Why is Hastings County known as the “Mineral Capital of Canada”?
 

by Chris Fouts, Geologist

Hastings County has an incredible variety of mineral species that can be found, due to its geologic history. Spanning over 1.5 billion years, the bedrock is a combination of sediments, lava flows, plutonic intrusions, and hot fluid interactions. 
 

Rocks of the Canadian Shield in North Hastings tell a story of complex geological processes. Plate tectonics moving pieces of the Earth’s crust around, continents colliding to mash together sedimentary rock, oceanic crust and continental crust material.  
 

In spectacular fashion, the continental crust that would become North America collided with crust that would become Africa and Europe, in the process squeezing together island systems that were in between and pushing up mountains that would rival the present-day Himalayan range. 
 

The rounded undulating hills of North Hastings are the eroded roots of that mountain range. Exposing rocks which have undergone the heat and pressure of 10 to 20 kilometers of overlying crust.  
 

Centre and South Hastings exhibit sedimentary rocks of the Paleozoic era, (roughly 500 to 350 million years old), overlying the Precambrian rock, and hosting, in places, fossils and occasionally karst features such as caves.  
 

Although Hastings County contains many varieties of minerals, (many which were mined for a time), its mineral deposits tend to be small. This was fine for early settlers and development in the County, but after the 1920’s most of these deposits were too small to have commercial value. Abandoned mines, quarries and exploration pits today make great mineral collecting sites, if they are accessible. 
 

Hastings County is well known not so much for its unusual minerals, but for the size and shape of many common rock forming minerals, such as apatite, feldspars, mica, amphiboles, pyroxenes, titanite, zircon and scapolite. Indeed, mineral specimens of Hastings County adorn museums and universities around the world today. 
 

Most Earth scientists are familiar with the name “Bancroft”, long before they ever get to visit the area.