Mineral(s): Quartz Location: Steep Rock Iron Mine, Atikokan, Schwenger Twp. Rainy River, Ontario, Canada Size: 10.5 x 3.0 x 4.0 cm Provenance: Ray Bernatchez Collection Description: A beautiful, doubly terminated quartz crystal with a surface dusting and inclusions of hematite. The main crystal is ‘curved’ – an unusual habit for Steep Rock Iron Mine. There are several sidecar crystals including a 4.2 cm doubly terminated (multiple). There is a large ‘ding’ on one face of the crystal that is not noticeable from the front of the specimen. This specimen is from Ray Bernatchez’s personal collection and was self-collected during his tenure as the mine geologist at Steep Rock Iron Mines. Steep Rock Iron Mines are long closed, but during the mining period of the 1950’s and 60’s the mines produced world class specimens of manganite, hematite, geothite, quartz and siderite. The ore body was discovered in 1938 and over 110 million yards of silt, gravel and rock were removed to expose the ore body. The development of the mine was an unparalleled engineering feat at its time. The mine is long closed and specimens like this are unattainable except from unique old collections. A recent visit to the mine reaffirmed that there will be no new collected specimens emerging from the flooded locale.
