Our Journey
Adnan Kashoggi, Saudi millionaire and once reputed to be the richest man in the world wrote from his Swiss jail (a temporary setback in his plans) that his success had been based on a simple formula. Firstly Adnan believed that opportunity visited every person several times in their life. His first tenant was to see that opportunity when it was presented. According to who you are and what you believe that fortuitous moment will differ in appearance.
Adnan had seen his opportunity in arms dealing and shady transactions in the Middle East. Our belief is that everything comes at a price, either we’ve pre-paid, or the price is yet to be exacted. According to our beliefs we saw our opportunity in something that was set before us by the fates – raw crystal treasure that came in an abundant supply. Well we at Dark Star love crystals and here was an opportunity to spend our life in their presence. Up until now those of our partnership all worked in divergent fields, but without true life satisfaction. Surely our lives until then had been building the skills to be successful as crystal miners and with some patience and major effort maybe we could take the opportunity somewhere.
Thus it was that we were then faced with the second point of Kashoggi’s formula – having the courage to take that opportunity. Coming as an opportunity it’s already written in the stars that you can be successful. Failing that, something that looks like an opportunity, but has only failure written into its outcome seems more like a trap. Well in committing to a certain path the secret is to distinguish between the road to success and the road to failure and might we add that success is purely subjective. If it’s only money at any cost you end up like Adnan. We hoped that our vision of success was something of greater significance, learning, teaching, bringing happiness to others and of course prosperity to our endeavor.
So courage and being assured of our worth was needed and between us we talked it out and decided that we had the skills and commitment to fulfill a venture as improbable as that which faced us. Yes, the Government agents with whom we interacted seemed surprised that we would rise up from what was then termed “Grass-roots Prospectors”. We were soon disabused of that notion. A simple 7 page assessment report became inadequate. We then found ourselves submitting something in the realm of 50 pages with maps and photos and untold hours of research. You see, we aspired to fill the role of what was typically considered to be the domain of large established mining companies, but in truth we knew nothing of the needed set-up.
At a meeting in early 2023 we finally committed to Dark Star Crystal Mines knowing that success was not assured, but believing that our efforts governed the outcome and unless we looked at the usual impediments as something to step over we had only a future where we chose it. We knew we had to step it up a notch and the vagaries of the economy, border tariffs, layoffs and the declining loonie all pressed heavily upon us, but as they say, “one door closes another opens”. Hopefully this door has opened to us.
Considering the fates (‘the Spinner’, ‘the Allotter’ and ‘the Inevitable’), we believe they played a part. Our all-important opportunity came one afternoon when we were driving back from an eastern Ontario rockhound trip. It had not been successful. Idle conversation had Mark mentioning that he’d been looking at a mining map and had seen some promising geology. It extended on beyond the boundaries of a well-known area that we knew to be conducive to incredible crystal collecting. Here we were firmly in the clutches of ‘Lachesis’ (the Allotter). We took a short detour as coincidentally we were right near that spot and we stopped beside the road where we assumed that the right geology might be. It was all pretty random, not based on exact coordinates of a satellite photo – just what felt like an idle curiosity.
Getting out of the car as much to stretch our legs as to see the terrain we wandered through the leafy screen and found ourselves in shaded woodland. Breathing deeply were energized by the pungent smell of leafy decomposition and mushrooms. There were few bugs and this made it ideal for further investigation.
What was immediately apparent to us were the leaf-filled fissures. They defined the unusual landscape. Trees were thinly rooted and growing larger when over top of a crevice. Could it be what we’d hoped for in the car? Selecting a nearby fissure we dug down by hand into what might only be termed a ‘rabbit hole’ and within minutes we had a handful of apatite crystals. It looked like they’d been washed there and deposited in a heap by a stream. This small gathering was not in and of itself so great a find, but rather it hinted at bigger and better things deeper in.
If without thinking too deeply and without apparent effort we could unearth such promising crystals, what might a full day of digging reveal? We were without a doubt atop a landscape whose potential might exceed anything yet known in Ontario and indeed we believe it is the case.
We spent our remaining time before the snow flew, confirming what lay beneath – calcium vein-dyke fissures, at least to rival those nearby and possibly to exceed them. That following spring of 2024 we waded into the red tape of Ontario’s claim staking process and submitted the required geological reports. Our end goal was to reach lease and step over into the mineral world. It would be a big step and our lives would be forever changed. We often muse upon the randomness of how it all came together. The odds of our just stumbling upon this place by chance seemed remote. Serious rock hounds and prospectors spend all their life looking for such a spot and never find it. We weren’t actively looking. It just felt like we were led and as though the Gods had smiled upon us. The final shove came with an unexpected lay-off.
Why us? Do we call it luck or fate? We have collectively spent many years developing our skills in this direction and now without effort we find ourselves facing that which we’d dreamed of. Our stepping from the car was dead center of the claim that we eventually staked. One-hundred feet in either direction, or in a different fissure, and its unlikely that digging would have revealed such easy crystals.
We conclude that our discovery of the Bear Lake II Property was meant to be. We’re just simple guys with a dream and we believe that our dream has been pre-written. We have had an opportunity set before us and we’ve chosen to take it.
In talking to Nia, our metaphysical contact in Stratford, we were further assured that our discovery was something preordained. In simplest terms to summarize a complicated conversation we discussed the nature of reality and our free will within it. There is destiny and our conscious will. Conscious will can take us to our full potential or leave it unfulfilled. If a choice is too fearful we might avoid it. Nothing is really assured when it comes to our choices. Maybe it’s the opportunities that are destined and in the presentation of them it is fate’s way of trying to steer us.
Who knows the degree to which we have thus far charted our own path, but it is a path to our liking and we feel that what we are doing is meant to be.
Mick and Mark, July 2024