Thorite — Kemp Prospect, Cardiff Township, Hastings County, Ontario, Canada

The Kemp Prospect near Cardiff in Hastings County is a locality with real significance for Ontario collectors — a uranium and thorium bearing pegmatite occurrence in the Grenville that has produced genuine mineralogical interest for those who know the region. Thorite from this prospect represents a direct connection to the Shield geology of the Bancroft-Haliburton corridor, one of the most uranium and REE-enriched terranes in the province.

Thorite — thorium silicate, ThSiO₄ — is the thorium analogue of zircon and a member of the nesosilicate group. It is among the primary minerals of interest for collectors focused on thorium mineralogy, and Canadian material is relatively uncommon in the trade compared to specimens from classic overseas localities. At the Kemp Prospect it occurs in pegmatite context, typically as dark brown to black, resinous masses or poorly defined crystals that are almost universally metamict — the crystal structure long since rendered amorphous by the intense radioactive decay of the thorium it carries. This metamictization is itself scientifically meaningful, and thorite specimens are regularly used in geochronological research precisely because of their uranium-thorium-lead systematics.

Thorite is appreciably radioactive and should be stored and handled accordingly. For collectors with a focus on thorium minerals, Ontario provenance, or the Grenville Province specifically, the Kemp Prospect is a locality worth knowing — and this is a direct representative specimen from it. Not a common offering in the Canadian market.

Approx. specimen size: 45mm x 30mm x 23mm

Approx. specimen weight: 54.48 grams

Approx. specimen activity on an SE International Ranger EXP: 17430 CPM