Thanks to the efforts of some tireless volunteers and the generosity of several mining companies, Canada’s National Museum of Natural Sciences may soon be endowed with one of the most remarkable mineral collections ever assembled.
The William Pinch collection, consisting of 16,000 specimens, may soon be added to the existing collection at the museum putting it among the top five such collections in the world.
It hasn’t come easily, though. For the past two years, a group of volunteers led by Donald Doell of Montreal, a physician, has spearheaded the drive to acquire the Pinch collection. Thanks to $150,000 put up by the federal government in 1987, Canada has an option to buy the collection before 1990. The total cost of acquisition and housing for the collection is set at $7 million. Already, donations from the private sector have totalled $2 million with several gifts in the range of $150,000 to $350,000 coming from individual mining companies.
“The response has been very heartening and quite generous,” says Peter Reesor, one of those involved in the fund raising effort.
The federal government has added $3 million, giving the group enough to buy the collection, but another $2 million is needed to properly house it. Reesor says there is every indication they will meet their target.
Considering the importance of minerals in Canada’s history, to its current and its future prosperity, the acquisition is one that deserves such support from everyone involved in mining industry.
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