Ontario Mineral Inventory

Ontario Geological Survey
Permanent Link to this Record: MDI52A05NE00016

Record: MDI52A05NE00016

General

Commodities

Primary Commodities: Amethyst

Location

Township or Area: Oliver

Latitude: 48° 25' 18.31"    Longitude: -89° 36' 8.27"

UTM Zone: 16    Easting: 307475.73   Northing: 5366449.51    UTM Datum: NAD83

Resident Geologist District: Thunder Bay South

NTS Grid: 52A05NE

Point Location Description: GPS location is centre of Main Zone, 25m south of Kaministiquia R., 215m SW of seaplane base.

Location Method: Field Visit with GPS

Access Description: From highway 11/17 at Kakabeka Falls proceed north on Oliver Road for 1.9 km to Sinclair Road. Proceed northwest on Sinclair Road for 100m to Airport Road and then north on Airport road for 550m to a gate at the south boundary of the Kakabeka Falls airport property. Continue on road (locally known as Seaplane Base Road) around end of runway and on to the north for 850m from the gate to a road that parallels the Seaplane Base Road. Under wet conditions it is best to park here as the muddy surface may prevent exit. Follow this road to the northeast and then the trail to the east for some 200m to the area of the Main Zone and the Hill Vein.

Exploration History

1928: property was originally staked for its silver potential. Trenching was conducted. 1971: Leonard Grayson staked four claims over Mining Location D4 in July of 1971. He conducted stripping and trenching on claim TB304420 from September of 1971 to November of 1972. This work resulted in three pits or trenches. The longest trench was situated on the south shore of the Kaministiquia River and was 20 feet long and 12 feet deep. The central pit was excavated to a depth of 6 feet with a length of 14 feet. The southernmost pit was excavated to a depth of 4 feet with a length of 6 feet. Two samples from the shaft area were shipped to J. Langelaar of Sherrit Gordon Mines Ltd. in Lynn Lake, Manitoba in July of 1971. Claim TB304420 was restaked in July of 1983 as claim TB746375 by Mr. Grayson and his partner Paul Moore. In September of 1985, the central pit was deepened to a depth of 20 feet; hereafter, this pit was called the 'shaft'. In August of 1989 Mr Grayson transferred his remaining 50% interest to Paul Moore. Later that same year, Mr. Moore commissioned Ovalbay Geological Services to complete two drill holes (PM-89-1 and PM89-2) to test the copper, gold, and silver potential of the shaft area and the western stripped areas respectively. Drill core from these two holes was donated to the MNDM drill core library in Thunder Bay. Claim TB746375 was cancelled on September 17, 1991. In October of 1997, John Hakala and Dan Calvert staked claim 1215577 in the northwest corner of D4 to explore the amethyst and precious metal potential of the Grayson-Moore Showing. In 1998 they conducted manual stripping and washing operations on the main zone and hill vein. An Aggregate Permit was issued for the sale of amethystine material to tourists.

Assessment Work on File

Geology

Province: Superior

Subprovince: Wawa

Terrane: Wawa-Abitibi

Belt: Shebandowan

Geological Age: Archean  

Geology Comments

Dec 07, 2005 (Mark O'Brien) - The Blueberry Amethyst Patch is situated near the unconformity between metamorphosed, Archean supracrustal rocks of the Shebandowan greenstone belt and Paleoproterozoic Animikie Group (Gunflint Formation) sedimentary rocks. The parallel, Main zone and Hill veins strike 040, and dip 080, to the southeast. The Shaft zone vein strikes 010, and dips nearly verticallly. All zones pinch and swell along both strike and dip. The Main zone vein, at a vertical depth of approximatley 9 m, consists of a vuggy, 0.3 m wide quartz vein; on surface it consists of a 0.9 m wide breccia zone. On surface, the Hill vein is a consistent, 20 cm wide, banded, locally amethystine, grey to white quartz vein; however, at a vertical depth of 17 m this vein is a 0.9 to 1.2 m amethystine breccia zone.

Lithology

Mineralization

Mineralization Comments

Jun 22, 2018 (Therese Pettigrew) - Two composite quartz veins, trending generally north and locally showing minor amethyst coloration, were uncovered within schistose mafic metavolcanic rock. Scattered zones of fracturing and brecciation were noted in the outcrops. A 4.6 m (15 foot) deep pit was put down where one brecciated zone was intersected by a narrow felsic dike trending approximately north. A zone of shearing (less than or equal to 2 m wide), trending generally northeast and crosscutting the felsic dike, was uncovered in the vicinity of the pit. Up to 3% pyrite is disseminated along foliation planes and in thin crosscutting quartz veinlets in the vicinity of the shear zone. Assay values reported in 1972 were as high as 0.24 ounce Au per ton, 0.22 ounce Ag per ton, 0.24% Cu and 2.9% Fe. The best results were obtained from samples collected within and adjacent to the sheared zone. Samples collected by the field crew in 1989 yielded values of up to 30 ppb Au and 358 ppm Cu (Brown, 1995).

Mineral Record Details

References

Map - Precambrian Geology, Oliver Township

Publication Number: M2615 Scale: 1:20,000    Date: 1995

Author: Brown G.H., Fogal R.I.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

Publication - 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 Scale:     Date: 1931

Author: Tanton, T.L.

Publisher Name: Geological Survey of Canada

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

Map - Geological series, Precambrian geology, Forbes and Conmee townships area, south half, District of Thunder Bay

Publication Number: P2991 Scale: 1:15,840    Date: 1986

Author: Carter M.W.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

Mono - Amethyst in the Thunder Bay Area

Publication Number: OFR5891 Scale:     Date: 1994

Author: Garland M.I.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

Map - Kakabeka Sheet, Thunder Bay District, Ontario

Publication Number: Map 213A Scale: 1:63,360    Date: 1928

Author: Tanton, T.L.

Publisher Name: Geological Survey of Canada

Location: https://doi.org/10.4095/107463

Mono - Geology of Forbes and Conmee townships

Publication Number: OFR5726 Scale:     Date: 1990

Author: Carter M.W.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

Mono - Report of Activities 1998, Resident Geologist Program, Thunder Bay South Regional Resident Geologist Report: Thunder Bay South District

Publication Number: OFR5989 Scale:     Date: 1999

Author: Schnieders B.R., Scott J.F., Smyk M.C., O'Brien M.S.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

MonoMap - Precambrian Geology, Oliver and Ware Townships

Publication Number: R294 Scale:     Date: 1995

Author: Brown G.H.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

MonoMap - Geology of Oliver Township, District of Thunder Bay

Publication Number: OFR5859 Scale:     Date: 1993

Author: Brown G.H.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

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