Ontario Mineral Inventory

Ontario Geological Survey
Permanent Link to this Record: MDI52A05SE00035

Record: MDI52A05SE00035

General

Commodities

Primary Commodities: Silver, Barite

Secondary Commodities: Zinc, Fluorite

Location

Township or Area: O'Connor

Latitude: 48° 19' 31"    Longitude: -89° 38' 26.87"

UTM Zone: 16    Easting: 304258   Northing: 5355825    UTM Datum: NAD83

Resident Geologist District: Thunder Bay South

NTS Grid: 52A05SE

Point Location Description: From AMIS location

Location Method: Data Compilation

Access Description: From Thunder Bay, proceed west on Hwy 11-17 to Hwy 588. Turn left onto Hwy 588 and proceed for 10 km to a small gravel road on the left. Follow the gravel road on foot for approx. 40 m to a trail leading NE. The mine workings are located approx. 400 m down the trail on the side of a steep diabase-capped hill.

Exploration History

1887-88: Beaver Silver Mining and Milling Co. conducted development work including 2 crosscut adits with some drifting on the North Bluff Vein, one 15 meter adit on the Big Harry Vein, and 1 adit located between the two veins. 1927: The entrance to the North Bluff adit at the base of the hill was covered by debris slumped from the hillside above. 1956: Cairngorm Mines Ltd. acquired the property. The most intensive work on the property was in the 1950s and 60s, including geophysics, mapping, drilling and sampling by Cairngorm Mines. Minor intermittent exploration was also done in the 1970s and 80s. 1995-96: Cairngorm conducted prospecting, stripping, trenching. 1997: Cairngorm conducted stripping and soil sampling. 2017: Honey Badger Exploration signed a letter of intent to option the property from Cairngorm Mines.

Assessment Work on File

Geology

Province: Southern

Formation Group: Animikie Group

Geological Age: Paleoproterozoic  

Lithology

Lithology Comments

Jan 29, 2018 (Therese Pettigrew) - The regional geology consists of 300 to 400' of black, sulphidic, graphitic shale ("Rove Formation') overlying iron formation ('Gunflint Formation'). Both are Aphebian (Late Precambrian) in age and dip gently to the south. Archean basement rocks (granite, greenstone, etc.) underlie the sediments. Wackes overlie the black shales to the south. All these rock types have been cut by late Precambrian diabasic intrusions, principally sills or near-conformable dykes. One sill is the norm for the property, always as the topmost layer up to 20-30 m thick capping the hills. Only diabase and shale are exposed on the property. Iron formation has been intersected at depth on the property. Greenstone was reported from deep drilling on the property (AFRI 52A05SE0038).

Mineralization

Mineralization Comments

Jan 29, 2018 (Therese Pettigrew) - Work has been done on two nearly parallel veins about 700 feet apart and which lie within a half mile north of the northern surface workings on Beaver mine. The more southerly of the two veins, known as the North Bluff vein, has been worked by a crosscut adit driven northerly from the base of the hill. The entrance was covered in 1927 by material slumped from the hillside above. The size and nature of the dump indicate that drifting or sinking was done on the vein from this adit. A second crosscut adit, 8 feet long, has been driven into the shale just below the diabase contact 50 feet north and 50 feet above the first-mentioned adit, this crosses the vein which is here exposed at surface. The North Bluff vein is a composite vein 4 feet wide, part of which consists of a simple vein 8 inches wide. The general strike is north 85 degrees east and the dip appears to be nearly vertical; the simple vein dips 60 degrees to 70 degrees northerly. The simple vein consists chiefly of barite with some white quartz and calcite; other portions of the composite vein show the same minerals associated with amethyst, green and purple fluorite, pale yellow sphalerite, and pyrite. Transparent, well-formed crystals of barite up to 1.5 inches in diameter occur through the creamy white, medium-textured, crystalline aggregates of barite. The work on the northern or Big Harry vein consists of an adit 50 feet or more in length driven along the vein in shale 15 feet below the base of the capping sill of diabase. Between the two veins in a notch on the western end of the hill another caved adit in shale trends north 30 degrees east. Stringers of quartz and calcite striking in this direction may be seen in the capping diabase sill a few feet above the mouth of the adit. The Big Harry vein is nearly solid. Its upper part, in the diabase, is 20 inches wide; the lower part, in shale, divides into numerous veinlets in a zone 3 feet wide. The vein strikes east and dips 70 to 75 degrees north. The rock north of the vein has been down faulted relatively, between 1 and 2 feet. Coarsely crystalline white calcite makes up the middle part of the vein; colourless, amethystine quartz occurs along the walls and also lines vugs. Sphalerite and nuggets of argentite occur, the latter intimately associated with quartz crystals which occur in vugs (Tanton, 1931). In 1995, the adit entrance to the North Bluff vein was opened. The workings consist of an 85 m crosscut to the North Bluff vein, an 82 m drift to the west on the vein, a 65 m drift to the east on the vein and a 10 m deep shaft in the floor at the junction of the crosscut and drifts. Where opened by the shaft, the zone is a vein breccia up to 2 m wide. In the east drift the vein width decreases rapidly to 5 cm and continues narrow along the south wall of the drift to the end. In the west drift the vein width decreases rapidly to 0.1 m and continues narrow along the north wall of the drift to the end. Two raises of unknown heights are present in the west drift. One appears to have a substantial height. Vein material includes quartz, calcite, green fluorite, purple fluorite, galena, sphalerite and in one location – argentite (AFRI 52A05SE0038).

Mineral Record Details

References

Mono - Industrial minerals of northern Ontario-supplement 1

Publication Number: OFR5388 Page: 22-23  Date: 1982

Author: Vos M.A., Abolins T., Smith V.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

Thesis - Geology and Mineralogy of the Beaver Junior Mine Mainland Belt Silver Region, Thunder Bay District

Publication Number: BSc thesis Date: 1978

Author: Cole, B.L.

Publisher Name: Lakehead University

Location: Thunder Bay RGP Office

Book - Fort William and Port Arthur, and Thunder Cape Map-area, Thunder Bay District, Ontario; Geological Survey of Canada, Memoir 167

Publication Number: GSC Memoir 167 Page: 131-132  Date: 1931

Author: Tanton, T.L.

Publisher Name: Geological Survey of Canada

Location: https://doi.org/10.4095/100799

Mono - Barite in Ontario

Publication Number: IMR010 Page: 6, 11  Date: 1997

Author: Guillet G.R.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines

Location:

Part - Report of the Inspector of Mines

Publication Number: ARV01.011 Page: 226  Date: 1998

Author: Slaght A.

Publisher Name: Ontario Bureau of Mines

Location:

Report an Error

We are continuously updating our assessment file / technical report information. If you notice errors in the data, please contact us.

Terms of Use

Please review our Terms of Use agreement for this data product.

Ministry Contact Information

For detailed information regarding this mineral record please contact the Thunder Bay South Resident Geologist District Office