Dundas Quarry
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a.k.a. Lafarge Quarry - Dundas, Ontario

The Quarry History: Limestone has been quarried from this deposit since 1935. It is classified as bituminous dolomitic limestone. The formation is called the Guelph and Lockport Formation and was formed in the Silurian Period. The quarry is one of the largest in Canada. The Canada Crushed Stone Division of SteeTley Industries operates the quarry for blast furnace flux, crushed stone and lime.

Mineral List   Mineral Images   Sources of Information
 

A BLAST at the Dundas Quarry
   
April 1st .... Before the blast
 		  

During the blast		    

After the blast

 

    

Rainy Day Collecting		  

Searching through a fresh blast pile		    

 

Minerals of the Lafarge Quarry, Dundas Ontario
Compiled by T.J., London Gem and Mineral Club, Photos by NG
  • Calcite - well formed scalenohedral XLS, "dogtooth"; rhombs with curved faces; honey-coloured to transparent
  • Celestite - bladed or tabular white and blue XLS; fragile; 1"+ in width with inclusions of chalcopyrite
  • Fluorite - clear, yellow-brown, purple and green (rare) cubic XLS to 3"; purple massive
  • Gypsum - glassy, clear cleavage plates are variety selenite; small transparent crystals; white granular masses in the walls
  • Sphalerite - amber to black XLS; often rounded faces; bluish tinge and resinous lustre, XLS and radiating fibrous aggregates
  • Galena - metallic gray cubic XLS up to 1"
  • Pyrite - as small brassy yellow cubes, pyritohedrons and multi-coloured octahedrons; micro material has been found in many XL habits e.g. "stag-horns"
  • Marcasite - bronze yellow XLS often intergrown with pyrite; coxcomb habit
  • Quartz - colourless to white; XLS, botyoidal or spherical aggregates
  • Selenite - colourless crystals
  • Strontianite - colourless XLS, white crusts and spheres
  • Dolomite - white to yellowish
  • Chalcopyrite - brass-yellow tetrahedral XLS
  • Pyrrhotite - bronze yellow to copper red hexagonal plates; usually massive; unstable
  • Aragonite - white, fibrous
  • Melanterite - colourless to grey white powder, fine hairs appear as secondary formation on sulfides

The following are found as powdery to fine crystalline coatings:

  • Anglesite - white coating on galena
  • Cerussite - greyish white
  • Goethite - rusty
  • Gunningite - greyish white
  • Rozenite - white
  • Sulphur - yellow to rusty

Also reported:

  • Copiapite (yellow) 
  • Hydrozincite 
  • Plagionite 
  • Romerite
  • Smithsonite

Also found:

  • Chert - white & brown, occurs as nodules and lenses
  • Hydrocarbons - black lustrous; occurs as small nodules and irregular patches
  • Fossils that include crinoids, corals, bryozoa, brachiopods, gastropods and trilobites; some of them are replaced by small dolomite crystals
IMAGES of Minerals Collected at the Dundas Quarry, Ontario, Canada
CALCITE
 

CALCITE on CELESTINE with SELENITE 
   
 
     
    Brown FLUORITE
       
SELENITE    
   
     
Banded CHERT -rough, egg & tumbled    
   
     
 
 

 

Information Sources:
CMMA Jan/Feb/712
Unidentified Sheet dated March 24, 1985
Sabina, Ann. Rocks and Minerals (Bancroft - Parry Sound) 1986.

 

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