he Mont Saint-Hilaire mineral collection is a national treasure. It is a collection of minerals
that represents the evidence of a particular locality of incredibly unique mineral specimens.
And these aren’t just unique in Canada; these are unique in the world.
Since the 1960’s, the Mont Saint-Hilaire mineral locality, near Montreal, Quebec, has been a
draw for mineral enthusiasts like Gilles Haineault. He has been collecting at the site for over 35 years.
The locality -- and Gilles Haineault’s large mineral collection -- is well-known by research scientists and curators
at the Canadian Museum of Nature, and around the world. We were aware that there was this important
collection that had really good specimens, a great representation of the minerals that
occur at Mont Saint-Hilaire. And a lot of material that would be great for our scientists to use in the future.
After 40 years of discoveries, my house was getting full! There was barely any place for living! There were rocks and minerals all over my house; I needed to find a proper storage solution. Being a Canadian, I thought the best place for my collection would be the Canadian Museum of Nature.
The Canadian Museum of Nature was able to acquire Gilles Haineault’s valuable mineral collection
of 8,000 specimens . This was made possible with the support of the Nature Foundation
-- the Museum’s new philanthropic arm. This collection is probably the most systematic and complete
Mont Saint-Hilaire collection in the world. Well 7,000 of about 8,000 specimens are going to be
research grade specimens and not to say that all of them will be used but
for the future for for museum scientists for university scientists and other mineralogists at
museums around the world having access to a suite of minerals that covers a variety of
different rock types you know exactly when they were picked up what rock type they were found in
what they're also associated with all of those things are very important when you're trying to
describe different minerals or describing new minerals serandite is the signature mineral
of monsanto layer and was what put multilingual air on the map and this specimen has a little
uh catech pseudomorph or taking the shape of a different mineral on its edge which just makes
it just a spectacular specimen we'll be able to share the stories that those minerals can tell us
about the earth about how heat and pressure and different minerals coalesce to create very unique
mineral specimens and some of those uh minerals include those associated with rare
earth elements which are absolutely critical to the functioning of phones and mri machines
so it's critically important information that we hope to share with canadians and with the world
the museum's acquisition of one of canada's newly designated national treasures ensures that the
collection remains intact in canada and accessible to canadians but this is only the beginning for
the gileno moscentilau mineral collection fully realizing the vision and creating and sharing
new knowledge from the study of the collection requires investment through the nature foundation
investments in research equipment digitization education and care and preservation will
contribute to inspiring future generations of earth scientists and mineral enthusiasts
creating new knowledge and advancing natural resource literacy