Princess Sodalite Mine (previously the Princess Sodalite Quarry) is a

sodalite Sodalite ( ) is a tectosilicate mineral with the formula , with royal blue varieties widely used as an wikt:ornamental, ornamental gemstone. Although massive sodalite samples are opaque, crystals are usually transparent to translucent. Sodalite i ...

quarry and retail shop, located near

Bancroft, Ontario Bancroft () is a town located on the York River in Hastings County in the Canadian province of Ontario. It was first settled in the 1850s by United Empire Loyalists and Irish immigrants. From the mid-1950s to about 1982, mining was the primar ...

. The sodalite deposit was first discovered in 1892.

Nomenclature and history

The mineral deposit was first found by

Frank Dawson Adams Frank Dawson Adams (September 17, 1859 – December 26, 1942) was a Canadian geologist. Early life and education Frank Dawson Adams was born into a prosperous, middle-class family in Montreal, Quebec. Adams attended the High School of Montr ...

in 1892.Gem, Kitchener-Waterloo.
''Mineral of the Month: SODALITE''
" (2006). Sodalite from the quarry was displayed at the

Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...

in Chicago in 1893. The

Princess of Wales Princess of Wales (Welsh: ''Tywysoges Cymru'') is a courtesy title used since the 14th century by the wife of the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. The current title-holder is Catherine (née Middleton). The title was firs ...

was given a gift of sodalite from the quarry in 1901 at the

Pan-American Exposition The Pan-American Exposition was a World's Fair held in Buffalo, New York, United States, from May 1 through November 2, 1901. The fair occupied of land on the western edge of what is now Delaware Park, extending from Delaware Avenue to Elmwood A ...

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

. She liked it so much that she ordered a shipment to decorate

Marlborough House Marlborough House, a Grade I listed mansion in St James's, City of Westminster, London, is the headquarters of the Commonwealth of Nations and the seat of the Commonwealth Secretariat. It was built in 1711 for Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marl ...

, in London, England. Thomas Morrison, the quarry's owner at the time, named the quarry the Princess Sodalite Quarry after her visit. The ''Quarry'' name continued through the 20th century until at least 2002. In 1999, the owners of the quarry donated a sodalite boulder to the Earth Sciences Museum at the

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario Waterloo is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is one of three cities in the Regional Municipality ...

in Ontario.
The quarry was owned by Paul Rasmussen and Carl Bosiac, the 8th owners, who sold it to the ninth owner Andy Christie.

Location and geology

The quarry is located four kilometres east of Bancroft, Ontario on

Ontario Highway 28 King's Highway 28, commonly referred to as Highway 28, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. The southwest–northeast route extends from Highway 7 east of Peterborough, to Highway 41 in Denbigh. T ...

. It is on rock with calcite vein-dikes that intruded into

nepheline Nepheline, also called nephelite (), is a rock-forming mineral in the feldspathoid groupa silica-undersaturated aluminosilicate, Na3 K Al4 Si4 O16, that occurs in intrusive and volcanic rocks with low silica, and in their associated pegmatites ...

gneiss Gneiss ( ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Gneiss forms at higher temperatures an ...

rock, with nepheline prismatic crystals attached to the walls of the dikes. The quarry is the only source of sodalite in Ontario, where it was once nominated (but ultimately rejected) to be the official provincial mineral.

References

{{Authority controlExternal links

Official website
Quarrying 1892 in Ontario Mining companies of Canada Gemstone mines History of Hastings County

Nomenclature and history

Location and geology

See also

References

{{Authority controlExternal links