Gilles Haineault collection Mont Saint Hilaire

Ready for some eye candy? And John Stolz, not a dendrite to be found - proceed with abandon!

[www.euromineral.fr]

bio cut and paste from the site above:

Gilles Haineault is a passionate collector of minerals and for more than 25 years he has exclusively collected minerals from the Poudrette quarry in Mont-Saint-Hilaire. His collection is made almost exclusively of minerals specimens that were self-collected.

Currently almost 360 different mineral species have been identified at Mont-Saint-Hilaire and many mineral specimens not yet identified are under study and could become new mineral species. This makes it one of the most important mineralogical sites in the world.

Many of the mineral specimens that have been found are considered the best in the world for the species.

Haineaultite is a mineral that was named in recognition of his contribution to the advancement of mineralogy at Mont-Saint-Hilaire.

Note: The color of the specimens on these pictures is representative of reality.

Thank you Maggie,

A wonderful way to start the day. Just look at the size of some of them! I associate most of the stuff with micromounts - at least that's all I have!

PS I rather liked the dendrites...

Tim

Hi Tim -

Yes! More than once I remarked at the dimensions of the pieces - that 14 x 8 cm catapleiite is outstanding!

I also would like to point out that not only are these specimens that he collected himself, he is also the photographer!!

Maggie

I wonder if we could get him to upload them to mindat? They are really wonderful stuff.

Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.

Does anyone have Gilles' contact information?

Maggie,

There is an email address provided on the page:

collectionhaineault@sympatico.ca

steph

[slaps hand to forehead]

thanks, Steph!

Truly amazing. (picks jaw up from floor)

Just worldclass! Hoping such an assemblage will never be dispersed!
What a collection, beauty, rarity, originality, out of the beaten tracks and the trendy stuff, beyond imagination and my known world! Like a collection made on another planet! Canada has its own Tsumeb! This is probably only the tip of the iceberg...
Thanks for opening our eyes, Maggie! I am happy to not collect that mineralogy, so I can just and simply enjoy without desire!

Thanks Maggie for bringing this to our attention---the specimens are uniformly superb! I love the ilmenite especially but love them all!

Utterly fantastic, super..!

Incredible WOW! Thank you for showing us the link to this outstanding collection! I thought I had some nice Analcime WOW!

Just...wow.

What a beautiful collection, thanks for pointing this out, Maggie!

Those collectors pages are really interesting, but the Haineault collection - wow!

Darren

I'm glad you are enjoying it as much as I did - I came across the page quite by accident - Gilles' name came up in conversation regarding a specimen from Mont Saint Hilaire - I was looking for his contact information when I found this page.

And only now, when I read Darren's post do I realize that one could spend hours at this site looking at all of the OTHER collectors' galleries!

Bookmark this one!

Hi Maggie and all,

Would like to add a little something about the first two specimens shown on Gilles' Euromineral page.

First, the Mangan-neptunite, epididymite, etc... Jonathan Levinger and I were present when this material was found in the late fall of 2003.

T'was an enormous pegmatite, crescent-shaped and some 8-meters long, if I recall well. An incredible sight, but it came with its own private lil' waterfall...

Gilles spent a few hours working in nearly freezing water, soaked to the bones (he had to change clothes a few times), shivering to the point he could hardly speak ! The temperature outside was around 5 degrees Celsius, so his water-soaked garments were still flexible...

These were hard-earned specimens !

And the Shortite crystal came from... a can ! Yes, the Campbell Soup type...

Gilles knew, looking at the rock powder expelled from the drill hole, that the machine had bored through a mineralized cavity, and he could see a part of it some way down.

He thus attached a can to a wire, let it down to a point lower than the pocket, and managed to shake loose some material (not sure with what, though).

Something fell in the can with other debris : this perfect shortite !

This one, at least, was an easily-earned specimen !

And the bios with the collectors pages are great as well!!! Jean-Yves, love your comments!

Darren