Ontario Mineral Inventory

Ontario Geological Survey
Permanent Link to this Record: MDI52A15SE00006

Record: MDI52A15SE00006

General

Commodities

Primary Commodities: Lead, Zinc

Secondary Commodities: Silver, Copper, Fluorite, Barite, Amethyst

Location

Township or Area: Dorion

Latitude: 48° 46' 11.82"    Longitude: -88° 44' 4.06"

UTM Zone: 16    Easting: 372556.54   Northing: 5403333.77    UTM Datum: NAD83

Resident Geologist District: Thunder Bay South

NTS Grid: 52A15SE, 52A15SW

Point Location Description: N/A

Location Method: Conversion from MDI

Access Description: Proceed north on Highway 11-17 to Ouimet Canyon Road. Turn left onto Ouimet Canyon Road and proceed 14.2 km to a blazed trail. Follow the trail uphill for about 110 m to the mine site.

Exploration History

1888: discovered by Ogema, J. Dickinson, and D. McEachern. The vein was partially mined and some samples were shipped out. An adit was driven 37.5 m into the base of a hill and a shaft sunk 6.9 m. 1891: J. Dickinson and associates sold the property to Ogema Mining and Smelting Company, who sunk an 18 m shaft on the vein and completed some drifting. Poor results caused a suspension of work. 1893: ownership was transferred to J.F. Rutttan. No work was reported. 1924: Property was transferred to Cpt. H.E. Knobel. No work was reported. 1927: Knobel sold the property to the North America Lead and Refining Co. Ltd. Surface exploration was done as well as dewatering of previous workings. From the original adit, a 24 m raise was developed. The old winze was widened and deepened. 12 m of shaft sinking was completed. 1928-29: 2 shafts were finished. The No. 1 shaft was 59 m deep with 40 m of cross-cuts and some drifting. The No. 2 shaft was also completed to 27 m. Bunk houses and a small-scale mill were completed. Work was suspended by the end of 1929. 1949: I. Wadson purchased the property and made a deal with Airways Exploration to develop the old mine. The shaft was pumped out and trenching and diamond drilling carried out. Some high-grade lead and lead-zinc concentrate was shipped to Trail, BC. 1959: The mine was acquired by Lake Cities Lead Zinc Co. Ltd. 1960: The property was repossessed by the Crown. 1961-62: Sogemines Development Company Ltd. drilled 2 DDH totalling 182.9 m. 1967: the property became leased ground and was owned 50% by A. Oja and 50% by W.A. Gray. 1975-77: J.H. Baykco carried out geological mapping and trenching, and sampling. 1984-86: Golden Tiger Mining Exploration Company Inc. drilled 4 DDH totalling 305.4 m and carried out geological mapping.

Assessment Work on File

Geology

Province: Superior

Subprovince: Quetico

Geological Age: Archean  

Lithology

Lithology Comments

Jun 01, 2018 (Therese Pettigrew) - The Ogema Mine is located on a fault zone within a series of biotite schists of sedimentary origin. In turn, these schists are intruded by many small pegmatitic dykes. A high ridge, 90 m of red biotite granite is located just north of the mine. This granite is an intrusive body which is also cut by pegmatite dykes. The faulting in the mine area is post-pegmatite (and therefore post-Keweenawan) in age. The fault strikes 065 to 075 degress and dips 83 degrees south. The indication of faulting is presented by a coarse breccia cemented with vein quartz. The breccia contains dark biotite schist, green chloritic schist and pegmatitic material. This whole conglomeration is cemented with amethystine quartz and barite (Hawley, 1930).

Mineralization

Mineralization Comments

Jun 01, 2018 (Therese Pettigrew) - The base metals are found within the breccia. The metals present are galena, sphalerite, pyrite, and chalcopyrite. The width of the breccia zone ranges from 0.6-3 m. The breccia zone can be traced for 238 m (Thunder Bay RGP MDI files). On the 12 m level drift, a 2.7 m width of brecciated schist is cemented with vein quartz and is cut by a 0.3 m wide vein of quartz in the centre. Within this quartz vein there are small lenses of galena. The same zone can be seen on the north wall of the drift, and principally contains sphalerite. On the 37.5 m level, another pegmatite dyke cuts up through the biotite schist and widens eastward for 0.45-2.4 m. in the east drift a 2.re small lenses of galena. The same zone can be seen on the north wall of the drift, and principally contains sphalerite. On the 37.5 m level, another pegmatite dyke cuts up through the biotite schist and widens eastward for 0.45-2.4 m. in the east drift a 2.4 m width is exposed on the face. The pegmatite contains quartz, feldspar, and muscovite. Thin seams of sphalerite, with quartz and fluorite are found in fractures. To the north of the dyke, a 0.3 m breccia zone in the biotite schist is well mineralized with sphalerite. In the west drift, a 0.75 m vein occurs along the south side striking 045 degrees and dips 75 degrees south. A small portion, 0.4 m of the vein, is highly mineralized with galena on the footwall. No ore was exposed in the shaft to the 48 m level, but the pegmatite dyke still dips out of the shaft to the south. At the foot of the shaft, an ore zone was found, being 5.6 m wide (Bartley, 1949). In 1948, a hand cobbled shipment of 24.8 tons of ore was shipped to Trail, BC to the smelter. There was 22.8% Pb, 0,9% Zn, and 0.8 opt Ag in the ore (Thunder Bay RGP MDI files).

Mineral Record Details

References

Map - Geological series, Dorion-Wolf Lake area (western part), District of Thunder Bay

Publication Number: P0994 Scale: 1:15,840    Date: 1975

Author: McIlwaine W.H., Tihor L.A.

Publisher Name: Ontario Division of Mines

Location:

Mono - Copper, nickel, lead and zinc deposits of Ontario

Publication Number: MDC012 Page: 285-286  Date: 1969

Author: Shklanka R.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines

Location:

Mono - Copper, nickel, lead and zinc deposits in Ontario (revised to February, 1957)

Publication Number: MDC002 Page: 53  Date: 1957

Author: Thomson J.E., Ferguson S.A., Johnston W.G.Q., Pye E.G., Savage W.S., Thomson R.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines

Location:

Part - Lead and zinc deposits, Dorion and McTavish townships, Thunder Bay District

Publication Number: ARV38-06.002 Page: 74-77  Date: 1998

Author: Hawley J.E.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines

Location:

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