Misc. Specimens from Yates Mine, Otter Lake, Pontiac RCM, Outaouais, Quebec, Canada

A collection of 8 specimens of various minerals including: Apatite, Fluorapatite, Chalcopyrite, Hornblende, Fluorite and a few others from the Yates Mine, Otter Lake, Pontiac RCM, Outaouais, Quebec, Canada.

The Yates Mine, located near Otter Lake in Quebec's Pontiac region, lies within the Grenville Geological Province—an area dominated by high-grade metamorphic and intrusive Precambrian rocks. The deposit is characteristic of a carbonate-hosted skarn system, where hydrothermal fluids from nearby igneous activity metasomatized limestone or dolomite, creating calc-silicate assemblages. This activity produced vuggy calcite-rich vein-dikes and skarn pockets rich in calcium-magnesium-iron silicate minerals typical of contact metamorphism zones. The area was first mined around 1906 and has since been reclaimed, but it remains a classic locality for distinctive mineral paragenesis.

Mineralogically, the Yates Mine is renowned for its large, gemmy green fluorapatite (a phosphate) crystals set in bright orange-pink calcite matrix—often displaying sharp terminations and occasional purple fluorite inclusions . Collectors also find crystalline phlogopite mica, black allanite-(Ce), scapolite (possibly meionite or marialite), pyroxenes such as augite and diopside, and occasionally even thorianite and minor uranium oxides. The assemblage reflects the complex interplay of skarn metasomatism and carbonate melt crystallization, resulting in striking mineral specimens prized by collectors.

Approx. weight of specimen lot: 387 grams total

Specimens come unlabelled.