Geology, Mineral Deposits

and History of Mining

in the Tay River Watershed

                                                                                                Compiled by

Donald F. Sherwin, Geologist

Perth, Ontario

                                        FRIENDS of the TAY WATERSHED Association

                                        P.O. Box 2065, Perth, ON, K7H 3M9

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Forward

This report on the geology and mining of the Tay watershed

has been compiled by geologist Donald Sherwin, of Perth,

and assembled by Orion Clark,

for the Friends of the Tay Watershed Association.
The material in this report may be used in whole or in part,
by attributing the author, Donald Sherwin, with publishing credits
to Orion Clark and the Friends of the Tay Watershed Association.

Formatting of print copy version was by Carol Dillon and David Taylor. 
Copies of the print copy version are available for $10
from Friends of the Tay Watershed
info@tayriver.org

The formatting of this website version is slightly different than the original.

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The Tay River watershed is located in eastern Ontario, running 95 kilometres, north-easterly, across the top of the Rideau Canal and Rideau River system, through six municipalities and two counties.  The watershed drains 46 lakes and numerous ponds, wetlands and streams.   The watershed is noted for its geologic (as well as biologic) diversity, with its upper two-thirds lying in the forested Frontenac Axis of the Canadian Shield, giving way to the more populated Smiths Fall Limestone Plain, with a traditional agricultural base and significant wetlands, including the Tay Marsh.

Friends of the Tay Watershed Association

P.O. Box 2065, 57 Foster Street

Perth, ON, K7H 3M9

www.tayriver.org

e-mail: info@tayriver.org



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TABLE OF CONTENTS 

GEOLOGY, MINERAL DEPOSITS &

HISTORY OF MINING OF THE

TAY RIVER WATERSHED

(Scroll down or click on topic to view)

Physiography                                                                     1

General Geology                                                                1

Precambrian Rocks                                                  1

Paleozoic Rocks                                                       3

Glaciation                                                                          3                

Soils                                                                                  4

History of Mining in the Tay Watershed                             5

Summary                                                                           15

Addendum: Uranium Occurrences in the Tay watershed    16        

Appendices:

Appendix A - Glossary of Geological Terms                      17

Appendix B - Web-Sites                                                    19

Appendix C - Bibliography                                                20

Appendix D - Mineral Occurrences in the Tay

River Watershed              21

Mineral Occurrences Map (1.8MB pdf file)    21

          Appendix E – Map of Tay Watershed Bedrock Geology    28

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GEOLOGY AND MINERAL DEPOSITS OF THE TAY RIVER WATERSHED

By Donald F. Sherwin, Perth, Ontario

This paper is a summary of the published literature and more recent material from the Internet pertaining to the subject, as compiled by the author in April-August, 2003. The paper is part of an overall description of the natural history and features of the Watershed, which has been prepared by various authors. The purpose is to provide a better understanding of the creation history and ecological framework of the Watershed, to assist in assessing the past, present and future impact of human occupation and economic activity on the region.

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Physiography

The eastern one-quarter of the Watershed consists of a lowland plain, underlain by flat-lying Paleozoic sedimentary rocks, generally cleared of forests, and with sufficient soil cover in places to be more or less suitable for agriculture. This is part of what is known as the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain, a subset of the Ottawa - St. Lawrence Lowlands physiographic province. In contrast, the western three-quarters is hilly country, underlain by Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks of the Canadian Shield physiographic province, and rising no more than 100 metres above the Paleozoic lowlands plain to the east. The terrain here consists of northeast-trending outcrop ridges, separated by lake basins and swampy depressions, with local relief seldom exceeding 50 metres. Second-growth forests cover much of the area, but soil cover is thin or absent. The area is much cherished by tourists and local inhabitants for its recreational lakes and streams, but is generally unsuited to agriculture. The Town of Perth lies at the eastern edge of the Canadian Shield physiographic province, facing the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain to the east.

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General Geology

Precambrian Rocks

The western three-quarters of the Tay River Watershed is underlain by igneous (intrusive or extrusive) and metamorphic (altered by heat and pressure) rocks of the Frontenac Terrace, a structural feature of the Central Metasedimentary Belt of the Grenville Province of the Canadian Shield. South of the Watershed, this feature extends as the Frontenac Axis to the southeast, crossing the St. Lawrence River in the Thousand Islands, and connecting with the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York State. These are some of the youngest Precambrian rocks in Canada. The metamorphic rocks of the Grenville Province (known collectively as the Grenville Supergroup) are represented by, in order of prevalence, crystalline limestone (marble), paragneiss and quartzite.These rocks were laid down as sedimentary rocks (limestone, shale/siltstone and sandstone respectively) in a tropical sea about 1.5 billion years ago (Middle Proterozoic Era), southeast and offshore of an ancient continent known as Laurentia. They were altered from their original state by pressure and heat, caused firstly by burial tens of kilometres within the earth's crust, during which they were contorted and squeezed like tooth-paste in a manner typical of plastic flowage. About one billion years ago, through the process of continental drift, Laurentia collided with another continent to the east, resulting in thrusting up of a range of mountains thought to have rivalled the Himalayas in magnitude.During these powerful mountain-building events, the original sedimentary rocks were intruded by younger igneous rocks (granites and gabbros), and further chemically altered or metamorphosed.  Molten magmatic rocks cut through the sedimentary rocks, domed up beneath them, or displaced them by absorption or metasomatism, a process which is sometimes called "granitization".This latter was the last mountain-building episode of Precambrian time, known as the Grenvillian Orogeny. Following the intrusive phase, but within the final Grenville mountain-building episode, a major wrench fault (lateral, rather than up-and-down movement) cut through the Frontenac Axis south of the watershed area, from Loughborough Township northeast at least 160 km, perhaps as far as the Ottawa River in the Buckingham area, passing through the area now occupied by Odessa, Knowlton, Desert, Canoe, Wolfe, Sand and Rideau Lakes (north shore). This feature, known as the Rideau Lake Fault, is characterized by a shear zone (belt of crushed rock) 500 metres wide, evidence of great crustal forces at work. The fault moved again in Post-Ordovician time (less than 400 million years bp), this time as a normal fault down to the south-east, forming the prominent escarpment above Sand and Upper Rideau Lakes known as Foley Mountain. Many of the mineral deposits within the Tay River Watershed are associated with the intrusive phase of the Grenvillian Orogeny, combined with the earlier movement of the Rideau Lake Fault.

These Grenville igneous and metamorphic rocks in turn overlie a pre-Middle Proterozoic basement complex of older igneous and metamorphic rocks (granites and gneisses) which dominates the western part of the Watershed in Frontenac County west of Bobs Lake. Here the younger Grenville metasedimentary rocks are preserved as narrow, sinuous, steeply-dipping outliers trending NNE, as through Parham and Crow Lake.

The very latest igneous activity in the area was the emplacement of mostly northeast-trending pegmatite, porphyritic andesite and diabase dykes, which cut the metasedimentary rocks of the Grenville Supergroup and subsequent intrusive granites and gabbros of the Grenvillian Orogeny.

A long period of uplift and erosion followed, lasting hundreds of millions of years, which ground down the old Grenvillian mountain ranges, and reduced them to a peneplain (meaning "nearly a plain") - the Laurentian Peneplain. This resulted in exposure of the once deeply buried rocks forming the roots of these mountains, which now give us the hilly topography of the Canadian Shield  that we see today. The terrane here has a largely flat horizon (hence "peneplain"), but has been dissected by differential erosion into a system of ridges, valleys and hollows, with local relief of about 30 metres. The topography has been controlled largely by the structure and composition of the surface rocks. Crystalline limestones (marbles) were easily eroded, and occupy low-lying areas and lake basins. Granites, gabbros and quartzites were most resistant, and formed high ridges. Gneisses, of intermediate resistance, were eroded into steep ridges parallel to foliation, separated by elongate swampy depressions. Large anticlinal structures often remained as high-standing blocks, particularly if they incorporated more resistant rock types.

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Paleozoic Rocks

About 500 million years ago, the area was again invaded by seas from the north and east. The first deposits were sandstones of the Nepean Formation  (Cambro-Ordovician age). These rocks consist of uniformly-sorted, rounded quartz grains, cemented by silica, and are usually cream-coloured, but can be reddish or purplish in hue. They were probably laid down in beaches, strand plains and river deltas extending over a very large area. Ripple marks, slump structures and cross-bedding show evidence of a sub-aequeous environment of deposition, while fossil tracks give indication of some of the first amphibious creatures (including an arthropod known as euthycarcinoid) to tentatively crawl out on the sandy shores. In valleys first invaded by the Cambrian sea, coarse, pebbly arkose, consisting of quartz and feldspar, filled the depressions, reflecting the proximity of underlying, weathered Precambrian granitic rocks.

The Nepean sandstone, which can be many tens of feet thick in the lower Watershed area, was succeeded by thin sandstones interbedded with fine-grained, dark brown, sandy dolomites of the March Formation, and finally, by purer dolomites and dolomitic limestones of the Oxford Formation.These two formations are of Early Ordovician age (about 480 million years bp).

These are the strata that one sees in shallow road cuts north and east of Perth. Because they are flat-lying, essentially in the same attitude as they were laid down, the topography of areas underlain by these sedimentary rocks is essentially flat as well. Any topography is controlled by joints and bedding-planes, rather than by rock types.

Erosion during the past several hundred million years has done little to change the overall topography of the region, except to strip away the Paleozoic sedimentary formations which once extended much farther west over the Precambrian peneplain. Even the youngest sedimentary rocks in the Watershed area, the Oxford Formation, are preserved only in a few outliers on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain. Areas underlain by Nepean sandstone extend as fingers of flat topography into the Canadian Shield southwest of Perth along the Scotch Line and Perth Road as far as Stanleyville, along the Christie Lake Road almost to Christie Lake, and south of Otty Lake, indicating a once much more widespread coverage.

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Glaciation

About one million years ago, major global climatic changes resulted in the build-up and movement of continental glaciers over the whole of Canada, including the Watershed area. It is known that there were four glacial episodes or stages, during which the glaciers advanced over the land, interspersed with long  interglacial intervals (100,000 years or more in duration) during which the climate was as warm or warmer than it is today. This is known as the Pleistocene Epoch. During the glacial stages, ice moved over mountain, plain and lowland areas, scouring and overriding the bedrock and unconsolidated deposits in some areas, while depositing great loads of debris in others.

The last of the glacial episodes is known as the Wisconsin Stage which began about 100,000 years ago, and covered the whole of the Watershed area in ice for the fourth time. The grain of the Precambrian rocks, notably northeast, controlled the direction of the ice movement in this area, which accentuated the ridged topography that had resulted from differential erosion of hard and soft rocks. As the ice scoured across the area, Precambrian outcrops and ridges were rounded, polished and striated, and often split into loose blocks by frost action. In the Paleozoic terrane to the east, outcrops often show grooved and striated surfaces, trending north 30 degrees  east. These are especially prevalent in Nepean sandstone strata.

About 13,000 years ago, the ice began to melt back, and by about 12,500 years ago, had probably retreated north as far as the Watershed area. Some 12,000 years ago, the ice was gone from the area, and the region south of the Watershed was covered by glacial Lake Iroquois, an expansion of what is now Lake Ontario, which probably drained southeast into present day New York State. Once the ice retreated far enough to open up the St. Lawrence Valley lowland, the Atlantic Ocean flooded in to form a large inland body of salt water known as the Champlain Sea, which seems to have extended as far west as Smiths Falls, but did not reach the Tay River Watershed. Meanwhile, Lake Iroquois was now able to drain eastward into the Champlain Sea through the St. Lawrence River, and shrank back south of the TRW to an area slightly smaller than present day Lake Ontario.

After the weight of glacial ice was removed, the land rebounded, rising to push the Champlain Sea back to the east. The new land was gradually covered with vegetation, and by 6,000 years ago, the Tay River Watershed area probably looked very much like it does today (or at least what it was like before it was populated by Europeans in the early 19th Century).  It became the hunting and fishing grounds of the semi-nomadic First Nations people, who used the Tay and its headwater lakes and tributaries as transportation corridors.

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Soils

The soil cover of the Tay River Watershed area has developed directly from deposits carried by the last (Wisconsin) episode of glacial ice advance, and these soils were left behind when the Wisconsin ice sheets retreated. Most soils seem to be related to the underlying bedrock, thus have been carried relatively short distances. Over the bulk of the area, particularly in the west over the Canadian Shield, the soils are thin, less than 30 cm, and consist of glacial till, a non-sorted mixture of broken rock fragments and soil particles of sand and clay, with numerous outcrops of bare rock. These soils have been classified with respect to agricultural potential as Class 7, with no capability for arable culture or even permanent pasture. Some deeper calcareous sandy loams, with up to Class 2 capability (moderate limitations that restrict the range of crops or require moderate conservation practices) occur around Perth, and in areas corresponding roughly to the fingers of flat-lying Nepean sandstone strata west of Perth. These form ribbons of better soils along the Christie Lake Road from Perth to Christie Lake; along the Scotch Line as far west as Allan's Mills and around Stanleyville; around the village of Weymuss, and east of Perth along County Road #43 north of the Tay Marsh. In portions of the limestone plain underlain by Paleozoic rocks, or at the very edge of the Canadian Shield, large swamps occur, including the Tay Marsh, Grant's Creek Wetland, Blueberry Marsh and Long Swamp. These were once occupied by lakes, and are underlain by organic muck and peat. Many smaller swamps occupy depressions within the hillier Canadian Shield, containing the same type of organic soils.

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History of Mining in the Tay River Watershed

Many people are unaware of the fact that the Canadian Shield area of Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec is to a large extent the birth-place of Canada's mining industry. This is somewhat ironic, as today, the thought of mining activity in our recreational Eden is anathema to many residents. Earliest mining activity appears to have been in nearby Leeds County (former Bastard Township), where iron ore was mined for a very brief period in 1800 to supply a blast furnace in Lyndhurst (once called "Furnace Falls"). Iron ore was also mined around Marmora, beginning in 1819. The first gold in Ontario was discovered north of Madoc, in 1866. Closer to home, (old) North Burgess Township saw mining activity as early as 1855 within the TRW, and mining was a mainstay of the local economy for the next 70 years. In Western Quebec, graphite was mined as early as 1845 (Miller or Keystone mine near Grenville, across from Hawkesbury) and is still being mined near Mont Laurier, while apatite (and later mica and graphite) was first mined in the Lievre River area near Buckingham in 1871. 

The first mining "magnate" in the Tay River Watershed area was an interesting combination of medical humanitarian and industrial visionary. Dr. James Wilson (1798-1881) was a physician and surgeon from Scotland, who emigrated to Ontario in 1818 at the age of 20, a young man fresh from medical school in Edinburgh. He first settled in the village of Lanark, but moved to Perth in about 1822, setting up a rural medical practice there until 1869, when he returned to his birthplace in Scotland to retire. By the 1830's, he was starting to take a strong interest in the various rock outcrops that he encountered as he made his rounds to his rural patients in his horse and buggy. He was particularly fascinated with the variety of colourful minerals in the Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks west of Perth, and in the fossils that he found in the Paleozoic sedimentary rocks east of town. At that time, the science of geology was in its infancy. The conventional view was that the rocks and fossils had been placed where they were by the hand of God at the time of Creation, and hadn't moved since. To contradict this concept was considered to be blasphemous in the least, as Charles Darwin was to discover some 20 years later. Whether or not Dr. Wilson worried too much about challenging the conservative beliefs of the majority of his pious neighbours we shall never know, at any rate, he was particularly interested in minerals that might be worked for the benefit of mankind. Untrained formally in geology himself, he kept in touch with the leading earth scientists of the day, including Sir Roderick Murchison, a British pioneer in stratigraphy. He accompanied Sir William Logan, founder of the Geological Survey of Canada, on some of the latter's surveys, and supplied him with much information on local geology, for which he did not always receive Logan's acknowledgement. He was the first to recognize the presence of the minerals apatite (calcium phosphate, useful in making fertilizer) and phlogopite (a form of mica) in old North Burgess Township, and to encourage the entrepreneurs amongst his friends to exploit these deposits for profit. These men included his good friends the Honourable Roderick Matheson, a wealthy merchant, magistrate and later senator who lived on Gore Street in the lovely stone house now occupied by the Perth Museum, and William Morris, who headed up the company which built the first Tay Canal. Dr. Wilson and Matheson first obtained property on Lot 5, Concession 8 of North Burgess Township (Crown grant to Matheson of the north half on Feb. 23, 1852, and the south half on October 6, 1853). Wilson obtained a grant of the north half of Lot 2, Concession 8 on July 8, 1852, and Matheson bought the south half on July 16, 1853. Actual working of the deposits (on Lot 2) began in 1855, Canada's first phosphate (apatite) mine. Interest eventually shifted to Matheson's property on Lot 5 (now part of the Burgess Wood subdivision), where in 1870, the first recorded commercial shipment of phosphate occurred. By this time, Wilson had returned to Scotland. Before he left, he gave his extensive rock and mineral collection to the Honourable Mr. Matheson, who stored them in his warehouse in Perth. Matheson died of a stroke in January, 1873, while writing a letter to his friend Dr. Wilson, no doubt telling him of the success of their first joint mining venture. The mineral collection was donated by his son, Colonel Allan Matheson, to the local museum, then housed in the high school. When the Perth Museum opened in 1967 in  the former Matheson House on Gore Street, the collection found a permanent home there.

That very first mine was later sold by the Matheson estate to Robert Chamblet Adams and Joseph S. Roper in 1878. The mineral rights were leased to the Anglo-Canadian Phosphate Company, Ltd. in 1886-93. In 1907, William Lees McLaren, son of lumber baron and Senator Peter McLaren (the latter had worked an adjacent property on Lot 4, Concession 8 together with Arthur Meighan in previous years), bought the property, and worked it for mica for a number of years. This became known as the McLaren Mine, and was one of the largest in this part of the province. After the initial work on Lot 2, Concession 8 commenced in 1855, other phosphate mines soon opened up in the vicinity within the TRW, including the Byrnes (1870), Otter (1870), Old Anthony (1871), and Smith (1883) workings, all now within the Mica Mines Conservation Area. Larger phosphate mines just outside the TRW in old North Burgess Township included the Munslow-Martha (1871), Hanlon (1890's) and Silver  Queen (1903) Mines. It is interesting to note how many of the old mining families are buried in the old Roman Catholic cemetery in nearby Stanleyville, including Byrne, Hanlon, Smith, Adam and others.

The phosphate found in these deposits occurred in the pale blue-green mineral apatite, as sugary aggregates or large crystals of up to 30 cm in length  The apatite mineral was concentrated to a "super-phosphate" product, then mostly exported to markets in France, England, Germany and the United States, to be used for agricultural purposes (crop fertilizers). Mining for phosphate flourished in old North Burgess Township from 1870 to 1894, but all but ceased after large deposits of sedimentary phosphate were discovered in Florida and Tennessee, from which fertilizer could be produced much more cheaply.

The mineral phlogopite (white mica) had also been recognized by Dr. Wilson, and was produced as a by-product with the apatite in the early days of mining in old North Burgess Township. At first, it did not have much of a market. The first mine worked purely for mica was the Pike Lake Mine, on Lots 16 and 17, Concession 9 of North Burgess Township, at the eastern end of Pike Lake, which was first opened in 1860 by a New York Company. The first sheet mica produced here was shipped to France, where the French navy used it in their battleships. In 1880, Belden's Historical Atlas of Lanark County noted that, although the operation had been discontinued, " the supply is in great abundance and the quality of the article first class".The mine was reopened in 1892 and again in1902, and for awhile, supplied the French Navy with sheet mica for port-holes in its battleships. The mine was so important at the time that the village of Stanleyville was known then as "Micaville".By 1896, with markets for local phosphate drying up, mica became the most economic product, and a new mining "boom" took place within North Burgess Township, including the TRW. Local businessmen dreamed up new uses for this mineral, and the old phosphate mines were soon being reworked for mica. In time it was being used for stove and furnace windows and doors, irons, toasters, spectacles, goggles, gas-masks, lamp shades, fuse-plugs, separating leaves in electrical conductors and insulators in electric motors. Scrap mica was used for covering steam pipes and boilers, and was built up into sheets called "micanite", using shellac as a cement. Ground mica was found to be useful in making wall-paper (it gave it lustre), a filler in paint and rubber, as a lubricant in axle-gease, and in pipe-coatings, insulation, fire-proofing, patent roofing and telephone receivers. At one time, there as many as 30 mica mines operating in old North Burgess Township alone. One of the reasons for this region's viability for mica production was its close proximity to the Rideau Canal, which afforded a cheap transportation route to markets.

Farther from Perth in the TRW, apatite, and later, phlogopite mica, were mined in old South Sherbrooke Township in Lanark County, and old Bedford and Hinchinbrooke Townships in Frontenac County, in the latter two, in the Bobs Lake and Eagle Lake areas respectively. Just outside the TRW in North Burgess Township, the Silver Queen Mine (Lot 13, Concession 5) produced phlogopite mica from 1903 to 1909, and apatite from 1903 to1912. The mica was a light silver amber colour of excellent quality, hence the name. In its heyday, the operation boasted a boarding-house for 20 men, a boiler-house to generate steam for 3 drills and a hoist. Three pits up to 15 metres deep were worked, as well as underground chambers. The Munslow-Martha Mine (Lot 13, Concession 6, North Burgess Township) was another large producer of phosphate in the period 1887-1902, was reworked for mica from large pits in 1891-1907, again in1940 - 42 during WW II. The Hanlon Mine (Lot 11, Concession 6) had a large camp and buildings, with a shaft reaching 53 metres in depth, and produced mica from the late 1890's to 1909. At its peak, 115 men were employed, making it the largest mining operation in old North Burgess Township.

Major mica mining in the area ended in 1912, and had practically ceased by 1925 when cheap mica began to be imported from Madagascar. Within the TRW, production of mica ceased in the Byrnes Mine (Lots 11 and 12, Concession 7, North Burgess Township) in 1904, at Smith (Lot 9, Concession 7) in 1906, in South Sherbrooke Township in 1911 (McEwen Mine), in the McLaren Mine (Lot 5, Concession 8,  North Burgess Township) in 1918, but in the Eagle Lake area (Green Mine) in 1942, Bobs Lake Mine in 1948, and Otter Mine (Lots 10 and 11, Concession 7, North Burgess Township) as late as 1952.

All of the apatite and mica deposits within and near to the TRW were found in discontinuous, irregular veins. They consisted mainly of the minerals apatite and, phlogopite mica in a matrix of diopside and pink calcite, within a host rock of paragneiss, a metamorphic rock formed from siltstone and shale, and sometimes, crystalline limestone (marble). The veins were found near the contact of carbonate and silicate rocks, at the apices of major folds. This is known as a contact metamorphic deposit, and resulted when the metasedimentary rocks of the Precambrian Grenville Supergroup were intruded by granite plutons or pegmatite dykes during the Grenvillian Orogeny, thereby introducing, at high temperatures, the element silica into rocks consisting primarily of calcium carbonate, and forming complex calcium silicates and phosphates. Deposits of this type represent most of the commercial mineral occurrences (including those other than apatite or mica) within the TRW, and are typically small in size, as compared with the mines of the Superior Province (of the Precambrian Shield) in Northern Ontario, which generally have a different geological origin. As a result, mining in Eastern Ontario Grenville Province generally died off once the more lucrative mines of the North were discovered in the early 1900's.

Much larger apatite and mica mines were discovered in Grenville Series Precambrian rocks south of the TRW, often associated with the Rideau Lake Fault shear zone. The Lacey Mine (owned by General Electric) on Lot 11, Concession 7 of old Loughborough Township in Frontenac County near Sydenham began production in 1882, and became one of the world's largest phlogopite mica mines, being the largest in Canada in 1912. It was finally closed in 1947. The Sand Lake or Hardy Mine, on Lots 14 and 15, Concession 7 of old South Crosby Township, Leeds County, opened in 1870, and closed in 1912 after major production of both mica and apatite.

The mica and apatite mines of old North Burgess Township within the TRW were nothing like the giant open pit operations and underground workings of today. They were mostly pits and trenches dug by hand, or blasted out of the solid outcrops using sticks of dynamite placed in hand-drilled holes. Dynamite was not invented until 1866 (by Alfred Bernard Nobel of Sweden), and not manufactured in Canada until 1876, so earlier blasting was done with black powder, a very dangerous substance indeed. A few of the larger workings, like the Silver Queen Mine just outside the TRW, used steam-driven drills. The ore was removed in wooden buckets pulled up by winzes turned mainly by horse power, or occasionally, by steam engines. A few of the mines, such as McLaren, Hanlon, Smith and Silver Queen, had bunkhouses for a couple of dozen men. In most cases, however, the workers were local farmers, who walked or rode horseback to their work-sites on a daily basis.

One mica-like deposit was discovered within the TRW long after most of the workings had been shut down elsewhere. Near Stanleyville, on Lot 17, Concession 8 of old North Burgess Township, not far from the old Pike Lake mica mine, a large deposit of vermiculite was discovered in 1950 by C.G. Bruce of the Ontario Department of Mines. Vermiculite is a mica-like mineral, formed by the alteration (by surface waters) of the mineral diopside. The area of the discovery was sold to Sisco Vermiculite Mines Ltd., who sampled the surface and near-surface by pits and trenches, and with three widely-spaced diamond drill holes. Later, some further trenching was done. Although a favourable zone was mapped out some 540 metres long, 120 metres wide and several metres deep, the deposit was not considered to be economically viable, and active work was suspended in 1951. The property was sold to Olympus Mines Ltd. in 1959, which company developed a large open pit in 1960, and sold the product for ultra light weight industrial aggregates, and for kitty litter. Operations ceased for good in 1961.

After apatite and mica, feldspar was probably the next most important mineral produced from the TRW. Pegmatite dykes (narrow, linear intrusions of very coarse granite, or of pure coarse feldspar, which cut the Grenville Series metasedimentary rocks and subsequent granite and gabbro intrusives in latest Precambrian time) were worked for this mineral, which occurs in large crystals, along with quartz, mainly in South Sherbrooke Township (1916-23, Orser-Kraft Quarry), Bathurst Township (1918-22, Kirkham, Truelove, Burns and Mendels Mines), and Bedford Township (1919-30, Robinson, Steele, Federal and Dominion Mines). The Silver Queen Mine in North Burgess Township was worked for a vein of pure white feldspar from 1911-14.

In old Bathurst Township, the Kirkham Mine north of Highway 7 was operated between 1919 and 1921, while the Orser-Kraft Quarry, in old South Sherbrooke Township south of Maberly near Little Silver Lake, was worked from 1916 to 1923. Both were open pits. Feldspar was used as a filler in paints, as a glazing in ceramics, and was the basic ingredient in "Bon Ami" scouring powder and soap, whose motto was "hasn't scratched yet", supported by the fact that feldspar as an abrasive is softer than silica, the main ingredient in ceramic tile, glass and porcelain.

Much larger feldspar deposits, also in pegmatite dykes, were worked in Bathurst Township just north of the TRW during the period 1926-50, and in Bedford Township south of the TRW near Deyo's Bay of Desert Lake, where the Richardson Mine opened between 1901 and 1918, reopened in 1928-29 and 1946-48, and produced a quarter million tonnes of feldspar. There are still five active claims in this area, staked in 1986 by W.S. Kennedy and worked each year to maintain them in good standing. Latest reports claim that the deposit looks favourable for further production of feldspar for ceramics.

A zinc deposit was discovered on Lot 3, Concessions 5 and 6, old Olden Township, Frontenac County, near Long Lake in the 1890's, and was in production briefly during the period 1897-1915. In 1901, Leslie Benn sank a pit and produced more than 100 tons of zinc ore. The site was later acquired by James Richardson and Sons, Ltd. of Kingston, who worked the mine for several years. This deposit, known as the Long Lake Mine, consists of sphalerite (zinc sulphide) lenses in crystalline limestone (marble), the product of contact metamorphism (as described previously), related to the Mountain Grove gabbro-anorthosite intrusive complex. The mine was reopened in 1947-50, and again in 1973-75, when Lynx-Canada Exploration Ltd. and Canadian Reynolds Metal Ltd. milled 100,000 tonnes of ore grading 17% zinc.

Iron, in the form of titaniferous magnetite (iron oxide with titanium) was discovered in old South Sherbrooke Township around Christie Lake, this time in two separate contact metamorphic deposits in crystalline limestone at the edge of the Christie Lake gabbro intrusive (Christie Lake and Silver Lake deposits). No commercial production occurred. Other small iron deposits were found in South Sherbrooke and old North Crosby Townships south of Christie Lake, in old Bedford Township near Bobs Lake (1890-1900) and in old Hinchinbrooke Township near Eagle Lake.

Barite (barium sulphate), galena (lead sulphide) corundum (a very hard mineral used in abrasive papers),  molybdenite, nickel and gold have been found in the western half of the TRW, but none of these deposits was ever large enough to warrant mining on an economic scale.

More recently, in 1987, a large deposit of wollastonite (a calcium silicate used as a filler in paint and plastic, and a substitute for asbestos) was discovered in a road outcrop on Lot 4, Concession 3 of old Olden Township, within the TRW south of the village of Mountain Grove. Geological work began in 1988 by Ram Petroleums Company Ltd. to map the prospect (named the Olden South or Hawley prospect), which indicated a potentially commercial deposit some 200 m long and up to 80 m wide. Trenching and blasting took place in the summer of 1989, and half a tonne of ore was removed for laboratory testing. This work indicated a clean, high quality  wollastonite concentrate, that could be produced by a combination of flotation and magnetic separation. Nineteen diamond drill-holes were put down in 1990 to a depth of 120 m, and a further 11 in 1993. In 1991, further separation and milling tests were carried out, and in 1993, a 150 -tonne bulk sample of ore was put through a pilot plant. An economic evaluation carried out for Ram in 1996 put the value of the deposit at $3.8-5.2 million, with ore reserves of 2,650,000 tonnes at 30% wollastonite accessible by open pit mining, plus calcite of good quality. In its Report of Activities for 2000 (Open File Report 6052), the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines confirmed that Wollasco Minerals, Inc., a subsidary of Ram Petroleums, had outlined ore reserves of 2.9 million tonnes of 30% wollastonite, with the remainder high quality calcite, to a depth of 75 m. The company was expected to carry out further work to establish procedures for assaying and separation, and if this work is successful, will seek financing to build a pilot plant or mini-mill to produce wollastonite and calcite (personal communication in December, 2000 by MNDM with Robert Opekar, President of Ram Petroleums). I have been unable to find more recent progress reports on this project.

Graphite, a mineral form of carbon, has been the mineral most featured in recent news from the TRW, since a U.S. company, Graphite Mountain Inc., a subsidiary of Diamond Lake Minerals of Utah, staked 22 claims in North Burgess Ward of Tay Valley Township, in "cottage country" around Black, Pike, Otty and Long Lakes, in March, 2001, for the purpose of prospecting for graphite. All or part of 11 of these claims were located within the TRW. Graphite has become a very valuable mineral in recent years, and is used in refractory products (heat resistant bricks and mortar), foundries, crucibles, lubricants, brake linings, pencils, steel alloys, batteries, oil-drilling mud, and in plastics and rubber. More recently, a large potential use has been recognized in the manufacture of fuel cells for electric cars, which could compete with the internal combustion engine within the next decades. Thus the company is very serious in seeking new sources of this commodity. The only producer within North America at this time is in Quebec, where the geological setting is very similar to that of parts of North Burgess Ward, Tay Valley Township, and Bedford District, South Frontenac Township.

The 2001 staking in Tay Valley Township raised an alarm amongst cottagers and other recreational land owners, many of whom were unaware that they did not own the mineral rights to their properties. They were appalled at the potential threat to the natural beauty, environment, quietude and property values that the staking implied, and formed a protest committee, the Citizens' Mining Action Group, to challenge the company. Also challenged were certain clauses of the Ontario Mining Act, which permit staking on any property where the mineral rights are held by the Crown, without obtaining permission from the owner of the surface rights. The CMAG sought to obtain a moratorium on mining in Tay Valley Township, and to change certain clauses in the Mining Act which fail to protect the rights of landowners. The Tay Valley Township Council passed a resolution supporting the CMAG cause.

However, this staking activity was really part of a long-term exploration program by Diamond Lake Minerals in North Burgess Ward, which began in 1985 and 1987, when the company began staking between Black and Big Rideau Lakes (at least 14 claims), followed in 1988 by the staking of an additional 25 claims in the same area. All of these earlier claims were outside the Tay River Watershed area. An even higher priority target for the same company's exploration program has been in Bedford District, South Frontenac Township.

This exploration program appears to have focussed on a northest-trending belt of potential graphite mineralization, extending from Desert Lake in old Bedford Township, Frontenac County, to old North Elmsley Township in Lanark County. There is a long history of graphite mining, or attempts at it, within this belt, in the late 1800's and early 1900's. The mineralization here, and in the extension of this belt into the Buckingham area of Western Quebec, is in Grenville Supergroup metasedimentary rocks, mostly crystalline limestones, and may be associated with the Rideau Lake Fault.

Graphite was first discovered near this trend in Western Quebec in 1845 (Miller or Keystone Mine at Grenville). In Ontario, the first graphite discovery was made in 1870 in the Globe Mine on Lots 21 and 22, Concession 6 of old North Elmsley Township (just outside the TRW on the Rideau Ferry Road). This deposit was found at the crest of an anticlinal fold in crystalline limestone, and was worked by the Globe Graphite Co. in 1870-75. A graphite mill was built at nearby Rideau Ferry in 1872, superintended by a Mr. Robb for three years. A two-storey mill, 60' X 160', was built, with a  ten-stamp battery operated by a five horse-power steam engine. Some graphite was obtained from deposits on the other side of Big Rideau Lake in Leeds County. Belden's Historical Atlas of Lanark County (1880) states that, although the operation had ceased for the time, "the deposit is practically unlimited, with the yield of graphite being about six per cent". The deposit was sold to the International Mining Co., and worked again in 1901-03 and 1916-20. A second mill was apparently built at Port Elmsley.  The Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines reported in 1999 that there were 500,000 tonnes of ore reserves grading 7% graphite remaining below the mined out portion of the deposit, to a depth of 90 m.

Graphite was next discovered on Lots 24 and 25, Concession 5 of old North Burgess Township southwest of Black Lake (outside the TRW) in 1917. The occurrence consists of lenses highly charged with flakes of graphite, within crystalline limestone, a contact metamorphic deposit related to intrusion of a pegmatite dyke. The Timmins Mine, as it was known, was worked from 1918-23 by Noah Timmins of Montreal. Numerous pits were opened, and diamond drilling carried out. A mill was installed and operated experimentally, but the operation was never economically viable.

A third deposit near the TRW, at the north end of Desert Lake on Lot 4, Concessions 4 and 5 of old Bedford Township, Frontenac County, was discovered in 1919, but never produced significant volumes of graphite. In about 1990, Stewart Lake Resources, a subsidiary of Falconbridge Ltd., commenced two years of exploration on and near  the property, including blasting and trenching, but soon abandoned the mine after creating quite a bit of environmental damage (according to a local cottager of my acquaintance). There are still three mining claims held on or adjacent to this property. Northern Development and Mines estimated in 1999 that indicated ore reserves are 1.6 million tonnes of ore grading 9.5% graphite, in two separate zones.

The most significant exploration activity which led up to the 2001 staking in Tay Valley Township also started in Bedford District of South Frontenac Township, east of Bobs Lake, on a graphite deposit (named the Graphite Mountain site) that appears to have been discovered in the late1990's. In 1998 and1999 Graphite Mountain Inc. (the subsidiary of Diamond Lake Minerals of Utah referred to above), staked 42 claims straddling New Road and Westport Road, within a belt of crystalline limestone extending from Potspoon Lake to Green and Wolfe Lakes, partly within the TRW. The company carried out extensive exploration in 1998 and 1999 on 18 hectares of Lots 15 and 16, Concession 5 of Bedford along New Road southwest of the hamlet of Burridge (just outside the TRW), including trenching, blasting, sampling and diamond drilling, using heavy machinery. Local land owners became very alarmed at the prospect of uninvited industrial activity in their largely recreational township, and formed the Bedford Mining Alert group to protest the activity. Like the later "victims" of the 2001 staking in Tay Valley Township, they were surprised to learn that many land owners in the area did not own the mineral rights to their lands, and under the Ontario Mining Act, there was little to stop any interested company from entering on their land to stake claims and carry out preliminary exploration work.

Including the original Bedford District staking in 1998, a total of 61 new claims have been recorded. On June 15, 2000, officials of the Tweed office of the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines inspected the Graphite Mountain site off New Road, where most of the evaluation work has been concentrated, with company employees, and published their findings in Open File Report 6052. This report reads as follows: "Work has been conducted over three main areas, all of which have been stripped of overburden to expose the complex geology. The graphite is hosted in calcitic marble units that are highly contorted due to intense folding. The strong deformation has produced highly enriched graphitic zones, especially at the apex of folded units (King, 1994). Numerous trenches were noted along with at least 16 diamond drill hole collars. Background graphite control in the marbles is in the order of 0.5% to 1.0%, with mineralized zones containing 5% visible graphite. The mineralized zones have assayed a total carbon content of 7.0% to 20.0% (Easton, 1997). The graphite is amorphous.

"Two mineralized horizons are present with strike lengths of up to 300 m and widths of 1-3 m. Pods or lenses of graphite varying 1-3 m in length are contained in the marble on either side of the main mineralized zone. The zones appear to have been offset by a fault at their western extent and appear to be part of a regional synformal structure that plunges 30 degrees to the west (Easton, 1997).

"Work completed to date includes overburden stripping, trenching, bedrock sampling, airtrack drilling, diamond drilling, bulk sampling, bench testing and market research. Based on the results of the 1998 exploration program, James E. Tilsey and Associates report a resource volume of 2.4 million tonnes in three geologically defined mineralized zones. The main area, known as the Meadow Zone, is located in the southwest part of the property. Overburden stripping to date has exposed an area approximately 60' X 120' as well as two small areas 20' X 50' each. Total stripped area is approximately 9200 square feet (856 m2). Limited diamond drilling and percussion drilling has been conducted over this area. The second mineralized zone, located south of the Meadow Zone, has been exposed over an area measuring approximately 20' X 100' (185 m2).

"The third mineralized zone, located northeast of the Meadow Zone, encompasses a stripped area of 300' X 150' (4186 m2) and 20' X 60' (112 m2). To date approximately 5330 m2 have been exposed through overburden stripping. Additional exploration is required to further define the graphite zone prior to conducting feasibility studies. Future plans include additional diamond drilling, reserves definition, and requisition of the necessary permitting to bring the deposit into production."

Meanwhile, the company has apparently applied for a mining lease (21 years, renewable for an additional 21 years), and has reportedly purchased a property on the Rideau Ferry Road south of Perth for a mill. However, in early March, 2003, Graphite Mountain Inc. abandoned five claims which were the subject of dispute hearings (by landowners), and in early May, 2003, 38 additional claims were cancelled due to failure of the company to apply work credits to maintain them in good standing, leaving only 18 claims, centred around the New Road (Graphite Mountain) deposit, and extending northeast along Westport Road. The current status of their lease application is not known at time of writing, nor is the amount of work carried out since the Ministry's inspection in June, 2000. However, the South Frontenac Township Council has passed a resolution opposing mining in the Township on the basis of potential environmental damage from open pit operations, subsequent reduction of property values, and general antipathy to any activity that conflicts with tourism and recreation, the principal support of Township revenues, and on "maintaining the pastoral agricultural heritage" of the Township. It is thus somewhat questionable if the mining operation will proceed any further, although it appears to be supported by the Ontario Ministry.

Back in Tay Valley Township, the news has been good for landowners and their Citizens' Mining Action Group. All of the 22 claims staked in March, 2001 near Black, Pike, Long and Otty Lakes have been cancelled, as well as the 25 claims staked south of Black Lake in 1988. All that remain are 14 claims from the 1985 and 1987 staking between Black and Big Rideau Lakes, and these are slated to expire in September, 2003. These original claims, which started all the action in North Burgess Ward (and seem to predate the action in Bedford District), are located in Lots 23, 24. 25 and 26 of Concession 5, North Burgess Ward, in the vicinity of the old Timmins Graphite Mine (on Lots 24 and 25, Concession 5).

On the subject of graphite mining, but outside the TRW, various efforts have recently made to establish graphite production east of Portland in Rideau Lakes Township, Leeds County. Although some graphite had been taken from this area earlier for the Globe Mine operation in North Elmsley Township, the first important discovery was made in 1959 on Lot 10, Concession 1 of old Bastard Township (Cornell Mine). Victoria Graphite Inc., a subsidiary of International Nickel Company, reopened the deposit on June 1,1994, with ore averaging 6% graphite, and a mill capacity of 3,000 tonnes of flake graphite / year. It appears to have been shut down a few years later. In 1999, Quinto Technology Inc. of Delta, B.C., which seems to have other graphite prospects (but no current production) in Canada, purchased the mine and mill, and reported in 2000 that it intended to modify, upgrade and expand the existing facility to produce a value-added graphite product, with the fuel cell market in mind. The writer attempted to visit the site in July, 2003, but it was obvious that there was no recent activity. Enquiries in nearby Portland failed to reveal the status of the operation. It is assumed that the company has either given up on the prospect, or is in the process of seeking financing. Efforts to contact the company directly have been unsuccessful.

Stone for building purposes has been quarried from the Nepean Sandstone Formation within the eastern part of the TRW for 180 years. Many of the historic buildings in Perth were constructed of this very durable and attractive stone from nearby quarries, examples being those in old North Elmsley Township south of the Perth Dump along Wild Life Road, and southeast of Perth along County Road #43 in the same township.

Other quarries were located in old Bathurst Township near Dewitt's Corners, and southwest of Glen Tay. The same stone, not necessarily from the TRW, was used to build locks and dams on the Rideau Canal, and the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, as well as many other historic buildings in that city.

At the northeast edge of the TRW, along Highway #7 east of Perth, Nepean sandstone is currently being worked for decorative building and landscaping stone, and for road aggregate, in the Tackaberry Sand and Stone, Ltd. quarry. Here the Nepean Formation is buried under a thin veneer of the March Formation. The company bought the property in 1999 from Doug Leach, who had operated the pit for aggregates on a smaller scale since about 1990.

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Summary

The author is of the opinion that most known mineral deposits in the Lanark County portion of the Tay Valley Watershed have either been depleted in historic times, or are too small and uneconomic to be considered for future mineral exploitation. Any proposed operation would likely meet with much resistance from local residents and municipalities, and so many environmental constraints as to render it marginally profitable at best. The recent staking by Graphite Mountain Inc. does not appear to have turned up anything of value, within the TRW at least. The Tackaberry Sand and Stone operation on Highway #7 is currently the only active project, and is supplying a local market.

It is also apparent that, although there are many abandoned quarries, pits, trenches and shafts in the area, many of which are in contact with the water table, the potential for environmental damage from these is considered to be minimal, much less, for example, than that from a land-fill site, or a gold mine. This is because the material mined is not metal, but various versions of siliceous or calcareous minerals, which are no more toxic or soluble than the outcrops into which they have been dug. Although these pits and quarries scar the area, they are becoming obscured by vegetation, and their appearance is more interesting from a historical perspective than it is revolting  to the senses or a threat to the environment. However, they do impose a safety hazard to passersby, and should be filled in, fenced off, or at least posted by the land owner if they are near a trail, roadway or habitation.

The situation could be different in the Frontenac County portion of the Watershed, especially away from cottage country, where population centres are small and widely separated, and where some industrial activity, if controlled, could be attractive to the local municipality, for example, Wollasco Minerals Inc.'s Olden South wollastonite deposit in Olden District. On August 13, 2002, Central Frontenac Township passed a zoning by-law, included in an Official Plan, which included the provision of industrial zones to be designated for pits and quarries, landfill sites and mining. However, it also stipulates that "if proprietary land use or development on privately-owned land serves a greater long-term interest than a mining operation, then a mine will not be permitted".

In South Frontenac Township, there appears to be some commercial interest in mining some deposits just outside the TRW in Bedford District (Graphite Mountain graphite deposit off New Road, feldspar at Desert Lake). However, that township does not appear to be very sympathetic to such an operation. Even here, the nature of the Precambrian geology is such  that any mining is likely to be on a relatively small scale. If it does occur, we must hope that the operation will take into account the sensitivities of the land owners and the local population and their attachment to the land and the natural environment, also that the operation be adequately bonded to ensure proper clean-up after depletion.

The attitude today is vastly different to that 100 years ago or more, when the local population depended on industries such as mining and forestry to stave off starvation on their hardscrabble farms. At that time as well, the rocks and forests were not appreciated for their scenic beauty and recreational value (except by the "idle" rich), but considered to be an impediment to agriculture, a potential source of employment and profit and in general, a resource just waiting to be cut down or blasted out. Fortunately, times have changed.

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Addendum:

Footnote on Uranium Occurrences in the Tay watershed

Uranium has not been found in the Tay River Watershed, but occurrences are known to exist north of Sharbot Lake in Frontenac County, within the Mississippi River Watershed. During the 1970's there was a minor mining boom in the area, as mining companies vied to explore for this mineral, only to have their hopes dashed when the bottom fell out of the uranium market. One company actually delineated two good-sized deposits, one of which, after diamond drilling and engineering studies, showed promise for an open-pit uranium mine.

Over the past two years, the price of uranium has escalated several-fold, as governments and utilities began to give nuclear power a second look as a possible solution to greenhouse gas-free electrical generation. A small Canadian exploration company, Frontenac Ventures Corporation, acquired a 100% interest in the earlier deposits during 2005 and 2006, and, in 2006 and 2007, staked almost 12,000 hectares of mostly Crown lands in the vicinity of its recently-acquired properties. These claims cover an area of very high radioactivity, identified on the Ontario Geological Survey's Map P. 2611 published in 1985, east and south of Crotch Lake for the most part, including the scenic Ragged Chutes area along the Mississippi River. The OGS attributed the high radioactivity to the presence of uranium within granitic rocks of Grenvillian (Late Precambrian) age.

Frontenac Ventures has rented buildings near Robertsville, about 13 km north of Sharbot Lake off County Road #509 and the site of a 100-year old iron (magnetite) mine, for their base of operations. Until June 28, 2007, the company was preparing to drill some 200 new diamond drill holes to test their claimed lands. A road had been driven west of County Road #509 to access the target area. Their operations came to a halt on that date when their camp at Robertsville was occupied by members of the Ardoch Algonquin and Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nations and their supporters, who strongly objected to this unauthorized (by them) invasion of their ancestral lands, and the potential risk of the exploration program to the natural environment, in particular, the waterways. The impasse is yet to be resolved, but the First Nations people have vowed to impose a complete moratorium on exploration for uranium in the area.

August 15, 2007

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Appendix A

GLOSSARY OF GEOLOGICAL TERMS

Andesite: - An extrusive (volcanic) igneous rock composed essentially of plagioclase feldspar, together with mafic minerals such as biotite, horneblende, pyroxene.

Anorthosite: - A type of gabbro free of pyroxene.

Breccia: - A rock composed of angular broken fragments in a finer-grained matrix.

Contact Metamorphism: - Alteration of a rock genetically connected with the proximal intrusion of an igneous rock. The formation of new minerals (often economic) associated with the interaction of  a body of intrusive igneous rock with the country rock.

Diabase: - An intrusive igneous rock (mafic) usually found in dykes or sills, and composed of plagioclase feldspar and augite.

Diorite: - An intrusive igneous rock (mafic) composed essentially of plagioclase feldspar and horneblende.

Dyke: - A wall-like intrusion of igneous rock which post-dates and cuts across the structure of the country rock

Felsic Rocks: - Igneous rocks composed predominately of light-coloured feldspar and quartz (also called acidic rocks).

Gabbro: - An intrusive igneous rock (mafic) composed essentially of plagioclase feldspar and pyroxene.

Gneiss: - A metamorphic rock, having the minerals arranged in bands or layers (originally a granite).

Granite: - An intrusive igneous rock (felsic) composed essentially of quartz and alkali feldspar, with minor ferromagnesian minerals such as biotite, horneblende, or pyroxene.

Granodiorite: - An intrusive igneous rock (felsic) composed essentially of alkali feldspar, with less quartz than a granite.

Igneous Rocks: - Rocks formed by solidification from a molten state (includes intrusive or plutonic, i.e., cooled some distance below the surface of the earth, and extrusive or volcanic, i.e., cooled at or near the surface).

Mafic Rocks: - Igneous rocks composed predominately of dark-coloured ferromagnesian minerals such as horneblende and pyroxene (also called basic rocks).

Metamorphic Rocks: Rocks derived from pre-existing rocks by mineralogical, chemical and structural alteration (usually due to the application of heat and pressure).

Metasomatism: - The process by which one mineral is replaced by another of different chemical composition due to the introduction of material from external sources.

Orogeny: - The process of mountain building.

Paragneiss: - A foliated or banded metamorphic rock formed from a sedimentary rock such as shale or siltstone.

Pegmatite: An intrusive igneous rock (felsic) usually found in dykes or veins, and composed of large crystals of alkali feldspar and quartz, with minor ferromagnesian minerals.

Peneplain: - A surface of slight relief and gentle slopes, formed by the subaerial erosion of the land almost to base level.

Porphyritic: - Containing larger crystals (phenocrysts), usually of plagioclase feldspar.

Sedimentary Rocks: - Rocks laid down in a finely-divided state, usually by the action of water (e.g., sandstone, limestone, shale).

Syenite: - An intrusive igneous rock (felsic) composed essentially of alkali feldspar and minor ferromagnesian minerals (i.e., a granite without the quartz).

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Appendix B

RELATED WEB-SITES

Friends of the Tay Watershed Association: www.tayriver.org

Bedford Mining Alert: www.bedfordminingalert.ca

Mineral Exploration on our Doorstep: www.tayvalleytwp.ca

Ministry of Northern Development and Mines: www.mndm.gov.on.ca

Southern Ontario Mining History: www.science.uwaterloo.ca

Queens University, Kingston, Ontario: www.queensu.ca

Staking Claims in Cottage Country: www.newsweb.ca and www.ontarioprospectors.com

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Appendix C

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Belden's Historical Atlas of Lanark County (1880)

Davidson, A.,  Britton, J.M., Bell, K., and Blenkinsop, J. (1979): Regional Synthesis of the Grenville Province of Ontario and Western Quebec; in Current Research, Part B, Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 79-1B, p 153-172.

de Schmid, H.S. (1912): Mica, its Occurrence, Exploitation and Uses; Canada Dept.of Mines, Mines Branch, Report No.118.

Hewitt, D.F. (1964): Geological Notes for Maps Nos. 2053 and 2054, Madoc-Gananoque Area; Ontario Division of Mines, Geological Cirvcular No. !2.

Hoffman, D.F., Miller, M.H., and Wickland, R.E. (1967): The Soils of Lanark County; Ontario Soil Survey, Canadian Department of Agriculture and Ontario Department of Agriculture and Food, Report No. 40.

Mining in Lanark County (ca1900): Perth Historical and Antiquarian Society.

Ottawa Branch, C.I.M. (1979): Fall Excursion to Historic Sites and Mineral Localities near Perth, Ontario

Sabina, Ann P. (1970): Rocks and Minerals for the Collector: Hull-Maniwaki, Quebec and Ottawa-Peterborough, Ontario; Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 69-50.

Spence, Hugh S. ((1920): Phosphate in Canada; Canada Dept. of Mines, Mines Branch, Report No. 396.

_____________ (1929): Mica; Canada Dept. of Mines, Mines Branch, Report No. 701.

_____________ (1929): Feldspar; Canada Dept. of Mines, Mines Branch, Report No. 731.

Vennor, H.G. (1872): Exploration and Surveys in the Counties of Leeds, Frontenac and Lanark; Geological Survey of Canada, Progress Report 1871-72

Wynne-Edwards, H.R. (1965): Geology of Tichborne (east-half) Map-Area, Ontario; Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 64-56.

_________________  (1967): Westport Map-area, Ontario, with Special Emphasis on the Precambrian Rocks; Geological Survey of Canada, Memoir 346.

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Appendix D

MINERAL OCCURRENCES IN THE TAY RIVER WATERSHED


Mineral Occurrences Map ~ 1.8 MB pdf file
(Notes: may take a few minutes to load if on dial-up: once the map has fully loaded
use the Acrobat zoom tool to see detailed information for each area)


County          Township          Mineral        Concession/Lot         Name                      Operation                                          Reference

Frontenac       Bedford            Apatite          VII,32                        Bedore                    1880-90                                    Harding 1951,p36

                                               Feldspar        II,30                            Robinson                 1927-30                              Harding 1951,p51

                                                                    III,25                        Federal                     1920-21                               Harding 1951,p52

                                                                    III,27                        Steele                       1920                                   Harding 1951,p53

                                                                    IV,28                        Kennedy                   ----                                      Harding 1951,p55

                                                                    V,28                          Dominion                 1919                                    Harding 1951,p55

                                                Iron              IV,28                        --------                      1890-1900                           Harding 1951,p66

                                                Lead             VI,17                         Murphy-Hickey        -----------                             Harding 1951,p67

                                                                     VI,20                        Crozier                     ---------                                Harding 1951,p70

                                               Mica              II,31                           Lunn                        1924,1942                            Harding 1951,p83

                                                                     III,32                          -----                         --------                                  Spence 1929,p72

                                                                     IV,17                         -----                          1905                                     Harding 1951,p84

                                                                     IV,25                         Goods Island             ------                                    Harding 1951,p84

                                                                     IV,31                          Bertrim                     1905                                    Harding 1951,p84

                                                                     IV,32                          Anderson                  1904-41                              Harding 1951,p85

           V,26                           Burns                        1943-44                               Harding 1951,p85

                                                                     V,34                           Bedore                      1943                                    Harding 1951,p86

                                                                     VI,30                         Bobs Lake                 1891,1897

                                                                                                                                        -1900,1907-28

                                                                                                                                         1945-48                              Harding 1951,p86

                                                                      VII,19                        Robison                   -------                             deSchmid 1912,p160




    Hinchinbrooke         Apatite             I,29,30                       Eagle Lake mine     1887-91                                 Harding 1951,p35

                                                Feldspar            IV,20                        York                         1920                                     Harding 1951,p29

                                                Iron                  III,27                        Neadow                      -----                                    Harding 1951,p63

                                                Mica                  II,27                         Campbell                   1905-10                                Harding 1951,p78

                                                                     II,28                                Howes                      1898,1921                            Harding 1951,p78

                                                                     II,30                                Campbell                  ------                                   Harding 1951,p78

                                                                     III,30                              Green                       1942                                     Harding 1951,p79

                                                Molybdenum     VIII,26                     Sills                          ----                                       Harding 1951,p90

                                                Pyrite                 III,22                        ----                             -----                                      Harding 1951

                Kennebec                 Molybdenum      X,4                         -----                              ----                             Harding Map No. 51d

                Olden                      Apatite                X,3                          Vinkle                       -----                                     Harding 1951,p33

                                                Garnet                VII,1                        Wager                 ------                                         Eardley-Wilmot 1927,p10

                                                Gold                   IV,10                       McKnight               -----                                        Harding 1951,p57

                                                Mica                  X,4                           Ellsworth               ------                                        Harding 1951,p74

                                                Molybdenum      VI,6                          Smith                    1916-17                                    Harding 1951,p89

                                                                           VI,7                         Neadow                 1915                                        Harding 1951,p89

                                                Nickel                 VI,10                       Raymond                ----                                         Harding 1951,p57




                                                Zinc                    II,8                         Smith                     -----                                           Harding 1951,p91

                                                                        V,VI,3                          Long Lake         1897-1915                                    Harding 1951,p91

                Oso                          Corundum          VII,7                      Palmer                -----                                             Harding 1951,p46

                                                                        VII,8                       -----                       -----                                             Harding 1951,p46

                                                Graphite             I,3                          Young                  -----                                          Harding 1951,p61

                                                Mica                  II,5                           ----                      -----                                         Harding 1951,p74

                                                                         V,1                             Brash                   1915-20                                       Harding 1951,p75

                                                                        V,2                               -------                   -----                                           Harding 1951,p76

                                                                  VII,2,3                    Cook                    -----                                 Harding 1951,p76

Lanark    Bathurst                    Apatite             VIII,11                         ------                     -----                                 Spence 1920

Barite               VI,12,E 2                  Palmer                 1917                                  Spence 1922,p52

Feldspar            I,1                             Mendels               1918                                  Hewitt 1952,p11

                                                                         II,1                              O=Halloran           1920-21                            Spence 1932,p41

                                                                         III,2                            Burns                    1920-22                           Spence 1932,p41

                                                                      III,5                               Palmer                   1922                                 Hewitt 1952,p11

                                                                         IV,4                            -------                    -------                               Spence 1932,p41

                                                                        VI,10                           Truelove                1920                                Hewitt 1952,p11

                                                                        VII,3,4                         Kirkham                 1919-21                          Spence 1932,p41

                                                Iron                  IV,2                     ----                            ------                                   Ingall 1899

                                                Mica                 II,21,22               -----                               1907                                        deSchmid 1912,p185




               North Burgess          Apatite           VII,9,10                     Smith                       1883                                       Spence 1920,p54

                                                                        VII,11,12                     Byrnes                     1870-74                                  Spence 1920,p55

                                                                        VIII,1               Otty Lake                 1871,1873,1908                  Spence 1920,p55

                                                                        VIII,2                -----                         1870-75,1907                      Spence 1920,p55

                                                                        VIII,3                -----                         1870,1908                          Spence 1920,p56

                                                                        VIII,4-6                       MacLaren                 1870-1912                          Spence 1920,p56

                                                                        IX,4                              ---------                     ----------                            Spence 1920,p57

                                                Barite              X,20               ---------                        -----------                                Spence 1922,p55

                                                Mica                 VI,10 N 1/4                Old Anthony               1871,1873-74,

                                                                                                                             1906                                                     deSchmid 1912,p170

                                                                         VI,11 N 1/4                Hanlon                        1901-09                        deSchmid 1912,p171

                                                                        VI,12                           Old Adams                  1901-07                         deSchmid 1912,p172

                                                                        VII,9               -----                             1883-?,1904-06           deSchmid 1912,p175

                                                                        VII,11              Otter                                1891,1937,1950

                                                                                                                                                1952                               deSchmid 1912,p175

                                                                        VIII,1              Otty Lake Mine                  1871,1873,

                                                                                                                                                1908-1910                      deSchmid 1912,p176

                                                                        VIII,2              Anglo-Canadian          1907-12                            deSchmid 1912,p177

                                                                        VIII,3               Cordick                       1908,1917                         deSchmid 1912,p178

                                                                        VIII,4,5,6         MacLaren                    1906-1918                          deSchmid 1912,p178

                                                                        VIII,7               Adams                        1892                                deSchmid 1912,p179

                                                                         IX,4               -------                          --------                           deSchmid 1912,p179

                                                                         IX,6 E 2                     ------                         1906                               deSchmid 1912,p180

                                                                         IX,7 E 2                    -----                           1905                               deSchmid 1912,p180

                                                                         IX,14                          Murphy                      1907                               deSchmd 1912,p180

                                                                         IX,15-17                     Pike Lake                            1860,1892,1902                 deSchmid 1912,p181

                                                Vermiculite      VIII,17           Olympus                      1950-61                             Guillet 1962,p7




                                                                         IX,14                          Farrell                      1951                                 Guillet 1962,p11

                                                                         IX, 17             Smith                       1961                                 Guillet 1962,p13

Zircon             VIII,4               --------                     ----------                             ----------------

               North Elmsley          Apatite           VIII,25              ------                  Prior to 1870                             Spence 1920,p58

                                                Mica              VIII,25              -----                  Prior to 1870                             Spence 1920,p58

                                                                         IX,25                          Gibson              1901                                     deSchmid 1912,p186

         South Sherbrooke           Corundum       VI,1-8               -----                   --------                                      Eardley-Wilmot 1927,p19

                                                Euxenite           V,13                            Orser-Kraft        ---------                                          Ellsworth 1932,pp233-36

                                                Feldspar            IV,10                          Morrow              1919-20                              Spence 1932,p87

                                                                        V, 12,13                       --------                1916-23                              Spence 1932,p43

                                                                        VI,13                           --------                 1916-23                              Spence 1932,p43

                                                                        VI,15                           Patterson             1920                                         O.D.M.1921,p130

                                                                        VI,17                            -----                    1916                                        O.B.M. 1917,p141

                                      Gold                           II,12,N 2                    -------                  ---------                                     Miller 1902, p204

                                     Iron                             I,3                                Bygrove               ------                                       I.O.C. 1924,p231

                                                                        I,14                              Fournier                1873                                      I.O.C. 1924, p231

                                                                         III,18-20                     Christie Lake         -------                                    I.O.C. 1924,p232

                                                                         IV,16                          Silver Lake           --------                                  I.O.C. 1924, p 232




                                                Mica                II,7                              Fowler                 1909                                      deSchmid 1912,p 181

                                                                         II,9                              Mills                    1904                                     deSchmid 1912, p 182

                                                                         III,4, N 2                    ------              1901,1908-9                             deSchmid 1912,p 183

                                                                         III,4,S 2                      ------                    --------                                  deSchmid 1912, p184

                                                                        III,7                             Ritchie                1909                                       deSchmid 1912, p 184

                                                                        IV,2                             McEwen             1908-11                                  deSchmid 1912, p 184

                                                                        IV,8                              ---------               1905                                      deSchmid 1912, p 185

Leeds        North Crosby

                (Rideau Lakes)        Iron                  IV, 27                          Allan                      --------                             Ingall 1899,p 36

                                                                        V,24                             ------                      --------                            ----------------

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

deSchmid, H.S.  1912: Mica, its occurrence, exploitation, and uses; Canada Dept. Mines, Mines Branch No. 118

Eardley-Wilmot, V. L.  1927: Garnet; Part III in Abrasives; Canada Dept. Mines, Mines Branch, No. 677

Ellsworth, H. V.  1932: Rare-element Minerals of Canada; Geol. Surv. Canada, Economic Geol. Series, No. 11

Guillet, G.R.  1962: Vermiculite in Ontario; Ontario Dept. Mines, Indust. Mineral Rept. No. 7

Harding, W. D.  1944: Geology of Kaladar and Kennebec townships; Ontario Dept. Mines, Vol. LI, 1942, pt. 4,

                                    pp. 51-74, and Map No. 51d

                          1951: Geology of the Olden-Bedford area; Ontario Dept. Mines, Vol LVI, 1946, pt.6, and

                                    Map No. 1947-5




Hewitt, D. F.  1952: Feldspar in Ontario; Ontario Dept Mines, Indust. Mineral Circ. No. 3

Ingall, E. D.  1899: Report on the iron ore deposits along the Kingston and Pembroke railway in eastern Ontario;

                              Geol. Surv. Canada, Vol. XII, pt. 1.

I.O.C.  1924: Report of the Ontario Iron Ore Committee, with Appendix; Ontario Dept. Mines, 1923

Miller, W. G.  1902: The eastern Ontario gold belt; Ontario Bur. Mines, Vol. XI, pp.186-207

O.B.M.  1917: Mines of Ontario; Ontario Bur. Mines, Vol. XXVI, 1917

Spence, H. S.  1920: Phosphate in Canada; Canada Dept. Mines, Mines Branch, No. 396

                       1922: Barium and Strontium in Canada; Canada Dept. Mines, Mines Branch, No. 570

                       1929: Mica; Canada Dept. Mines, Mines Branch, No. 701

                       1932: Feldspar; Canada Dept. Mines, Mines Branch, No. 731

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Appendix E

Map of Tay Watershed Bedrock Geology