Field Collecting - Basic Safety Rules

Collecting minerals and fossils in the field is a safe and enjoyable hobby.

Follow the basic rules below, use a bit of common sense, and have fun!

Rule #1   The easiest way to maim yourself is to use a rock hammer of any kind without eye protection. Chips of rock and steel blast into your face at high speed when hammering or chiselling, so unless you want to look at the world out of one eye, keep the safety glasses on.

#2   The easiest way to kill yourself is to enter abandoned mine adits or climb down shafts. Ontario has plenty of old mine shafts hidden in the bush, often unmarked, and just about every year somebody is killed by falling down one.

#3   There are three basic pieces of safety equipment that you need. All are cheap and easily available: Safety glasses of high-impact plastic protect your eyes. Safety boots with steel toes and a steel sole protect you from rolling rock, sharp objects, and twisted ankles. A hardhat is required in active mines or quarries.

#4   Hammering on or near any kind of vertical wall that is higher than you are tall is not a good idea. Rock slabs can come loose very easily, or loose material at the top can come down with just a bit of wind. Very stable-looking walls occasionally landslide in a spectacular manner. A good rule of thumb is that if the wall is 10 meters high, stay at least 15 meters away from it.

#5   Before you go wandering off in the bush by yourself, think for a bit about how much fun it would be to get good and lost, or have to walk back to the car with a broken leg. Bring along a collecting buddy at the least; a  topographic maps, a compass, GPS unit or a cell phone are useful as well.

Miscellaneous tidbits:

Summer temps in Ontario often get up towards the 30 degrees Celsius mark, so when exerting yourself drink lots of water, wear a hat, and take the odd break. Heat exhaustion kills lots of people every summer in North America, so do take this seriously.

Bug dope is almost always a necessity. West Nile disease is here, it's carried by mosquitoes, and you really do not want to contract it. A long-sleeved shirt and high-SPF suntan lotion will keep skin cancer at bay. Jeans are the best collecting pants, allowing you to sit and kneel on rough surfaces. Good heavy leather work gloves will protect you from sharp rocks, quartz is especially nasty, broken edges are actually sharper than a razor blade.

Keep a close eye on children, and remember that nobody under sixteen is allowed into active mines or quarries in Ontario.

Stay within shouting distance of other collectors, and familiarize yourself with the layout of the area beforehand. Taking shortcuts or wandering off on your own is a good way to get lost. If you do get lost, stay cool, stay put, and wait for the cavalry to arrive. Tell somebody where you're going and when you expect to be back before you go.

Talus slopes or rock piles are often not as stable as they look. Do not collect directly above or below another collector unless adept at dodging rolling rocks.

Keep in mind that when you get tired you get sloppy, and by the end of a hard day it's easy to smash a hand with a hammer or take a hard fall, especially with a heavy backpack affecting your balance.

When using a hammer and chisel, it's easy to really clobber the hand holding the chisel. Take it easy until you build up the necessary hand-eye coordination. A glove on the chisel hand will help, and a first-aid kit is a good thing to have if you're unlucky. Hitting a chisel with a small-headed hammer, like an Estwing rock pick, is not wise. Claw hammers and screwdrivers are not meant for rock collecting; do not use carpentry tools on rock.

Feel free to print and distribute the above,

if you include the source - ontariominerals.com.