New Brunswick Greisens

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone has experience in collecting minerals from the numerous greisens in New Brunswick. Many seem like they could potentially yield good specimens of wolframite, cassiterite, molybdenite, beryl, and fluorite. I have seen several specimens of fluorite, galena, quartz, and calcite from the Mt. Pleasant area and was impressed. Sadly, many of the localities which seem productive do not produce many specimens likely due to how remote they are.

Some interesting references I have found:

[www.jgeosci.org]

[dnre-mrne.gnb.ca]

Some of the localities report that they have produced cassiterite which is clear to orange. If the crystals are euhedral, they could be very nice. Also, numerous greisens described in the New Brunswick Sn occurrences pages are miarolytic.

If anyone has any knowledge of mineral collecting in these localities, I am very interested. I am seriously considering doing some collecting in these parts to evaluate their potential.

Been to Mt. Pleasant tin mine and other places in NB, uniformly disappointing. Loooots of driving to collect crap.

By all means you should do some investigation, maybe there's some good stuff in there somewhere, but personally, I wouldn't spend too much time, with the riches of Nova Scotia so close... I'd start with Ronnie Van Dommelen's site if I were you, he's unearthed stunning stuff.

Mount Pleasant and The old Tin Mine at East Kemptville have not been very productive, of late. I'm not even sure if you can access them now. They have produced some really nice specimens in the past. The old mine at Burnt River, New Brunswick it very interesting. I visited there ten years ago with the Walker Mineralogical Club and we collected very nice topaz and cassiterite crystals. Trouble is that it is in an active logging area and you need to get permission to pass the gate into the area AND actually find the mine which, as I recall, is difficult to find. Would be worhtwhile to try.

David K. Joyce