Princess Sodalite Mine (previously the Princess Sodalite Quarry) is a sodalite quarry and retail shop, located near Bancroft, Ontario. The sodalite deposit was first discovered in 1892.
Nomenclature and history[edit]
The mineral deposit was first found by Frank Dawson Adams in 1892.[1] Sodalite from the quarry was displayed at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.[1] The Princess of Wales was given a gift of sodalite from the quarry in 1901 at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.[1] She liked it so much that she ordered a shipment to decorate Marlborough House, in London, England.[1] Thomas Morrison, the quarry's owner at the time, named the quarry the Princess Sodalite Quarry after her visit.[2] The Quarry name continued through the 20th century[3][4] until at least 2002.[5]
In 1999, the owners of the quarry donated a sodalite boulder to the Earth Sciences Museum at the University of Waterloo in Ontario.[6]
The quarry was owned by Paul Rasmussen and Carl Bosiac, the 8th owners, who sold it to the ninth owner Andy Christie.[2][7]
Location and geology[edit]
The quarry is located four kilometres east of Bancroft, Ontario[1] on Ontario Highway 28.[8] It is on rock with calcite vein-dikes that intruded into nepheline gneiss rock, with nepheline prismatic crystals attached to the walls of the dikes.[9]
The quarry is the only source of sodalite in Ontario, where it was once nominated (but ultimately rejected) to be the official provincial mineral.[1]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e f Gem, Kitchener-Waterloo. "Mineral of the Month: SODALITE." (2006).
- ^ a b Gordon, Michael (2015). Rockhound: An Experience of the North. pp. 79–87. ISBN 978-1-312-99297-9.
- ^ James, Richard Stephen (May 1965). The Properties of Sodalite and its Petrogenesis at the Princess Quarry, Bancroft, Ontario (Thesis). hdl:11375/18909.
- ^ JAMES, RS (1968). "An occurrence of sodalite at Princess quarry Bancroft Ontario". Canadian Mining and Metallurgical Bulletin. 61 (671).
- ^ Larocque, A. C. L.; Stimac, J. A.; McMahon, G.; Jackman, J. A.; Chartrand, V. P.; Hickmott, D.; Gauerke, E. (1 January 2002). "Ion-microprobe analysis of FeTi oxides: Optimization for the determination of invisible gold". Economic Geology. 97 (1): 159–164. doi:10.2113/gsecongeo.97.1.159.
- ^ Rocks & Minerals; Jan/Feb 1999, Vol. 74 Issue 1, p64[title missing]
- ^ Joyce, Gare (2004). Rockhound heaven. Canadian Geographic Magazine. OCLC 670443919.
- ^ Avery, Pete, and Joaquin Cortes. "The Grenville Terrain, Canada Field Guide." 2006
- ^ Joyce, David K. (January 2006). "Calcite Vein-Dikes of the Grenville Geological Province Ontario, Canada". Rocks & Minerals. 81 (1): 34–42. doi:10.3200/RMIN.81.1.34-42. S2CID 129157370. ProQuest 231984951.