Ontario Mineral Inventory

Ontario Geological Survey
Permanent Link to this Record: MDI000000000139

Record: MDI000000000139

General

Commodities

Primary Commodities: Gold

Location

Township or Area: Rich Lake Area

Latitude: 51° 36' 40.09"    Longitude: -88° 2' 37.59"

UTM Zone: 16    Easting: 427726   Northing: 5718305    UTM Datum: NAD83

Resident Geologist District: Thunder Bay North

NTS Grid: 52P09SE

Point Location Description: shaft

Location Method: Conversion from MDI

Access Description: The site is accessible by helicopter to a pad immediately north of the shaft, or float plane to Rond Lake. A trail leads 1.6 km south from the lake.

Exploration History

1927: Gold was discovered by L. Howey and W. Smith. Fort Hope Mines Ltd. was formed with intentions to finance the operations of the mine. 1928: Fort Hope Mines Ltd. - shaft sinking to 125 ft. with 300 feet of lateral development on 100 foot level; installation of milling plant; stripping and trenching. Mine shut down when supplies were exhausted. New vein discovered. 1929: mine reopened. 1934-35: Fort Hope Consolidated Gold Mines acquired the property. Shaft dewatering, 17 DD-1520 m, surface and underground sampling. 1938: Hopa-Tricia Gold Mine Ltd. (renamed from Fort Hope Consolidated Mines) was incorporated to develop the property. No work was recorded. 1946: Golden Hope Mines Ltd. obtained the property, drilled 17 DDH totalling 1650 m, and conducted a ground mag survey. 1955: Golden Hope Mines Ltd. commissioned a feasibility study. 1958: Golden Hope carried out prospecting, stripping, trenching and sampling. A 73 pound bulk sample was sent to Lakefield Research for analysis. 1959: Golden Hope collected a bulk sample (3105 kg). 1974: B.B. Jessel acquired the property. 1979: La Chib Mines Ltd. carried out mapping, sampling, ground geophysics. 1979: New Jersey Zinc Exploration Co. - airborne geophysics. 1980: La Chib Mines Ltd. drilled 3 DDH totalling 170.4 m. 1984: Loren Dempster and John Londry conducted mag and VLF-EM surveys. 1985: Ohio Resources Corp drilled 1 DDH totalling 150 ft. 1985: M. Labchuk - ground geophysics. 1986-89: Pure Gold Resources Ltd. - ground geophysics, airborne geophysics, DD-52, trenching, prospecting, mapping. 1989: Noramco Exploration: airborne geophysics. 1990: Ohio Resources Corp. drilled 8 DDH. 1996: G. O’Reilly carried out line cutting, geological mapping, sampling, a beep mat survey, and UV lamping of trench areas and drill core. 1999-2011: Slam Exploration Ltd. - IP survey, DD, mapping, prospecting, ground geophysics, helicopter-borne magnetic and gradiometric surveys, diamond drilling.

Assessment Work on File

Geology

Province: Superior

Subprovince: Uchi

Terrane: North Caribou

Domain: Uchi

Belt: Miminiska-Fort Hope

Geological Age: Neoarchean  

Lithology

Lithology Comments

Jun 23, 2014 (A Wilson) - Pillowed lavas are well exposed in the area. They are intermediate in composition, now consisting of oligoclase and hornblende. They have been intruded by several east-west trending quartz-feldspar and feldspar porphyry dikes and lenses, trondhjemitic to granodioritic in composition, which vary up to 2 m in width, but are generally less than 70 cm in width. The gold bearing quartz and quartz-carbonate veins are east-trending and northeast-trending. Several distinct veins have been trenched and/or intersected in drill holes. The northeast trending veins are commonly lenticular in three dimensions, pinching from several metres to a few centimetres wide over short distances.

Sep 27, 2006 (Mark Puumala) - The Rond Lake occurrence is described by Lemaitre (1997) as a 45 cm wide shear zone in massive dark green volcanic rocks. The shear is oriented 078/68 and contains 5-10% pyrrhotite, 15% fine-grained sericite, and 70-75% sugary quartz. The host rocks are silicified up to 5 m from the shear zone boundary.

Mineralization

Mineralization Comments

Jun 23, 2014 (A Wilson) - The vein material is predominantly white quartz, but dull grey calcite is also abundant. Sulphide minerals in the veins include pyrrhotite, pyrite and chalcopyrite. Visible gold has been reported in several places in the vicinity of the mine, particularly near the intersections of quartz veins and the NE-trending fractures and in quartz veins and silicified shear zones along the contacts of the porphyritic intrusions. Gold values are generally described as erratic. A single grab sample of ore taken by Burwash in 1928 reported an assay of 9.37 oz/t Au. Burwash reported an average assay of 1.01 oz/t Au from samples taken across widths of from 20 to 198 cm over a vein length of 175 m. Exploration has focused on two vein systems, the Shaft Vein and the California Vein. The Shaft Vein is an irregular fracture zone striking N27 and dipping N74W. The visible gold isn’t restricted to the vein quartz, in several places gold was noted in the schisted wallrocks. Initial sampling underground of the Shaft Vein averaged 1.06 oz/t Au across a width of 3 ft along a length of 35 ft. R.A. Halet stated that the Shaft Vein averaged 0.63 oz/t au over a length of 25 ft and a width of 1.5 ft Sampling of the Shaft Vein in 1959, by E.W. Gagan assayed 3.06 oz/t Au and a cut sampled at a depth of 5 ft below surface gave a value of 50.02 oz/t, but was not considered representative of the true value. The California Vein is in excess of 200 ft in length and strikes 75N and dips to the south. The vein ranges in width to a maximum of 10 feet. The C section of this vein gave an average value of 0.09 oz/t Au and the 130 ft long D section gave an average value of 0.18 oz/t Au.

Mar 29, 2021 (C Salo) - The gold and sulphides are associated primary with the quartz carbonate vein materials. Veins are east-west-trending and northeast-southwest-trending. Significant gold content and disseminated sulphides found in fractured country rock. Laederer sampled underground workings and reported shaft vein averaged 31.38 g/tonne over width of 0.42 m and length of 7.5 m. Burwash reported the sampling in 21 places over a length of 172.5 m, over widths varying from 20 cm to 1.95 m, averaging 86.25 cm, returned values ranging from 515.8 g/tonne to trace.

Sep 27, 2006 (Mark Puumala) - The most significant assay reported from this occurrence is 0.77 g/t from a 1 m channel sample collected by Noramco Explorations in 1987.

Oct 18, 2022 (Therese Pettigrew) - It was reported that since there was a substantial amount of arsenopyrite associated with the quartz veins, problems were anticipated in gold recovery. A bulk sample of 73 pounds of quartz was sent in 1958 for extraction tests. Lakefield Research Ltd. carried out the tests and reported that 0.46 oz/t Au was present and a recovery of 96.8% by straight cyanidation was possible when ground to 90-100 mesh. The high-grade vein located near the shaft ranges in width from 0.1-1.2 m and a bulk sample of 3105 kg was sent in 1958 for assay. The results were 8.8 oz/t, 2.756 oz/t, 0.536 oz/t, 0.94 oz/t and 4.71 oz/t Au (Wallace, 1978 and Golden Hope Report, 1959). Gold-bearing quartz veins have been found in the shaft area along a strike of about 1000 feet. The veins are tension fractures in greenstone in the vicinity of the porphyry dyke which have been traced for a similar length. The higher grade veins angle away from the porphyry dyke and have been likened to the flats at the Sigma Mine. Quartz in the veins is white, glassy or sugary and contains coarse sulphides in varying amounts, with pyrrhotite being the most abundant with lesser amounts of chalcopyrite and pyrite. The major part of the gold content in the veins is in the form of free gold (Golden Hope Mines Prospectus April 24, 1959).

Mineral Record Details

References

Mono - Gold deposits of Ontario, part 1, districts of Algoma, Cochrane, Kenora, Rainy River, and Thunder Bay

Publication Number: MDC013 Page: 232  Date: 1971

Author: Ferguson S.A., Groen H.A., Haynes R.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines and Northern Affairs

Location:

Part - Geology of the Fort Hope gold area, District of Kenora (Patricia Portion)

Publication Number: ARV38-02.001 Date: 1998

Author: Burwash E.M.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines

Location:

Mono - Mineral Occurrences and Prospects in the Fort Hope-Winisk Area

Publication Number: OFR5926 Date: 1995

Author: Mason J.K., White G.D.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

Part - Geology of the Fort Hope area

Publication Number: ARV51-03.001 Page: 1-28  Date: 1997

Author: Prest V.K.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines

Location:

Map - Opikeigan Lake, Kenora District

Publication Number: M2379 Scale: 1:31,680    Date: 1977

Author: Wallace H.

Publisher Name: Ontario Division of Mines

Location:

MonoMap - Geology of the Opikeigan Lake area, District of Kenora (Patricia Portion)

Publication Number: R185 Page: 47-51  Date: 1978

Author: Wallace H.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

Map - Precambrian Geology, Opikeigen Lake Area

Publication Number: P3269 Scale: 1:20,000    Date: 2005

Author: Hall L.A.F.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

Mono - Operation Fort Hope

Publication Number: MP042 Date: 1970

Author: Thurston P.C., Carter M.W.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines and Northern Affairs

Location:

Map - Precambrian Geology of the Eabamet Lake Area, Fort Hope-Miminiska Greenstone Belt-South Sheet

Publication Number: P3825 Scale: 1:50,000    Date: 2018

Author: Azar B., Rudolph N.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

MonoMap - Geology of the Opikeigan Lake area, District of Kenora (Patricia Portion)

Publication Number: R185 Date: 1978

Author: Wallace H.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

Data - Geological, Geochemical and Geophysical Data Related to the Eabamet Lake Area, Fort Hope-Miminiska Greenstone Belt, Northwestern Ontario

Publication Number: MRD372 Date: 2018

Author: Azar B.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

Map - Fort Hope area, District of Kenora (Patricia Portion), Ontario

Publication Number: ARM38B-01 Scale: 1:190,080    Date: 1997

Author: Burwash E.M.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines

Location:

Map - Fort Hope area, District of Kenora (Patricia Portion), Ontario

Publication Number: ARM51B Scale: 1:63,360    Date: 1997

Author: Prest V.K.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines

Location:

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