CN Mine dump 웃 Ontario, Canada! 웃 ⚑ ✍ ☑

CN mine dump

It was a long day, completely forgot to take photos and to be honest, 
I was so tired I didnt even get a good chance to find what I was after. I figured, what the heck, Its only about an hour away, I'll come back and have a crack at it later this year. For now, this will have to do. 


Another easy locale for the rock collector and it is still an impressive mound of rubble hording a few interesting specimens. I only noticed extremely small fragments of sodalite intermixed amongst things, and to be honest I dont know much about the rock here. So, I decided I'd take a few samples, study it back at home and come again with an educated guess. 
No need to worry about bears here, Only joggers, 
OoooOoooOooHH'gooody bOOooOogedy!
(Its Halloween... Im in the spirit.)

CN Mine dump- Bancroft, Ontario.

Im not sure if your suppose to pull right up, but I did. I had been to three mines already and this was like going to help a friend move an entire house after just winning a firemen competition.
In front of the car you can see a white mound, that is the mine dump. Say maybe 20-30 ft high, dont ask me how wide, yeeessh. Very relaxing spot. Very convenient to just pull up. No need for major tools. 

All thats needed is 

1. Bucket, 
2. pick 
3. crack hammer 
4. goggles 
5. gloves
6. something to shovel the rock

Also, its always best to bring a bottle of water to wash specimens of dirt 
( if you can get a squirt bottle from a tattoo supplier they work  really well for this). 

And to be honest, that would be overkill, you can just go and pick samples off the ground if you want.

I will give a more detailed experience of how to get there and the minerals available on the second trip as this was all a blur of adrenaline fueled rockhounding by this time in the day.  

I shall come back and conquer you CN mine... I shall!. 
( Muah huh hahahah, hahaha) 
( Sorry, sorry, Halloween, Wont do it again.)

............. BOO!!!!!!

Ontario prospectors license, ♛ rockhounding to ⚖ the next level! ♛

Ontario prospector's license

While some could use this card to pull off evil acts of legal property invasion and lawful plunder, anyone who does so should be tarred and feathered, but hey, Im old fashioned.

This little card here is somewhat of an all access pass across Ontario lands, allowing rockhounds the opportunity to prospect provincial parks, penetrate and probe private properties, even pillage small amounts of  "Sample material" for "analysis".
or, to take it a step further,
set up a mine in your backyard -(WOW eh)

While there have been some amendments to the rules recently, with certain central and southern areas of Ontario said to be off limits, let us not forget, this is Ontario. With the right amount of money, connections or economy driven impact,  anything is possible. So yes, special exceptions can be made believe it or not, and, if you just so happen to be living on gold ANYWHERE in Ontario, and sadly, not own your mineral rights ( as most dont, they are not usually included in the sale of  a house ).
Someone might just set up shop on YOUR property,  regardless of what previous plans you've made or weddings you are about to throw.

Ontario's laws continue to amaze me.

Something I just found at the side of the house. There looks to be quartz on one side but the rest I have no clue. Very strange looking piece.



























Just another table full of overflow and in need of labeling.  I will do a grand tour of my minerals one day, once I have everything set up nice, for now, its all in barn light, lol.

Lots of pyrite mixed samples.

Boxes and boxes of rocks.

Overflow display of rock samples

Racks and racks of rocks and fossils.
Im not sure how long I can keep this up, I might need a building or two just to continue this hobby.

Carboniferous limestone fossil

Fossils found in the backyard, mostly Carboniferous limestone. 

◊ ♦ ◊( Gold in madoc ) ◊ ♦ ◊ 金 Theres gold in them there hills!! 金

Location is secret, the stash is plenty, the element is in question. Is it gold flake on this quartz or some form of pyrite? I believe its gold....well, I'm hoping its gold. If its true, this might mean there is more in this little off road area, tucked away in a place never mined before.

As you can see, the pieces were substantially large in some areas. Compared to my hammer, it's a decent sized specimen.

This is probably my favourite of the bunch, it glows a shimmering gold colour in any light. from front to back its got showings of gold.

Uraninite? combination specimen

(If anyone can help me with this I would appreciate it) 

There is quartz on the bottom with what appears to be a layer of pyrite followed by these black crystals BUT WAIT!! to the left of those crystals/gems is a tiny piece of galena. I need to take a better photo as my iphone just wasnt getting a good shot. but its quite easy to tell in person that its galena, so, that leaves me with these mystery crystals/gems. all in all, 4 elements on one matrix makes me one happy hiker.

Is the black mineral uraninite?

 Another shot, still cant see the galena but it gives a better showing of the quartz.

 any ideas? shale with iron staining?

 Its seems to have pyrite on some samples.

 schist?

View of everything collected in Madoc trip. Large batch of gold covered quartz separated into two categories, quartz with visible gold on/in it, and D grade gold quartz, barely visible with gold but from the same area.

 Another large quartz with gold wrapping around it.

 This is the last of the large gold covered quartz, WOW, what a looker.

 One more shot of the mammoth quartz gold rock.

 Found this in my backyard, It seems to have many fossils in it.

There seems to be three different fossils embedded that I can see so far.