Ontario Mineral Inventory

Ontario Geological Survey
Permanent Link to this Record: MDI53C13SE00077

Record: MDI53C13SE00077

General

Commodities

Primary Commodities: Lead, Zinc, Silver

Secondary Commodities: Gold

Location

Township or Area: Setting Net Lake Area

Latitude: 52° 50' 42.73"    Longitude: -93° 38' 19.57"

UTM Zone: 15    Easting: 456979   Northing: 5855242    UTM Datum: NAD83

Resident Geologist District: Red Lake

NTS Grid: 53C13SE

Point Location Description: No. 2 shaft,site visit

Location Method: AMIS Site Visit

Access Description: 200 km N of Red Lake

Exploration History

1927-1928: Claims were staked K.C. Murray, J. Ziode and D.G. Oliver. 1928-1929: Favourable Lake Mining and Exploration Co. optioned the property completing prospecting, trenching and 20 DDH totaling 1,067 m on the discovering four mineralized veins (No. 1, 2 3 and 4) plus trenching and 9 surface drill holes totaling 579 m tested the No. 3 vein. 1936: Berens River Mines Ltd, a subsidiary of Newmont Mining, acquired the property and carried out a 2900 m diamond drill program. A vertical shaft was sunk to a depth of 6 m by manual methods and a mining plant was installed. Berens River Mines began shaft sinking a 3-compartment vertical shaft to 157 m developing levels at 76 and 114 m. Lateral work continued at the 152-metre level. A total of 8864 m were recorded. 1938-1939: Underground development was carried out on the No. 1 vein and the mill began operating in late 1939. 1939-1948: 560,607 short tons of ore were processed at a rate of 250 tons per day from the No. 1 vein. No. 2 exploration shaft was sunk on the No. 3 vein to a depth of 168 m, a station was established at 58 m, and levels were developed at 104 m and 150 m. A total of 267 m of drifting was carried out. Berens River Mines also completed a magnetic survey and surface work. Drifting from the No. 1 shaft on the 475 level was undertaken to explore the down-dip extension of the No. 3 Vein carrying out a total of 252 m of drifting and 1,013 m of drilling. The mine ceased operating at the end of 1947 due to lower grades, low metal prices, and higher operating costs. 1959: W.C. Arrowsmith acquired the property by staking and formed Golsil Mines Ltd. 1961-1969: Golsil Mines dewatered the No. 2 shaft and drilled 24 surface DDH totaling 7,195 m, in addition to underground drilling of 3,295 m. Also in 1966, the No. 2 shaft was deepened to 232 m, and a station was established at 187.5 m and a level developed at 225 m. A total of 174 m and 113 m of drifting were completed on the 150 and 225 levels, respectively. 1971: Ducanex Resources Ltd optioned the property and carried out ground magnetic and EM surveys but the option was later dropped. 1974: Eastwest Resources Ltd optioned the property, dewatered the No. 2 shaft and drilled 2 underground holes, but the option was dropped in 1976. 1976. Getty Canadian Metals Ltd (aka Getty Mines Ltd) entered into a joint venture with Zahavy Mines Ltd (formerly Golsil Mines Ltd). 41 surface DD totaling 6,600 m were concentrated on the No. 3 vein. 1981: Getty Canadian Metals calculated reserves on the No. 3 vein. Getty Canadian Metals completed 350 m of drifting on the 225 m level to provide access for drilling 26 underground DDH totaling 9,450 m to test the No. 3 vein at depth. 1982: Zahavy program, a soil geochemistry survey was carried out to determine if the location of mineralized vein zones could be identified. 1986-1987: Zahavy Mines drilled 10 DDH and completed ore reserve calculations on the No. 3 vein. 1987: The Zahavy–Getty joint venture was terminated and the property acquired by Noramco who completed 6 DDH totaling 976 m. 1988: Noramco completed additional drifting and exploration of the No. 3 vein to the west on the 225-m level. A raise was driven from the 225-m level to the 150-m level and drilled 6 underground DDH totaling 330 m. The air strip was extended to 900 m. Noramco Mining completed 27 DDH (3614 m) , a ground grid with VLF-EM and magnetic surveys. 2002-2007: Anaconda Gold Corp. staked the minesite area and conducted a prospecting program. 2010: Golden Share Mining Corp. conducted a preliminary field program. 2013: Golden Share conducted a 3 DDH (789 m) program testing Veins 3, 10, and 19.

Assessment Work on File

Geology

Province: Superior

Subprovince: Sachigo

Terrane: North Caribou

Belt: Favourable Lake

Geological Age: Mesoarchean  

Geology Comments

Oct 23, 2007 (Mark Puumala) - Whittaker (1989) indicates that the Berens River Mine property is underlain by a sequence of folded metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks that strike north-south and dip steeply to the east. The metasediments are reported to consist of laminated chert, argillite, siltstone, fine-grained tuff, marble and banded iron formation (Whittaker 1989), while the metavolcanics were mapped by Ayres (1970) as consisting largely of felsic lapilli tuff and tuff breccia. These rocks form part of the 2926 Ma Setting Net Assemblage of Thurston et al. (1991). The supracrustal rocks were subsequently intruded by a mafic intrusion that occurs immediately to the west of the mine property, while a north-northeast striking diabase dike has been mapped immediately to the east. Significant structures that have been mapped in the vicinity of the mine site include an approximately north-south-striking fault to the west, and an approximately north-northwest-striking fault located to the east.

Lithology

Mineralization

Mineralization Comments

Nov 10, 2016 (Mark Puumala) - Although numerous mineralized veins exist, historical production and exploration on the Berens River property has been focused on the No. 1 (almost all production came from here) and No. 3 vein systems (McKay et al. 2002). Exploration programs on the No. 3 vein system have been concentrated along a 30 to 50 m wide hydrothermal alteration zone that has been traced over a strike length of 400 m and to a depth of 300 m. Other vein systems illustrated by Lichtblau et al. (2005) to be located within approximately 250 m north and south of the No. 3 vein include the Nos. 4, 10, 11, 12, 19 and 20 veins. During operations that spanned the period 1938 to 1948, the Berens River Mine produced 157,696 oz Au, 5,796,177 oz Ag, 6,105,872 lbs Pb and 1,797,091 lbs Zn from 560,607 tons of milled ore (Ferguson et al. 1971). The bulk of the production was from the No. 1 vein, with only about 10,000 tons of ore mined from the No. 3 vein system. 2007 Prospecting report completed, no significant assays reported. 2010: Golden Share Mining Corporation reported assays of 37.71 g/t Au on Vein 19, 31.88g/t Au on Vein 3 and 0.73 g/t Au on Vein 4, each of these samples are in close vicinity to this MDI point.

Mineral Record Details

Site Visit Information

Date: Jun 22, 2015

Geologist: Andrew Tims

Notes: Site inspection with MDLB - Rehabilitation Inspection and Compliance inspector

References

Thesis - Precious Metal Veins of the Berens River Mine, Northwestern Ontario, 114p.

Publication Number: M.Sc. Date:

Author: Adams G.W. 1976

Publisher Name: unpublished M.Sc. thesis, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario

Location:

Book - Technical Report on MERC International Minerals Inc.`s Borthwick Lake property.

Publication Number: AF RL5053 Date:

Author: Walford, P. and Cullen, D. 2006.

Publisher Name:

Location: Red Lake RGP

Book - Getty Zahavy J.V. Favourable Lake Property, 1982 Summary Report

Publication Number: AF RL53C13SE 42 Date: 1996

Author: Coll, R. 1982.

Publisher Name:

Location: Red lake RGP

Book - Report of Field Work, Setting Net Lake Property (Geotest Corporation) for Noramco Explorations Inc.

Publication Number: AF RL53C13SE 56 Date:

Author: Whittaker, P.J. 1989.

Publisher Name:

Location: Red Lake RGP

Book - Report to Evaluate and Recommend an Exploration Program on Anaconda Uranium Corporation's Borthwick Lake Property

Publication Number: AF RL53C13SE 60 Date:

Author: McKay, D.B., Cullen, D. and Nelson, B. 2002.

Publisher Name:

Location: Red Lake RGP

Part - Geology of the area between Favourable Lake and Sandy Lake, District of Kenora (Patricia Portion)

Publication Number: ARV38-02.002 Page: 70-78  Date: 1998

Author: Hurst M.E.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines

Location:

Part - Recent developments in the Favourable Lake area

Publication Number: ARV47-07.003 Page: 79-92  Date: 1997

Author: Bateman J.D.

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: 233-234  Date: 1971

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

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines and Northern Affairs

Location:

Mono - Geology and mineral possibilities in northern Patricia District, Ontario

Publication Number: MP028 Page: 48, 51  Date: 1969

Author: Ayres L.D., Bennett G., Riley R.A.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines

Location:

Article - 1982 report of the Red Lake Resident Geologist

Publication Number: MP107.002 Page: 22  Date: 1997

Author: Durocher M.E.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

Map - Precambrian Geology, Favourable Lake

Publication Number: P3226 Scale: 1:50,000    Date: 1993

Author: Stone D., Fogal R.I., Fitzsimon S.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

Mono - Report of Activities 2004, Resident Geologist Program, Red Lake Regional Resident Geologist Report: Red Lake and Kenora Districts

Publication Number: OFR6146 Date: 2005

Author: Lichtblau A.F., Hinz P., Ravnaas C., Storey C.C., Kosloski L., Raoul A., Gula R.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

Map - Setting Net Lake area, District of Kenora (Patricia Portion)

Publication Number: P0538 Scale: 1:15,840    Date: 1997

Author: Ayres L.D.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines

Location:

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For detailed information regarding this mineral record please contact the Red Lake Resident Geologist District Office