Laurentian Mine, Boyer Lake Area, Kenora District, Ontario, Canadai

Regional Level Types
Laurentian Mine	Mine
Boyer Lake Area	Area
Kenora District	District
Ontario	Province
Canada	Country

The first mention of this mine is in Carter (1905, p. 52). The original mining operations were on HP 311, and commenced in 1903, under the ownership of the Laurentian Mining Company, later the Anthony Blum Gold Mines, Limited. At time of inspection in 1904 (Carter 1905) the company owned five other claims, one of which (HP 252) is still held by Elora Gold Mines Limited. Installed mining and milling plant, including a 20-stamp mill, had been transported in February 1904 from the Twentieth Century Mine, situated at the southern end of Upper Manitou Lake, where operations ceased about the same time (see Blackburn 1976c). The original shaft followed a small vein of dark quartz, which in places produced some showy free gold specimens (Carter 1905). Other veins were recognized parallel to this vein, and "They are all more or less lenticular in character, and lie in and with the strike of the greenstone country rock, which is N.E.-S.W. (Carter 1905). Milling operations proceeded through 1906 to 1909, when the mine went into receivership (Corkill 1910), for reasons unknown to the present author, and operations terminated, though a skeleton staff was kept on for some years. In 1913, the Great Golconda Mines Company Limited took out and milled some rock from the old workings. The Dominion Reduction Company dewatered the shaft, along with those of the Big Master and Jubilee mines, in 1916, and carried out some sampling, but dropped their options shortly after. According to Parsons (1911), "The ore body consists of bands of quartz varying from a mere trace up to several inches in width, at the margin of the vein is a brecciated wall rock which grades into a porphyritic diabase. At a distance of less than 40 feet (12 m) from the vein this porphyritic diabase merges into a darker diabase . In 1935, Elora Gold Mines, limited was organized to develop a group of 10 claims including the Laurentian and Elora (or Jubilee) mines. No further mining was carried out at the Laurentian Mine, but following development of the Jubilee vein at the Elora Mine, the plant handled material from this vein. The Laurentian mine was dewatered in 1938 , by Elora Gold Mlines, limited, and some samples taken from the drifts. According to the report by H.J. Emery in 1965, on work done by Elora Gold Mines Limited, "Results showed that all developed ore in the Laurentian shear zone had been removed except on the 473 foot or bottom level. Here assays averaged 0.10 oz. Au/ton (cut) or 0.24 oz/ton (uncut) over a 10.0 foot width for the full 80 feet of drift length. Therefore, ore possibilities at lower elevations and along strike appear favorable. "An examination was also made of cross-cuts and drifts that had been driven on tile 200 foot level to develop the parallel Jubilee and East shear zones, located 200 feet northwest and 220 feet southeast of the Laurentian shaft respectively. On the Jubilee shear, 35 feet of drifting had been completed in barren material. On the East shear, a drift had been driven 140 feet along a continuous quartz vein varying in thickness from a few inches to five feet. Sampling across this quartz returned an average of 0.129 oz. Au/T over 32.5 inches for the full drift length of 140 feet. Operations were suspended in 1939 due to financing difficulties at the commencement of World War II. The property has been idle since that time. According to Ferguson et al. (1971), gold production from the Laurentian Mine is reported to have been $141,140 from 19,950 tons of ore milled during its operating period from 1906 to 1909. During this period 8,143 oz. of gold were recovered. The present writer could find no mention of silver production. As of December 1975, the property was held under patent. (OGS OFR 5263, p.141-144; 1979)

References

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