered the Voisey's Bay nickel deposit. He stated "I was delighted to assist the ROM in acquiring this very significant collection, and am pleased that they will be available for future generations to enjoy."

Longtime ROM supporter Donald Ross assisted the Museum in attracting additional private donations from new donors to the Museum.

Charles Key, from whom the ROM acquired a very important collection of Canadian minerals in 2000, assembled the Namibian Mineral Collection over a span of three decades. Selected highlights from the Namibian Mineral Collection include:

A legrandite discovered in 1992 at the incredible depth of four thousand feet, in the third oxide zone of the Tsumeb mine. Well-developed crystals of legrandite are exceedingly rare, and this mineral will be the best example of its type in the ROM's collection.
A rosasite consisting of microscopic sky-blue crystals grown on botryoidal green malachite, which in turn is perched atop bladed cerussite crystals. Attractive specimens of rosasite are very difficult to obtain.
A calcite on mottramite, with an aesthetically balanced, undamaged covering of transparent calcite crystals over a bed of dendritic, moss-green mottramite, a lead vanadate mineral. This mineral is highly desirable as a calcite specimen, and combined with some of the world's best mottramite, it makes a truly stunning piece.

The Mont Saint-Hilaire Suite of Minerals from Quebec was collected by Rod and Helen Tyson, and includes a palm-sized, diamond-shaped twin of the rare mineral serandite, the most iconic specimen from the Mont Saint-Hilaire locality. This collection was sought after by a number of US museums and collectors, and the ROM achieved a major coup in acquiring it. These new specimens contribute to the ROM's status as holder of the world's pre-eminent collection of Canadian minerals, and a significant collection of minerals from around the world.

Purchased by the Royal Ontario Museum with the assistance of a grant approved by the Minister of Canadian Heritage under the terms of the Cultural Property Export and Import Act.

Web Links:

Royal Ontario Museum
http://www.rom.on.ca
Official website of the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Explore from Here:

Outstanding Giant Quartz and Sphalerite from
Mont Saint-Hilaire, Québec
By Daniel Comtois

Blue Coloured Quartz from Mont Saint-Hilaire, Québec
By Daniel Comtois

Mont Saint-Hilaire
By Marc Favre

How Mont Saint-Hilaire was Formed
By Martin van Kuilenburg, edited by Dirk Schmid

Reprint instructions:

This article may not be copied, distributed or reprinted in any form without the ROM's permission. To contact the ROM, please use the e-mail address provided above. This news release was reprinted in the Canadian Rockhound with permission from the ROM.

This reprint is a special edition that contains photographs of rosasite, quartz and serandite that were not published in the ROM's original online news release of March 8, 2004. The photographs published in this reprint were kindly provided by the Royal Ontario Museum Media Relations Department.

Users who wish to print this article to read it offline may freely do so without having to contact the author or the Canadian Rockhound, provided the article will be used for non-commercial and personal home use. Please contact the Royal Ontario Museum for other arrangements.