Global Database of Pegmatite Localities

 T. Scott Ercit, Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1P 6P4

A first draft of a global database of granitic pegmatites is now completed.  At present there are over 1200 localities in the database.  The majority of these (40%) are Canadian occurrences, representing the author’s main area of expertise.

The database contains the following fields:

Mine name – current name of the mine, quarry, prospect or pegmatite occurrence

Synonyms – alternate (past) names for the pegmatite

Locality name – name of a nearby town or geographic feature

Site location – a short description of the location of the pegmatite

Lot & concession numbers – in (regions of) countries where applicable

Section, township & range numbers – in (regions of) countries where applicable

Geographic ranking – township, county, province/state and country names

Topographic map reference – name or number of an official topographic map for the area

Latitude and longitude

Quality of all geographic information – an indication of the degree of reliability of data

Site references – a short list of publications, preferably one professional, one popular

Contributor – name of individual who has compiled the data

Figure 1. Results of a search for pegmatites in Dickens Township, Ontario, Canada
(obtained by clicking the “Tp” button). 

The following fields can be used in searching the database:  mine name (includes synonyms), location (nearby towns, lakes, etc.), township, county, province or state, country, topographic map number or name, latitude and longitude (all pegmatites close to a given set of coordinates are listed).

Scheduled improvements to the database include an indication of the gross geochemistry (NYF, LCT, or undefined), and a list of minerals for each locality.

Figure 2. Full Record for the Dickens Mica Mine (obtained by double-clicking the corresponding record in Fig. 1) 

The database exists as a Microsoft Access program (Figs. 1, 2), but is also available as an ASCII file.  Copies are available at no charge, with only one restriction.  The database will only be made available to persons interested in contributing data. To become a contributor, contact the author at sercit@mus-nature.ca.