For thousands of years quartz crystals have been used for survival in the form of arrowheads, knife blades and fire-starters. The original 'power tool', crystals were used as talismans, to predict the future and to channel and transmit healing energies.

When we examine clear quartz crystals, we are immediately struck by their magnificent, crystalline appearance. We notice that they are transparent, hexagonal (six-sided) points that exist individually or in clusters. They have such a precisely defined, geometric form that it is hard to believe they were mined in the ground 'as is ' and not cut, polished or man-made in any way. We wonder if this extraordinary gemstone has special properties. Can it really receive and transmit energy, as the ancient peoples believed?

Today, quartz crystals are omnipresent in our lives, and modern scientists have studied this mineral extensively. They have discovered that the basic component of quartz crystals is silica (molecules of oxygen and silicon), which has a geometric structure that gives rise to amazing and useful properties. To put it simply, quartz crystals are able to receive all forms of energy, which they can then store, transform, amplify and transmit. This is due to an innate capacity to vibrate at many different frequencies.

In a computer, the 'central intelligence' is composed of microchips made of pure silicon, which comes from quartz crystals. Quartz crystals receive radio waves and they also create the colors we see on a TV screen. It is also quartz crystals that keep time with such unflagging accuracy in our quartz watches.

Modern science uses the energy of quartz crystals in thousands of different applications and discovers new uses every day. In recent years health food supplements composed of pure silica have become available in a form that is easy to assimilate, and what's more, these supplements are known to be essential to health and well-being.

But can we interact directly with quartz crystals? Can we fell their energy and use their power? Yes! If we want to, we can learn to experience and work with the gemstone that ancient civilizations called 'the Philosophers' stone' and 'the Master Crystal'.

A mine full of beautiful crystals..... unique in Quebec and in Canada!

In 1989 Gaudry and Pauline Normand founded the company Mine Cristal. They began exploratory mining in the same location where, from 1959 to 1963, a company founded by Mr. Joseph-Armand Bombardier had extracted quartz for industrial uses. The Normands discovered a rich mineral life; not only giant quartz veins, but also magnificent and rare quartz crystals. They established three objectives - to extract by hand the rock crystals for collectors, to present the mine to visitors via an interpretation centre and to offer various specialized workshops related to quartz crystals.

Since 1989 these three aspects of Mine Cristal have happily coexisted : mining, tourist and educational. In recent years a cultural aspect was added, with the addition of concerts on crystal musical instruments.

Each summer over 15,000 visitors discover this beautiful and peaceful location, participate in guided mine tours and specialized workshops, visit the 'rock shop' and the museum, and attend crystal music concerts.

Our mine produces splendid quartz crystals with exceptional clarity and which can be as much as 60 cm (24 inches) long. Visitors that wish to visit the mine can do so with an expert guide who shares in-depth, fascinating information on the world of quartz and rock crystals.