Ontario Mineral Inventory

Ontario Geological Survey
Permanent Link to this Record: MDI52J02SE00003

Record: MDI52J02SE00003

General

Commodities

Primary Commodities: Gold

Secondary Commodities: Silver

Location

Township or Area: Squash Lake Area

Latitude: 50° 6' 17.74"    Longitude: -90° 40' 13.45"

UTM Zone: 15    Easting: 666583.66   Northing: 5552895.95    UTM Datum: NAD83

Resident Geologist District: Kenora

NTS Grid: 52J02SE

Point Location Description: Old Mine site

Location Method: Conversion from MDI

Access Description: There is no road access to the St.Anthony Mine. In summer boat access may be had from Trappers Point boat launch or any boat access point on Horizontal Bay of Sturgeon Lake. Float equipped aircraft can land near the small bay and taxi to an old dock in the bay. In winter snowmobiles can access the lake from a number of access points in the area.

Exploration History

1898: property was discovered. 1900-1903: Jack Lake Gold Mining Company Ltd. did pitting and trenching on the property. A shaft was sunk to 30 m with a level at that depth. Crosscutting from No. 2 shaft totalled 43m and from No. 3 shaft 33.5 m. A 10-stamp mill was erected.1904-1908: St. Anthony Gold Mining Company Ltd. acquired the property. Additional drifts and crosscuts were established. Some mining and gold recovery was done between 1905 and 1907. 1911-1915: Northern Gold Reef Limited bought the property. Between 1911 and 1913 the mine was in production. No. 2 shaft was sunk to 33.5 m and a winze installed.1915-1916: Sampling program.1916-1918: Thunder Bay Mining Company Ltd. bought the property. No.1 winze was deepened to 107 m and No. 2 to 160 m. Approximately 457 m of drifting was completed and some ore was mined. 1920-1921: Clean-up of mill by C.L. Campbell, C.P. Charlesbois and W.H. Fairburn 1929-1930: Some ore was milled.1930-1933: A 125 tpd cyanide mill and 1000 hp hydro power plant were constructed. No. 2 inclined shaft was driven to 229 m. 1934-1941: Mining and processing ore. A 2-compartment winze was driven from the 229 m level to the 308 m level. Levels were opened at 30, 46, 76, 107, 152, 190, 229 and 267 m. After 1939, there was difficulty in obtaining workers and supplies. The mine was shut down suddenly in January 1942.1964-1976: Minor drilling programs were carried out.1982-1986: Aubet Resources Ltd. and the Sturgeon Lake Joint Venture, (Falconbridge Copper Ltd. and Falconbridge Nickel Mines Ltd.), carried out drilling, geological, geophysical and geochemical programs on the St. Anthony Mine and bordering claims. 2002: Emerald Fields Resources Corp. optioned the property from the Stares brothers. 2004-06: Emerald Fields conducted prospecting and an airborne geophysical survey and sampling. 2008: Emerald Fields and Pacific Iron Ore Corp. amalgamated. 2009: Pacific Iron Ore Corp. conducted prospecting, sampling, geological mapping, and drilled 8 DDH for 2862.4 m. 2011: Pacific Iron Ore conducted prospecting and sampling.

Assessment Work on File

Geology

Province: Superior

Subprovince: Wabigoon

Belt: Sturgeon Lake

Geological Age: Archean  

Geology Comments

Feb 09, 2011 (R Tuomi) - The St. Anthony mine, one of the earliest and most important discoveries in this region, is situated on claims B.G.151 and 152 between the North arm and Couture Lake. The mine has been operated at intervals by different owners since 1901. The main ore body is a north-south fissure vein at the contact between Keewatin pillow lavas and a small dome of granodiorite, which is an offshoot from the granodiorite boss in the North Arm. A coarse grained quartz porphyry stock has intruded along the same contact and has caused the alteration of the granodiorite to a protogine granite consisting almost entirely of quartz and sericite. The quartz veins that accompanied the intrusion of the porphyry stock have caused alteration along their walls. The northern portion of the main vein in the granite branches and reunites to form a stockwork. The wall rock has been altered to sericite schist. The southern portion of the vein in the greenstone tends to follow the rock cleavage. The wall rock has been altered to a banded carbonate sericite schist. The veins dip slightly to the west and the ore bodies rake to the southwest following the quartz porphyry stock. The gangue minerals are quartz, calcite, and siderite. The sulphides are pyrite, chalcopyrite, galena, and sphalerite. Both galena and sphalerite are indicators of gold ore. The pyrite carries low gold values. In the granite most of the sulphides are confined within the veins; in the greenstone, the sulphides have penetrated into the wall rock, in which low gold values are found. The main vein is 1,100 feet long on the surface, and the maximum width is 25 feet. Two other vein systems have been located on the surface, but the main vein is the only one on which underground work has been done. The QFP intrusive is now identified as the St. Anthony pluton and maybe a younger intrusive than the nearby Lewis Lake Batholith (2730-2735Ma). Widespread moderate to intense pervasive sericite alteration with 10-50% quartz stockwork is present over the entire SE portion of the St. Anthony pluton where exposed. Reference: Evans, G., Technical Report on the St Anthony and Best Properties for Pacific Iron Ore Corp, July 2009.

Lithology

Lithology Comments

Feb 09, 2011 (C Ravnaas) - The main ore body is a north-south fissure vein at the contact between Keewatin pillow lavas and a small dome of granodiorite, which is an offshoot from the granodiorite boss in the North Arm. A coarse grained quartz porphyry stock has intruded along the same contact and has caused the alteration of the granodiorite to a protogine granite consisting almost entirely of quartz and sericite. The quartz veins that accompanied the intrusion of the porphyry stock have caused alteration along their walls. The northern portion of the main vein in the granite branches and reunites to form a stockwork. The wall rock has been altered to sericite schist. The southern portion of the vein in the greenstone tends to follow the rock cleavage. The wall rock has been altered to a banded carbonate sericite schist. The veins dip slightly to the west and the ore bodies rake to the southwest following the quartz porphyry stock Historically work focussed on the gold potential of quartz veins only and paid little to no attention to mineralization in altered wallrock. Historic work recognized low grade gold was present in the pyritic sericite stockwork country rock but anything less than 3-5 g Au was not of economic interest. Typically the highest gold grades are found in various quartz veins and historic work used the presence of sphalerite and galena as an indicator for higher gold grades ie.10-140 g Au Reference: Evans, G., Technical Report on the St Anthony and Best Properties for Pacific Iron Ore Corp, July 2009.

May 10, 2016 (R Tuomi) - Holbrooke (1964) identified a majority of the exposures in the St. Anthony pluton as either quartz laced or sparse quartz granite. Two quartz vein systems, the No. 1 and No. 2, cut the St. Anthony pluton and adjacent mafic metavolcanic rocks. All production from the No.1 vein.

Mineralization

Mineralization Comments

Feb 09, 2011 (C Ravnaas) - Mining methods included vertical and inclined shafts, internal winzes and drifting. All mining was done on the #1 zone and none of the other zones were developed. Before 1933 milling was by a stamp mill with amalgamation for gold recovery. After 1933 the mill used conventional crushing and grinding methods. Gold was recovered by cyanidation and precipitation by zinc. Total production was 332, 720 tons with an average recovered grade of 0.191 ounce gold per ton, 0.05 ounces silver per ton producing 63,310 oz. Gold. The gangue minerals are quartz, carbonate, and ankerite. The sulphides are pyrite, with lesser amounts of chalcopyrite, galena, and sphalerite. Both galena and sphalerite are historic indicators of gold ore which was confirmed during the site visit. The pyrite carries historic low gold values but generally in the range of 0.2-2.0 g/t Au. In both the QFP and mafic volcanic most of the sulphides content is higher in host rocks rather than the veins and the sulphides have penetrated into the wall rock, in which widespread gold values are found. The main vein is 1,100 feet long on the surface, and the maximum width is 25 feet. Two other vein systems have been located on the surface, but the main vein is the only zone that was developed and mined on. Reference: Evans, G., Technical Report on the St Anthony and Best Properties for Pacific Iron Ore Corp, July 2009.

May 10, 2016 (R Tuomi) - Grade 1983 - No. 1 and 2 vein systems: Best assays: 0.37 opt Au/2 ft and 0.5 opt Au/5.3 ft respectively. Graham (1930) demonstrated that sphalerite, galena and sericite are associated with high gold values. A 2002 grab sample of the No. 1 Vein, containing sphalerite, galena and sericite, returned 44.90 g/t gold (ROA 2002). An auriferous alteration halo occurs around the No. 1 quartz vein system. This halo consists of sericite schist within the intrusive rocks and banded-carbonate-sericite schist within the mafic metavolcanic rocks (Graham 1930). Altered granodiorite returned 2.08 g/t gold, while the unaltered rock assayed 230 ppb gold (ROA 2002). Siliceous metasediment, often strongly tuffaceous and carbonate-rich are interpreted by Hogg (1981) as the primary host material for gold mineralization. Angular, iron-carbonate altered mafic metavolcanic boulders are located in the mine waste pile. Slab cuts of this rock revealed narrow white-coloured quartz veins paralleling tuffaceous bedding. The bedding and quartz veins are cut obliquely by narrow veins of calcite. A grab sample (SA14) of this fine-grained, bedded tuff returned 1.79 g/t gold (ROA 2002).

Mineral Record Details

References

File - Resident Geologist files 52J02SE-0055-B1

Publication Number: Date:

Author:

Publisher Name:

Location: Kenora RGP office

Publication - Technical Report on the St. Anthony and Best/King Bay Properties

Publication Number: 2009 NI 43-101 Date: 2009

Author: Evans, G.

Publisher Name: Pacific Iron Ore Corp

Location: Pacific Iron Ore Corp website

Part - Mines of Ontario in 1941

Publication Number: ARV51-01.003 Page: 188-191  Date: 1997

Author: Tower W.O., Smith R.L., Cave A.E., Cooper D.F., Taylor J.B., Bawden W.E., Little E.S., Weir E.B., Douglass D.P.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines

Location:

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

Publication Number: MDC013 Page: 294-295  Date: 1971

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

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines and Northern Affairs

Location:

Article - 1982 report of the Sioux Lookout Resident Geologist

Publication Number: MP107.003 Page: 43  Date: 1997

Author: Janes D.A., Huggins R.B.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

MonoMap - Geology of the Squaw Lake-Sturgeon Lake area, District of Thunder Bay

Publication Number: R227 Page: 75, 82-86  Date: 1983

Author: Trowell N.F.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

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