Ontario Mineral Inventory

Ontario Geological Survey
Permanent Link to this Record: MDI31C11SW00031

Record: MDI31C11SW00031

General

Mineral Record Identification
Record Name(s) Canada Talc Mine - 1937, Henderson - 1986
Related Record Type Partial
Related Record(s)
Record Status Past Producing Mine With Reserves or Resources
Date Created 1986-Jan-31
Date Last Modified 2022-Jun-22
Created By
Revised By

Commodities

Primary Commodities: Talc

Secondary Commodities: Dolomite (flux/filler), Tremolite



Location

Township or Area: Huntingdon

Latitude: 44° 30' 6.28"    Longitude: -77° 27' 10.98"

UTM Zone: 18    Easting: 304992.74   Northing: 4930529.84    UTM Datum: NAD83

Resident Geologist District: Southern Ontario

NTS Grid: 31C11SW

Point Location Description: Precise, Shaft 456 feet deep, nearest property symbol 9, just SE of Madoc.

Location Method: Conversion from MDI

Access Description: The property is accessible by road from Madoc. Past a locked gate on Talc Mine Rd, a bush road leads into the property.



Exploration History

1880's - Talc discovered ; 1896 - Henderson Mine was opened. 1911 - Conley Mine (originally comprised of northeastward extension of the Henderson orebody) discovered ; 1914 - 15 production began; 1937 - Henderson and Conley properties merged. 1951-1983 Canada Talc Industries Ltd. operated. 1981 - W.R. Barnes Co Ltd took control; October, 1983: company reorganized as Canada Talc Limited with W.R. Barnes Company retaining controlling interest. January 1999: Highwood Resources Ltd. acquired Canada Talc. Major mine infrastructure improvements were made including access to new production level and infrastructure and capital equipment installation at mill in Marmora were completed. 2002: Dynatec Mineral Products Division acquired the industrial minerals division of Highwood Resources (see OFR 6152, p2 for details). Sheritt International acquired property as part of acquisition of Dynatec c. 2008 In Aug 2010, Sherritt closed Canada Talc operations in Madoc after over 114 years of continuous production. In 2011 the site was rehabilitated. The mill in Marmora Township has been sold and will re-open in 2012.


Geology

Province: Grenville

Subprovince: Central Metasedimentary Belt

Terrane: Elzevir

Domain: Belmont

Geological Age: Mesoproterozoic  



Geology Comments

Jun 22, 2022 (P LeBaron) - The Canada Talc deposit occurs within marble of the Belmont Domain, an area of middle to upper greenschist facies metamorphism in which quartz and dolomite coexist in carbonate rocks except in zones of higher metamorphic grade within thermal aureoles of intrusive bodies. The deposit occurs in a zone of tremolitic marble about 800m northwest of the Moira Granite. The lithological sequence from southeast to northwest through the Canada Talc orebody is: (1) dark grey to black phyllite, (2) micaceous, tremolitic dolomite, (3) steatized dolomite, (4) high-grade talc ore, (5) laminated tremolitic dolomite (possibly altered stromatolitic dolomite), (6) siliceous, stromatolitic dolomite, (7) mottled grey-white dolomite, and (8) an undifferentiated thick dolomite sequence (Simandl and Ogden 1982). The presence of laminated tremolitic dolomite adjacent to stromatolitic dolomite, consisting of coexisting quartz and dolomite laminae, suggests that these units represent the outer limit of the thermal metamorphic aureole of the Moira Granite. The talc zone, therefore, has formed within siliceous dolomitic host rock close to the boundary between low and medium-grade metamorphic conditions at the margin of the thermal aureole of the Moira Granite, by prograde metamorphism to tremolite followed by retrograde metamorphism to talc as suggested by Hewitt (1972).




Lithology

Lithology Data
Rock Type Rank Composition Texture Relationship
Marble 1 Tremolitic Talc Is
Marble 2 Stromatolitic with quartzite and dolomite beds Bedded Host

Mineralization

Mineralization and Alteration
Rank Mineral Name Class Economic Mineral Type Alteration Mineral Type Alteration Ranking Alteration Intensity Alteration Style
1TalcEconomicOre
2DolomiteEconomicOre
3JadeEconomicGangue

Mineralization Comments

Jun 22, 2022 (P LeBaron) - In 2014, a sample collected from the waste rock pile of the Canada Talc Mine in Madoc by the Regional Resident Geologist in 2010 was confirmed as nephrite jade. The sample, Cantal-14-1, originally thought to consist of very fine-grained, pale green serpentine and tremolite, was analysed by x-ray diffraction (Fernandes 2014) and found to consist entirely of tremolite. Petrographic thin section studies were subsequently done on the sample, on an additional sample of waste rock from the mine and on two samples of green, tremolitic marble from sites along the same marble belt that hosts the Canada Talc deposit, collected by staff of the Tweed Resident Geologist Office in 2014. The results confirm the presence of nephrite jade from the Canada Talc Mine site and that the green marbles contain 88% and 94% tremolite (Wilson 2014). Additional samples of nephrite-bearing marble were found by Tweed RGO staff in a pile of dumped diamond drill core at the site of the former Canada Talc Mine processing plant in Marmora. The holes were drilled in 1986 and 1987 to test for down-dip extensions of the talc zone. The absence of fractures in the drill core samples suggests that fracturing in sample Cantal-14-1 is the result of blasting during the talc mining operations (photo 1) and that zones of nephrite remote from the mine workings may remain relatively unfractured.



Assay Samples

Assay Samples
CommodityAnalytical MethodDigestion Method ResultUnitLimitQualifier
TremoliteXRF

Mineral Record Details

Classification
RankClassification            
1 Metamorphic
Reserves or Resources Data
Zone Year Category Tonnes Reference Comments Commodities
East Ore Body 1992 Unclassified 35000000 35 million tonnes at 25% talc
Production Data
Year Tonnes Commodities Reference Comment
1992 30000 OGS MP161 p. 375

References

Mono - Report of Activities 2010, Resident Geologist Program, Southern Ontario Regional Resident Geologist Report: Southeastern and Southwestern Ontario Districts, and Petroleum Resources Centre

Publication Number: OFR6267 Page: 12-13  Date: 2011

Author: Sangster P.J., LeBaron P.S., Laidlaw D.A., Wilson A.C., Carter T.R., Fortner L.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:


Publication - Talc deposits of Canada; Geological Survey of Canada, Economic Geology Series 2

Publication Number: Econ Geol 2 Page: 78-83  Date: 1926

Author: Wilson, M.E.

Publisher Name: Geological Survey of Canada

Location: https://doi.org/10.4095/102438


Map - Madoc area, Ontario

Publication Number: M2053 Scale: 1:126,720    Date: 1997

Author: Hewitt D.F.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines

Location:


MonoMap - Geological notes for maps nos. 2053 and 2054, Madoc-Gananoque area

Publication Number: S012 Page: 20  Date: 1997

Author: Hewitt D.F.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines

Location:


MonoMap - Geology of Madoc Township and the north part of Huntingdon Township, Hastings County

Publication Number: R073 Page: 30-32  Date: 1968

Author: Hewitt D.F.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines

Location:


Mono - Talc in Ontario

Publication Number: IMR040 Page: 9-13  Date: 1998

Author: Hewitt D.F.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines and Northern Affairs

Location:


Article - Industrial minerals studies

Publication Number: MP106.035 Page: 226  Date: 1997

Author: Vos M.A.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:


Mono - Building stone of eastern Ontario, southern Ontario

Publication Number: OFR5556 Page: 64  Date: 1985

Author: Verschuren C.P., van Haaften S., Kingston P.W.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:


Mono - Talc in southeastern Ontario

Publication Number: OFR5714 Page: 110-121  Date: 1989

Author: LeBaron P.S., van Haaften S.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:


Mono - Talc in Ontario

Publication Number: IMR040 Date: 1998

Author: Hewitt D.F.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines and Northern Affairs

Location:


Compend - Report of Activities 1992, Resident Geologists

Publication Number: MP161 Date: 1993

Author: Fenwick K.G., Pitts A.E., Newsome J.W.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:


Publication - Talc, steatite, and soapstone; pyrophyllite; Canada Mines Branch, Publication 803

Publication Number: CMB Pub 803 Page: 69-72  Date: 1940

Author: Spence, H S

Publisher Name: Canada Mines Branch

Location: https://doi.org/10.4095/307947


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For detailed information regarding this mineral record please contact the Southern Ontario Resident Geologist District Office