Our Product

Indeed reality differs from one person to the next and however you see it, the physical presence of our earth crystals is an impressive sight, especially as we discover them in their natural repose. When you imagine a pirate treasure you see glittering gemstones amongst a horde of gleaming coins. Crystals are cut into gemstones, though some have greater value in their natural state, as crystals. Most earth crystals are quite unsuited to being gems; their power is in something other than what you can see.  

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“Earth Crystals” are our specialty. They are lifted loose from the middle of a fissure, dropped there by eroded calcite, formed within that medium and preferably doubly terminated which indicates their unrestricted growth. No hammer or extracting tool should have touched its surface. A gloveless hand is what we employ to feel a crystal face in its soil (or mud) – that’s an “Earth Crystal”.

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What we are assured of is that Dark Star’s crystals were borne of extruded calcite at the edges of an ancient pluton, and closer to the surface they drew sustenance from the overlying metamorphic country rock. That rock, mainly gneisses and schist had been changed by forces as speculated to be of a magnitude as was applied in the formation of the stars. These crystals come from what to our belief was  the beginning of time. Now underlying the rough terrain of the Canadian Shield these mathematically grown wonders are bought to market in what we hope is a relatively respectful and environmentally conscious way.

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What comes from Dark Star’s claim are a suite of silicate-based crystals of a generally earthy tone. Most comfortable at depth earth crystals can crack and dull in the sunlight. You have to be careful with them at their first exposure on the surface. Best they reach an ambient temperature gradually and in the shade. They’re best kept indoors, dry and in a relatively stable conditions.

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As they grew, crystals from Dark Star’s Mines incorporated trace elements from the rich fluid in which they were growing. These elements in greater concentration are sought by those who hope to power our economy’s modern advancement. It’s not just basic elements but rather rarities of structure and content – grown in double chain silicate tetrahedra as part of the discontinuous branch of the Bowen’s reaction series. From our perspective science clearly supports what we have in front of us and in part, how we understand some part of them, but we also believe that our amphiboles and associated crystals embody what Alexander Thomas refers to as “Fragments of possibilities and reflections of alternate realities”, qualities that are yet to be discovered.

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Recently an unknown crystal species (Ferri-fluoro-katophorite) appeared at the adjacent “Bear Lake Diggings” as greenish-grey prisms amongst the usual blackened amphiboles. There are so many species amongst the area’s crystals that only lab analysis can tell us exactly what we have. Thus far its said that this new mineral has occurred soley as a skin over amphibole. I’m sure in time we will uncover many other variations, all equally valuable, but as our inability to test every specimen in a lab, much will be unknowingly passed on to you.

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Finding a matrix is especially exciting as we are assured that it’s diversity is significant. Any one clump could well hold apatite, titanite, pyroxenite and more common amphiboles such as fluor–richtertite, however the species exist in a solid solution series with end members having various proportions of magnesium and iron. Species are further defined by being in either the monoclinic or orthorhombic crystal systems and sodium or calcite elements in what is known as the X2 position of the mineral chemical formula. Our generically termed “amphiboles” could be any of the already known 72 species, or possibly another new type of crystal. Who knows exactly what we are offering – we don’t – nobody does. You might pay $50 and come away with something worth in the thousands, but again, how do you price a crystal?

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We see our product as something other than just a commodity. We provide earth crystals of totally natural and ancient lineage; they grew in a womb of liquid rock, transitioning from olivine and solidifying into any one of many species depending upon the cooling or silicate content. Each fissure in the region has its own specific mix and that defines what grows in it. Its usually the top of the fissure and the mineralization there that tells us what’s lying deeper down. Each crystal that’s liberated is unique, an individual like no other, possibly sharing an identical unit cell like its neighbor, but evolving in a slightly different way.

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Eloquently it has been said that crystals grow as arithmetic flowers and on our claim these flowers abound in a quantity to put a meadow in the South of France to shame. Our flowers never die unless they’re shattered by a clumsy hammer during extraction.

What we have often found and which sometimes appears in matrix ….

 

Microcline: A lighter colored potassium rich feldspar that is often found in prisms or smaller tabular shapes interspersed with amphibole. Bigger microclines are found in ivory and bone-white prisms. Amazonite is a well-known blue variety of microcline that people believe brings luck.

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Plagioclaise: Like microcline, this crystal is a form of feldspar and product of a continuous solid solution series containing varying amounts of sodium and calcium. It can vary into the darker colors with the beautiful peacock shimmering labradorite as one of its better known sub-species.

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Quartz: Forming in the last stages of the Bowen’s reaction series this crystal is usually clear to milky white and fractures concoidally because of its 3 dimensional linking of tetrahedron. We have discovered at least one pegmatite on our property that appears to have euhedrally formed quartz crystals and massive pink feldspar crystals. Another one of our claims - seperate from the vein dyke claim seems to yield a significant diversity of quartz from what we think is a skarn. There is plain rock crystal, quartz with hematite spheres that we call "Martian Pumpkins", also aquartz points with a thick skin of hematite and amethyst with orange spheres of what we think is limonite - we call them "Martian Pumpkins". and last but not least, smoky quartz clusters with perfect crystal form. From a metaphysical perspective quartz is in great demand as a cleansing and healing agent.

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Titanite: A calcium titanium silicate of the monoclinic system. In its gem variety it appears between yellow and gum-drop green with a massive double refraction. On our claim titanite has thus far been relatively hard to find, but it does appear quite frequently in matrix thumb-nail sized and hiding amongst a forest of amphibole columns. You’ll know titanite for its wedge shaped snout, sometimes appearing from within another crystal. Titanite’s incredible luster reveals its presence to the casual glance. There’s very little else in nature that reflects light from its surface to such an intense degree.

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Apatite: This is probably the signature mineral of central and eastern Ontario’s vein-dyke fissures. It occurs in usually small, but occasionally monstrous sized crystals of green, blue and red. Transparency varies according to depth and fissure and the best crystals are those that are least fractured and of a pleasing color. The best crystals on the Dark Star Claim are found below the frost line and we have found doubly terminated giants the like of which are rarely found at Tory hill or the now inaccessible Bear Lake property. Our apatite holds the critical minerals of phosphate, neodymium and praseodymium in its form and you can easily see the presence of these rare-earth elements in a simple spectroscope.

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Amphibole: This crystal is possibly the most common on our claim, it occurs most frequently in stubby prisms that are clumped together and have formed free-floating in the once molten calcite. The fissure that we call “the big dig” has yielded amphiboles that are speckled red with a mineral that we are unsure of. As there are at this time 72 known species of amphibole, it’s hard for us to indisputably distinguish one crystal from another. Unless we are sure (and that requires lab analysis) we’ll simply call our black crystals amphibole. Subspecies that we can confidentially identify are grey-green prisms of actinolite/tremolite, in fact we have huge euhedral tremolites along some 100 feet of exposed escarpment. At this time we have no way to ethically extract those crystals – they’re too beautiful and delicate for us to risk damaging them.  Other amphiboles on our claim are horneblende with radioactive trace elements and super-glossy fluor-richterites in slender prisms. Other nearby deposits are known for their fluor-richterites, and thus far the vent that we call, “The Whale Hole”, is thought to soon become a lucrative source of that crystal.

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Pyroxenite: Like our more common amphibole crystals the pyroxenites are also rich in iron and magnesium, but they can be differentiated from the amphiboles by their almost 90 degree cleavages. Looking down at the cross section of the prism it takes the shape of an 8 sided stop sign as opposed to the six sided amphibole, but again the classic shape is often complicated by the close growth of other crystals and modifications. Forming directly before the amphiboles in the discontinuous cooling process we are less likely to find pyroxenites on our claim, but they still exist as augite, diopside and enstatite. Having cooled before amphibole, the proxenites are composed of single chain tetrahedral which is responsible for its distinctive cleavage.

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Biotite: This crystal forms after amphibole in the Bowen’s Reaction series from sheets of interlocking tetrahedral as opposed to the chains that make up amphibole and pyroxenite. Thus far we commonly find biotite in crystals up to a foot across and glossy black, tending toward golden brown at its edges. It is considered by those of a metaphysical view to be a great protectant and known for dispelling negative thoughts and feelings.

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Zircon: A tetragonal crystal with a four sided prism and pyramidal terminations. The crystal can appear in euhedral form as rough and opaque or it could also be perfectly transparent and glittering as few other crystals are – a pure gem.

 

Calcite: We have both calcite crystals and massive calcite in our vein-dykes. Weathered it is often a mustard yellow with its distinctive cross-hatched texture. Scrape it with a key and you’ll know its not quartz. Most common in the Bear Lake area is the calcite that plugs the fissures; it is the medium in which other crystals have grown. Often, especially on the ceiling of voids in the rock, calcite has grown interspersed with feldspar and amphibole. Other colors on our claim can be pink, salmon, ivory white or bone white depending upon the fissure. Translucence can also vary and it can well accent and highlight those crystals trapped within it. Big plates of calcite with embedded crystals are especially popular with those who have more to spend. They take some effort to carry out of the forest and they are exceptionally delicate so they need to be set on foam mats for the journey back to HQ. And then there are the calcites in our skarn deposit on the second claim. They come as 6 inch crystals, embedded with glittering quartz points, but notoriously difficult to extract.

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What we sometimes find are crystals that are yet to be identified by science.