This article is jointly authored by Raymond McDougall and David K. Joyce, long-time friends and mineral collecting partners. (The photos and specimens are R. McDougall except as otherwise noted.)

Among the most famous of Canadian mineral occurrences, the calcite vein-dikes of Ontario have been known since the late 19^th century. Although they are spread out over a sizeable area of Central Ontario, the Tory Hill area hosts one of the two clusters of vein dikes that have been the most prolific producers of fine mineral specimens over the past several decades. The Tory Hill area occurrences known to date are scattered through forests over an area of many kilometres in length and a few kilometres in width. The main collecting within this area is along Gibson Road.

The Tory Hill calcite vein dikes have produced superb specimens of titanite, fluorapatite (including facet-grade), phlogopite, and microcline, and have produced the world’s finest-known specimens of the amphibole species fluoro-richterite and ferri-fluoro katophorite. Crystals from the Tory Hill vein dikes grace museums and private collections around the world.

Location and Localities

The Tory Hill vein-dike area is west of Bancroft, which is approximately 250 km northeast of Toronto. The vein dikes are just to the west of the small hamlet of Tory Hill, in the part of Ontario that has become known among mineral collectors as the “Bancroft Area”.

Map showing the location of the Tory Hill vein-dike area, approximately 35 km west of Bancroft.
Copyright © Google Earth.

The land within the Tory Hill vein-dike area is comprised of lots, of various property designations, most of which are either completely private, or staked/claimed. Currently there is one publicly-accessible Gibson Road East collecting property, known locally as “Titanite Hill.”

Mineral labels from this area most commonly identify the locality area as “Gibson Road East” (as it is described on mindat.org). The locality designation “Gibson Road East” is used to include several different lots, including Titanite Hill, the Hunter Property (private), and Millar’s Mine.

It should be noted that the prolific old locality known as “Bear Lake”, (not to be confused with the Quebec locality of the same name), and also known as the “Bear Lake diggings” (this is the name used on mindat.org), “Bear Lake Road” or “Gibson Road West” is the other main locality within the Tory Hill vein-dike area, further to the west. From the 1970s through the 1990s, this locality produced some of the best specimens ever collected in the Tory Hill vein-dike area. It is the type locality for two species, and is well represented in collections and museums worldwide.  Unfortunately, Bear Lake is now completely closed to any collecting.

About the Bancroft Area

The Bancroft Area is a gorgeous part of the world, with beautiful highlands, forests and lakes.

The forests host all sorts of wildflowers, including trillum flowers in early spring (Ontario’s provincial flower and symbol).

And the fall forest canopies over the vein-dikes can be spectacular.

The woods and lakes out here are full of wildlife.

Elk

Red Foxes

Common Loon

Although there are animals that can pose interesting challenges to collectors (for example, black bears and moose), these animals prefer to avoid human contact and are not often encountered. As a practical matter, the most difficult fauna to manage around here are the blackflies, mosquitoes and deer flies.

And then there’s the winter.

You might wonder how winter could belong in this post. Winter has major implications for mineral collecting, and particularly where to find fine, high-quality specimens. For collectors in this part of Canada (just like many other northern and mountainous regions around the globe) we experience significant temperature swings from one season to the next, and even within a given season. Our winters can see temperatures drop down to -40C/F and nighttime temperatures are below freezing for many months, so the ground can freeze solid to a depth of at least 1 metre (3-4ft). There can be intermittent thaws and re-freezing as well. This can all be very bad for fragile crystals!

The freeze-thaw cycle sees the water seep into cracks (and pretty much everything) and then expand as it freezes. With subsequent thaws and re-freezing, the water gets further into the cracks (etc) and the expansion occurs with the next freeze. The mineral specimen result: in the Tory Hill vein-dikes, the majority of crystals found within the first metre (3 ft) of the surface are usually damaged or incomplete, mostly thanks to this freeze-thaw cycle. The best specimens are almost always below this level.

Grenville Province

The Grenville Geological Province (usually referred to as “the Grenville Province” or, colloquially,  just “the Grenville”) is a vast area of Precambrian rock parts of which are in Ontario, Quebec, New York and Labrador. It is part of the Canadian Shield. The Grenville Province is comprised of many different kinds of rocks and geological environments which came into being as the result of a series of orogenic (mountain-building) events that in turn resulted in metamorphism and complex geological deformation/mobilization events. In general, these events occurred between 1.2 billion years ago and 980 million years ago.

The Tory Hill vein-dikes are contained in the Central Metasedimentary Belt (“CMB”) zone of the Grenville Province.

Calcite Vein-Dikes

So, what exactly are the calcite vein-dikes and how did they form? These questions have been at the heart of much discussion and study, and research is continuing.

Often, they are dikes: sheets of rock (calcite) that have formed in cracks in pre-existing bodies of rock, or hollows where sheets of calcite once existed and have now eroded/dissolved. Calcite vein-dikes can also present as pod-shaped bodies or smaller veins. They are irregular in shape and aspect, with no particular consistency along strike or at depth.

Typical narrow calcite vein-dike, now hollow with calcite eroded away, and with crystal-lined walls. In this vein-dike, the mineralization was basic – microcline and fluoro-richterite – but the crystals were sharp and very well-formed.

It is currently believed that during the Grenville orogenic events, the heat and pressure melted marble, which then mobilized and flowed into cracks in the bedrock. (This would have occurred many kilometres below the surface.) The melted marble carried calcium phosphate with it, and when it cooled, the vein dikes were crystallized calcite containing fluorapatite. However, the melt also interacted with the rocks through which it flowed, dissolving and recrystallizing minerals contained in those rocks. As a result, the vein-dikes commonly contain crystals of feldspar group and amphibole group minerals, mica group minerals, and other less common minerals such as titanite. (Although pyroxene group minerals are very common in vein-dikes elsewhere in the CMB, they tend to be encountered less frequently in the Tory Hill vein-dikes.) These minerals formed crystals on the margins (walls) of the vein-dikes, and also suspended in the calcite comprising the “filling” of the vein-dikes.

When one looks at the vein-dikes in-situ, one can sometimes see the flow texture, where the fluorapatite crystals are more or less oriented parallel to one another, a bit like logs floating down a river.

Fluorapatite crystals in calcite, in-situ, showing parallel and nearly-parallel orientation indicating the flow of the melt. Terry (who is truly one of the most talented field collectors you’ll ever meet) extracted this group intact as a matrix specimen – it’s a beauty in his display case!
The largest crystal measures 10 cm in length. D. Joyce photo.

The Tory Hill vein-dikes vary in size, with the largest ranging up to perhaps 8-10 metres (25-30 ft.) across and they can pinch down to no open width at all, but the vast majority are typically 0.5 metres to about 2 metres (1.5 to 6 ft.) across, and can be traced along surface to varying lengths, with the largest exceeding 100m (including pinches and swells). In some places, the calcite vein-dikes are quite linear and are encountered in groups, where the dikes are more or less parallel to one another. In other places, the vein-dikes are completely irregular, including pods, abrupt changes in direction, or sudden endings.

Over thousands of years since the end of the last ice age, weak, circulating, slightly acidic, ground water from the soils over and around the calcite deposits, slowly dissolve the calcite away, exposing the crystals on the wall rock-contact and freeing crystals that were suspended in the calcite. Typically, the vein-dykes are dissolved to a depth of a anywhere from 10 cm to 4 metres (4″ to 12 ft.) or more, although a few feet is more normal. The depressions that are left by the dissolved calcite have been filled in over the millennia by silt, dirt, glacial till and leaves and roots.

This drawing illustrates an idealized cross-section of a calcite vein-dike covered by the forest floor.

Illustration by Peter Harlick

Discovery and Early Exploitation

There are calcite vein-dike localities in various different places in Ontario, Quebec and New York. In Ontario, these have been been known since the late 19^th century. In the earliest times after their discovery, larger occurrences were exploited in small-scale mining operations for mica, and also for apatite, the latter for use as a phosphate fertilizer for farming. In the Tory Hill calcite vein-dike area, there was one small apatite mine, Millar’s Mine, which is located along Gibson Road East. It was worked by for a short time around the year 1900 for phosphate.

In the years after the Second World War, the race to develop uranium producing mines came to the Bancroft Area and several mines were opened and produced uranium, but there were no operating uranium mines in the Tory Hill calcite vein-dikes.

Most of the calcite vein-dikes that have produced specimens in the Tory Hill area are either original prospecting sites dating back many decades, or sites that have been excavated by collectors for specimens.

Prospecting and Collecting the Calcite Vein-Dikes

Prospecting and collecting the calcite vein dikes can be both challenging and rewarding for all levels of mineral collectors.

Dave and I have each been collecting the Tory Hill vein-dikes for over 40 years, and in many of those years we have collected with our good friends Terry Collett and George Thompson.

“The Tory Hill Gang”: Dave Joyce, Terry Collett, George Thompson and me.
Charles Brisco photo.

Prospecting for new calcite vein-dikes – or extensions of existing ones – is hard work, because in most places there is significant overburden, with trees, plants, countless roots and glacial till. The landscape looks like a typical mixed deciduous-coniferous forest, and the vein-dikes are hidden from view – one must dig to prospect, not only to collect specimens. Some vein-dikes trap water, and these attract tree roots, so the digging can be very slow. Typically the overburden is up to about one meter (about 3 ft) thick.

Prospecting through this thickness of material is slow and it involves a lot of failure.  However, there are many vein-dikes out there, so the very patient collector or prospector can usually locate one or more. And then of course there is the fundamental issue as to whether one has located one that may contain fine mineral specimens. Many do not, but one only learns that by excavating and exposing the contents. Such is the reality of collecting the vein-dikes.

Dave on day 2 of a calcite vein-dike we excavated as we prospected – it showed such promise, produced many crystals, and ultimately… drum roll… literally nothing collection-worthy. Zero. This is the reality of the Tory Hill vein-dikes – so much digging on the basis of teasers and clues – and yet so many don’t pan out! Dave’s expression in this photo captures the feeling.

Excavating these vein dikes is usually not straightforward digging with a shovel – because of the roots and rocks, one needs to use a pick or a mattock, and pry bars, and then once one gets a bit lower, one needs to switch to use plastic tools to avoid damaging anything that might be in the earth that is being removed. The logistics of emptying any given dike really depend on the layout  – we often bucket the contents up to surface and then sift through them gently to recover any specimens present.

Terry in the hole and me with the mattock. D. Joyce photo.

It is important to note that the calcite in the vein-dikes erodes according to many different factors, including weaknesses in the calcite, preferential flows of water, and others. As a result, the calcite remnants in the vein dikes may contain hollows, and the calcite may appear as shelves, with open areas underneath.

To give a better sense of collecting the vein-dikes, well look at some different vein-dike workings over the years. We casually name the various vein-dikes just so that we can keep things straight over the years (as to which specimens have come from where, etc.) and they have included: Charles’ Hole (after our friend and very experienced vein-dike collector, Charles Brisco), the Ray Hole, the Big Hole (aka George’s Hole), the Zone of Goodness, Titanite Tree, the Island Hole, Midway, Rudy’s Feldspar Mine, Titanium City and the Diesel Hole.

The Diesel Hole

The Diesel Hole is a great calcite vein-dike that produced superb specimens. It was discovered when George took his dog Diesel for a brief walk, on a short break from collecting at Midway, so we named it after Diesel. This sequence of photos shows the development of the workings – the log lying horizontally across the photos is a good benchmark for judging the progress from one photo to the next.

At this early stage, the vein-dike has been located and excavated (i.e. in the foreground) for a couple of days – enough work to know it’s worth pursuing.

 

The area up to the log now uncovered (this is well past the tree and rocks seen in the foreground of the first photo), one can see the lighter-coloured calcite at lower left of the photo, directly below George, with two open hollows visible.

 

Once excavated more fully back to the log, we could tell where the calcite was and where its weaknesses might be. We chose to use tools to widen the lower hollow in the calcite so that we’d be able to squeeze inside, underneath the calcite shelf…

Above is the first view of the underside of this calcite shelf and the un-excavated hollow, right after we had the hole wide enough that a person could crawl in. In the above photo, the entire medium-brown ceiling is calcite, and the crystals you can see are large fluoro-richterites, suspended in the calcite and exposed by the erosion of the calcite. In the lower half of the photo, the mud filling this void in the vein-dike contains fluoro-richterite crystals. Many fine fluoro-richterite crystals from the Diesel Hole were carefully retrieved from the mud. The environment in which these formed was subjected to stresses – many crystals were found naturally broken with re-crystallized faces, or broken and healed.

If you compare the above photo with the photo below: in the photo above, the long crystal at the left of centre, upper, and also a a bit of the ceiling are in the photo below, just visible at the very top in each corner. The rest of this next photo shows the exposed underground chamber below the calcite shelf, once the loose material had all been carefully removed. These were incredibly cramped and uncomfortable quarters for digging.

One can see that the calcite in the floor is partially eroded, in completely irregular shapes, and there is another hollow and small shelf in the middle of the vein-dike. This is small – certainly too narrow for a person to shimmy into.

Meanwhile, the walls of the vein-dike are covered with crystals… and the walls are solid, so removing crystals intact and damage-free (with hardly any room to work in these narrow spaces) is truly not easy.

Most vein-dikes do not open up into sizeable hollows under the calcite shelves like this… however, once in a while we get lucky!

Titanium City

One of the most interesting underground excavations in recent years was at the vein-dike that became known as Titanium City (so named because in its discovery year it produced an unusually large number of small titanite crystals). The excavation at Titanium City proceeded on the surface over a couple of years before we located a potential way in, under some of the calcite. For good parts of the year (and some years, all year-round), this area of the Titanium City vein-dike is underwater, so this project required good timing.

You can see in this first photo below that the surface workings are fairly extensive, exposing the vein-dike to a depth of 1-2 metres (3-6 ft). At the close end of the photo, large boulders had blocked everything up – they were far to large to be moved. Once these were broken up and removed bit by bit, the vein-dike revealed a potential opening, and so we dug down using buckets to haul up the contents – and if you look very closely in the shadow of the dark hole you can make out part of me, at the very beginning of our tunnelling project. (Note that on the right-hand side is the wall rock on the margin of the vein-dike, hosting many crystals.)

Start of the Titanium City tunnel. D. Joyce photo.

The underground excavation at Titanium City was physically tough – the hollow between the calcite shelves was too small to allow us to crawl on our hands and knees, so instead, we had to shimmy our way in and out. As you can imagine, emptying all the earth and rock out of the excavation was hard! We rigged up a system with ropes and a flat basin, and that helped somewhat – we ultimately had to hand specimens out from one of us to the next, and the closest guy to the entrance would take them out the portal and place them in a safe spot out in the daylight, then come back for more. We were all very scraped up and sore by the end of this one!

Terry underground at Titanium City. The orange ceiling is all calcite (iron-stained) and on the right the wall is covered with crystals of fluoro-richterite and fluorapatite. D. Joyce photo.

The further we worked back, the more crystals we found, so we kept on going!

Me, in the advancing tunnel. D. Joyce photo.

Terry decided that the underground workings should be called the “Crystal Palace Stope”… perhaps a bit grand, but there sure were a lot of crystals. In this next photo you can see fluorapatites on the wall, and once again you can see the relatively parallel orientation they exhibit, evidencing the flow of the melt when it coursed through the crack.

Fluorapatite and fluoro-richterite crystals on the right-hand wall.

Terry kept driving the workings back further…

Terry’s feet as he works his way in. You can see on the left-hand side of the photo the remnant of a thin calcite shelf that had protruded out into the stope and had to be broken up and removed before we had an opening large enough that we could squeeze ourselves further along. D. Joyce photo.

In order to advance this tunnel, all of the earth and rock ahead of us had to be removed slowly but surely over the course of a few days. In this next photo, you can see the ceiling and the wall containing crystals of fluorapatite, microcline and fluoro-richterite, and you can also see the trowel standing in the dirt and rock that was yet to be removed.

Excavation progress underground. D. Joyce photo.

And finally we reached the end of the hollow area, where the two walls of the vein-dike pinched together, and the eroding iron-stained calcite remained in small shelves and patches.

The left wall was mostly fine-grained phlogopite, but one area produced a few very fine sharp phlogopite crystals up to a few cm across. D. Joyce photo.

Of course, once we had completed the job of clearing out the contents of the hollowed area, it was time to try to collect (intact!) some of the crystals and crystal groups on the walls…

Clusters of very unusual fluoro-richterite crystals – these crystals are almost discoidal, with minimal prism faces, a bit like some of the classic uvites from Brumado. I call them the “UFO Fluoro-richterites” (they are rare and there are only very few specimens).
D. Joyce photo.

Terry working diligently and carefully with the chisel. So little space in there to work –
almost no room to swing a hammer! D. Joyce photo.

This next one gives a sense of how far in we are – I shot this photo from near the far end of the Crystal Palace Stope, looking back toward the entry portal. You can see that we had several lights inside – the daylight at the portal is the patch of light back behind and above Terry to the left. Only a calcite shelf separating us from the open air – not deep at all – but still, we were now a little over 7 metres (a little over 21 ft) back in.

Dave expertly removing crystals from the wall despite the cramped quarters.

For scale/context, the entry is in the lower right corner and Rudy is standing exactly over the far end of the Crystal Palace Stope, and the entrance is in the lower right-hand corner of the photo.

And just to wrap up this section about collecting, here are glimpses of more workings – each is very different from the next.

The Big Hole

The Big Hole was George’s first excavation in this part of the Tory Hill vein-dike area. It was quite dicey to wriggle in and get down into, so when we decided to develop it, we widened the portal at the top. It was hollow to a depth of about 4 metres (12 ft) so we needed to be able to get a ladder in place. And then to muck out the hole, we used a simple rope system with buckets.

Dave, me and bucket after bucket, after bucket… excavated and filled from below by George and Terry.
Charles Brisco photo.

Although the Big Hole started with great promise including an excellent titanite twin George found soon after its discovery, it produced hardly any good specimens! We removed over 200 buckets full of earth and rock (each very heavy!) over a period of 2.5 days, and this effort produced nothing in the way of fine minerals. We were able to recover some small classy titanite crystals from one wall, but not at all what we hoped for. Ultimately it was a fun adventure, but not a great vein dike.

Carolyn (my better half) came to see what we’d been up to – this was the wall at the
bottom of the Big Hole that produced the titanites. D. Joyce photo.

Midway

Another calcite vein-dike in the area, which gained the name Midway, presented a new and different collecting experience a number of years ago. The vein-dike itself was shallow and yielded some nice specimens.

Dave at Midway

However, what became more interesting in future years was the material in the surrounding country rock, as there were pods and veinlets with calcite and hollows where calcite had been – these were lined with very sharp crystals (of mostly fluoro-richterite – in yet a different habit – and microcline, but with some quartz, augite and even a couple of fluorapatites). What Midway required was a lot of rock-breaking – pry bars, sledge hammers and a ton of work!

George moving and breaking rock at the full Midway workings. The original vein-dike is above George and to the right, angling down to behind the rock on the right where the bucket is sitting. All of this broken rock had the potential for vugs and pockets of very sharp crystals.
D. Joyce photo.

Charles’ Titanite Trench

Over a summer, Charles managed to excavate his way straight into a zone of promising titanite crystals, including a very large one (about 15 cm and sharp!). A subsequent extension of that zone produced a large number of titanite crystals, some of which were excellent (most of which of course were truly not). There were also a few great twinned fluoro-richterites and a few sharp, lustrous fluorapatites.

This was an example of a very narrow vein-dike filled with tenacious roots and very challenging to reach into and excavate effectively. And even harder to collect it well, particularly given the fragility of titanite crystals.

These photos show the vein-dike after we have already excavated significant amounts of material – it was originally filled to the forest floor with rocks, roots, earth and some crystals.

Dave on the trail of titanites

Bird’s-eye view of Terry wedged in the bottom of a vein-dike, several feet below ground level, excavating titanites.
D. Joyce photo.

Me, happily starting a new day, reaching back down into the titanite-producing zone.
D. Joyce photo

After Collecting Them…

Of course finding and extracting the specimens carefully is paramount, but there is still lots of work to be done before anything is collection-worthy. With larger specimens, it can even be a challenge to get them down the hill and safely back to home…

Terry and I used a section of ladder to ferry this large plate of fluoro-richterite crystals down from the woods to the road. Many of the specimens for which we make these efforts don’t ultimately pan out once trimmed and cleaned, but happily, this one did. D. Joyce photo.

Most of what we collect out in the Tory Hill vein dikes is very dirty/stained and coated. There is great challenge in the cleaning and prep work. Trimming is quite difficult because the minerals we’re after either have perfect cleavage or are brittle, the feldspar or amphibole matrix is very tough, and then trimming anything within the calcite is also treacherous because of the cleavage of the calcite.

For the removal of iron stains, we find Waller’s Solution to be most effective (a very similar formulation is in the commercial product Super Iron Out), but it can cause unwanted results in some cases (particularly titanite and fluorapatite, also some fluoro-richterite), so we always test on a small sample specimen first. Some specimens require work with acid to remove calcite, but we only do this very sparingly – in part because hydrochloric (muriatic) acid will etch any fluorapatite present. Most specimens require the gentle use of air abrasive (with sodium bicarbonate as the medium) to properly remove coatings. As with trimming, the air abrasive work requires extreme care as these minerals are brittle at the edges. Air abrasive is far gentler and more effective with this material than a water gun (the water gun can easily damage most of the key minerals – it is a good tool for these minerals). Some specimens have very heavy coatings – for example, many fluoro-richterite crystals from the Diesel Hole had terrible coverings that did not come off with normal soap and water cleaning:

Coatings on fluoro-richterite

Using the right approach with each of the various prep issues, we are able to end up with some very fine specimens!

Minerals of the Tory Hill Vein-Dikes

The Tory Hill vein-dikes have produced specimens representing a modest number of mineral species compared to some other famous localities – to date, 21 species have been identified.  However, the importance of these vein-dikes lies not in vast numbers of species, but rather in the high calibre of the fine crystals, for several species. It makes sense to break the following discussion into three sections: (1) The Highlights (2) Less Common Well-Crystallized Species (3) Other Species. There is some real variation from one vein-dike system to the next, although there are main species that are present throughout the area, and other species which are far less commonly encountered.

Calcite is common throughout the vein-dikes – it was present in all of them at one time and where it has not eroded/dissolved, it remains as a crystallized filling of the vein-dikes, sometimes fine-grained and sometimes with larger cleavable crystallized masses. Calcite does not form free-standing crystals in the vein-dikes, and is simply a matrix mineral.

(1) Highlights

The Tory Hill vein dikes have produced the world’s best crystals of two black amphibole species, fluoro-richterite and ferri-fluoro-katophorite (once upon a time, these two minerals were lumped with all black amphibole species under the general historic term “hornblende” – this is now an informal name for black amphibole supergroup minerals). These vein-dikes have also produced exceptional specimens of fluorapatite, phlogopite and titanite. And, even though it is one of the world’s most common minerals, the microcline crystals from the Tory Hill vein-dikes can be sharp and impressive. Crystals of all of these minerals can attain rather large sizes.

Most of the vein-dikes include crystals of microcline, one of the black amphiboles, and phlogopite. If calcite is still present in a vein-dike, fluorapatite is fairly often encountered as well. Titanite is far less common and fine specimens of titanite are relatively rare. All of these minerals are most often only found as somewhat rounded, moderately-sharp or moderately-well-defined, and very often they are not intact – so although they are interesting to encounter, they are not usually of a quality that would be described as crystals that are “fine minerals”. However, when they are, they can be great specimens of these species, and the best can be killers!

About the Amphibole Supergroup

Fluoro-richterite and ferri-fluoro-katophorite are the highlight Tory Hill amphibole species. I’d just like to start with a brief word about the amphiboles and difficulties with species names. Although the nomenclature and classification system for the amphiboles has changed over the years, several species are definitively known and identified. The amphibole species cannot be definitively identified on the basis of their visual appearance – colour/hue and crystal habit are certainly not reliable attributes for identification. The species described in this post have been analyzed and confirmed – either the photographed specimen, or specimens from that exact part of the given vein-dike.

Fluoro-Richterite

For collectors, fluoro-richterite is one of the most important of all the minerals from the Tory Hill vein-dikes. The best fluoro-richterites from Gibson Road East are without question the best known specimens of the species to date, and they are world-class for any amphibole species.

Fluoro-richterite (fully-terminated, floater), Gibson Road East, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 23 cm
The three long crystals are all contact twins with terminations that look like scapolite terminations, and the intergrown crystals at lower right are not twinned.

Fluoro-richterite (doubly terminated, floater, no twinning), Gibson Road East,
Haliburton Co., Ontario – 22 cm

Although globally not a common mineral, the mineral occurs in abundance as a rock-forming mineral in the Tory Hill vein-dike area (and nearby at the Essonville Line / George Earle Farm occurrence, towards Wilberforce). However, truly fine crystals are hard to find, and also a real challenge to collect and prepare.

In the Tory Hill vein-dikes, the quality of the crystals varies dramatically. The best fluoro-richterite crystals from the Tory Hill vein-dikes are sharp, textbook crystals, sometimes with bright lustre, and are easily the finest known examples of this species. Although they can reach large sizes, up to 45 cm, the best specimens are almost always much smaller. The colour is generally black, but some specimens exhibit minor hints of the darkest green, brown, or blue hues.

Glen Poirier at the Canadian Museum of Nature conducted analysis on black amphibole specimens systematically collected and tagged from various vein-dikes along the ridge at Gibson Road East. All of the black amphibole specimens that have been analyzed to date have been confirmed to be fluoro-richterite (quite homogenous, with very little zoning – a very tiny ferri-fluoro-katohprite zone was encountered). As of the time of writing, I am only aware of a single specimen of very dark (visibly dark green) amphibole from the Gibson Road East area (not from the ridge or the main areas that have been collected) that is another species – see “Richterite”, below.

One of the most remarkable things about the fluoro-richterite from Gibson Road East is the variety of appearances, hues and habits that have been found.

Fluoro-richterite has been known from the nearby classic Essonville Line / George Earle Farm occurrence for over 50 years – it was quite prolific in its day, and specimens from there have made their way into collections around the world. At that locality it is almost always found as elongated, relatively slender/thin, textbook monoclinic crystals in calcite, mostly as isolated singles, and sometimes twinned. In contrast, at Gibson Road East, this habit had not been found until relatively recently, and it has only been encountered in three vein-dikes (this might represent something in the order of 3% – or even fewer – of vein-dikes that have been explored to date).

The most common habit for fluoro-richterite from Gibson Road East is best described as blocky. These blocky crystals may be relatively elongated or relatively shorter and wider.

Fluoro-richterite, Gibson Road East, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 4.0 cm
The most common habit, but with uncommonly bright glassy lustre on the prism faces.

Fluoro-richterite (very dark green) with microcline, Gibson Road East, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 3.3 cm

Twinning occurs but is quite rare, and is almost exclusively seen in the most elongated crystals.

Fluoro-richterite (twin), Gibson Road East, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 5.2 cm

Fluoro-richterite (twin), Gibson Road East, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 16.6 cm

Relatively short blocky crystals were found at the Hunter Property along Gibson Road East (please note, this property is private and no longer accessible for collecting). This crystal is oriented with the terminal face at the top – one can see how short the prism faces are, relative to the width of the crystal.

Fluoro-richterite with microcline and calcite, Hunter Property, Gibson Road East,
Haliburton Co., Ontario – 9 cm

As noted above, in the Titanium City workings we recovered a few specimens with a rare crystal habit – it’s almost entirely comprised of terminal faces, with small-to-almost-no prism faces – the “UFO habit”.

Fluoro-richterite, Gibson Road East, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 7.5 cm

Flouro-richterite can be collected as excellent crystal groups, although most are incomplete and fine specimens are quite uncommon.

Fluoro-richterite, Gibson Road East, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 8.5 cm

Fluoro-richterite, Gibson Road East, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 3.5 cm

Fluoro-richterite, Gibson Road East, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 4.5 cm

Fluoro-richterite (with hints of deep blue hues in places), Gibson Road East,
Haliburton Co., Ontario – 4.5 cm

Fluoro-richterite, Gibson Road East, Haliburton Co., Ontario. This is a very unusual specimen, exhibiting hints of deep blue hues and elongated, thin untwinned crystals clustered together.
Field of view 6.5 cm.

 

Ferri-Fluoro-Katophorite

Ferri-fluoro-katophorite occurs at the now-inaccessible Bear Lake diggings, in the Tory Hill vein-dike area. Bear Lake is the type locality for the mineral, and the best specimens from there are by far the best known crystals of the species (to date). They occur as blocky black crystals – they are most often relatively equant to somewhat elongated. Although they can be elongated to some degree, unlike fluoro-richterite, we have not seen them exhibiting either the very elongated thin habit or the much shorter, wider, flatter habits like the UFO habit (or anything close to that). The best are very well defined, sharp and highly lustrous. Superb twins have been found, but twinning is uncommon overall.

Ferri-fluoro-katophorite, Bear Lake, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 3.0 cm

Ferri-fluoro-katophorite, Bear Lake, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 2.2 cm.
This crystal exhibits the finest combination of termination forms for an
untwinned crystal of this species that we know of.

Ferri-fluoro-katophorite, Bear Lake, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 6.8 cm

Individual crystals up to 60 cm have been found, but of course the finest, sharpest crystals are smaller (in the 5 to 10 cm range). As with the fluoro-richterites, the best ferri-fluoro-katophorites from the Tory Hill vein-dikes are world-class for any amphibole mineral.

Ferri-fluoro-katophorite (twinned upper crystal), Bear Lake, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 7.5 cm

Ferri-fluoro-katophorite, parallel growth and twinned central crystal
Bear Lake, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 14.5 cm

It should be noted that not all black amphiboles from Bear Lake are ferri-fluoro-katphorite. Analysis has confirmed this identification for specimens from the “Black Hole” (excavated 1987-88) and a couple other vein-dikes as well, but other dark amphiboles from Bear Lake have been confirmed to be other amphibole species.

Fluorapatite

From a mineral collector’s viewpoint, the classic specimens of fluorapatite are perhaps the best known of any species from the Bancroft Area, and the Tory Hill vein-dikes have produced many of these over decades of collecting history dating back to the early 20th century.

Unlike the other main minerals of the Tory Hill vein-dikes, the fluorapatite did not originate in the bedrock through which the carbonate melt flowed. Rather, the fluorapatite was contained in the melt, and it crystallized while the melt was still flowing. As mentioned above, one can see the flow-texture that remains, with parallel and sub-parallel fluorapatite crystals frozen in the calcite, indicating the relatively lateral flow of the melt through the cracks.

Fluorapatite from the Tory Hill vein dikes occurs in a variety of hues of green, yellow, red and brown. Crystals up to 45 cm have been collected (of course, these are not as fine as smaller specimens, but are impressive!). Bear Lake and Gibson Road East have both produced excellent crystals, mostly of green and yell0w-green hues, but also red and brown. Some facet-grade green material has been recovered – this was from Bear Lake, collected in the 1980s.  Fluorapatite crystals from the vein-dikes throughout all of the Grenville are typically somewhat-to-completely rounded in form, particularly at the terminations. This is certainly true of the fluorapatites of the Tory Hill vein dikes, although the prism faces are often very well defined and some uncommon crystals do exhibit sharp pyramidal terminations (usually with a pinacoid face, although not always). Some crystals are so completely rounded that even their basic hexagonal shape is not recognizable. Most fluorapatites from the Tory Hill vein-dikes have good to excellent lustre.

Fluorapatite, Gibson Road East, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 5.5 cm

Fluorapatite, Gibson Road East, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 7.8 cm

Fluorapatite, Gibson Road East, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 14.0 cm

Fluorapatite, Gibson Road East, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 6.2 cm

Fluorapatite, Gibson Road East, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 14.5 cm

Phlogopite

Dark brown-to-black mica is common in the Tory Hill vein-dikes. Over the years, many of these specimens have been labeled “biotite”, which is no longer regarded as a species, although the term is still used as a general descriptor for undetermined black mica (in the same way “hornblende” is still sometimes used as a general term for undetermined black amphibole). Brown-to black mica from the Tory Hill vein-dikes has been analyzed and confirmed to be phlogopite.

Phlogopite is almost always found as cleavage fragments in these vein-dikes – terminated crystals are rare. The perfect cleavage creates a huge problem for collectors – any phlogopite crystals that erode out of the calcite in the middle of a vein dike will be subjected to water soaking, the freeze-thaw cycle, or both. Meanwhile the wall rock is incredibly hard, so phlogopite crystals rarely survive extraction. And then of course because phlogopite is soft, it is often damaged.

As with the amphiboles, microcline and fluorapatite, phlogopite crystals in the Tory Hill vein-dikes can be huge – up to 70 cm across. And, as with all of these other minerals, the larger the crystals are, the nicer they are not!  However, some of the more reasonably-sized phlogopite crystals from the Tory Hill vein-dikes are sharp and  well-terminated – these are rare (and incredibly rarely are intact doubly-terminated crystals) and they are absolutely superb for the species.

Phlogopite, Gibson Road East, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 4.5 cm

Phlogopite, Bear Lake, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 3.0 cm

Phlogopite, Bear Lake, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 4.6 cm

Phlogopite, Bear Lake, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 4.7 cm

Phlogopite, Bear Lake, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 5.7 cm

Titanite

Titanite is one of the most famous and sought-after minerals from the Tory Hill vein-dikes. It occurs as deep brown to black lustrous crystals up to over 20 cm. The best crystals can be razor-sharp and mirror-bright, and sometimes have internal deep red and/or brown flashes of colour. Many titanite crystals from the Tory Hill vein-dikes have some level of contact or coating of fluorapatite in spots – it’s not damage, rather it tells the story of how the two minerals interacted in the melt.

Titanite is by far the least commonly-encountered major mineral in the Tory Hill vein-dikes – most vein-dikes do not contain decent titanite crystals, collection-worthy crystals are very uncommon, and truly excellent specimens are rare. Titanite can be found either on the walls of the vein-dikes or out in the middle, in the calcite if it hasn’t yet eroded/dissolved, or loose in the dirt if the calcite is gone. Because titanite is very brittle, collecting damage-free crystals, particularly given the perfect cleavage of calcite and also the freeze-thaw cycle, is very challenging. Most titanite is found as single black or dark brown crystals, and groups of crystals are very uncommon. Internal red highlights are sometimes seen, but prominent ones are not common.

Titanite, Gibson Road East, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 5.2 cm
This specimen has excellent sharpness, lustre and red highlights.

 

Titanite on Fluorapatite, Bear Lake, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 7.9 cm

Titanite “nest” (a floater, with red highlights and bright lustre)
Bear Lake, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 4.8 cm

Titanite (7 cm crystal) on ferri-fluoro-katophorite, Bear Lake, Haliburton Co., Ontario

Titanite, Bear Lake, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 5.7 cm
D. Joyce specimen.

 

Titanite, Bear Lake, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 13.9 cm
D. Joyce specimen.

Titanite with microcline, Bear Lake, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 11.1 cm
D. Joyce specimen.

Occasionally superb contact twins are found – these are relatively rare in the Tory Hill vein-dikes.

Titanite (twinned), Bear Lake, Haliburton Co., Ontario. Field of view 9.5 cm.
This D. Joyce specimen is one of the finest titanite twins known from the Tory Hill vein dikes.

Unusual cream-yellow titanite was found at Bear Lake, and has been referred to variously over the years as “leucoxene” (an alteration product that is a mixture of titanium and iron oxides) or replacement by anatase. Anatase replacement of, and overgrowths on, titanite and ilmenite are well-established phenomena in the Bancroft Area and anatase is discussed further below. However, during research work in 1992, a number of cream-yellow crystals one of us (RM) had collected from three separate vein dikes were analyzed by Dr. Robert Martin at McGill University and these all proved to be entirely titanite in composition: under very high magnification, one can see that these crystals are completely shot through with countless internal cracks (likely due to alpha-recoil damage caused by the decay of formerly-present radioactive elements) that are the cause of the yellow color.

Titanite (twinned), Bear Lake, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 3.6 cm

Microcline

Microcline is very common in the Tory Hill vein-dikes. Crystals can be huge – over 45 cm – and can be well-formed (but the larger they are, they can become a lot less sharp). Microcline crystals from the Tory Hill vein-dikes are typically beige but also less commonly range in colour from white to pink. They range from sharp and glassy to dull and rounded and often occur in clusters. The best are textbook feldspar crystals with excellent forms. Twins are extremely rare. A few microcline specimens from the Tory Hill vein-dikes exhibit minor internal schiller.

Microcline (2.1 cm) with Fluoro-richterite,
Gibson Road East, Haliburton Co., Ontario

Microcline in calcite, Gibson Road East, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 10.3 cm

Microcline with augite, 13.5 cm
Gibson Road East, Haliburton Co., Ontario

Microcline 12.0 cm
Gibson Road East, Haliburton Co., Ontario
David Joyce specimen and photo.

Microcline with albite intergrowth, Gibson Road East, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 5.8 cm

Microcline twin, Gibson Road East, Haliburton Co., Ontario
Field of view 5 cm

(2) Less Commonly Encountered Well-Crystallized Species

Several species have been found in only a few vein-dikes (or related proximal deposits) to date, and, aside from augite, they are considered rare in the Tory Hill vein-dykes. However, the species in this section are noteworthy for collectors because they have been found as well-defined crystals.

Richterite

Richterite has been confirmed through analysis from Bear Lake and Gibson Road East, although to date it appears to be rare. At Gibson Road East, it has been confirmed from a single vein-dike, which is a bit of a distance and separate from the clustered vein-dikes that have been collected over the years. In that vein-dike, it occurs as sharp, lustrous dark green crystals up to 3 cm. At Bear Lake, the one occurrence was proximal to the vein dikes, but was separate and very different – it was more in the nature of very small calcite pods within the dark green amphibole rock.  There, the richterite formed deep green prisms up to about 5 cm, mostly simply spanning small voids in the rock and therefore lacking terminations, although one beautiful small terminated crystal was recovered.

Richterite, Bear Lake, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 2.1 cm

Tremolite

Typically the Tory Hill vein-dikes themselves contain sodium-rich amphibole group members, and in the case of tremolite (an amphibole which does not contain sodium), it’s more accurate to describe it as a species that is sometimes encountered in occurrences that are together with, or proximate to, the vein dikes. These occurrences are rare in the Tory Hill vein-dike area, but tremolite has been collected at both Bear Lake and Gibson Road East. These occurrences have produced beautiful tremolite, which ranges from colourless and fibrous (to about 1 cm) to light green glassy prisms (up to about 4 cm).

Tremolite, Bear Lake, Haliburton Co., Ontario
Field of view 3.0 cm

Diopside

As with tremolite among the amphiboles, diopside (the calcium and magnesium member of the pyroxene group) is rarely encountered in the Tory Hill vein-dikes themselves, but is sometimes found in occurrences together with, or proximate to the vein dikes. Usually, due to the presence of iron in the vein-dike mineral assemblage, augite is the pyroxene mineral in these vein-dikes. One noteworthy exception to this was at the Diesel Hole, where a block of diopside intersected one end of the vein-dike and well-crystallized diopside was found. Diopside crystals in and around the Tory Hill vein-dikes are typically light to medium green, sometimes rounded and sometimes fairly sharp and lustrous, usually small, and rarely up to about 4 cm.

Diopside, Gibson Road East, Haliburton Co., Ontario
Field of View 3.0 cm

Augite

Although  augite is extremely common at many localities in the Bancroft Area, it is comparatively less common in the Tory Hill vein-dikes. In fact, augite was rare at Bear Lake and I know of only one vein-dike that produced a small number of well-formed crystals. In contrast, augite is encountered more often in some Gibson Road East vein-dikes, and in a few it is common. Unfortunately, most crystals are not collection-worthy – they are often poorly formed, with poor lustre, and more often than not they are cleaved. They look ok when dirty. However, a few fine crystallized augite specimens have been recovered over the years.

Augite, Gibson Road East, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 6.5 cm

Zircon

Despite the fact that the Grenville is famous for having produced some great specimens of zircon, zircon actually occurs only very sparingly in the Grenville Province generally, and it is very rare in the Tory Hill vein-dikes and proximate occurrences. It has been found in only a few specimens, known from both Bear Lake and Gibson Road East in sharp crystals that are quite small (a few mm). Some Bear Lake zircon crystals occurred as inclusions in amphibole crystals.

Zircon, Bear Lake, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 1.5 cm crystal
Based on the matrix, this specimen is from a deposit proximate to the vein-dikes,
rather than from within a vein-dike.

(3) Other Minerals

Albite

Albite occurs as a perthitic intergrowth in the feldspars, and as a partial veneer or intergrowth at the surfaces of microcline crystals. Distinct isometric crystals up to 1 cm are rarely found in hollows and on the surfaces of the microcline crystals.

Microcline with elongated albite crystal growths,
Gibson Road East, Haliburton Co., Ontario – 4.6 cm

Quartz

Quartz is periodically encountered in narrow vein-dikes and offshoots, or small proximate pods, as slightly to very rounded crystals. We’ve never seen a quartz crystal out in the middle of a larger vein dike. Although we’re not certain as to the exact cause, it seems that quartz may have been susceptible to attack or etching by the melt material – well-defined quartz crystals are rare and none are as sharp and glassy as they are from so many other world localities. Some of these look more like used throat lozenges. Not pretty! They usually have some smokiness to them, and are generally cloudy to translucent.

Pyrite and Goethite

Pyrite is sparsely distributed in the Tory Hill vein-dikes. It is generally uncommon and is almost always present only as crusts or masses that are breaking down into goethite, staining everything in sight. It is virtually always the cause of unhappiness when encountered, because its presence is either the cause of an unwanted coloured coating, unwanted internal iron staining, or other damage to the desirable minerals of the vein dikes. We know of only one sharp, well-formed crystal from the Tory Hill vein-dikes. It was collected by John S. White on a visit to these vein-dikes.

Anatase and Rutile

Anatase and rutile have both been found at Bear Lake as tiny crystals and frostings on and in hollows in titanite crystals. (Confirmed by microprobe analysis at McGill University.)

Rutile-Anatase on titanite, Bear Lake, Haliburton Co., Ontario
Field of view 1.2 cm

Monazite-(Ce)

Monazite-Ce has been found at Bear Lake as small, sharp crystals attached to fluorapatite crystals. They were very rare, yellowish to light brown to orange-hued, and up to 5mm.

Monazite-(Ce), 5mm crystal.
Gibson Road East, Haliburton Co., Ontario

Molybdenite

Molybdenite is found sparingly at a few Ontario Grenville localities, but until relatively recently was not known from the Tory Hill vein-dikes. A find at Gibson Road East produced rounded flake-like crystals and crystal aggregates with little coherent shape – the largest is 9 cm. These are not well-defined by any means, but they are very bright and an interesting tease, with an occasional hexagonal face. Maybe some day we’ll find more and better!

Nioboaeschynite-(Y) and Thorite

Bear Lake is the type locality for the very rare mineral nioboaeschynite-(Y), which occurred as subhedral black crystals up to about 1 cm. The paper which described the new mineral nioboaeschynite-(Y) indicated that it occurred with thorite, which was also very rare at the locality.

Thorianite

Black thorianite crystals have been found at Millar’s Mine, along Gibson Road East. These are fairly sharp black crystals up to a few mm across.

(4) More Minerals to Come in Future

Ongoing studies of the calcite vein dikes in the Tory Hill and Wilberforce areas, and at other classic occurrences including the Yates Mine, Otter Lake Quebec, and the Seybold Mine, Lac Saint Antoine, Cantley, Quebec, have involved significant work on melt inclusions in the fluorapatite crystals (Martin and Schumann, 2025). As the minerals crystallized out of the melt, some fluorapatite crystals trapped some of the melt in small bubbles in their interiors. The largest such inclusions are typically calcite – one can sometimes find a small “pod” of calcite in the middle of crystals of other minerals, most often fluorapatite. In addition, cracks in the fluorapatites allowed for the migration of material, and, among other things, this has resulted in the migration and deposition of microscopic crystals of several minerals.  Most of the in-depth Ontario work to date has focused on the deposits of the Wilberforce area (to the east of the Tory Hill vein-dikes by a few km), but we would expect similar results in the Tory Hill vein-dike fluorapatites as well, so, as more work is completed, we can expect to see more minerals added to the list. Hematite is certainly among them, as we can see the red in some of the fluorapatites. Most of the rest of these minerals have been found only as microscopic occurrences to date. Rare-earth element carbonates may ultimately be confirmed from the Tory Hill vein-dikes, as other similar vein-dike deposits have produced bästnasite-(Ce), synchysite-(Ce), and parisite-(Ce); allanite-(Ce). Anhydrite and dolomite have also been confirmed in other similar vein-dike deposits and we might expect to see these in the Tory Hill vein-dikes as well.

(5) And the Most Common Mineral…

Ice

For about six months of the year, ice is by far the most commonly encountered mineral… with snow building up to a seasonal maximum of up to about a metre (usually up to 2-3 ft) on the ground, usually starting in early November.  The last snow and ice remain into May.

Snow crystals, Bancroft Area

Attributed to the Tory Hill Vein-Dikes… Possibly Incorrectly?

A few minerals that have been attributed to the Tory Hill Vein-dykes remain questionable. We have consulted with others as well in this assessment. If you have any confirmed analysis that would help with these, we would love to hear from you!

Each of the minerals anorthite and annite have been named on mindat.org as having been found at either Bear Lake or Gibson Road East.  We’re not aware of any confirmation of anorthite and wonder  if the identification of “anorthite” has involved any analysis beyond visual observation of the play of light in some crystals, which can be typical of anorthite. Some of the microcline has an internal schiller and perhaps this has been mistaken for anorthite?

Similarly, we’re not aware of any analyzed mica from the Tory Hill vein-dikes having been confirmed to be annite. Analyses familiar to us have confirmed higher levels of magnesium and have been confirmed to be phlogopite.

On mindat there is an indication that Bear Lake has produced scapolite. We have never seen scapolite at Bear Lake or with an attribution of Bear Lake that could be verified. There are scapolite crystals in outcrops to the west of the Bear Lake workings by several km – these are not associated with the vein-dikes. However, it is worth noting that there is also the well-known locality of the same name in Quebec: Bear Lake, Litchfield, Pontiac RCM, Outouais, and that locality is famous for scapolite (meionite) and titanite – we believe this attribution to Bear Lake (Ontario) may result from confusion between the two localities.  We have never seen any scapolite in, or proximal to, any of the Gibson Road East vein-dikes either, and we don’t believe it occurs there.

Again, if you are able to shed any light on the above, please drop one of us a note!

The Short Collecting Season

The collecting season at the Tory Hill vein-dikes is short, beginning in May, dominated until late July by blackflies, mosquitoes and deer flies, and ending in later October before deer hunting season opens. As the collecting season draws to a close, the blanket of newly-fallen leaves fills the woods (including the painstakingly excavated vein-dikes!)

By the end of hunting season, the ground has already begun to freeze and snow is almost always on the ground…

..and, as every year, it’s time to wait until next season when we’ll try our luck yet again…

Thanks

Thank you to George Thompson and Terry Collet for all the fun adventures together, and all the great work we’ve managed to do out there together! In the same light, thanks to Eric Sinkins who collaborated on so many of the excursions to Bear Lake all those years ago, and to Charles Brisco, both for recent Gibson Road East collaborations and for the photos.

Many thanks to Glenn Poirier at the Canadian Museum of Nature for his electron microprobe analyses of Gibson Road East amphiboles.

Thanks to Peter Harlick for the fantastic idealized drawing of the vein-dike.

Additional Special Thanks from one of the Authors (me!)

Special thanks to Robert F. Martin, who taught me mineralogy at McGill University and, in 1992-3 worked together with me as my academic supervisor and co-conspirator on a study of the Bear Lake calcite vein-dikes. Bob conducted electron microprobe analyses of the Bear Lake minerals, and has been at the forefront of studies relating to the genesis of calcite vein-dike deposits worldwide, ever since (see the references, below).

Going back a long time, thanks to my late friend and mentor George Robinson, who kindly helped with much information about Bear Lake and other Ontario vein-dike localities, and taught me in part by patiently showing me many specimens from the reference collection at the Canadian Museum of Nature. Thanks also to Frank Melanson, who taught me about cleaning and preparation techniques for the specimens from the Tory Hill vein-dikes.

Also going back a long time, and into some level of detail not entirely reflected in this version of this work, thanks to Dr. Hans Mayn, Ken Binskin, Donald McFadyen and Harry Ablett for background information, history, and discussions which have helped me to understand the full scope of specimen production from the Tory Hill vein-dikes over the years, giving context for all that has followed.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

Private Property and Claims

Most of the property in the Tory Hill Vein-Dike area is private property or subject to mineral claims and as such is not open to public collecting. This post does not constitute advice or recommendation to travel to the localities mentioned, and any decision to do so is each person’s own risk and responsibility. Adherence to applicable law and respect of private property are fundamental, and each of us is individually responsible – for ourselves, families and friends, and to the mineral collecting community as a whole – to be compliant and respectful at all times. If you are crossing or conducting any activity on private property, appropriate permissions must be obtained.

Please Use Caution!

This is not a complete list of considerations if you are planning to collect in publicly-accessible Tory Hill vein-dikes, but collectors should have the following in mind:

The forests containing the Tory Hill vein-dikes are full of holes and hollows in the ground – some natural and some excavated over several decades – and these are often now obscured by leaves or fallen trees. Be careful not to fall into any! The ground can be steep and slippery, and the vein-dikes can be deep and dangerous. Because the woods get very slippery during and after a rain, collecting the vein-dikes when wet isn’t recommended and if you’re going to do it, it requires extreme caution.

Entering any vein-dike can be seriously treacherous. One can fall. One can get wedged or stuck (I’ve done all of this more than once). None of this feels good when it happens and it can go badly.

Many vein-dikes can accumulate significant amounts of water after spring or during a wet season – this can obscure how deep they are and also their actual shapes underwater.

Black bears are seen in these woods annually and can be dangerous. Please learn and understand about bears before spending any time in these forests. Bears are attracted to all food and other good-smelling items people carry with them. Black bears are typically not belligerent by nature, but they are strong creatures, they are often pretty confident in the woods, and they can be dangerous – they are most dangerous when startled, or when their cubs are nearby.

It is surprisingly easy to get lost or turned around in these woods. Be very careful to keep your bearings! (And it gets significantly harder after dark, when the vein dike you were in was so compelling that you didn’t want to leave. We know some of these woods so well, but it’s all different after dark. Remembering about all the holes and hollows in these forests, being out there in the dark was admittedly not smart and should be avoided.)

For all of the above reasons, I strongly urge you to please never wander or collect the Tory Hill vein-dikes alone.

This area is prone to relatively sudden summer thunderstorms. As many of the collecting spots are on the ridge, lightning strikes are a real risk. No one wants to be _that person_, holding a 4 ft-long steel pry bar at the top of a ridge in a lightning storm. Every year storms bring down large trees in these woods, and over the years, several have blocked (completely closed) the access road. In past years, storm rains have also washed out parts of the access road in a matter of minutes. Always keep a close eye on the weather here and never be out here in a thunderstorm.

Deer hunting season is popular in this area and many hunters frequent these woods in the fall. Never collect in these forests during deer hunting season.

As with all localities, any collecting in this area requires a safe approach, including work boots and gloves, usual protective gear and precautions.

References

Joyce, D. 2006. Calcite Vein-Dykes of the Grenville Geological Province, Ontario, Canada. Rocks & Minerals 81:34-42.

Lenz, D.R. 1998. Late tectonic U-Th-Mo-REE skarn and carbonatite vein-dyke systems in the south-western Grenville Province: A pegmatite-related pneumatolytic model linked to marble melting. Mineral Intrusion Related Skarn Systems, ed. D. R. Lentz. Mineralogical Association of Canada short course. 26: 519–657.

Martin, R., and J. Rakovan. 2013. The geology of apatite occurrences. Apatite: The Great Pretender, ed. J. Rakovan, G. A. Staebler, and D. A. Dallaire. Denver: Lithographie, Mineral Monograph 17: 38–48.

Martin, R., and D. Schumman, 2025. Varicolored Marble in the Central Metasedimentary Belt, Grenville Supergroup II, Petrogenic Insight From Apatite. The Canadian Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology 63: 223-247.

McDougall, R. 2019. Mineral Highlights from the Bancroft Area, Ontario, Canada. Rocks & Minerals 94: 408-418

Oberti, R., M. Boiocchi, F. C. Hawthorne, N. A. Ball and R. F. Martin. 2016. Ferri-fluoro-katophorite from Bear Lake diggings, Bancroft area, Ontario, Canada: a new species of amphibole, ideally Na(NaCa)(Mg₄Fe³⁺)(Si₇Al)O₂₂F₂.  Mineral Magazine 80:199-205.

Robinson, G. and S. Chamberlain. 1982. An Introduction to the mineralogy of Ontario’s Grenville Province. Mineralogical Record 13: 71-92.

Robinson, G., J. Chiarenzelli and M, Bainbridge. 2019. Minerals of the Grenville Province. Schiffer Publishing.

Tait, K., and M. Bainbridge. 2013. Thousand-pound crystals and eighty-carat gemstones—Canada is big. Apatite: The Great Pretender, ed. J. Rakovan, G. A. Staebler, and D. A. Dallaire. Denver: Lithographie, Mineral Monograph 17: 38–48.