CANADA
DEPARTMENT OF MINES
MINES BRANCH
Hon. Robert Rogers, Minister; A. P. Low, LL.D., Deputy Minister;
Eugene Haanel, Director.
THE NICKEL INDUSTRY:
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE SUDBURY REGION,
ONTARIO
BY
A. P. Coleman, Ph.D.
OTTAWA
GOVERNMENT PRINTING BUREAU
1913
No. 170
LIDRARY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNM
■n- tj SAiNTA BARBARA
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.
To Dr. Eugene Haanel,
Director of Mines Branch,
Department of Mines, Ottawa.
Sir : — I have the honour to transmit to j'ou a Alonograph on the Nickel
Industry, with special reference to the Sudbury region, with a general
geological map, and special maps of the more important mines, the whole
representing the advances made in our knowledge of the region due to
three summers' work in thg field.
In addition to descriptions of all the known nickel ore deposits in
Ontario, there are accounts of methods of mining and smelting the ores,
and of the chief nickel regions of other countries.
The work has been greatly aided by the hearty assistance afforded by
all engaged in mining and smelting nickel ores in the Sudbury region.
I have the honour to be, sir.
Your obedient servant,
(Signed) A. P. Coleman.
Geological Department,
University of Toronto,
Toronto, Ontario.
:\Iarch 28, 1912.
25873— U iii
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
Introduction 1
Position and means of communication 2
Physiograph}' of the nickel legion 3
Outline of general geology 5
The Keewatin 5
Grenville series 6
Sudbury series 6
Basic eruptives of the Sudbury series 7
Acid eruptives of the Sudbury series 8
The Laurent ian 8
The lower Huronian 8
The upper Hm-onian or Animikie 9
The norite-micropegmatite sheet 10
Later dykes 11
Historical .sketch of the development of the Sudbmy nickel region 11
The Canadian Copper Company 13
H. H. Vivian and Comjiany 1&
Dominion Alining Company 17
Alond Xickel Company . 17
Other mining and sm( Iting operations 19
The Dominion Xickel Copper Company 19
Desciiption of the Sudbury nickel ores 20
Pvrrhotite 20
Pvrite 21
Alarcasite 22
Pentlandite 22
Other nickel minerals, polydymite, milleritc, gersdorffite, and nickelite 23
Chalcopyi-ite and other copper minerals 2'5
Magnetite and oth?r oxides 26
Later metallic minerals 26
Natural gas 27
Gossan minerals 27
Minerals of the precious metals 28
Sperryhte 28
Source of the ores 29
Hocks associated with the ores 30
Transition from norite to micropegmatite 33
T\pes of ore deposits 33
Marginal deposits 34
( )fTset deposits 35
Individual deposits of the Sudbury nickel region 38
The Sultana mine 39
The Chicago mine 40
C'hicago to Victoria mine 41
A'ictoria mine .■ 42
^'ermili()n mine 44
Tiie Worthington offset 46
The Crean Hill mine 48
From Crean Hill to Gertrude mine 52
( Jertrudc mine '. 53
The Creighl on mine 54
Xorth Star mine 59
The Co])per Cliff off.srt 61
Copper ClifT mine •. 65
Other mines on the offset 68
Evans mine 68
Elsie mine 69
Murray mine 70
Murray mine to Mt. Nickel 71
V
VI
CONTENTS— Continued.
PAGE
The Frood-Stobie offset 73
Frood or No. 3 mine 74
Stobie mine 77
Blezard mine 78
From Blezard to Garson mine 79
Garson mine 80
The Eastern Nickel range 83
The Blue Lake region 84
The Whistle mine 87
The Northern range 88
The Foy offset 89
The Levack and Strathcona mines 91
Nickel range in Trill 94
The acid edge of the nickel eruptive 96
Southern range 97
Eastern and Northern ranges 99
Economic minerals of the Interior Basin 101
Quartz mines 103
Composition of the Sudbury nickel eruptive 104
Proportions of metals in the Sudbury ores 108
The precious metals 108
Other Canadian nickel deposits Ill
Nickel ores of the Cobalt region 112
The Alexo mine 112
Nickel deposits in the United States 114
Nickeliferous iron ore in Cuba 115
Nickel ores in Europe 116
Norwegian mines 116
Other European deposits 117
Nickel ores of New Caledonia 118
Nickel ores of Cape Colony 122
Statistics of nickel production 123
Sudbury district 123
New Caledonia 124
Methods of prospecting and exploration 125
Use of the diamond drill 126
Methods of mining 127
Mechanical treatment of Sudbury ores 132
Magnetic separation 133
Hand picking 135
Metallurgical processes 135
Roasting the ore 136
Smelting plant, Copper Cliff 138
Smelting in blast furnaces 142
Recent improvements at Copper Cliff 143
Reverberatory furnace 146
Thj power plant, Canadian Copper Co 148
Refining processes of the Orford and Mond companies 153
Methods at Evje and Kristiansand 162
Treatment of New Caledonian ores 164
Uses of nickel 165
Monel metal 166
APPENDIX.
Patents relating to the separation of nickel and copper, and the refining of nickel. . . 169
(a) Method of separacing nickel and copper sulfids 171
(b) Process for refining copper-nickel matte . 174
(c) Hybinette process for the economic separation of alloys into their constit-
uents, by electrolysis 178
(d) Process for treating nickel and copper containing magnetic pyrites, and the
separation of the nickel and copper contained in such ores 186
Index
List of Mines Branch Publications.
Vll
CONTENTS— Continued.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Photographs.
Frontispiece — Birdseye view, and ideal section through Sudbury Nickel
region: looking southwest. Page.
Plate I. Clear lake, edge of Nickel basin. Eastern range 6
II. Grenville Crystalline Limestone, one mile north of Wanup 6
III. Lower Huronian Quartzite, Wanapitei 8
IV. Laurentian Gneiss, north of Quartz. 8
V. Thin section of volcanic glass (Vitrophyre Tuff) Onaping 10
VI. Interior basin from inner edge of Nickel eruptive, Azilda 12
VII. Copper Cliff mine 14
VIII. Mond snv Iter, Victoria Mines 18
IX. Converters: Mond smelter, Victoria Mines 18
X. Polished sections of Pyrrhotite ores: after Campbell and Knight 20
XI. Thin sections of Norite, etc 30
XII. Diagram showing typical marginal deposit 34
XIII. Diagram showing faulted marginal deposit 34
XIV. Diagram (a) showing possible arrangement for offset deposit 36
XV. Diagram (b) showing possible arrangement for offset deposit 36
XVI. Diagram showing parallel offset deposit 38
XVII. Victoria mine: showing rockhouse. Ore bucket on cable-way 42
XVIII. Boulders of Greenstone in Pyrrhotite: Howland mine 46
XIX. Crean Hill mine 50
XX. Creighton mine: open pit, 2nd level 54
XXI. Creighton mine: shaft houses 56
XXII. Creighton mine: air drill, open pit 58
XXIII. North Star mine: showing dip of footwall 60
XXIV. Crush conglomerate, south of Nickel range 66
XXV. Fault, south of Nickel range 72
XXVI. Crush conglomerate, Copper Cliff 72
XXVII. Frood, or No. 3 mine, 1910 74
XXVIII. Garson mine 74
XXIX. Whistle mine 88
XXX. Crush breccia under norite. Trill 88
XXXI. Olivine crystals (changed to serpentine and magnetite) enclosed in
pyrrhotite, Alexo mine 112
XXXII. Flaad mine, Saetersdal, Norway 116
XXXIII. Air operated chute gates 128
XXXIV. Crean Hill mine: dry wall 130
XXXV. Crean Hill mine: 4th level 132
XXXVI. Canadian Coi)i)er Company's roast yard, Copper Cliff 136
XXXVII. Victoria Mines: building roast beds 136
XXXVIII. Roast beds. Copper Cliff 136
XXXIX. Canadian Copper Company's steam shovel at roast yard. Copper
Cliff.. 136
XL. Rain erosion whore vegetetion has been killed by sulphur fumes. Copper
Cliff 138
XLI. Canadian Copper Company's smelter, Copper Cliff 138
XLII. Cliarging floor: Canadian Copper Company's smelter, Copi)er Cliff. . 140
XLIIl. Settler: Canadian Copper Company's smelter, Copper Cliff 140
XLIV. Interior of Blast Furnace building: Canadian Copper Companv's smel-
ler, Coppcn- Cliff. .' 142
XLV. Pouring slag: Canadian Copper Company's smolter. Copper (^liff 142
XLVI. Slag cooling machine: Canadian Copi)er Company's smelter, Copjier
Cliff 142
XLVII. Matte shed:. Canadian Copper Company's smelter. Copper Cliff 142
XLVIII. Blast-furnace flue: Canadian Copper Company's smelter. Copper
Cliff 142
XLIX. Old acid converter plant: Canadian Copper Company's smelter.
Copper Cliff 144
L. Basic converter: Canadian Copper Company's smelter, Copper Cliff . . 144
LI. Basic converters: Canadian Copper Company's smelter, Co])per Cliff 144
LII. Reverberatorv furnace plant: Canadian Copper Company's smelter.
Copper Cliff 146
CO XTE y:TS—Contin ued.
ILLUSTRATIONS— Cori/mwed.
Photographs — Continued.
Page.
LIIL Interior reverberatory furnace building: Canadian Copper Company's
smelter, Copper Cliff 146
Plate LIV. Canadian Copper Company's plant, High Falls, Spanish rivei 148
LV. Generators : High P^alls 148
LVI. Sub-st?tion : Copper Cliff 148
LVII. Power plant : Crean Hill mine 150
LVIII. General view of Mond Nickel Works, Clydach, near Swansea 154
LIX. Evje smelter: Saetersdal, N^orway 162
LX. Evje smelter. Saetersdal, Norway 162
LXI. Reduction Works: Kristiansand, Norway 162
LXII. Water jacket furnaces: Evje, Norway 162
LXIII. Furnaces for high grad^ matte: Evje, Norwaj' 162
Drrni'ings.
Fig. 1 Plan of 4th level: Crean Hill mine 49
2. Section through Creighton mine: showing dip of ore body 55
3 . Shaft section, No. 2 mine 64
4. Vertical sections through Copper Cliff mine 67
5. D.D. section through No. 3 mine 75
6 . Section of Ale.xo mine 1 13
7 . Back stoping in the Crean Hill mine 131
8 . Layout of smelter at Copper Cliff 139
9. Diagram illustrating the five operations in the Mond process 153
10 . Vertical sections through decomposer : ^lond process : after Roberts-Austen 155
11. General arrangement of ^lond process plant: after Roberts- Austen 157
12. Arrangement of reducers and volatilizers for e.xtraction of nickel: elevation
and plan: after Robert.s-Austen 159
13 . Cross sectional elevation of reducers and volatilizers : after Roberts- Austen 161
14. Apparatus for the economical separation of alloys into their constituents
by electroh'sis 180
Maps.
Xo. 171 . Geological map of Sudbury nickel region, Ont
172. Geological map of Victoria mine, Sudbury district, Ont
173. Geological map of Crean HiU mine, Sudburj- district, Ont
174. Geological map of Creighton mine, Sudbiu-y district, Ont
175 . Geological map showing contact of Norite and Laurentian in the vicinit}' of
Creighton mine, Sudburj- district, Ont
176. Geological map of Copper Cliff offset, Sudbury district, Ont
177. Geological map of Xo. 3 mine, Sudbury district, Ont
178. Geological map of Stobieand Xo. 3 mines, and vicinity, Sudbury district,
Ont
THE NICKEL INDUSTRY: WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE
TO THE SUDBURY REGION, ONTARIO
BY
A. P. Coleman, Ph. D.
INTRODUCTION
In accordance with the instructions of Dr. Eugene Haanel, Director
of Mines, the work of revising the map of the Sudbury Nickel Region,
and of obtaining materials for the preparation of a monograph on the sub-
ject of nickel, was undertaken in the summer of 1911. During the two pre-
vious summers the writer had studied and mapped the geology of several
important working mines for the Canadian Copper Company; and, owing
to the generosity of that company, the materials thus obtained were made
available for the purposes of the present monograph. Every mine which
has been worked along the nickel ranges was visited and examined, as far
as possible, and most of the prospects where ore or gossan occur were also
visited during a succession of journeys covering the greater part of the bound-
ary of the norite with which all the ore deposits are connected. In this
work the map of the region prepared by the present writer for the Bureau
of Mines of Ontario in 1904, and various maps made at about the same time
by Dr. Barlow, served as a foundation, to be modified or added to.
It gives me great pleasure to acknowledge the cheerful assistance
rendered by every one interested in nickel mining, to whom application
was made, without which the monograph would be much less complete.
All the comjoanies working in the district aided in this respect: the largest
of them — the Canadian Copper Company — being naturally of the greatest
importance; and I wish to thank the President and officers of the Company
for the assistance given, particularly Mr. David H. Browne, who is not
only a skilful and experienced metallurgist, but a man of science interested
in all the problems of the region, and well acquainted with its history.
With the permission of Mr. A. P. Turner, President of the Company, Mr.
Browne, Superintendent John Lawson, and others of the staff have supplied
me with much useful information.
In connexion with the Alond Company, Mr. C. V. Corliss, IManager,
and Mr. O. Hall, Mines Superintendent, rendered valuable aid, is far as
the policy of their company permitted. Mr. J. A. Holmes, General Manager
of the l^ominion Nickel Copper Company, assisted personally in the field
work, and in various other ways: especially in regard to the Eastern and
Northern Ranges; and Mr. Kirby Thomas — then in the employ of the
Nickel Alloys Co., of New York — assisted greatly in the examination of
the Trillabelle locations at the southwest end of the ranges.
To all these gentlemen, and many others, thanks are due.
In addition, acknowletlgment should be made of the skilful services
of the late ]\Ir. M. T. Culbert, and of Dr. E. S. Moore, who were my chief
field assistants during the earlier work, and aided in the preparation of the
first detailed geological map of the nickel region, which served as j basis
for the map acc()m]>anying the ])rescnt monograph. CJreat assistance
was also rendered by the Ontario Bureau of Mines, in the way of necessary
infornuition furnished directly, or obtained indirectly from their reports.
The compiling of the accompanying maps and plans has been the
work of Mr. R. R. Rose, who has had much experience in field work and
mapping in the Sudbury district.
Position and Means of Communication.
Sudbury — from which the mining region takes its name — is in Lat. 46°
30', W. Long. 81°, and lies about 35 miles north of Georgian bay, the north-
eastern part of Lake Huron. It may be reached from Montreal by a journey
of 439 miles westward on the main line of the Canadian Pacific railway,
or from Toronto by a journey of 260 miles north on a branch of the Canadian
Pacific railway, or the Canadian Northern railway. Sudbury itself — the
largest town in the region — is a little southeast of the most important
nickel range, the nearest mines being two miles to the north and three miles
to the west.
The nickel region has sharply defined boundaries of a geological
nature; since all the ore deposits are connected with a single great sheet
of eruptive rock, roughly boat-shaped, with a blunt bow to the southwest
and a square stern to the northeast, conforming to the general strike of
the Archaean rocks of the district. Only the upturned edges of the sheet
are exposed, since it is basin-shaped and has its interior filled with sediment-
ar}^ rocks. The basin is 36 miles long, from southwest to northeast, and
16 miles wide, and the known ore deposits are all either along the edge of
the sheet or less than four miles away from it on projections or ' 'offsets. "
The nickel region is served by six lines of railway. The main line of
the Canadian Pacific railway crosses the basin diagonally from southeast
to northwest, and the "Soo" branch runs southwest from Sudbury, parallel
to its southern edge and touching the Worthington mine on one of the offsets.
The Algoma Central runs west from Sudbury to Victoria Mines touching a
number of important mines, and the Canadian Northern crosses the basin
from north to south toward the east end, sending a branch to Garson mine
and connecting with the Nickel Range railway, which runs to the Whistle
mine at the northeast corner of the basin. In addition the Canadian
Copper Company has private lines to some of its mines and is now building
a line four miles long to connect Copper Cliff with the Frood or No* 3 mine
to the northeast. Every mine which has produced more than a few thou-
sand tons of ore has had railway connexions, though a few of tLese'branch
lines have been removed on the shutting down of the mines which they
served.
In early days the nickel deposits were grouped in two ranges, a main
or southern range and a northern range, but, since it was proved that the
ores are all connected with the edges of a single sheet of eruptive rock, one
might think of them all as belonging to a single oval range. It is found,
however, that the important deposits are not distributed uniformly round
the basin but that there are rich portions separated by barren portions.
It is probable that in the future a third or eastern range will be recognized,
and possibly a fourth or western range, though thus far the ore deposits at
that end are not known to be of much importance.
At present the main nickel range may be defined as running from the
Sultana mine six miles southeast to Victoria mine, then turning northeast
for 23 miles to the Sheppard mine, and finally east for four miles to the
Garson mine. There is, however, a gap of about five miles toward the south-
eait between the Crean Hill and Gertrude mines where no ore has been
found. Along this somewhat irregular line of 33 miles on the southern
margin of the nickel-bearing eruptive seventeen mines have produced ore,
and within two or three miles to the south of it ten other mines have
been worked.
Practically all the ore hitherto mined and smelted in the region must
be credited to the main or southern range. The northern range is not so
continuous as the southern but is generally reckoned as extending from cer-
tain deposits in Levack township to the Whistle mine at the northeast
corner of the basin, a distance of 25 miles. There are, however, two gaps
of six miles each within this extent, one between Levack and the southwest
corner of Bowell township, and the other extending from the middle of
Wisner township to the Whistle mine in Norman township; so that on the
northern range there are only 13 miles of the margin of the nickel eruptive
which are ore bearing. In addition, however, some ore has been found for
six miles west along an offset beginning about the middle of Bowell township
and ending at about the middle of Foy.
In reality it would conform better to the known arrangement of the
ore deposits to detach the Whistle mine from the northern range, which
would then extend for only about 18 miles, and make it the north end of an
eastern range extending for 13^ miles south to the Falconbridge properties.
The three ranges are at very unequal stages of development, the southern
range being followed for almost its whole length by railways to transport
its ores, while only one other mine, the Whistle at the north end of the
eastern range, has rail connexions.
The outlying properties of the southern range can almost all be reached
by roads, some well built and used by automobiles, others rough lumber
roads with bridges and corduroy falling into decay. Much of the northern
range is best reached on foot or by water, and the eastern range is almost
as inaccessible. The small western range can be visited by a lumber road
on the south, but the northern outcrops are besi approached by canoe.
The central valley of the nickel basin consists largely of agricultural
land, now divided into farms and well settled. It is crossed by the main
line of the Canadian Pacific railway, and the northern branch as well as
the main line of the Canadian Northern railway, so that it is well provided
with mean.: of communication. On the other hand it is cut off by rugged
ranges of hills from the nickel mines to the north and south, the natural
market^ for its produce.
The whole nickel basin includes an area of 550 square miles, divided
among twenty-four townships of the regular size and shape. Mining has
taken place in eight of these townships, while important ore deposits are
known to exist in .several others.
Omitting the villages c(mnected with the farming region of the interior
basin, the nickel mining industry supports two towns, Sud])ury and Copper
Cliff, and four villages, all told with a population of perhaps 10,000 people.
Physiography of the Nickel Region.
The physiography of the region is very closely bound up with the
geology of the nickel-bearing eruptive and often serves as a guide to the
position of ore deposits. The lower Huronian and Laurentian rocks
enclosing the l)asin present the usual irregiihir Archaean r'urface, with hard
granites or gabbros or quartzites standing up as rugged hills or short ridges
without any definite order except for a general strike of the structures in a
direction of N. (30° or 70° E. The nickel eruptive sheet, on the other hand,
expresses itself with surprising uniformity. Its outer (and lower) edge con-
sists of the easily weathered rock norite,. often more vuhiera])le because
charged with sulphides, while its inner (and upper) portion is formed of
micropegmatite, a strong, resistant rock, which commonly stands up as
high hills. Just within this belt of granite hills come conglomerate and tuff,
the lowest members of the series of sediments occupying the basin; and these
rocks have been metamorphosed and thus greatly strengthened by the
action of the eruptive rock beneath, thus forming a band of even more ragged
hills than the micropegmatite. The interior of the basin is floored with
soft sediments, tuff and slate, with some low anticlinal hills of arkose or
sandstone toward the centre.
The resulting land forms are characteristic. All round the outside of
the basin rise the tumultuous hills of older Archaean rock, followed by a
valley representing the basic, easily decomposed, edge of the nickel erup-
tive, wide on the southern side where the norite is wide; but relatively
narrow on the northern and eastern sides. Frequentlj^ the basic margin
has been eaten into hollows, now filled with drift or muskegs or small lakes,
hiding the actual edge of the norite and making the exploration for ore
deposits more difficult. Patches of ore are commonly found on the slopes
of harder rocks surrounding this belt of low ground.
Besides the narrow lakes of the basic margin there are many larger
bodies of water entangled among the hills of the granitic or acid edge of
the eruptive. A glance at the map shows how frequently lakes have this
position, often furnishing the only convenient gateways between the flat
interior of the basin and the narrow valley of the basic edge. Parts of the
northern nickel range are best reached, after leaving the end of the wagon
roads of the interior basin, by boats on a lake or by winter roads on the ice.
Many of the lakes along the basic edge of the nickel eruptive on the
northern range are so small that they have not received names. Thirteen
of them have been noted on the map but many ponds are almost too small
to appear on the scale employed. On the eastern range these marginal
lakes are larger and include from north to south Lake Selwyn, Lake Wad-
dell, Ella lake, Clear lake. Blue lake and Pyrrhotite lake, beside several
small unnamed ponds.
The southern nickel range with its wider band of norite has cg)mpara-
tively few lakes; but in all there cannot be less than 30 small bodies of
water along the basic edge of the norite, often with ore bodies ^dipping
under them from the slope of country rock behind. Occasionally these
lakes have been taken up as nickel locations. »•
The lakes belonging to the acid portion of the nickel eruptive are
generally larger than those of the l)asic edge, and include Cameron, Fair-
bank, Whitewater, Whitson, and Garson lakes on the south side; and
Joes lake, Trout lake and Moose lake on the north range; while Windy
lake extends almost across the nickel eruptive. These lakes are of conse-
quence to the nickel miners, partly as indicating points where ore has been
deeply attacked, and partly as a water supply for mining camps or smelters.
The nickel basin is drained almost entirely by Vermilion river and its
tributaries; Rapid river, Nelson river. Sand Cherry creek and Onaping
river coming in from the north and west; Cameron creek from the south-
west; Levy river and W^hitson creek from the east. The whole system of
lakes and rivers is controlled by the basin shape of the nickel eruptive and
the relative hardness or softness of the sediments deposited within it.
Vermilion river enters the basin by a low pass near the northeast corner
and leaves it bj^ a still lower pass near the southwest end. On entering
the interior of the basin it expands to Onwatin lake at the east end, and
just before passing out it widens to Vermilion lake at the west end. The
rest of the interior basin is almost free from lakes, making a strong contrast
with the nickel-bearing eruptive which encloses it.
Outline of the General Geology of the Sudbury Region.
The Sudlniry region includes rocks belonging probably to all the sub-
divisions of the Pre-Cambrian as recognized in America, but the nearest
fossiliferous sedimentary rocks are nearly 40 miles away on Manitoulin
island in Lake Huron, and no direct relationship can be followed up in
the intervening rocks. While the solid formations of the region end pro-
bably with the Pre-Cambrian, much of the surface is covered with glacial
and old lake deposits of the Pleistocene.
The ore deposits are often very closely bound up with the structures
of the older rocks, which have greatly affected their size, shape and position.
The accepted classification of the Pre-Cambrian of the Upper Lakes
region is as follows : —
Keweenawan.
Upper Huronian or Animikie.
Middle Huronian.
Lower Huronian.
Keewatin.
Laurentian.
In this system the Laurentian is looked upon as entirely eruptive,
always later in age than the Keewatin, and sometimes later than lower
Huronian.
There are rocks belonging to all of the sub-divisions given above in
the region mapped, except the middle Huronian, and also probably rocks
representing the Grenville series of southeastern Ontario. The latter are dis
tinctly older than the Laurentian, but whether they are the equivalents
of the Keewatin is not quite certain.
The rocks underlying the sheet of nickel eruptive may be divided
broadly into a crystalline group mainly eruptive, including the Keewatin,
Grenville series, and Laurentian, and a mainly sedimentary group con-
sisting *of the lower Huronian, and a newly defined Sudbury series, now
tilted at high angles and penetrated by various erupt ives. The rocks
above (the nickel eruptive sheet make a third group, almost wholly sedi-
mentary, though partly pyroclastic, and bent into a sjaicline, but not
steeply inclined. The noritc-micropegmatite sheet is later than any of
them, and ]:)ro])ably of Keweenawan age, while certain dykes which cut
all the other rocks are perhaps Palaeozoic in age.
In this brief account of the geology the different formations will be
described as nearly as may be in the order of their age.
THE KEEWATIN.
In this district the Keewatin includes greenstones and green schists'
and in its ui)])er part small amounts of the iron formaticm. The green-
stone was probably once gab])ro, but it and the green schists are now
largely changed to hornblende. Many bands and irregular areas of green-
stone are included in the part mapped as Laurentian, since on the scale
of the map it would be impossible to separate them in detail. Frequently
they form the foot-wall of ore bodies and a breccia of their fragments is
often cemented with norite and ore.
The iron formation included in the region mapped consists of small
outcrops of quartzitic silica interbanded with magnetite near Clear lake in
Wisner township and a pond to the south. It is enclosed in Laurentian
gneiss and has no practical value, though the Hutton township deposits
of a similar kind a few miles north are of considerable importance.
GRENVILLE SERIES
Hitherto the Grenville series has not been recognized in the Sudbury
region; but certain rocks in the township of Dill associated with a quartz
mine worked there by the Canadian Copper Company have all the char-
acteristics of that series, as found 60 miles to the southeast in the township
of Mills and extending south for more than 40 miles to Parry Sound. The
rocks in Dill township, which it is proposed to call Grenville, include the
coarse white quartzite which is mined, and also fine grained grey gneiss
and schist having in part a distinct granular structure in thin sections.
Less than two miles to the north there is a small band of crystalline lime-
stone containing rounded grains of green serpentine, exactly like the crys-
talline limestones of Parry Sound.
The grey gneiss is not unlike the Couchiching of Western Ontario,
but the hmestones of the Huronian in that region are entirely unlike the
Dill outcrop and are far more modern in appearance.
SUDBURY SERIES.
Later in age than the Grenville and Keewatin, but earlier than the
Laurentian, is a great series of sediments, chiefly quartzite, but including
also arkose, greywacke, slate, and some thin sheets of conglome-
rate. These are steeply tilted and sometimes folded, and have been
penetrated and partly metamorphosed by acid and basic eruptives. They
have hitherto been called lower Huronian, but they differ so much in
attitude and relationship from the typical lower Huronian not far to the
west that they probably belong to an earlier period, equivalent perhaps
to the Timiskaming series, described by Dr. Miller and other geologists
in the Cobalt region as lower than the Huronian. It is proposed^ to call
them the Sudbury series.
The Timiskaming series and the rocks here referred to are not to be
looked upon as a "Lowest Huronian," beneath the usually recognized
bottom of that series, but as a new division of the Archaean equal in rank
to the Huronian and Keewatin.
If these rocks are put in the position suggested il" will imply also
that the conglomerate near Ramsay lake, hitherto called middle Huronian,
must be lowered one stage and be named lower Huronian. The Ramsay
Lake conglomerate is more like the Cobalt and Echo Lake conglomerates
of the lower Huronian regions hitherto carefully studied than are the sedi-
mentary rocks underlying, giving support to the suggested change.
These rocks form a band 10 or 12 miles wide, extending all across
the district, just to the southeast of the main nickel range; generally separ-
ated from the norite, however, by a very irregular belt of basic and acid
erupcive rocks of various kinds somewhat later in age, but, for the present,
included with them. The southeastern side of the band of sediments
consists mainly of quartzite, more or less metamorphosed, but still retain-
ing a very distinct bedding and often cross bedchng, and having in the
Plate 1.
Clear lake, edge of Nickel basin — Eastern range.
Plate ll.
Grcnvillc crystalline limestone, one mile north of Wanup.
main a tilt of 45° degrees to the southeast, with many local variations,
including one indistinct anticline on Ramsay lake. The beds of quartzite
are often parted by thin sheets of slate or greywacke; and several bosses or
bands of greenstone penetrate them and interfere with the reg ilarity of
their structure.
These quartzites have a width of from 3| to 6 miles, and if they have
not been reduplicated by faulting, of which there is no evidence, have a
maximum thickness of 15,000 or 20,000 feet, making them one of the
greatest well defined sedimentary formations in Ontario.
Apparently beneath the quartzites there is a thinner, but still important
band of grej^wacke and slate, also well stratified and showing its original
structures when not too much affected by adjoining eruptives. It has a
width of two miles or more and a thickness of several thousand feet, and,
in various places it comes in contact w^th offset ore deposits but scarcely
touches the main nickel range.
A third, and probably lower division of the sediments is more enig-
matic, since it ha^ undergone much greater changes, largely obliterating its
original structure. This consists of quartzite or arkose, pink in colour and
greatly recrystallized, running northeast and southwest as a band of hills
not more than half a mile wide from near Frood mine to a point southeast
of Creighton. This rock touches Copper Cliff mine and was described
earlier as felsite.
The three sedimentary formations may have a total thickness oi 30,000
feet. In places they are of economic importance as supplying quartz for
the smelters and building stone used in Sudbury and at other points.
BASIC ERUPTIVES OF THE SUDBURY SERIES.
In many places greenstones and coarse hornblende porphy rites of
indeterminate origin rise through the sedimentary rocks mentioned above;
and there are also two belts of better defined basic eruptives of considerable
continuity, one the Sudbury laccolithic belt, beginning at a group of hills
east of the town and stretching southwest for nine miles to the lower end
of Kcllcy lake, and the other following with interruptions the basic edge of
the southern nickel range from its east end to Little Stol^ie mine. This is
separated at intervals from the norite by a band of granites as far as a point
a mile east of Crean Hill mine, after which if follows the basic edge of the
norite to its end near Sultana mine.
These basic eruptives are of great variety. The Sudbury chain of
laccolithic hills consists of gabbro which pushed up the greywacke on each
side, and whicli contains along its irregular summit ridge a number of
quartz deposits, segregations or inclusions of quartzite, one of which has
been mined for flux. A little nickeliferous pyrrhotite has b(>en found at
two or three points in these hills, and the 'gabbro is probably an earlier
segregation from the nick(>l bearing magma than the great norite sheet.
The long irregular band of greenstones following the southern nickel
range consists of rocks of extraordinary variety, the least modified being
lava streams showing pillow and amygclaloidal structures. They are often
formed of perfectly fresh norite, much more basic than the nickeliferous
rock, seamed with' ribs of green hornblende, and passing into por])hyrites
of several kinds that are sometimes very like those found in the quartzites
to the south. All of these rocks have carried off masses of greywacke or
quartzite, which are commonly more or less transformed into gneiss or
25873—2
schist, while the adjoining greywacke has developed immense numbers of
staurolite crystals as a result of contact metamorphism.
The "older norite" lava streams seem to have supplied a plane of
weakness followed later by the nickel-bearing eruptive, and it is frequently
the foot-wall for ore bodies on the southern range.
ACID ERUPTIVES OF THE SUDBURY SERIES.
Later than the "older norite" lava streams came eruptions of deep
seated acid rocks, coarse granite, syenite, and granitoid gneiss, generally
flesh coloured, and frequently carrying off fragments of the greenstones
just mentioned and also of greywacke, and sending dykes into these rocks.
The most important area of granite runs from Copper Cliff southwest to
near Crean Hill, as a band from one to two and a half miles wide, forming
the country rock of the nickel range for more than half of this distance,
which includes the famous Creighton mine. These rocks are of various
textures and ages, some being undoubtedly older than the nickel eruptive
and others younger, since the ore sometimes cooled against them as a foot-
wall and was sometimes cut by dykes of the later granite, which is usually
finer grained than the earlier eruptions.
THE LAURENTIAN.
The southeastern edge of the lower Huronian is bounded by granitoid
gneiss and hornblende schist, etc., later in age, but generally called Lau-
rentian; and the whole weitern, northwestern, and northern parts of the
region are occupied by similar rocks, usually coarse granitoid gneisses
streaked with dark green stripes and lenses, no doubt rolled out greenstones
of Keewatin age. The schistose structure of these rocks commonly has
the usual strike of the region, 60° to 80° east of north, and a vertical or
steeply inclined dip. They are monotonous and of no great practical
importance except as the country rock supplying the foot-wall for many
of the ore deposits of the northern range. The norite and ore often seem
plastered up against the slopes of these Laurentian hills, remnants left
when the greater part of the deposit has been eroded and removed.
Except along the brecciated edges of the ore deposits at the basic
edge of the norite, the Laurentian has been little studied; but its gneisses
and granites appear to be younger than the Timiskaming or lower Huron-
ian sediments, though perhaps of about the same age as the bulk of the
lower Huronian eruptives, from which they are nearly always separated
in the field.
They are, however, far older than the nickel eruptive and the sediments
that overlie it; for the Laurentian gneisses and hornblende schists, as well
as all the other rocks thus far described, had been consolidated, thrust
into mountain folds, and eroded to a peneplain before the upper Huronian
sediments were laid down. The gap in time must have been enormous.
THE LOWER HURONIAN.
What was described as the middle Huronian in previous reports,
now considered lower Huronian, is developed in only one small part of
the immediate Sudbury region, just north of Ramsay lake, where a peculiar
boulder conglomerate extends for about two miles and a half, with a greatest
Plate III.
Lower Huronian quartzite, Wanapitei.
Plate IV.
Laurcntian gneiss — north of Quartz.
25873— 2i
9
width of about half a mile. This rock has a dark grey ground mass
of greywacke with no visible stratification, in which are imbedded pebbles
and boulders of the older rocks, especially granite and quartzite. The
boulders are angular or subangular or well rounded, and of all sizes up
to tons in weight; and the whole appearance suggests an ancient tillite
or boulder clay, though no striated stones have been found. Rocks of
the same kind but covering a much larger area are found in the Wana-
pitei region to the east.
As the boulders of quartzite are like the quartzite of the Timiska-
ming or lower Huronian to the southeast it is inferred that these rocks
are of later age. Since there is scarcely a suggestion of stratification to-
be found, their attitude \x\ih reference to the lower rocks is not always ver>^
certain, though at one point on the north shore of Ramsay lake a basal
conglomerate may be seen resting uncomformably upon the quartzite
here referred to as older.
If this conglomerate is transferred to the lower Huronian, the middle
Huronian seems to drop out altogether, since the next series of rocks has
in general the characters of the upper Huronian or Animikie.
THE UPPER HURONIAN OR ANIMIKIE.
]\Iuch later than the Timiskaming or lower Huronian and the Lau-
rentian there was deposited on their planed down surface a second great
series of sediments, whose exact age is not certain, owing to the absence
of fossiliferous rocks, though they resemble in many respects the western
Animikie, now referred to the upper Huronian, and may, at least pro-
visionally, be placed in that position.
In the Sudbury region these rocks occupy a basin in the nickel eruptive,
and have })een found nowhere else; they are therefore not at present in
contact with the lower Huronian and Laurentian, since the nickel eruptive
came in as a later sheet, separating the younger from the older rocks.
These rocks form a well defined series beginning Avith a basal conglom-
erate and passing on to tuff, slate and sandstone, and they have been
given sep irate formational names taken from characteristic localities,
as follows: —
Chelmsford sandstone 800—1,500 feet
Onwatin slate 3,700
OnapingtufT 3,800
Trout Lake conglomerate 450
8,750—9,450
The Trout Lake conglomerate makes a continuous band round the
basin immediately overlying the acid side of the nickel eruptive, but it
varies greatly in width, in one case being a mile across, in most others a
few hundred feet, and in a few instances sinking to less than 100 feet.
The rock is found in its least changed form, as a boulder conglomerate
with a matrix of dark green, fine grained rock, north of Sultana mine,
where the micropegmatite is at its narrowest, and the thin edge of the
(Tuptive had comparatively little power of metamorphism. Along other
]mrts of the acirl edge the conglomerate is greatly changed and in some
])laces has been squeezed or sheared into schist conglomerate.
The ()na])ing tuff is mainly formed of tiny glass fragments rained
down as volcanic ash, but includes a good deal of ordinary sediment also.
10
such as granite and quart zite pebbles. It also forms a continuous band,
in most places rising as steep hills, round the interior basin. The Onwatin
slate is a mud rock charged with carbon enough to give it a dark colour,
and as it is the softest rock of the series it is generally buried under drift
deposits taken up as farms, though it occasionally forms low hills. In
it the curious veins of anthraxolite occur.
Finally, the Chelmsford sandstone runs as a disjointed range of low
hills down the centre of the basin. Though it was originally named sand-
stone it might almost be called arkose or even greywacke, since the quartz
grains are mixed with a good deal of other matter. The whole series of
sediments is now bent into a synclinal basin with an average dip inwards
of about 30°; while the Chelmsford sandstone in the middle has been
forced into small dome-shaped anticlines in the process.
As shown in a table on an earlier page the upper Huronian sediments
are of considerable thickness, and their general relationships, such as
dip, and width, are more completely known than those of the older for-
mations and justify a more exact statement. Their great thickness of
nearly 10,000 feet probably had an important bearing on the segregation
of the ore bodies, since that process must have demanded a lengthened
period of fluidity of the nickel bearing magma; and this huge blanket of
sediments must have greatly retarded the rate of cooling.
THE NORITE-MICROPEGMATITE SHEET.
After the succession of sediments just mentioned had been deposited
the vast mass of molten rock of the nickel eruptive ascended, mostly
from beneath an area near the middle of the southern range, as will be
shown later. As the molten magma welled up from below, the cr^^stalline
rocks forming the roof of the great crucible gradually collapsed as a block
12 or 15 miles long and several miles broad, giving rise to extensive faulting
and fissuring.
The flood of molten material found an opportunity to spread out
between the ancient surface of the older rocks and the basal conglomerate
of the sediments, producing a laccolithic sheet having an area of over
500 square miles. Since thousands of feet of rock have been eroded from
the region in later times, the original area of the sheet must have been
much greater than that. An extension of one mile in all directions would
add about 100 square miles to the area and probably more than a mile
has been removed from the rim since Cambrian times. The eruptive
sheet cooled extremely slowly, partly because of the great bulk of molten
material and partly because of the thick mantle of sedimentary rocks
above; and during the cooling much of the ore sank to the bottom, though
its upper part remained mixed ^vith norite, which finally blended into
micropegmatite or granite on top, the three materials arranging them-
selves according to their specific gravities.
The collapse of the foundations of older rock caused the cooling sheet
of magma to settle into a basin shape, and the once nearly fiat sediments
above it took the same form, cradled in the plastic micropegmatite, which
ate into and greatly metamorphosed the Trout Lake conglomerate just
above.
The norite-micropegmatite sheet is one of the largest laccolithic
sheets known, containing not less than 600 cubic miles at the present time,
and probably having had a much greater bulk in the beginning.
Just when this tremendous mass of molten material reached its present
position is uncertain, though the event probably took place during Keeween-
awan times.
Plate V.
Thin section of volcanic glass (vitrophyre tuff), Onaping.
11
LATER DYKES.
After the norite and ore had completely cooled, the region was cut by
long fissures, and dykes of diabase penetrated impartially all the rocks
mentioned above. Dozens of these dykes are known, especially in and
near the large ore bodies where the geology has been most carefully worked
out; and some of them are 100 or more yards in width and as much as
seven miles in length, so that the total amount of diabase is by no means
insignificant. This last eruption probably took place somewhere in
Palaeozoic times; and except for cutting across the ore and so causing
more or less trouble to the miner, the dykes have had no appreciable effect
on the mines. Some little dykes of granite cut the diabase itself and so are
the latest rock in the region.
The history just outlined is one of the most complex on record, includ-
ing almost all the Pre-Cambrian formations and a long succession of erup-
tive rocks of the most varied kinds and of all ages up to the Palaeozoic.
From that time till the Pleistocene destructive forces were active, removing
thousands of cubic miles of the solid rock. During the Pleistocene import-
ant beds of morainic material, boulder clay, and lake deposits were laid
down, covering considerable areas of the surface.
Historical Sketch of the Development of
the Sudbury Nickel Region.
A large literature has sprung up in regard to the Sudbury nickel mines
and their associations, but the earlier history of the region may be found
summed up in two reports, that of Dr. Barlow on the "Nickel and Copper
Deposits of the Sudbury Mining District," ^ and the final report on "The
Sudbury Nickel Field" by the present writer. -
Dr. Barlow's report gives in much detail the various stages in the
development up to 1903, describing unsuccessful as well as successful
ventures in mining and smelting the ores; and many of the less important
features referred to may be omitted from the present monograph. Since
1905 perhaps the most important contribution to the subject has been an
account of "The Nickel-Copper Industry of Ontario", by Alex. Gray,^
which however is confined to the development of the Canadian Copper
Company's mines and smelters, much the most important of the reg'on,
but not the only ones. Even more important from the practical side than
the written reports on the region have been the successive geological maps
preparetl^by the Survey at Ottawa and the Bureau of Mines of Ontario,
embodying the advances in our knowledge of the field relations of the ore
bodies. In connexion with the Geological Survey Report of 1890, four
years after real mining had begun, a map prepared by Dr. Bell with the
assistance of Dr. Barlow and others showed the geological relations of
parts of the southern and northern nickel ranges, indicating belts of dioritc
which accompanied the ore deposits. This map, though on the small
scale of four miles to an inch, proved very useful; and was republished by
the Bureau of Mines in 1902 with few changes, but on the scale of two miles
to the inch.
'Gcol. Sur. Ciin. Part H, Vol. XIV, 1904.
Miuroau of Minos. Ont., Vol. XIV, Part III, 1905.
'MininK World, Vol. XXXII, Xos. 20, 21 and 22, 1910.
12
In 1904 the Bureau of ]\Iines published on the same scale a map pre-
pared by the present writer showing the northern Nickel Range and indic-
at'ng the continuous character of the nickel eruptive, now known to be
norite, its outcrop extending as an ellipse round the area of sedimentary
rocks placed between the two nickel ranges on Dr. Bell's map. The nickel-
bearing sheet of eruptive rock had been proved to form a synclinal basin.
The map showed also the inner or acid edge of the differentiated eruptive,
and brought out the important facts that ore deposits were connected
chiefly with bay-like projections or narrow offsets from the basic edge of the
eruptive and were most frecjuent and important where the width of the
outcrop of norite and micropegmatite was greatest.
In the same year Dr. Barlow published two map sheets on the scale of
one mile to an inch covering the Copper Cliff and Victoria Mines areas; and
two other maps, of Copper Cliff and Murray mine, on the scale of 400 feet
to the inch. The Victoria Mines sheet was defective in not separating the
nickel-bearing norite rom the adjoining greenstones, but the other maps
are excellent.
In 1905 the first fairly complete map of the geology of the region was
published by the Bureau of Mines on a scale of one and a half miles to the
inch. This map has been of great service, but requires numerous small
corrections and is now almost out of print,
Nickel was first reported from the Sudbury region ])y Murray in
1856.^ The well known land surveyor, Salter, had found a disturbance
of the compass on a meridian line north of Whitefish lake, and suggested
that Murray should examine the place. He found "an immense mass of
magnetic trap," specimens of which were sent to Sterry Hunt for analysis.
Magnetic pyrites was found disseminated through the rock and the analysis
showed the presence of some nickel and copper. Salter's line is now the
boundary between Creighton and Snider townships and the rock with
pyrrhotite was obtained a little west of the famous Creighton mine, the
greatest nickel mine in the world. However, the discovery attracted
little attention, since at that time the metal nickel was a rarity of little
practical importance and the region was a wilderness without roads, where
canoes were the only practicable means of travel.
In 1883 the Canadian Pacific railway reached the Sudbury region,
and the stretch of flat plain in the interior of the nickel ba.:in attracted
the railway engineers, who brought the line by a steep grade up from
Sudbury to what later became the Murray mine, from which the rail-
way descends to Azilda between hills belonging to the acid edge of the
eruptive. It is said that at this time Dr. Ho^vie discovered on the summit
of the pass a low hill of pyrrhotite with some chalcopyrite.- Specimens
shown to Dr. Selwyn, then Director of the Geological Survey, were pro-
nounced valueless, since pyrrhotite from Canadian localities had not
hitherto been found to contain more than a fraction of a per cent of nickel.
Early in 1884 the railway reached this deposit and a cutting disclosed
copper pyrites at whao was afterwards known as the Murray mine. Other
discoveries soon followed at what became the Lady Macdonald, Evans,
Copper Cliff, Stobie, and Blezard mines; all taken up for copper, the presence
of nickel being at first overlooked. The Creighton mine was rediscovered
not long after by another land surveyor, John McAree, who surveyed
an adjoining township, though the mine was not opened up till several
years later owing to its difficulty of access.
'G.S.C, 1853-6, pp. 180-181.
2Dr. Barlow, G.S.C, Vol. XIV, Part H, pp. 23-24.
Plate VI.
Interior basin from inner edge of Nickel eruptive, Azilda.
Prospectors swarmed over the region searching everywhere for the
gossan which showed the presence of ore, and men like Tliomas Frood,
Henry Ranger, William McVittie, A. McCharles, and others quickly
learned that gossan and ore accompanied only one kind of rock, then
called diorite, but now known to be norite. In a short time almost all
the main deposits had been located, and two ranges, a southern or main
range, and a northern, began to be distinguished.
The first important mining was done in 1886 at the Copper Cliff,
where an open cut was made against the side of a steep gossan covered
hill, the work being carried on by the newly formed Canadian Copper
Company, which soon opened up also the Stobie and Evans mines. The
first ore mined was supposed to be simply copper ore, as the name of the
mine and company suggest; and until 3000 tons were shipped to Constable
Hook for treatment, the presence of nickel was not suspecced. There,
however, difficulties were met in smelting the ore, and assays showed
that nickel was the disturbing element. The first ore mined is reported
to have been unusually high in copper, running from 15 to 20 per cent,
probably because enriched above water level. Later the tenor of the
ore was lower, but it still averaged higher in copper than in nickel. This
has been true also of another mine, the Crean Hill.
The history of mining and smelting in the Sudbury region is so closely
bound up with the Canadian Copper Company that its progress may be
followed first, and other, later formed companies may be taken up after-
wards.
THE CANADIAN COPPER COMPANy.
In 1888 Dr. Peters was put in charge of smelting operations at Copper
Cliff, roast beds were got under way, and near the end of the year a Herres-
hoff water jacket furnace was blown in to produce copper-nickel matte,
so as to reduce freight expenses.
For ten years the same three mines produced most of the ore that
was smelted at Copper Cliff; but in 1899 the Evans closed down and in
1901 the Stobie ceased working, after producing more than 400,000 tons
of ore, low in grade but high in sulphides and supplying a useful fluxing
mixture with the rocky ore from Copper Cliff mine.
New mines were being developed in the mean time, No. 1, south-
west of Copper Cliff mine and No. 2 north of it, beginning in 1898; the
former proving to be a small but rich deposit, while the latter is large,
though of average grade. In addition No. 4 and No. 5 mines, northwest
of No. 2, yielded some ore in 1899; and in 1900 the Frood mine, since called
No. 3, a mile southwest of the Stobie, began operations, and the ore from
the two was ship])ed by rail to Copper Cliff where it was mixed \\dth ore
from other mines on the roast beds.
The great Creighton mine, six miles west of Copper Clift", was one
of the last to be opened Uj>, for lack of railway cormexions; but in 1900
stripping was commenced upon it, and in the following year it began to
ship ore by the Algoma Central railway to Copper Cliff. As the deposit
is immense and the ore of higher grade than that of most other large mines,
and mixed with little rock, the Creighton mine for some years supplied
most of the ore smelted by the Canadian Copper Company, and their
other mines were closed down one after another iji consefjuence, the Copper
Cliff after reaching the 14th level at a depth of 1052 feet.
Since its ()])ejiing the Creighton mine with its great supplies of rich
sulphides has dominated the situation, but it was found advisi])le to have
14
a supply of rockier ore with a larger percentage of copper to mix with it
for fluxing purposes antl to give a convenient proportion for the separation
of the metals, nickel and copper. On this account Crean Hill mine, eight
or nine miles southwest of Creighton, and about 14 miles from Copper
Cliff, was opened up in 1905, and in 1906 began to ship ore to Copper Cliff
over the "Soo" branch of the Canadian Pacific railway. For some years
these two mines supplied the whole of the ore for the company; but the
demand for nickel was increasing, and in 1910 No. 2 mine, which had been
closed since 1902, once more began operations. At this time the rich
little Vermilion mine, a mile southwest of Crean Hill, also supplied 1200
tons of ore almost as high in nickel and copper as some grades of matte.
To provide for a future increase in the output of nickel No. 3 mine,
sometimes called the Frood, was carefully explored with the diamond
drill, showing reserves of ore estimated by Mr. Alex. Gray at 30,000,000
or 35,000,000 of tons, ^ and in 1911 work was begun in sinking a shaft to
tap this great body of ore, and a railway four miles long was commenced
to connect it directly with Copper Cliff.
As Creighton mine has been proved by drilling to contain 5,000,000
tons of ore, it will be seen that it and No. 3, without reference to several
other deposits which are by no means exhausted, contain a supply of ore
sufficient for many years to come even if the rate of production is con-
siderably increased.
The first smelting works at Copper Cliff was erected in 1888 under
the direction of Dr. Peters, well known as a metallurgist of copper, Mr.
James Mc Arthur and Mr. J. D. Evans being his assistants. This was
the East smelter which began to ship matte the following year. The
plant was added to in a rather haphazard way as years went on and
the need for accommodation increased, and in 1891 and 1892 a bessemer
plant was provided. In 1890 Dr. Peters severed his connexion with the
company and Mr. Woodbury became manager for three months, when
he was succeeded by Mr. Evans, who occupied the position till 1893.
Mr. McArthur then took charge of the works and remained manager
till 1902. During his regime a new West smelter was put up in 1899,
near No. 2 mine, and three years later the East smelter suspended opera-
tions, and some time after was burned.
In 1900 a new method of producing high grade matte from standard
matte was introduced by the Orford Copper Company, which put up the
Ontario Smelting Works a half mile southwest of Copper Cliff mine. Here
the standard or furnace matte was roasted in Brown calciners, and then
smelted a second time in a water jacket furnace, thus changing matte
containing about 30 per cent of nickel and copper into matte averaging
75 per cent of the two metals, corresponding nearly to the former Ijessemer
matte.
In April 1902 the whole organization of the Company was changed
and the Canadian Copper Company became subsidiary to the Interna-
tional Nickel Company, which hacl been formed to combine a number
of companies interested in the mining, smelting and refining of nickel
and copper. In conj-exion with this change Mr. A. P. Turner was made
president of the Canadian Copper Company, and Mr. John Lawson general
superintendent.
In its second Annual Report the International Nickel Compa •
described as a consolidation of mines and smelters in the United State
Canada, Great Britain, and New Caledonia, including the Canadian Copp?
iThe Mining World, Vol. XXXII, 1910, p. 1025.
15
Company, Orford Copper Company, Anglo-American Iron Company,
Vermilion Mining Company, American Nickel Works, Nickel Corporation,
Limited, and the Societe Miniere Caledonienne. According to its state-
menc of capital account in 1904, " the total assets of the Company were
$30,896,167, divided as follows: Property of constituent companies,
$26,864,275; Ray Copper Mine, $40,000; " advances to New Caledonia
companies, $348,363; inventories, $2,827,774; cash and accounts, $815,755;
total assets, $30,896,167; common stock, $8,912,626; preferred stock,
$8,912,626; stock of constituent companies, $55,643; first mortgage 5 per
cent bonds, $10,221,836; loans, accounts, etc., $1,617,476; depreciatioa
fund, $412,709; surplus account, $763,251; total, $30,896,167. The
income account for the year shows the following receipts: Earnings from
constituent companie,-:, $936,471; other income, $29,754. Charges were:
For general expenses, $112,185; interest,. $512,938; total, $625,123. The
net balance carried to surplus account amounted to $341,102."'
Following the combination just mentioned many changes took place
in the work of the company. Mining was gradually limited to the Creigh-
ton mine, and experiments were made in regard to new methods of treating
the ore, such as pyritic smelting in place of roasting the ore before smelting.
Many improvements were made in the town of Copper Cliff, and the
removal of most of the roast beds from the vicinity of the town to a swamp
behind the hills to the north permitted to some extent the growth of vege-
tation, so that the town was once more in sight of grass and green trees.
It was decided to ]:)uild a new smelter on much improved and extended
plans half a mile to the east of the West smelter, and the work was brought
to completion in the fall of 1904. Meantime both the Ontario Smelting
Works and the West smelter were burned, hampering operations for the
time. After this the low grade matte was shipped to Victoria Mines,
whose smelter had been leased for six months from the Mond company,
and there bessemerized, pending the completion of the converter plant
of the new smelter. An account of the new smelter is given in the section
on smelting so that no description of it is required here.
Since 1904 the most important advances have been the introduction
of a few large basic converters instead of numerous small quartz lined
acid converters, and the erection of a reverberatory plant to treat fines
and flue dust.
The cost of fuel for power })urposes is very high in the Siulbury region
and the Canadian Copper Company acquired rights for the development of
power at High Falls on Spanish river, 23 miles west of Copper Cliff, in
1904; and since then from a head of 85 feet electric power has been genera-
ted not only for the needs of the smelter but also for the mines of the com-
pany. This effects a most important saving in expense.
In its early years tiie Canadian Copper Company had an uphill struggle
with the difficulties that always beset a new and complicated enterprise
until the best methods of treatment have been devised. Fortunately
the company owned some extremely large and valuable mines, so that
the problem of an ore supply has not greatly troubled them. With a
reserve of ore sufficient for 60 years and a smelting plant probably second
to none in America for completeness ^nd efficiency the prospects of the
company are bright.
In 1909, according to Mr. Gray's account of the comimny, the ore
mined averaged $5 or $() ])er ton in value of nickel and copper, allowing
on a conservative (if unauthorized) estimate a profit of $1.50 to $2.00
'Mineral Industry, 190;}, p. 27G.
25873—3
16
per ton mined, which "would mean a yearly profit of $522,900 or $697,200."
"The 13,000,000 lbs. of nickel disposed of in 1909, it is claimed, brought
a profit of 7| cents per pound spread oyer mining, .uneKing and refining
charges," which implies a "total profit of $1,027,000."'
On the same basis for 1910, Mr. Gibson in the Bureau of Mines Report
estimates the profit on the ore smelted at from $726,253 or $968,338,
and on the nickel marketed of $2,377,100.-
In its 6th Annual Report the company states that a dividend of 6 per
cent was paid on its preferred stock and 7 on its common stock, after
an extra dividend of 25 per cent on. the common stock. The value of
its investments and plant is put at $27,262,138, and the statement is made
that the demand for th^ Company's products is the greatest in its history,
largely because of the development of the motor vehicle industry.'^
It is evident that this pioneer company, after a number of years of
little or no returns for the capital invested, has in recent years been very
prosperous; and since for a long time it was the mainstay of mining in
the Province of Ontario under depressing conditions, its present good
fortune seems well deserved.
H. H. MVIAN AND COMPANY.
The next company to operate a mine and smelter in the Sudbury
region was that of the Vivians from Swansea, Wales, celebrated for their
great metallurgical plant. They acquired the Murray mine, the first
discovered in the district, and began to develop it in 1889, continuing
operations with one or two short interruptions until 1894. In 1890 the
first blast furnace waj blown in, and the ore was treated in the usual way,
by roasting in heaps, smelting in water jacketed furnaces to a low grade
matte, and bessemerising this to a high grade matte. The Manhes con-
verter was first used in the concentration of nickel matte at the Murray
smelter. The low grade matte is said to have contained only 9-4 per
cent of nickel and 4 • 7 per cent of copper, giving cleaner slags than by the
Copper Cliff method, which produced matte containing about 30 or 35
per cent of the two metals. The bessemer matte at the Murray reached
nearly the same grade as that of the Copper Cliff, running from 70 to 75
per cent of the two metals. This was shipped to Swansea for final treat-
ment. Since 1894 the mine has remained closed down, but 5,000 or 6,000
tons of roasted ore were smelted in 1896, the matte being sent to the Whar-
tons of New Jersey.
The ore is said to have contained 35 per cent of iron, 23 per cent of
sulphur, 2 per cent of nickel, 0-8 per cent of copper, and about 40 per cent
of matrix. The pure sulphides averaged 3-6 to 3-75 of nickel and nearly
half as much copper.
In 1912 it was purchased by the Dominion Nickel Copper Co., and
it is said that at least 4,000,000 tons of ore have been disclosed by their
diamond drilhng operations.
Though the Murray mine was not one of the richest, it is probable
that competent local management would have given better results than
were attained by direction from England. The failure of this venture
made by so famous a company for some year.j exerted a depressing effect
on the development of the nickel industry.^
iMining World, Vol. XXXII, 1910, pp. 1022-3. Should this not be $975,000?
^Bureau of Mines, Vol. XX, Part I, 1911, p. 28.
'E.M.J., Vol. 92, July- Dc, 1911, p. 458.
«Bur. Mines, Vol. XIV, ePart III, pp. 141-2.
DOMINION MINING COMPANY.
The Blezard mine, a mile north of Stobie, in lot 4, con. II of the town-
ship of the same name, and the Worthington mine 25 miles west of Sudbury
on the "Soo" line, were worked for some time by the Dominion Mining
Company, who opened the former mine in 1889 and the latter in 1890.
A smelter constructed at Blezard mine served to treat the ore from both
the mines, producing in Herreshoff furnaces a matte averaging 27 per
cent of nickel and 12^ per cent of copper, which was marketed without
bessemerising. Some of the Worthington ore is said to have been rich
enough for shipment without smelting. The Blezard mine was shut down
in 1893, and the Worthington in the year following. Mr. Robert McBride,
who was in charge of the Blezard mine in 1892, states that about 100,000
tons of ore came from it in all, averaging from 5 to 7 per cent of nickel and
copper, the nickel being more than double the copper in amount; so that
the ore resembled that from Creighton in value, and much surpassed that
of Murray mine.
The ore from Worthington is reported at only about 25,000 tons, but
it was the richest mined in the region, with the exception of that from the
still smaller Vermilion mine, and is said to have carried from 8 per cent
upwards of nickel and copper.
Except for some diamond drilling and the unwatering of the mines for
examination little has been done on these properties since the closing down
of the smelter ; though a few carloads of ore were obtained from the Worth-
ington in 1908 and sent to the Victoria Mines smelter three miles to the
east.
THE MONO NICKEL COMPANY.
The carbon monoxide process of refining nickel, by which a volatile
compound of nickel could be produced and afterwards decomposed, thus
depositing the metal, was discovered by Dr. Carl Langer while working on
other problems in the laboratory of Dr. Mond. Having found a method
of refining the metal Dr. Mond naturiUj looked for a deposit of nickel ore
and in 1899 bought what was then called the McConnell mine, on the
north half of lot 8, con. IV, of Denison township, about 3 miles north-
east of Worthington.
Smelting works were established beside the "Soo" branch of the Can-
adian Pacific raihvay two miles south of the Victoria mine, as the deposit
was named, and a cable tramway was constructed to transport the ore 1 1,000
feet from the mine to the smelter. In 1900 the Mond Nickel Company
was formed with a capital of £600,000, to take over the mine and smelter,
and in the following year bessemer matte was being produced under the ma-
nagement of Mr. Hiram W. Hixon, who had obt lined experience as a cop-
per smelter in the Western States.
Th(^ roast yards were at first near the smelter and village but after a
fire at the landing station of the ore, necessitating more or less reconstruc-
tion, the roast beds were removed to a flat half way between the mine and
the smelter.^
Trouble with the refining works at Clydach, near Swansea, Wales,
caused delays on this side of the water also, but ultimately the Mond pro-
cess was brought into good working order, and the comjiany began to look
for new sources of ore, since Victoria mine is not a very large deposit.
'G.S.C., Vol. XIV, Part H. pp. 40^3.
25873—3^
18
After testing some small deposits^, such as the North Star and the
Little Stobie, in 1907 a larger one was purchased toward the east end of
the main nickel range and ?Tamed the Garson mine, from the township in
which it occurs, on lot 5, con. III. Mr. C. Y. Corliss, who had been mine
superintendent, became manager on the resignation of Mr. Hixon in 1908,
and Mr. 0. B. Hall w^as made mine superintendent. During this year the
Garson mine began shipping ore to Victoria Mines, by the Canadian
Northern railway to Sudbury, and then by the "Soo" branch of the Can-
adian Pacific to the smelter. By this time Victoria mine and smelter
were equipped with electric power, from Wabageshik falls on Vermilion
river nine miles to the southwest; and Garson mine was operated with
current from Wanapitei river.
In 1910 diamond drilling was done to test the Cochrane and McVittie
property, which covers a corner of the great Frood deposit, and this was
purchased to furnish an additional supply of ore. Also plans were made to
l:)uild a new smelter at Coniston, where 3,700 acres were secured as a site at
a poi it much nearer to their chief mines, the Garson and Frood extension.
The Mond Company has the distinction of working the deepest
mine in Ontario, and in spite of rather small ore deposits the Company is
prospering, so that it is planning not alone to build much larger smelting
works in Canada but to double its refinery in Clydach.
The following statement has recently been made as to the financial
conditions of the company :^ —
The original capital of the company was £600,000, divided into £250,-
000 7 per cent cumulative preference £5 shares, £300,000 ordinary, and
£50,000 deferred shares of £1 each, without debentures or other prior
charges. The ordinary shares carried a preferential dividend of 7 per cent,
thereafter sharing with the deferred share.i in surplus earnings. In 1908
the capital was increased to £850,000 })y the creation of 50,000 cumulative
preference shares, of which 30,000 were issued, raising the preference share
capital to £400,000. It was not until 1905 that the profits of the company
provided any return to the ordinary shareholders, since when they have
gone up by constant increases, and the returns for the past three years
have been: —
YEAR TO APRIL 30.
Net profit
Pref. div. 7 p.c
Orel, dividend
Ord. rate p.c
Deferred div
Def. rate p.c
Balance of year
Brought in
For reserve, etc
To reserve
Carried forward
1909.
111,320
22,716
42,751
15
22,800
48
23,053
29,923
52,976
20, 000
.32,976
1910.
1911.
114,107
26,. 367
42,. 375
15
22,600
48
140,803
26,367
45,906
16Ji
26,131
551^
22,765 42,399
32,976 j 20,741
55,741
35,000
63,140
35,000
20.741 : 28,140
Plate IX.
Converters: Mond smelter, Victoria Mines.
19
In 1906 the ordinary shareholders first received a dividend over their
stipulated 7 p.c., when 10 p.c. was paid, followed l)y 12h per cent in 1907,
15 per cent for the next three years, and now 16 j per cent for the past
twelve months, while the holders of deferred shares received 18 per cent
in 1906, 33 per cent in 1907, 48 per cent for the next three years, and now
55 J per cent.
OTHER MINING AND SMELTING OPERATIONS.
Several other companies have opened mines and either produced matte
or attempted to separate the nickel by various experimental processes.
The earliest of these was the Drury Nickel Company, which owned the
Travers or Chicago mine and roasted and smelted some thousands of tons
of its ore in 1891 and in 1896, shipping the matte to the United States.
More important was the venture of the Lake Superior Power Company,
or Lake Superior Corporation, of Sault Ste. Marie, which opened the Ger-
trude mine a mile or two west of Creighton in 1899, and shortly after the
Elsie mine, near ]\Iurray mine. The ore from the Gertrude was intended as
a source, first of sulphur for their sulphite pulp mill, and later of nickel and
iron for the production of ferro-nickel from the roasted ore. Lt was pres-
ently found, however, that there was too much copper in the ore for this
])urpose; and the usual method of heap roasting and smelting in a water-
jacket furnace was adopted. The roast beds and smelter for the ores of
both mines were located at Gertrude, the two mines being connected ^vith
one another and with Sudbury by their own railway, the Manitoulin and
North Shore, or Algoma Central, as it is now generally called Operations
ceased with the financial collapse of the parent company, and apparently
none of their furnace matte was bessemerised or refined except in an
experimental way.
At several other mines shafts have been sunk and considerable develop-
ment work done, but none of them have raised any large amount of ore,
nor have any of them operated smelters on a large scale. References to
them will be found in Dr. Barlow's very complete history of the develop-
ment of the region; so that details need not be given here.
Two attempts at novel methods of smelting and refining the ores
should perhaps be mentioned. The Great Lakes Copper Company made
an exiieriment of this kind at the Mount Nickel mine, on lots 5 and 6,
con. II, of Blezard, between the Little Stobie and Blezard mines. The
mine is stated to be well supplied with ore but the smelting works, planned
by Anton Graf, of Vienna, were a failure, and work soon ceased. The
IIo(>pfner Refining Company, of Hamilton, undertook the electrolytic
refining of nickel and copper in 1899, and constructed works just west of
Worthington, but the process was unsuccessful; and a later attempt by
Mr. Hans A. Frasch was likewise a failure, so that operations ended in
1901.
THE DOMINION NICKEL COPPER COMPANY.
An important advance in the development of the region has been made
uithin the last three years in the formation of a strong company for the
opening u]) of the eastern and northern nickel ranges, which had for some
time received little attention. The Dominion Nickel Copper ('onrpany
was formed for this ])urp()s(^ by Ottawa capitalists. Mr. J. N. Glidden
serving as manager for tlie first year or two, though recently Mr. J. A.
Holmes has been placed in that posicion. Their most nnportaht property
is tlie Whistle mine, at the northeast corner of the nickel bearing eruptive,
and this was exam ned in 1910 bv diamond drilling and the sinking of a
20
shaft on one of its ore bodies. The short Nickel Range railway was built
to connect the mine w th the Canadian Northern, and connexion was made
with the "Wanapitei Power Company's transmission line, so as to supply
cheap electric power for mining purposes. During the past year the ore
])odies at the Whistle have been systematically prospected by diamond
drill and drifting, disclosing a large body of ore, and the village of Nickelton
has begun to rise on a drift plain to the north. On several other properties
to the south and also along the northern range west of the Canadian Nor-
thern railway considerable bodies of ore have been proved to exist by
diamond drilling; and before long it is expected that a site for a smelter
will be chosen and work will begin on the third plant for the production of
nickel in the Sudbury region. During 1912 the Murray mine has been ac-
quired, adding largely to their ore supplies. With strong financial support
and an ample supply of ore the prospects for the new company seem bright.
Description of the Sudbury Nickel Ores.
A considerable number of nickel-bearing minerals have l^een reported
from the Sudbury region, the list inc Aiding pyrrhotite, pyrite, marcasite,
pcntlandite, polyd^-mite, gersdorffite, millerite, and nickelite; but the
number having any important relation to the ore deposits is verj^ ?mall,
pyrrhotite and pentlandite being the only ones commonly found, and pyr-
rhotite the only one visibly present in all the ore deposits. There is some
doubt, however, as to whether pyrrhotite is nickel-bearing in itself, since
its nickel contents may be due to finely disseminated pentlandite. If
this is correct the latter is the onlj^ nickeliferous mineral of importance in
the region, though it cannot be seen in the ore at most of the mines.
It will be observed that all of the minerals mentioned are compounds
of iron or nickel or both metals AAith sulphur or arsenic. Secondary nickel
minerals are almost unknowTi in the region, though the green silicate
genthite is reported from the Wallace mine farther west. In thi^ respect
the Sudbury deposits reseml^le those of Norway and differ fundament illj'
from the next source of nickel in importance. New Caledonia, where sul-
phides or arsenides of nickel seem ilmost unknown.
PYPiRHOTITE
As the commonest of all the metallic minerals, pyrrhotite is naturally
discussed first. Pyrrhotite or magnetic pyrites forms much the largest
part of the sulphides at every mine in the district, with the one exception
of the ^"ermilion, a remarkably rich but small deposit unique in many ways.
The composition of pyrrhotite is somewhat variable, running, according to
Dana, from Fes Se to Feis Sn, the iron atoms never quite equaling in
number those of the sulphur. It is difficult to separate the pyrrhotite
from small amounts of other ingredients, such as pentlandite, chalcopyrite,
and magnetite, which occur more or less in most specimens of the ore.
After careful magnetic separation repeated several times, followed by
treatment with dilute nitric acid to dissolve the pyrrhotite, leaving any
magnetite behind. Dr. C. W. Dickson found that most analyses of the
Sudbur}^ pyrrhotite worked out to Fes Sg, which may be looked on as the
typical proportion of iron to sulphur in the region.
The pyrrhotite rarely shows any hint of crystal form, the only example
reported^being an imperfect crystal obtained by Mr. G. R. Mickle from a
miner at Worthington. As described by him "The crystal is evidently a
hexagonal prism showing strongly marked basal cleavage; two of the sides
are intact and portions of two others rem An. The dimensions are 1 3-10
inch, or 32 mm., by | inch, or 13 mm.; the weight 26-4 grams and an
Plate X.
Piilislicil iScctions of pyrrhotitc with pcnthinditc and clialcopyritc: ( 'oppor Cliff ore.
After Messrs. Campboll and Knifiht. X 50 under microscope.
Pyrrhotitc dark and rough surface.
Pentlandito light in Nos. 1 and 2.
("halcopyrite, also light, at top of Xo. 4.
21
analysis of a very small fragment from the crystal gave 2 • 3 per cent of
nickel". This unique specimen is in the mineralogical collection of the
University of Toronto.
While crystals are always lacking, one finds at i number of localities
distinct platy cleavage, probably basal, as in Levack township, and at the
Crean Hill mine, examples from Levack showing" cleavage surfaces two
inches wide. Some good authorities believe that the coarse textured platy
ore is richer than the finer grained varieties, but it is doubtful if this rule
holds everywhere in the region, since at most of the mines, even when the
ore is rich, this basal cleavage can hardly be noticed. On fresh surfaces
the ore is bright steel grey Avith a touch of bronze, but it quickly' weathers
to a distinct bronze colour.
The Sudbury pyrrhotite seems to vary greatly in magnetism, some
examples being feebly magnetic, scarceh' affecting a compass needle, while
certain specimens from near Blue lake on the eastern range show distinct
polarity and attract iron filings. Generally smill pieces of the pyrrnotite
affect a compass needle only at very short distances. The cause of this
variation has not been determined, but it is possible that finely disseminated
magnetite plays a part in the most strongly magnetic varieties. Occasion-
ally considerable quantities of magnetite are found mixed with the pyrrho-
tite, and the difference in the strength ol the magnetism of the two minerals
makes it possible to separate them magnetically by careful adjustment.
As pure pyrrhotite contains 60 per cent of iron, it surpasses in percent-
age many workable ores of that metal and might naturally be looked on as
a possible source of iron as well as nickel. The only attempt thus far made
to use it so proved a failure, however. Ore from the Gertrude mine in its
earlier days was unusually free from copper pyrites, and was smelted on a
small scale for ferro-nickel by the Lake Superior Power Co., after it had been
roasted sweet and the SOo used in the plant for sulphite pulp. However, it
was found that copper pyrites increased so much in amount as the mine
was developed that the process was given up. A small amount of copper
is no longer looked upon as specially inju.ious in steel, and it may be that
deposits will yet be found low enough in copper to be used in this way.
The ore from one of the northern range properties is thought to be suitable
for such uses. It certainly seems unfortunate that a metal destined to be
combined with iron should first have all the iron with which it naturally
occurs carefully slagged off from it by expensive processes.
If the chalcojiyrite found Avith pyrrhotite were not so intimately mixed
as it is in most cases, the two minerals might be separated magnetically.
As the Sudbury pyrrhotite always contains small amounts of rock
or of rock-forming minerals, even when carefully selected, probably 40
or 45 per c(Mit of iron is all that could be hoped for from any of the mines
worked on a large scale; but this is equal to many iron ores which are
now mined and smelted in other parts of the world.
PYRITE.
Iron i)yrites, Fe Sj, is found at many of the mines, its hardness, resis-
tance to weathering and pale brassy yellow colour nuiking it rcadilj^ dis-
tinguishable from ])yrrhotite. It may be more widely spread than is
supposed, disseminated through the pyrrhotite. At Blue lake and some
other localities well formed octahedra of pjTite are fou)id eml)edded in
the pyrrhotite; but in most cases it occurs in separate masses, often as
part of the filling of veins cross ng the ore deposits and therefore later
in age. In the latter case it appears to carry no nickel, as was shown,
22
for example, by an assay of cubical pyrite found with quartz and calcite
at Elsie mine; but the pyrite associated with pyrrhotite and of the same
age appears to be nickeliferous. Prof. T. L. Walker found 4 -34 per cent
of nickel, 39 -70 of iron, and 49-31 per cent of sulphur, with 5-76 per cent
of insoluble matter in pyrite from Murray mine; and expresses the opinion
that the nickel replaces part of the iron in the pyrite, since the amount
of sulphur present is too great for any other compound of nickel than
Ni 82-^ Dana also states that nickel and cobalt sometimes replace part
of the iron in pyrite or else occur as mixtures.
Pyrite is rather common in rusty Huronian greywacke and schist
to the south of the nickel eruptive, but is not known to contain nickel,
though some of these fahlbands have been taken up as locations, with
the idea that they were connected with offsets from the range.
Pyrite from later veins crossing nickel ore bodies is frequently well
crystallized and often shows faces of the cube and pentagonal dodeca-
hedron; but pyrite originally forming part of the nickel ore seems, as a
rule, to be octahedral, or else, like the pyrrhotite, to show no crystal forms.
MARCASITE.
The rhombic species, marcasite, occurs at a number of the
mines, sometimes largely replacing pyrrhotite, as along parts of the Worth-
ington offset to the northeast of Worthington mine. Though no crystals
have been found here, the whitish colour and general appearance of the
mineral show that it is not ordinary pyrite. An assay made by Prof.
T. L. Walker showed it to contain 4-5 per cent of nickel; and a more
complete analj^sis by Dr. Hildebrand of the U. S. Geological Survey gave:
Iron 38-36
Nickel 4-57
Sulphur 45-11
The rest of the contents of the ore were mainly insoluble except
for two per cent of calcite. The suggestion is made that a little poly-
dymite is mixed with the marcasite to account for the nickel, though there
is no proof of this.^
While crystals are not found near Worthington, Prof. Walker reports
good crystals of marcasite from a narrow vein crossing ore at Murray
mine. This contained no nickel, however, and was no doubt of later origin
than the nickel ore proper, having a relation similar to that of the crystals
of pyrite mentioned above.
One would hardly expect to find pentlandite or polydymite, -with their
low proportions of sulphur, intimately mixed with an iron compound
containing two atoms of sulphur to one of iron; so that probably the
nickel found in pyrite and marcasite really replaces iron in these minerals
in the form of Ni 83, as suggested by Prof. Walker.
PENTLANDITE.
By all means the most important mineral in the Sudbury deposits
is pentlandite (Fe Ni) S, since in the great majority of cases this is con-
sidered to be the real nickel-bearing mineral; nevertheless it is rather
rarely seen in the ores and has not been found in quite a number of mines.
lAm. Jour. Sc, 3rd Series, Vol. XLVII, pp. 312-14.
2G.S.C., 1890-91, p. 116 SS.
23
If carefully looked over, the Crean Hill and Creighton ores often show it,
and the old Evans and Worthington mines furnished it also. The pent-
landite of the Sudbury region is without crystal forms but has a character-
istic octahedral cleavage which distinguishes it from the enclosing pyrrhotite,
which generally has no definite cleavage planes. On fresh surfaces the two
minerals are almost the same in colour, and the pentlandite is hard to recog-
nize unless ones eye is well trained; but it soon weathers to a brassy yellow
easily picked out from the bronzy background of pyrrhotite. Cleavage
surfaces are sometimes an inch or more in diameter though this is by no
means common.
The proportions of iron to nickel in pentlandite are quite variable,
the mineral as first described by Scheerer having only 18-35 per cent of
nickel, while some Sudbury examples contain nearly 40 per cent of the
metal, as may be seen from the following analyses:
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
Ni
Co
Fe
18-35
42-70
36-45
1-16
21-07
40-21
36-64
1-78
34-23
0-85
30-25
33-42
34-82
0-84
30 00
32-90
33-70
0-78
29-17
32-30
34-98
0-85
30 04
33-30
39-85
traces
25-81
s
34-35
Cu
0-67
98-66
99-70
99-42
98-56
95-95
99-17
100-15
The first two are from Lillehammer, analysed by Scheerer; III is
from Sudbury, analysed by J. K. Mackenzie (Dana, 6th Ed., p. 65);
IV by Prof. Penfield; V, VI, and VII by Dr. Dickson. ^
Pentlandite was first recognized in Sudbury ores in 1891, by Prof.
Walker, then chemist at Murray mine, who named a specimen sent to him
from Worthington by Dr. Barlow Eise?i nickel kies, the German term for
the mineral.-
As pentlandite is practically non-magnetic and pyrrhotite is usually
decidedly attracted by the magnet it was natural to think that the two
minerals could be separated magnetically, and elaborate attempts at
such a separation were made by Browne, Barlow, Dickson and others;
but it has been found that the minerals are too intimately mixed to permit
of a complete separation except by methods too costly to be of practical
value. Reference will be made later to work of this kind.
Some of the analyses show that -78 to -85 per cent of cobalt occurs
in the pentlandite, accounting probably for the cobalt contents of the stan-
dard matte of the region. The three closely related metals, iron, nickel,
and cobalt, replace one another more or less in their compounds.
POLYDYMITE.
Polydymite, Nii S5, according to Dana, as described from Griinau,
Wcsti)halia, is a sulphide of nickel with a small amount of iron and a very
small amount of cobalt replacing part of the nickel.^ The example ^ ana-
'Trans. Am. Inst. Min. Eng., 1903.
'G.S.C, Vol. XIV, Fart H. p. 13.
3Dana, 6th Ed., p. 75.
24
lysed from the Sudbury region contain from 15 to 18 per cent of iron, l)ut a^
they agree in other respects with the properties of the original mineral,
they may be included also under the name. The proportions of nickel
and iron to sulphur approach those found for iron and sulphur in pyrrho-
tite, bu: while pyrrhotite crystallizes in hexagon d forms, polydymite, like
pentlandite, is isometric. No cryst ds have been reported, hue thjre is a
well marked cubic cleavage making the system of crystallization certaio.
Polydymite from our region is dark iron grey in colour with good
metallic lustre on fresh surfaces, but it very quickly tarnishes and soon
falls to powder in the weather.
The only place where it has been found with certainty is at the Ver-
milion mine, where it is associated w^ith copper pyrite.--, often intimately
intergrown, though large masses may sometimes be found nearly free from
it. The lollowing analyses show its composition:
Xi.
Fe.
Co.
5.3-51
3-84
0-61
S 40-27
Sb : 0-57
As...
Cu...
SiOe.
1-04
99-78
III.
41-96
15-57
39-20 I 40-80
1-15 I
2-30
0-62
1-02
99-90 I 99-97
IV
36-85
18-17
38-43
4-47
98-45
Nos. I and II are rom Griinau, bj^ Laspej-res, as quoted by Dana, No.
Ill from Clark and Catlett,^ and No. IV from David Browned
It is possible that polydymite instead of pentlandite supplies the
nickel in some of the mines where the latter mineral has not been
found. From its relations of metal to sulphur it would more naturally
accompany pyrrhotite than pentlandite would; and if finely disseminated
it would easily escape notice in pyrrhotite.
It would be surprising if this mineral should occur to the amount of
hundreds of tons at one mine and not at all in any of the other ore deposits
of the region.
MILLERITE.
MiKerite, Ni S, is the richest in nickel of all the ores, containing when
pure 64-6 per cent. It was thought, in the earlier development of the
region, to be disseminated through the pyrrhotite and so to form the real
nickel carrier; but the discovery of pentlandite in several of the mines
makes this quite improbable. Millerite has been reported from the Copper
lAm. Jour. Sc. Vol. XXXVII, 1889, pp. 372-4.
^Engineering and Mining Journal, Vol. LVI, p. 566.
Cliff mine by Dr. Peters and Dr. Dickson, the latter considering it second-
ary after pentlandite. It has been reported also from the Sheppard mine,
lot, 1, con. 3, of Blezard township, and Prof. Walker and the writer
found a few small blade-like crystals of it on the dump of Vermilion mine
some years ago; but it is evidently cjuite unimportant as a source of
nickel.
GERSDORFFITE.
All the minerals referred to thus far are compounds of the same ele-
ents, nickel, cobalt, and iron with sulphur, but in varying proportions and
with very different physical characters. In m my other regions where
sulphides are prominent there are found also some arsenic minerals; but so
far as known these are almost entirely absent in the Sudbury district,
except at a few unimportant outcrops along the Worthington offset south-
west of Victoria mines. One of these minerals, gersdorffite, Ni S As,
contains both sulphur and arsenic. It is a white or steel grey, highly
metallic looking mineral, containing when pure 35-4 per cent of nickel,
and occurs especially northeast of Worthington where it is more or less
mixed with nickelite. A prospect has been named the Gersdorffite mine
from its presence.
NICKELITE OR NICCOLITE.
Nickelite, the German Kupfer nickel, Ni As, contains 43-9 per cent of
the metal, and was the earliest source of nickel. Its pale copper colour
and high metallic lustre make it a very handsome mineral. It is found in
the Sudbury region only on the Worthington offset, mainly associated
with gersdorffite, Imt has no practical importance as a source of the metal.
CHALCOPYRITE.
In addition to the sulphides containing nickel and iron there is one
very imi)ortant ore of copper almost invariably present, chalcopyrite or
cojjper pyrites, Cu Fe S?. Unlike most of the nickel minerals mentioned
above chalcopyrite is practically constant in composition, containing
when pure 34-5 per cent of copper, 30-5 per cent of iron, and 35 percent
of sul])hur. Ghalcopyrite comes next in amount to pyrrhotite and pent-
landite and is always a more conspicuous component of the ore than the
latter mineral because of its striking greenish brassy hue and its liability
to tarnish with irridescent colours. Good crystals of the minerals appear
to be lacking. Copper pyrites may either be intimately mixed with the
pyrrhotite or form considerable masses by itself. It appears to be more
easily dissolved and redepositcnl than i)yrrhotite and so is more frequently
found in fissures in the country rock; and it is especially comincm near the
walls of ore bodies or associated with masses of rock enclosed in the sul-
phides, so that as a rule rocky ore contains a higher percentage of copper
than ore rich in sulphide^. In two im])ortant mines, the C()i)per Cliff and
the Crean Hill, copper is present in larger amounts than nickel, and at
Garson and Victoria mines it about equals the nickel; but all the other
mines contain more nickel than cojiper. As the percentage of copper in
chalcopyrite is about ecjual to the percentage of nickel in pentlandite, we
may assume according to the usual theory, that pentlandite occurs in larger
quantities than copper ])^•rites in most ores, though it is so rarely seen.
25873—1
26
OTHER COPPER MINERALS.
Bornite and chalcocite were reported from the Vermilion mine in
earlier days, but neither was to l)e seen when the mine was freshly opened
up on a large scale in 1910; so that probably they were secondary minerals
formed by surface waters and did not reach very deep. Malachite too
occurs as green stains at many of the mines, but is, of course, entirely
superficial and due to the weathering of copper pyrites.
Native copper has been found rather frequently at the Vermilion
mine, and has been obtained at depths of probably fifteen feet; but it is
mostly in thin films too fragile to preserve. It has no doubt been pre-
cipitated from the sulphate solution by some reducing agent, probably
organic matter carried by descending water>^. The same may be true also
of the native copper reported from Copper Cliff mine; though this was
found a thousand feet below the surface, which makes its origin doubtful.
All these copper minerals are of secondary origin, derived from the primary
copper pyrites.
MAGNETITE.
Though the sulphides greatly preponderate among the Sudbury
minerals, oxides occur also, particularly magnetite, FcsO^; which is some-
times seen as scattered crystals in the pyrrhotite, and occasionally forms
masses of ore even tons in weight, as at Clarabelle mine north of Copper
Cliff. It is highly magnetic and not the titaniferous variety. The crystals,
where distinguishable in the pyrrhotite, have octahedral and other forms,
polished and a little rounded, as if the sharp edges had been somewhat
dissolved away. In ore from one outcrop in Levack township the magnetic
crystals make up about ten per cent of the whole; and diamond drill
cores from parts of the Northern range show enough magnetite to have
importance as an iron ore if the deposits are of large enough dimensions.
TITANIFEROUS MAGNETITE.
The titaniterous variety of magnecite is almost always lound in basic
igneous rocks and is of frequent occurrence in th ; nickel-bearing norite,
as shown by a whitish rim of leucoxene round the crystals in thin sections.
Prof. Walker has found titaniferous iron ore in small quantities in i-he
pyrrhotite from Murray mine, but it seems much less common in the ore
than the more magnetic variety mentioned above.
CASSITERITE.
Cassiterite, the oxide of tin, is the only other oxide of interest in the
nickel ores, but occurs in quite insignificant amounts, and has been
reported only from Vermilion mine, where Messrs. Penfield and Wells
found it along with sperrylite.
LATER METALLIC MINERALS.
With the exception of millerite and copper ores other than chal-
copyrite, all the minerals mentioned above seem to be original parts of
the deposits in which they are found. The more important of them,
pyrrhotite, pj^rite, marcasite, pentlandite, and chalcopyrite, appear to
have been regular constituents of the norite-micropegmatite magma which
slowly settled to the bottom of the molten mass, somewhat as matte sepa-
rates from slag in ^melting furnaces. They are in a sense rock-forming
minerals associated with the magnetite and silicates of the norite at its
lower or basic edge, and reached their present position before the eruptive
sheet finally cooled. There has been some rearrangement since, especially
in offset deposits, but the materials dissolved, transported, and redepocited
were obtained from the norite itself and were not shifted far from their
source. They are not associated with water formed minerals such as
quartz and calcite. There are, however, on the other hand, in most of
the ore deposits later veins of characteristic aqueous formation, including
quartz, carbonates, and a few metallic sulphides other than thosedescribed
above. N«
Pyrite or mavcasite, galena, zinc blende and molybdenite are found
in such veins at several of the mines, especially on offsets. They are
known from Creighton, Crean Hill, Copper Cliff and Garson mines, and
would probably be found at others if looked for.
These veins, usually very narrrow, cut right across both'norite and
ore and were evidently formed under totally different conditions from the
typical minerals of the ore. Their source may have been the overlying
or underlying rocks; since the same sulphides and gangue minerals have
been found in the underlying Huronian slate and greywacke, and also in
the sedimentary rocks of the basin above the acid phase of the nickel
eruptive.
Zinc blende, brownish Ijlack in colour and coarse textured, is rather
often found at Crean Hill, and is known at one or two other points. It
is the only known compound of zinc.
Gilena is somewhat more common and occurs in considerable amounts
at Garson mine, a vein several inches wide cutting the ore body. Here
it is very coarsely crystalline. It is found too at Copper Cliff and Creigh-
ton in very small quantities, always apparently of later deposit than the
ore. It has been suggested that the galena present in some of the ores
might account for the small quantity of silver always to be found in the
matte, but galena is too infrequent and too irregularly distributed to be
of importance in this respect, particularly since specimens assayed prove
very low in silver,
Molybdenite has been reported only once, from the Worthington
offset, which has a greater variety of minerals than any other part of the
region.
NATURAL GAS.
In the Copper Cliff mine at the lower levels an odorless combustible
gas was ol)served, but no careful examination seems to have been made
of it. This suggests a reducing agent capable of producing the native
copper found on the 12th level of the mine.
A little graphite has been picked up on the dump at the Lady Mac-
d(mald mine, north of Copper Cliff. The source of the carbon and hydro-
carbons is unknown, unless it could have been derived in some way from
the once bituminous slate overlying the nickel eruptive.
THE GOSSAN MINERALS.
Pyrrliotite s readily attacked by the processes of weathering, and
chalcopyrite also soon tarnishes and yields to surface acton; so that.
25873— 4i
28
a number o- iron, nickel and copper compounds are formed, mostly of
a fugitive kind. Everyone familiar with the nickel region remembers
the peculiar copperas smell of the nickel deposits, especially after damp
weather.
The first stage in the process is the formation of hydrous sulphates
of the three metals, w^hich may often be seen as crusts or short icicle-like
forms where there are projecting or overhanging masses of ore. The
sulphates are bluish green when completelj- hjxlrated, but turn w^hite
b}' loss of moisture. These sulphates are quite evanescent compounds,
scarcely deserving the name of minerals. They are very soluble and give
their peculiar bluish green colour to the water of pools on the ore or filling
the open pits of abandoned mines. The chief sulphate is, of course, that
of iron, FeSOj THjO, (melanterite or copperas); but that of copper,
CuSOi 5H2O (chalcanthite), of nickel, XiS04 TH^O (morenosite), and
probably also of cobalt, C0SO4 TH-jO. (bieberite) must occur also.
The next stage is the formation of limonite, the hydrated sesqui-
oxide of iron, which is the typical gossan product of the region. What
becomes of the sulphates of nickel and copper is unknown, though occasion-
ally a film of green malachite ma}' be found where the ore is rich in copper.
A permanent secondary compound of nickel has not been reported from
the region.
The brownish red gossan is the most characteristic sign of nickel
deposits on the ranges, and where the gossan is widespread and thick there
is almost certainly ore of importance beneath it. The limonite is a very
stable mineral and often stands up as mounds or hills, but a very few
years are safficient to transform pyrrhoiite ore on the mine clumps into
a crumbling mass of rusty fragments from which most of the copper and
nickel has been leached away. It is therefore unwise to open up deposits
on a large scale before the ore is required for smelting unless it can be
stored under cover.
Probably millions of tons of nickel and copper have been dissolved
and carried away by the drainage of the region since its first exposure
to the weather in Palaeozoic times; and this age long wastage seems
nowhere to have resulted in the concentration of the metals in workable
secondary deposits. They have probably passed in solution to the sea
and are lost to man forever.
MINERALS OF THE PRECIOUS METALS.
All of tlie Sudburj' ores contain small amounts of the precious metals,
but these are seldom found in recognizable minerals. Native gold was
early found in the gossan of the Vermilion mine, which was first taken up
as a gold mine; and soon after it was obtained from Victoria mine a mile
or two west. A little was found also at Crean Hill when the mine was
discovered. Of the other precious metals, silver, platinum, and palladium,
the source of only one is known, the platinum.
SPERRYLITE.
Sperryhte, Pt As 2, the arsenide of platinum, was first obtained from
the gossan of Vermilion mine, and later from the Victoria mine, then called
the McConnell property. The name was given by the Messrs. Wells and
Penfield in honour of Mr. F. L. Sperry, chemist of the Canadian Copper Co.,
who had sent it to them for examination. The mineral was found during
the crushing and washing of the material for gold in a miniature stamp
29
mill, where it collected with the gold on a blanket over which the pulp
was passed. Its brilliant silvery colour and lustre naturally surprised the
gold miners.
It crystallizes in tiny cubes and octahedra with a few other forms of
the isometric system, and is very hard (from 6 to 7) and resists weather
ing perfectly. As its specific gravity is 10-6 it is concentrated along with
the gold in the gossanj' deljris above ore deposits. The mean of two ana-
lyses b}' Wells and Penfield give the following composition:
Arsenic 40-98
Antimony 0-50
Platinuni 52-57
Rhodium 0-72
Palladium trace.
Iron 0-07
Cassiterite (SnOa) 4-62
Total 99-46
The sperrylite of the ores is mainly contained in copper pyrites, and
may be obtained from it by dissolving the latter mineral with acid, as shown
by Mr. Mickle and later by Dr. Dickson, but it occurs more sparingly in
the other sulphides, such as polydymite. This mineral has not been found
at the other mines, though the platinum ol)tained from matte made from
their ores suggests that it is really present.
It is known that palladium occurs in the Sudbur\' ores in larger amounts
than platinum; but no palladium compound has yet been discovered.
The silver, also, is not accounted for unless contained in the copper pyrites.
The Source of the Ores.
From the foregoing description it is evident that in most of the Sud-
bury mines the ores are very few in number and very monotonous in char-
acter, pyrrhotite, pentlandite, and chalcopyrite making up most of them
almost exclusively; and even these three minerals practically never show
crj^stal forms. Further we know that they are invariably associated with a
single rock, norite, which i- almost as monotonous in its habit asthc sulphides,
and mixes with them in every gradation. The association is so impressive
to the field geologist that he inevi abl}' looks for a causal connexion
between them; and it ma}^ be added that all geologists who have studied the
relationships in the field are convinced that the causal connexion is mag-
mat ic segregation. The molten mass of eruptive rock was charged with
the sal})hides of iron, nickel and copper, which separated out before cooling
was com])l('t('.
It is, however, interesting to find that certain metallurgists and others
who have studied the ores chiefly in the laboratory or with the microscope
JKjld a totally different view, believing that the ores have been brought in
hy water, re])lacing the rock-forming minerals.
The first to state this opinion in a decided way was Dr. C. W. Dickson,*
who studied sections of rock and ore; but the work of Messrs. Wm.
('am])bell and C. W. Knight, illustrated by beautiful microphotographs
of polished sections, is perhaps the more important"-. They have
'Trans. Am. Inst. Min. Eng., 1904, p. '.id.
2Econ. (ieol., Vol. II, No. 4, 1907, p. 350-.3«G.
30
shown conelusively from the study of specimens of ore from several
of the Sudbury mines, as well as from Norway and other regions,
that a definite order of succession can be recognized among the sulphides,
pyrrhotite being oldest, pentlandite next, and chalcopyrite last. Where
rock forming minerals are present also, the order is, magnetite, silicates,
pyrrhotite, pentlandite, ancl chalcopyrite.
These results may be accepted without opposition by those
who hold the magmatic theory, since the study of polished sections shows
simply the final disposition of the minerals. It can throw no light on the
origin of these minerals beyond affirming that a certain amount of fractur-
ing of pyrrhotite allowed pentlandite or chalcopj^ite to migrate into the
fissures; but where the later minerals came from is still an unsolved problem.
The magmatic segregation theory provides for all the ores as separating
more or less completely from the molten rock, but does not deny that there
may have been later rearrangements among them, so that the two theories
are in reality complementary and harmonious.
The numerous lines of evidence in favor of the magmatic theory are
well given by Dr Barlow\ who seems to have been the first to reach such
a conclusion, though a number of others, including ^^on Foullon, Vogt,
Adams, Browne, Walker, Kemp, and the present writer, have argued in
its favour.
The evidence for the magmatic theory hardly needs to be repeated
here, since most geologists and mining engineers interested in the Sudbury
deposits are already satisfied of its correctness. In the course of the fol-
lowing account of the region the soundness of the theory will become clear
without any formal summing up of the arguments.
Rocks Associated with the Ore.
The Sudbury pyrrhotites always contain small amounts of ordinary
rock forming minerals, such as pyroxene and plagioclase feldspar, and these
may increase until the silicates equal the sulphides in amount, when the
mixture may be called pyrrhotite-norite. Such intermediate rocks are found
at every ore deposit, so far as known, and form a transition towards
ordinary norite. In fresh examples some blebs or specks of the sulphides,
pyrrhotite, and in less amount chalcopyrite, are seen disseminated through
the usual grej- rock. When weathered the sulphides are dissolved or
turned to iron oxide, and the brownish surface of the rock is spotted with
limonite or has many rustj^ holes from which the sulphides have been
removed. This 'pock marked' surface is characteristic of the norite near
ore bodies. A few blebs of ore or tiny rusty cavities are often found in the
rock hundreds of yards away, and occasionally even a mile or two from
the basic edge of the norite. This often serves as a guide in field work,
since no other rock in the region has the same peculiarity. For this and
other reasons the pyrrhotite, almost always associated with some copper
pyrites, may be looked on as itself a part of the succession of differentiation
products of the great laccolithic sheet mentioned earlier.
The norite of the basic edge accompanying the ore varies greatly in
freshness and in appearance, so that the prospector or mining engineer
requires to have a certain range of experience in order to recognize it in
different localities. The typical norite of the southern range is a rather
coarse, dark grey massive rock in which one can distinguish a little brown
biotite and also bluish quartz in scattered blebs, though the bulk of the rock
'G.S.C., Vol. XIV., Part H, pp. 124, etc.
Plate XI.
1 . — Mirropegmatite.
Polarized light X 10.
Quartz light, andcsine pale grey,
blende dark grey.
2. — Norite: Creighton mine.
Ordinary light X 10,
Lahradorite pale grey, hypersthene darker
grey.
3.— Pyrrhotite-noritc X 10.
Labradorite pale grey, hypor.sthene dark grey,
pyrrhotite black.
31
is clearly made up of grey feldspar and a darker grey or green miner il in
smaller amounts. The darker mineral often has the character of horn-
blende, so that the name diorite was applied to the rock in the beginning,
and most prospectors still use the term. Fresh examples however prove
to contain two varieties of pyroxene, ordinary augite and hypersthene;
the latter usually in large amounts; so that the hornblende is evidently
of secondary origin. That the fresh rock is norite and not diorite or gabbro
was proved first by Baron von Foullon^ who visited Murray mine in 1891;
and Avas confirmed by Dr. T. L. Walker two years later from the same mine
and from Blezard mine-. This was of much interest as bringing the
Sudbury deposits in line with those of Norway previously investigated by
Prof. Vogt.
Through the work of Dr. Barlow and the present writer the presence
of fresh norite has been shown at many other places, including the great
Creighton mine, and the rock forming minerals are often found unchanged
in contact with disseminated masses of the ore.
In thin sections of the pyrrhotite-norite the ore itself, when unaffected
by later changes, is grouped with the more basic minerals as might be
expected. It is often close beside magnetite, the two opaque minerals
making a . ingle mass, or it may enclose magnetite, or be enclosed by it.
It is frequently found along.- ide of hypersthene or augite crystals and also
beside or imbedded in mica. It may, however, lie between the dark coloured
minerals and the feldspars.
Where the rock is least changed the outlines of the ore masses are as
sharp and apparently undisturbed as those of the other minerals, and the
inference is natural that the pyrrhotite assumed its position in the same way
as the other rock forming minerals. All are strikingly fresh, even the hyper-
sthenes, which are usually among the first of the silicates to be attacked
and rearranged.
When hypersthene has begun to change into fibrous hornblende,
however, the pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite usually show signs of disturbance,
penetrating cracks in the adjoining p^.rtif lly decomposed minerals. To
one unacquainted with the general geological associations this might be
interpreted as replacement, though it is not really so, and implies only a
rearrangement of materials already present in the rock, and not a t''ansport
of materials from a distance to take the place of ingredients which had
b"en dissolved.
Even in the greatly weath'-rcd specimens of the rock where the pyrox-
enes are transformed to uralite the ore l^lebs are found completely enclosed,
often far apart from one another, and the microscope shows no channels
through which solutions might circulate from a distance. That there has
been a certain amount of solution and redeposition in many of the ore
deposits is admitted by all, but this was of the na.ure of a rearrangement
of the minerals of the rock, and not due to the introduction of new materials.
It is therefore quite consistent with the accepted theory of magmatic
segregation.
Admitting this theory, and admitting also that gravity playetl a pre-
])ond(Tating part in the separation of or(> from rock, as it does of matte
from slag in metallurgical practice, conclusions of great practical import-
ance may be drawn. The chief ore Ixxlies will be found where there are
large depressions in the floor on which the molten norite rested, so a? to
concentrate the ore in one place instead of allowing it to spread out thinly
on an even bottom. In addition, where the thickness of molten magma
■Jahrbuch dor K.K. Gcol. Rcifbs-.mstalt, Vienna, 1892, pp. 223-310.
Hiuur. Journ. Gcol. 8of. \iA. I, III, pp. 40-40.
32
was greatest there will be the largest accumulation of ore, .supposing that
it was evenly dissolved in the original magma. Both points have been con-
clusively proved by the field work.
On the other hand no ore need be looked for on upward or inward bend^
of the floor, since the molten sulphides would settle down into the hollows
on each side. This too is confirmed by the results of the field work. It
is evidenc then that the careful working out of the boundary of the norite
and ot the thickness of different parts of the norite-micropegmatite sheet
is of fundamental importance in determining the position and size of the
accumulations of ore.
It has been proved that nickel ore is always accomp jiied by norite
for the good reason that it formed a part of the common magma. Though
there is no ore without norite, the reverse is not true, since there are wide
stretches of norite with little or no ore, in accordance with the arrangement
of the underlying country rock, as shown before.
The typical coarse grej" norite with a little mica and blue quartz
described above occurs along the most productive part of the main nickel
range, frcm Victoria mine to Blezard mine; but along other parts of the
basic edge the rock changco somewhat in appearance, being lighter in colour
and showing less of the two accessory minerals. In some places, as near
Gar.-on mine, it has been sheared or squeezed into a rather pale grey schist
which contains none of the original norice minerals and would never be
recognized as belooging to that rock if the contact had not been followed
up without a break from the typical region to the southwest. On the
northern and eastern ranges the norite is about as coarse grained but paler
in colour.
The basic edge of the norite and the marginal ore bodies everywhere
dip inwards toward the central axis of the syncline and rest unconformably
en the truncated edges of the older rocks, which may be of any description
without affecting the ore deposits. On the northern range the country
rock is chiefly greyish or pinkish granitoid gneiss with bands of green schist
and dykes oi pegmatite — the characteristic Laurentian gneiss of the Cana-
dian Archaean. On tne eastern range the underlying rock is chiefly green
schist or greenstone with dyk^s of granite, probably of Keewatin age.
The country rocks of the southern range present the greatest variety.
Beginning at the southwest corner of the syncline there are green, tone.-'
and granites intermixed, perhaps Laurentian, or perhaps ot later age.
At the Chicago mine the greenstones are largely replaced by pale grey or
white anorthosite, followed by greenstones at Victoria mine and Crean
Hill. To the east of this a later granite makes the boundary for a mile or
two, followed by greenstone penetrated by granite. At Gertrude mine a
band of confused volcanic rocks, incluchng an oldec norite, extends nearly
to Creighton, where coarse graiitoid gneiss lies beneath the norite and ore.
Coarse and fine granitoid rocks extend from this to the Copper Cliff region;
after which there are more volcanics, including the older norite and pillow
lava. Then come two or three miles of a medium grained granite probably
later than the norite, succeeded at Little Stobie by older norites and lava
flows, which reach to the Blezird mine. After this the country rock is
mainly g eenstone with some greywacke or quartzite.
The norite and ore along chfferent parts of the boundary rest upon at
lea t a dozen types of rock as foot wall, mostly eruptives, but varying in
composition from acid granite to a very basic norite or greenstone with not
more than 50 per cent of silica. These rocks are partly coarse plutonics
which cooled at great depthr% and partly lava streams. At certain points
the ore comes against sediments also. None of these rocks has the slightest
effect on the norite or ore except as a solid foundation with an irregular
surface on wh^ch both ore and rock might solidify. The magma of che
nickel eruptive was the parent of the ore, and the country rock beyond
and below was a purely accidental thing influencing the formation of the
ore bodies only by its shape and other physical features, not by its compo-
sition or chemical properties.
In various places, as at Murray and Creighton mines, both ore and
norite become finer grained against the country rock beneath, showing that
it was then cold and chilled the molten materials where they came in
contact with it.
TRANSITION FROM NORITE TO MICROPEGMATITE.
As mentioned before there is no break between the norite of the basic
edge of •''he nickel-bearing eruptive and the micropegmatite of its acid edge.
If one crosses it at one of the widest parts, for instance, near Murray mine
or Creighton, one passes from ore to pyrrhotite-norite in one or two hundred
teet, and witliin a few hundred yards reaches typical norite, the coarse grey
rock with a few rusty spot? where round blebs of ore have weathered out,
which has been mentioned before. For one and a half or two miles there
is little change in the appearance of the rock except that th.re are f,^,w, ii
any, Ijlebs of ore in it, and for this distance it weathers someAvhat rapidly
in rounded masses enclosed in coarpe sand and gravel resulting from its
own decomposition. The microscope shows no great change in the rock
up to this, except an increase in the quartz incergrown with thj feldspars;
but beyond this the eruptive becomes reddish on weathered surfaces and
looks like a dark syenite, though the microscope shows mainly plagioclase
as the feldspar, with a considerable amount of micropegmatite between the
crystal ?. There is little orthoclase to be seen, though analyses prove that
this phase of the rock contains almost as much potash as soda.
The coarse reddish variety seldom continues to the actual acid edge,
where the rock usually becomes finer grained, grey or greenish in colour and
often somewhat schistose, so that it has been mapped as gneiss or Huronian
schist. The feldspar crystals are seen, under the microscope, to be andesine
as well as orthoclase, generally having platy shapes suggesting the trachitic
structure. The micropegmatite has increased in amouot, and crystals of
andesine arc apt to be enclosed in a wide border of plumy iutergrowths of
quartz and fL4dspir which can hardly be resolved even with high powers
of the microscope. Analyses show little change in the chemical compo-
sition except a slight increase of silica.
Types of Ore Deposits in the Sudbury Region.
When the Sudbury ores first attracted attention magmatic segregations
were scarcely recognized as ore deposits and the terms used for the Sudbury
ore bodies were naturally those applying to the better known deposits
formed by circulating waters. They were spoken of as "veins" or "stock-
works" or "lensjs" since th.' forms in which they occur sometimes suggest
these terms. It was supposed by some, however, that they might be
"replacements" or "contact deposits"; and there are points which might
!)(' thought favorable to such a view. Occasionally the deposits have
(lefijiite walls and a somewhat vein-hke form, as near the Orford works,
('()])])er Cliff; and most of the ore bo(li(>s have ]>arts that resemble stock-
works, where the ore reticulates about fragments of country rock; but in
34
both cases the ore penetrated the small fissuies while molten, under pres-
sure irom the magma above. The fissures themselves and the crush
breccias in which the ore plays the part of matrix were due to the faulting
and smashing of the underlying rock owing to the motions of the nickel-
bearing magma in reaching its present position.
Again the ore bodies sometimes have a rude lenticular shape, though
they are not symmetrical as they should be in typical lenses. The side
toward the country rock may be fairly well defined, but the side toward
the norite has no definite boundary.
Where secondary action of circulating waters is pronounced the ores
have to some extent the appearance- of materials deposited by replacement;
although this is deceptive, since the ores have not been introduced from
without, and have merel}' been rearranged in practically the place where
they originated.
The ore bodies often have the look of contact deposits, lying as they
commonly do, between country rock, such as granite or greenstone, and the
never failing norite; but they are not contact deposits ia the usual sense,
implj'jng that the country rock has been a necessary reagent causing the
precipitation of the ore.
It is evident that none of the foregoing terms, drawn from studies of
ore deposits made by circulating waters, will apply properly to masses ot
ore having an origin so essentially different as magmatic segregation.
To meet this difficulty the two main varieties of ore bodies in the region
were distinguished by the present writer as ''marginal" and "offset"
deposits, terms having no connexion with those used for water formed
deposits.^
MARGINAL DEPOSITS,
Many of the more important nickel deposits occur at the basic margin
of the norite, lying between it and the adjoining country rock. They are
commonly irregular sheets of ore occupying the lowest parts of the country
rock, penetrating all its fissures and enclosing blocks of it of all shapes and
sizes. They may, however, have a veiy distinct foot wall where the country
lock was not shattered by the influx of ore and norite or where faulting
has brought a -■mooth surface of country rock against the ore.
After a varying thickness of pure ore containing very little of the rock
minerals the blending ot rock and ore called pyrrhotite-norite occurs,
passing finally into norite with a few blebs of ore. The inner and upper
margin is very indefinite, being fixed in mining simply where the amount
of rock matter pri-sent is too great to be profitably worked. The thickness
of workable ore may vary from a few feet to 100 feet or more as in the
Creighton mine. The length is equally variable, ranging from one or two
hundred to seven hundred feet, but is usually several times the thickness.
Often the ends thin out without ceasing entirely, and a very rusty rock
may connect one deposit with another, as happens with the Elsie and
Murray mines, so that more or less ore continues for half a mile or more.
The depth to which marginal deposits go is unknown. The Creighton
has been found by mining 700 feet below the surface and is known by the
results of diamond drilling to extend to at least 900 feet. Theoretically
there is no reason why these ore bodies should not go down indefinitely
provided the depression in the underlying country rock continues.
1 Bur. Mines, Ont., Vol. XIV, 1905. pp. 19, etc.
Plate XII.
m^
■
1
ifc£' ■.-
/'Zr/ro/^Y ^/r//// 7/
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^
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□
^Uli
fcHi^'
Om
n
^^
Biji^r '
(^/t/JWTf
[^-n
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'^I'ypical marginal deposit.
Pl..\TE XIII.
l''aiillril marginal deposit.
35
Marginal ore bodies usually dip at moderate angles inwards toward
the axis of the syncline, the inclinations commonly observed running from
20° to 65°, with an average of 30° or 35°. At the Creighton mine i,he dip
of the foot-wall is 34° in the upper part and flattens to 32° in the lower levels.
Since there are marginal deposit ^ on all sides of the nickel basin, there
are ore bodies inclined in every direction, those of the southern range dip-
ping northward or northwestward, and those of the northern dipping south-
eastward; those on the east end dipping west, and vice versa. Occasionally
faulting interferes with the regularity of the arrangement, but in general
the deposits conform surprisingly well with the outline just given.
These ore bodies may be symmetrical to a vertical plane at right
angles to the d'p, but they are never symmetrical as to their upper and
lower sides, since the lower side is generally well defined, while the upper
merges into the general body of norite. There is usually a good foot -wall
but no defiaite hanging wall.
FAULTED MARGINAL DEPOSITS.
Since the former survey of the region was made two very interesting
deposits have been opened up, disclosing features quite different from those
of ordinary marginal deposits, yet so closely bound up with the norite edge
as to be marginal in position. These are the Crean Hill and Garson mines.
In each case the deposit was formed, or at least begun, as the usual
marginal type, occupying a hollow in the underlying country rock; but
later faults of various kinds have carried masses of country rock over or
into the basic edge of the norite, greatly confusing the relations and giving
risv- to ore much richer in copper than that of the regular marginal mines.
During the faulting the country rock was more or les.? crushed and
split into small and large blocks, and the ore wandered into the fissures
be 'ween the blocks, either at the time as molten sulphides, or later through
water transport. As chalcopyrite is everywhere the more transferable of
the sulphides, it has entered the fissures more largely than the pyrrhotite.
Unusually large amounts of quartz, carbonates, and sulphides of zinc or
le id are found in these two mines as a result of circul iting waters, and these
1 iter processes have played a larger part than in most other ore bodies of
the region whether marginal or offset.
OFFSET DEPOSITS.
The term "off.ret" was introduced to include ore bodies connected
with dyke-like projections from the basic edge of the norite, or more or less
separate masses of ore and norite not visibly connected with the main body
of rock, but almost certainly having underground connexions. Dr.
Barlow prefers to separate the isolated ore ])odies as a third type, and there
is something to be said for this view,^ but the general character of tne two
is so nmch alike that they may be discussed together.
The marginal deposits occupy depressions in the country rock below
the norite, but often these bays or depressions end funnel-like in a projec-
tion somewhat resembling a dyke, though usually more irregular in shape
and boundaries. Because of this irregularity and al ^o because of the
trequent interruptions in these ])ands of norite and ore it seems preferable
to use the Avord offset rather than dyke for descriptive purjioses.
One must think of the underlying country rock as having Ijeen broken
and shattered in many places Ijy collapse during the removal of the molten
•G.S.C., Part H, Vol. XIV, p. 120.
36
rock from beneath, and also by the mechanical action of the laccolithic
sheet spreading out above. The fissures and devious channels between
the blocks would be flooded by the highly fluid norite and ore acting under
the pressure of three miles of overlying magma and solid rock. The bottom
norite highly charged with sulphides entered and filled every existing channel
and forced it.-- way in places through belts of shattered and weakened rock,
enclosing many fragments torn off on the way. Doubtless there was much
grinding of one surface upon another in the process, accounting for the
many rounded boulder-like rock fragments enclosed in the ore.
Ofi^sets may sometimes extend continuously from the basic edge of
the norite for a distance of a mile or two, as at Copper Cliff, first as a
funnel irregularly narrowing, then in a dyke-like manner with a width of
only 100 cr 200 feet. At length it ceases abruptly. More or less ore
appears along the lunnel-shaped part, resembling in its arrangement the
marginal deposits mentioned above; Avhile along the narrow projection
from the funnel the norite is highly charged with orp, and small bodies of
solid ore occur, but usually not of great importance. When the band of
pyrrhotite-norite ends, however, there is apt to be a large and important
ore body, a typical offset deposit, as at No. 2 mine, Copper Cliff. It is
as though advance was arrested and the sulphides could accumulate.
After a longer or shorter interruption of barren couiitry rock, .norite
and ore appear again, sometimes as small isolated bodies, at others as
elongated outcrops with mosi of the ore at the outer end.
These separate outcrops may be very definitely aligned, as in the
Worthington offset, or may be scattered quite irregularly, as at Copper
Cliff; since the arrangement was due to the accidents of the conduits
into which the ore and magma w^ere forced. The relationship has been
aptly expressed by Dr. Peters as "like sausages on a string, })ut with a
long bit cf string between the sausages."^
The word offset is used for the whole series of outcrops, which may
be short, with only a single ore deposit, or long, iacluding as many as foar
or five distinct ore bodies, and containing in all hundreds of thousands of
tons of ore.
As might be expected, when a depression beyond the basic edge ends
in an offset, there ire no important marginal deposits, most of the ore
having passed on to halt before various obstructions as offset deposits.
COLUMNAR OFFSET DEPOSITS.
In form typical offset deposits differ completely from the marginal
deposits described on an earlier page. They may be fairly symmetrical
as they appear on the surface, and have usually a longer diameter in the
direction of the offset, and a shorter one across it. Occasionally ore may fill
almost the whole width between the walls of country reck, though there is al-
ways more or less norite spotted with ore associated with it . When followed
down in mining operations they prove to be among tlie most extraordinary
ore deposits in the world, and may be looked upon as quite unique in
the light of recent developments.
In the last report on the nickel region the Copper Cliff depo.-it was
known to go down for 1,000 feet without interruption as a rude oval pipe
with diameters varying from 50 to 200 feet, and a dip of 77 1° to the
northeast.
Since that time the two ore bodies of Victoria mine, though smaller
in diameter, have been followed to the depth of 1,400 feet with no indica-
'Mineral Resources of Ontario, p. 104.
Plate XIV.
/
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i,;i
Possible arrangement for offset deposit.
Plate XV.
1 ^v
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, L>
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_Jgk^ mtff^'*
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Gr-c, ' s. /•vS To^ii
IMjliI
P()ssil)l(' a rranKcnient for offset deposit.
25873— a
tion that they may not continue indefinitely. These two small cylinders
ot ore, more than 1,400 feet in length and close together, bat never meecing,
are not at all easy to account for on a ay other theory than the magmatic
one, and this continuance to io great a depth was not anticipated in earlier
studies of the region.
The much larger cylinder of No. 2 mine at Copper Cliff is known to
reach a depth of 700 feet, descending nearly vertically. In shape and
attitude these curious deposits remind one .-omewhat ot ihe Souch African
diamond pipes, though with much smaller diameters and with a filling
that was much more fluid than th^ vole mic materials of the diamond
fields.
The contents of these pipe-like bodies differ considerably from those
of marginal deposits, being more rocky, as might be expected, and con-
taining usually more copper ore, as well as more of the precious metals,
gold, silver, platinum, md palladium. The rock matter is mainly spotted
norite, but includes also fragments of the adjoining country rocks, often
pretty well rounded. There is usually more evidence of water action than
in the marginal mines, and often a certain amount of quartz and of rusty
weathering carbonates is mixed with the ore, probably as later effects of
magmatic waters.
Th'^ mode by which these relatively narrow and not far from vertical
columns of ore reached their present position must have been completely
different from that suggested for the marginal deposits, where the ore set-
tled by gravity as pools in the hollows of the country rock below. It is
l)robable that after such a gravitational separation the lower and more
fluid part of the magma was, in a sense, injected into every available
o])ening })y the hydraulic pressure of the molten mass ibove weighted
still further by the thick overlying sediments of the basin.
It would be natural to sjppose that the heavier and more fluid
sulphides sank from above in^o the openings presented in the country
rock, in which case the separate columns of ore might have been fed by
overhead conduits now removed by the tremendous erosicn to which the
region has been subjected. On the other hind, however, it is possible that
ihe most fluid part oi the magma, the pyrrhorite-norite, entering all the
fissures produced by the collapse of the underlying rock, rose from beneath
under hydraulic pressure and was able, in a sense, to drill holes up through
the crushed zones of rock above.
The latter explanation is the one that seems to fit best, chough our
knowledge is not yet complete enough to settle the matter finally. What-
ever their cause, these nearly vertical columns of ore must be distinguished
from all others as a well-marked type, which mav l)e called "Columnar
Offsets."
The word "pipe" would have been more appro])riate and descriptive
than "column," but its prior use in "diamoncl pipes" with a definite
signification of quite a different sort, made it unadvisable.
PARALLEL OFFSETS.
Another type of offset, with very different features from the columnar
type, should be set apart for tiie greatest mass of nickel ore in the district
and in the world — the Frood-Stobie offset. In this case there is no
observable communication with the basic norite edge; so far as can be seen
on the surface, the })an(l of ore is entirely unconnected with the main
nickel range.
2.5873— oi
38
The Frood-Stobie offset runs nearly parallel tc the basic edge., but
at a distance of from | of a mile to 1| miles to the southeast. The ore
more nearly resembles that of a marginal deposit than that of the ordinary
offsets; and the ore body dips at an angle of 60° toward the basic edge.
It is a long irregular sheet enclosing much rock, and its connexion with
the edge of the norite is probaljly at a considerable depth below the sur-
face. The margin of the norite parallel to it shows compar itively little
ore, the sulphides belonging to it having been drained off" through a com-
plex set of fissures to the Frood-Stobie deposit. The ore is known by
diamond drilling to extend northwest beneath the country rocks to a depth
of more than 1,000 feet, and at the lower points it distinctly flattens
toward the basic edge of the norite. No other deposit of this type has so
far been discovered; but the Frood-Stobie belt of ore is so important and
so very distinct from the other types that it deserves a pi ice by itself.
The various types of deposits may be summarized as follows:
TYPES OF SUDBURY ORE DEPOSITS.
Marginal — a. Dipping tcward the axis of the basin — ores with compara-
tively little rock and more than twice as much nickel as copper.
h. Faulted marginal — irregular in shape and character — usually
mixed with much rock and carrying as much copper as nickel, or
sometimes more.
Offsets — a. Columnar offsets, roughly cylindrical bodies nearly vertical
and going to great depths. Ore usually rich in copper and the precious
metals.
b. Parallel offsets — not columnar, Init sheet-like, dipping inward
toward the basic edge. Ore like that of the usual marginal deposits.
Individual Deposits of the Sudbury Nickel Region.
Having discussed the general relations of the Sudbury laccolithic
sheet to the bodies of nickel copper ore associated with it, and having
defined the more important classes of ore bodies found in the district the
individual deposits may now be taken up in detail. As they are so closely
bound up with the outer or basic edge of the norite it will be desirable
to follow this edge from point to point along the margin of the boat-shaped
syncline, referring not only to deposits already worked or thought to be
of workable extent, but also to other features of interest, some of them
not of economic importance, but having a bearing on the history and
structure of the region.
For this purpose the different ranges will be taken up not in the order
of their importance but in such a way as to give a connected treatment
of the whole circumference of the basic edge of the norite. As prospecting
and the development of ore bodies are closely bound up with certain features
of the geology, these will be described briefly along those parts of the
margin Avhere no bodies of ore are known. The survey will begin at the
southwest end of the syncline and follow its edge east and northeast along
the Southern or Main nickel range; then north along the Eastern range;
then west and southwest along the Northern range, finally arriving at
the starting point at the southwest end of the syncline.
Plate XVI.
^/.v'>''^'^
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G/r€CN6TO/VL\ . 1
Parallel ol'l'.-;t't deposit.
39
THE SULTANA MINE.
At the southwest end of the syncline unusual conditions exist, since
the norite feathers out upon hills of older rocks, so that the boundary of the
two is almost impossible to fix exactly. The basic edge has, therefore,
a much more irregular outline than in most other parts of the nickel
region. On the earlier map this portion of the margin was swept in with
very little detail, as its importance did not seem to be great and the wooded
character of the country exposed comparatively few outcrops. Since
then fire and the lumberman have removed most of the woods, and last
summer the work could be done in much greater detail.
The country rock on the southwest boundary consists of mixed green-
stones, probably Keewatin in age, penetrated by granite, perhaps Lauren-
tian, rising as hills just to the southwest and west of a swampy valley
in which a few hills of norite occur. The sides of the hills are here and
there plastered with patches of ore in the hollows, and some fine grained
norite occurs in patches on the face of the hills, partly as a matrix
enclosing masses of the greenstone. Some of these norite patches are hundreds
of feet west of the gossan covered ore bodies. Evidently the underlying
rock was greatly crushed as the norite and ore pushed outwards above
it, so that solid and molten materials were mixed in puzzling ways.
Southeast of the outcrops of ore, an iron post marks the boundary
lietween lots 7 and 8 in con. VI of Drury township, and most of the
ore is in lot 8, con. I of the township of Trill. The workings were chained
out from this point in a former examination of the property, and it was
found that three small shafts had been sunk about 100 yards east of the
line between lots 7 and 8, 3t distances of 13, 19 and 22| chains north oi the
boundary between Drury and Trill townships. The deepest shaft is
reported to go down 110 or 120 feet, and there is a considerable qumtity
of ore on the dump beside it. A drill hole sunk to the ei^t of the 1 ist snaft
showed 30 feet of clay and sand, then ncrite followed by some ore, and
finally greenstone with more or less ore.
In addition to the small ore bodies opened up by the shafts on tne
side of the hill there are thin bands of ore on the upper slopes, running up 9
chains from a poinr a little north of the corner post and reaching a height of
117 feet above the valley. Ore occurs at one or two points along the hillside
to the south of the concession line, in the trwnship of Drury, also, though
not in important amounts; so that gossan or ore extends for 30 chains
( tnree-eighths of a mile) from north to south along the hillside.
The thin irregular sheets of Jre dip eastwards at angles running from
12° to 35° or 40°, the latter dips being found toward the foot of the hill.
None of the ore bodies exposed by stripping or in the small shafts
seem large, but there is i possibility that more may occur below the swamp
which extends eastwards from the foot of the hill. The fact that the
norite projects as a considerable bay into the country rock is favourable,
but the totil width, and therefore the probable thickness of the eruptive
at tins point, is not very great, which may be looked on as an unfavorable
feature. As may be seen from the map, the acid edge of the eruptive runs
westward from Cameron lake, giving a width of only about a mile and
three-quarters for the whole eruptive, so that the probable thickness of
magma from which the ore could settle is much less than in most other
parts of the basin.
The Sultujia mine is separated from the Sultana East mine by a broad
swamp from which a hill of norite i)rojects. Half a mile east of the workings
just (lescribed a similar hill of mixed greenstones rises st('('])l>' from the
40
muskeg, facing northwest and north, with small patches and sheets of
gossan and ore along its flanks and at its foot dipping 35° or 40° under
the swamp. Some stripping has been done here and there along its slope
for about 230 yards. This outcrop is just within the township of Trill,
in lots 7 and 6; bat the edge of the norite presently bends to the south
in lot 6, entering the township of Drury, still showing a few gossan stains
but no ore.
On the top of the high hills extending as a promontory northwards
into the swamp there are many basal patches of norite, as on the hill west
of the main Sultana mine, showing that the nickel-bearing eruptive once
covered the whole region, probably to a depth of nearly a mile, as esti-
mated from the dip and width of the outcrop at the Sultana East.
This with whatever ore it may have contained has been completely
removed by erosion except in the patches mentioned.
The ore at the Sultana, so far as can be seen on the badly weathered
dump, was chiefly pyrrhotite, very little chalcopyrite occurring. The
houses built when the work was done at the main Sultana have been burnt
with the exception of one, now in ruins, but the road out to the railway
at Worthington, six miles southeast, has been kept in tolerable repair
by the lumber companies working in Trill and other townships to the
north.
Leaving Sultana East the basic edge of the norite can be traced, with
many small irregularities, for about half a mile to the southeast, when
widespread swamps and drift plains hide it from view.
THE CHICAGO MINE.
The boundary of the norite against Laurentian looking granite and
gneiss is once more exposed a mile and a quarter southeast, not far from
the Chicago, or Travers, or Inez mine, on lot 3, con. V of Drury town-
ship. Here, along the road north from Worthington station to Fairbank
lake, a low mound of the older rocks rises above the drift, with coarse grey
norite, showing some rusty patches, leaning against it. The mine is
just beside the road about a third of a mile to the south of the margin.
The granitoid gneiss between is largely mixed with greenstone, forming
a crush breccia, and the ore bodies occur in the latter rock. As no con-
nexion has been traced between the mine and the edge of the norite, it
is evidently a small offset.
To the south and for some distance east and west the greenstone
changes to very coarse gabbro, often white and feldspathic enough to be
called anorthosite, and mixed with schistose and porphyritic varieties.
The workings include a small pit west of the road and an open cut and a
shaft said to reach a depth of 160 feet a little to the east. Close by are
the small roast beds and just to the northwest is the smelter in which the
roasted ore was reduced to matte. The boarding house and office stand
near the basic edge of the norite to the north.
The coke and other supplies for the mine and smelter were brought
in and the matte shipped out by a mono rail tramway of timber and strap
iron, on which a horse could haul cars swung beneath the rail; but the
tramway has long ago fallen and is now almost lost beneath the bushes
along the road to Worthington, four or five miles to the southeast.
According to Dr. Barlow mining began in 1891, and most of the ore
was got from open cuts, one of which was 60 feet long and 30 feet wide
and deep, and another 80 by 40 feet with a depth of 30 feet. 3,500 tons
41
of ore had been mined and smelted when the mine closed down in 1892, l)ut
in the following year also some ore was raised and turned into mat'te,
before the plant was once more shut down. It was finally reopened in
1896, by the Trill Nickel Mining and Manufacturing Company, under the
new name of the Inez mine, only to close again before August 1897.
The ore deposit appears to have been too small to justify a complete
mining and smelting plant, probably because the basic edge of the nickel
eruptive is here nearly straight with no funnel-shaped depression to accu-
mulate a large body of ore.
FROM CHICAGO MINE TO VICTORIA MINE.
For three quarters of a mile to the southeast of the Chicago mine the
norite edge is lost beneath swamps and drift, though hills of the grey, coarse
grained rock rise a quarter of a mile to the northeast. The boundary
seems to follow the foot of a very steep ridge of greenstones of varied kinds,
and near the southeast corner of lot 2, con. V of Drury, norite with some
lusty spots once more shows itself, rising as a fairly high hill. Near the
line between concessions 4 and 5 the hill slopes south to low ground and
the norite becomes mixed with blocks of greenstone. On this hillside there
are considerable stretches of gossan, and some stripping has been done.
As the edge of the norite here turns from southeast to nearly east and
the band of eruptive is wide, the conditions favor a deposit of ore, and one
would expect a larger one than anything disclosed by the stripping and
small pits, which extend for 200 or 300 yards. From this point the basic
edge runs nearly east to the line between Drury and Denison townships,
which it crosses a few paces south of concession V, but beyond this it
is lost for half a mile beneath the drift.
In lot 12, con. IV of Denison a sharp ridge of greywacke with a ver-
tical dip and a strike of 60° east of north may be followed for nearly a
mile, while norite is found a short distance north, but the two cannot be
seen in contact. About a quarter of a mile west of the line between lots
12 and 11, and an eighth of a mile south of con. V the edge of the norite
shows against some low lying greenstone as a gossan covered ridge, where
ore has been disclosed in several pits on the southward dip of the hill, as
in the last case.
In the next lot to the east, near the north end of concession IV
and not far from the steep northern end of the ridge of greywacke, there
is a larger display of gossan and ore, where half a dozen pits and strippings
have been made on a deposit dipping 30° or 35° to the north. Here the
arrangement is the normal one, the norite and ore occupying the lower
ground and leaning up against the hill of country rock, which is formed of
greywacke with greenstone to the east. This mine was worked to a small
extent in earlier j'cars, and two large pits were opened up quite extensively,
but the ore is a good deal mixed with rock matter, such as greenstones
and green schist, with some actinolite and a little ({uartz.
The coarse norite to the north is in ])laces crushed and sheared into a
conglomerate with a schistose matrix; and a (juartz vein 10 or 15 feet wide
in green schist to the south was minetl years ago to furnish (juartz for
converter linings at Victoria Mines smelter; but a supply for this purpose
was obtained later not far from the village, and this mine, a mile and a half
west and reached only by a rough road, was abandoned.
The body of ore described above occurs in a small southward bay ol
the norite, where the l)oundary bends northeastwards, so that it conforms
to tlie usual rule in the nickel region.
42
Beyond this point the edge of the norite bends to the northeast, but is
largely concealed by swamps, while the rocks to the south, as shown along
the wagon road to Victoria mine, are mainly greenstones and greywacke,
often intricately mixed. At a point about half a mile north of con. IV
on the line between lots 10 and 9 the norite boundary turns southeast, but
is once more largely hidden by swamps and drift. Along this inward bend
of the contact, as might be expected, no ore has been found, but as
one advances southeast toward Victoria mine, gossan shows itself where the
norite edge meets the neighbouring greenstones.
VICTORIA MINE.
About a third of a mile northwest of Victoria mine toward the south-
ern end of lot 9, con. V, a good deal of ore oatcrops and No. 3 shaft has
been sunk; and another outcrop of ore on which some work has been done
occurs on the line between lots 9 and 8 to the east of shaft No. 3. In both
cases greenstone has been crushed beneath the eruptive, and ore extends
fifty feet or more into the fissures beyond the characteristic norite, which
dips away from the older rocks; so that a band of gossan covers part of the
country rock. Beyond the second gossany surface the edge of the norite
swings southeast toward Victoria mine, though the exact boundary is
covered by marshy ground enclosing a small lake to the northeast.
Across the marsh and lake a ridge of very rusty rock, mostly green-
stone, rises 20 or 30 feet, running northeastwards from Victoria mine, and
a number of strippings and pits show very similar relations to those men-
tioned above for a distance of a quarter of a mile, when low ground covers
the margin of the norite once more. To the north of the marsh and pond
one finds typical grey, coarse grained norite and this continues with no
perceptible change for a mile or two.
On each side of the basin just mentioned we find norite with a fringe
of ore dipping inwards on a floor of shattered greenstone, the two bands of
gossan converging as a funnel at a point just north of the open pits of Vic-
toria mine. Low ground prevents the tracing of the two sides of the
funnel quite to the mine, and it appears to be sepj,rated from the main
body of norite by a small extent of country rock. This open pit and a
smaller one to the southeast of the rock dump represent two small offset
deposits, evidently due to the accumulation of ore in the norite funnel to
the north.
The rocks enclosing the mine to the west, south., and east are green-
stones of various kinds, having the appearance of diorite, hornblende
porphyrite, and green schist, followed to the south by slate or greywacke
with thick bands of quartzite, the latter rocks being well stratified. On
the rock dump at Victoria mine there are fragments of all these rocks, as
well as fine grained norite and actinolite probably resulting from its alter-
ation, and it is stated that small diabase dykes cut the eastern ore body
between the 8th and 10th levels.
The ore masses on the two sides of the funnel to the northeast and
northwest dip at about 45° into the swamp, and are small but character-
istic marginal deposits, while the two ore bodies at the mine are equally
typical offset deposits, sinking as steeply inclined columns of somewhat
irregular shape to a depth, it is said of more than 1600 feet. They are
about 169 feet apart and dip uniformly to the east at an angle of about 70°,
according to the report of the mine inspector.
The open pits are followed toward the southeast by two small gossan-
covered hills reaching for a quarter of a mile, and one of them, where a shaft
43
has been sunk and a considerable amount of ore obtained, is connected by
a tramwaj' with the main shaft house. Whether this offset sweeps a curve
to the southwest and continues as the row of deposits near Worthington
is not certain though probaljle. It may also be joined with the Vermilion
mine a mile and a half to the southeast, and some of the local prospectors
believe that the Worthington row of deposits is connected with Vermilion
and Crean Hill mines rather than Victoria mine, though the interval
between them is long and without any surface indication of an underground
connexion.
The nickel eruptive has a width of a little more than 4| miles at Vic-
toria mine, which is not surpassed at any other part of the laccolithic sheet,
but though the ore of the offset is rich, the amount appears much smaller
than the thickness of the eruptive would suggest.
Mctoria mine, like most other offset mines, shows evidence of later
circulating waters in the presence of quartz and carbonates with the ore;
and Mr. H. W. Hixon, former manager of the mine, is firmly convinced
that the deposit is entirely due to aqueous action; and, in fact, objects to
the theory of magmatic segregation as accounting for any of the nickel
ore deposits of the region. The geological evidence in its favour is so over-
whelming, however, that all geologists who have studied the district are
convinced of its correctness.
The Mctoria mine was first developed by Air. Rinaldo McConnell,
by means of strippings and test pits opening up the gossan-covered areas
mentioned alcove, so that the property became known as the McConnell
mine.
In 1897 it was one of the properties visited by the geological section
of the British Association after their Toronto meeting; and great interest
was aroused by the panning of gold and sperrylite from the gossan. Sperry-
lite had been found previously at the neighbouring ^'ermilion mine, so
that this was the second locality for the mineral, but the McConnell mine
was the first distinctively nickel mine in which gold and platinum had been
found, since the \>rmilion mine was taken up for gold and not for nickel
and copper.
During the same year, Mr. G. R. Mickle made an examination of the
McConnell mine and demonstrated that gold and s])errylite occurred not
only in the go.ssan, but, as might be expected, in the unweathered sulphides
as well. His assays showed that the platinum is mainly associated with
the copper pyrites, though the pyrrhotite contains some also. The aver-
age of six samples of solid ore gave a little over 3 dwt. of platinum and a
trace of gold, while i)yrrhotite with little chalcopyrite gave considerably
less than the average, and one sample of ore with nnich chalcopyrite gave
7 dwt. 12 gr. of platinum and a trace of gold. His highest assay showed
1 oz. 3 dwt. of platinum and 3 dwt. of gold, from decomposed ore resting
on the solid ore.^
In 1899 the property was purchased by Dr. Mond and was named the
Victoria mine; and in 1901 the mine and smelter came into operation
undcT the management of Mr. Hixon.
The smelter was placed on Fairbank creek, two miles south of the
mine, near the "Soo" railway; and the ore was trajis])orted to the roast
beds near the smelter by a cable trimway 11.000 feet long. Later the
roast beds were removed to a flat of old lake dejiosits half way between
mine and smelter; and the surroundings of the village which had grown
■Mun-au of .Minc-.s, Vol. XIV, Part III, p. Ifil
44
up at the railway station began to recover from the desolation caused by
the sulphur fumes.
The Algoma Central railway now passes between the mine and the
roast beds, and before long the old smelter and the cable tramway will
be abandoned and the ore will be taken by rail to the new smelter at
Coniston.
A little north of the present smelter a mine or quarry has been opened
up for quartzite as a flux and for lining the bessemer converters.
VERMILION MINE.
A mile and a half southeast of Victoria mine, in lot 6, con. IV of the
township of Denison, is Vermilion mine, close to the short railway con-
necting the "Soo" branch at Victoria mines with Crean Hill, and about
two miles northeast of the village. The deposit is a small offset more
than a mile from the nearest part of the norite, but the character of its
ore suggests that it is, or was, probably connected in some way with
Victoria mine. A small patch of norite spotted with sulphides rises on a
hill made up of a crushed mixture of ancient lava (now greenstone with
pillow and amygdaloidal structure), a little felsite, and some greywacke,
and these materials have been ground and rolled together into bouldery
forms with the norite and ore squeezing up between them.
The Vermilion was first taken up as a gold mine in 1887, and a shaft
was sunk by Messrs. Tough and Stobie on a small cjuartz vein the following
year, on the low ground 930 feet north of the present mine and just beyoncl
the Crean Hill railway, the name coming from Vermilion river, which flows
2 or 3 miles to the southeast. A shaft was sunk 40 feet on the quartz vein
and some very rich ore (wure gold) was found on the surface and also to
some extent in the w^all rock. Mr. B. Charlton, president of the Vermilion
Gold Mining Co., states that several thousand dollars worth of gold was
obtained by means of a three stamp prospecting mill while sinking the
shaft.
The rich ore presently ran out and then gold was found in the gossan
on the hill at the present mine, w^hich was put through the little mill.
The men in charge were puzzled to find the carpet used to collect the
coarse gold w^hitened by shining grains of a tin white mineral, afterwards
named sperrylite, as already described on a previous page. Since the
owners were in search of gold, and not platinum, the mine w^as sold in 1890
to the Canadian Copper Co.
It was presently found that the gossan contained palladium, as well
as platinum and gold, and the Canadian Copper Company made attempts
to dispose of the mineral to various firms dealing in the rare metals, such
as Balbach & Co., and Johnson, Matthej^ & Co. In 1896 the two firms
mentioned reported that the ore contained from 6 to 9 ozs. of platinum
and from 8 to 14 ozs. of palladium. In 1897 a consignment of 14 casks
(5 tons) of platinum sand w^as made to Johnson, Matthey & Co., who
found its treatment a matter of extreme difficulty, "as the ore could not
be levigated nor treated successfully by any acid process, and in smelting
the palladium contents are sacrificed. The platinum contents could only
be recovered by smelting with a large proportion of silver ore, involving
considerable cost in its subsequent separation." In 1899 they paid for
the ore at the rate of £8 per ton, and after deducting various charges, the
net return from the consignment was at the rate of $22 per ton. An offer
was made to buj^ the ore at the rate of £9 5s. per ton if quantities of 100
tons or more were shipped; but no more seems to have been sent to them,
45
probably because the price was so low for ore running on the average
7 ozs. of platinum and 11 ozs. of palladium per ton. Platinum was worth
about $16 per oz. at the time.
Negotiations were carried on in 1899 and 1900 with a French company
on the basis of 35 per cent of the value of the two metals, palladium to
be taken as equal to platinum in value, but apparently without result.
In 1902 a small amount of platinum sand was sent to the Orford works
at Bayonne, and in September, according to Mr. A. Wadhams, experiments
were carried on under the direction of Mr. Hybinette for the separation
of the precious metals. They seem not to have been ver^- successful, and
finally the material was turned in Avith the ordinary nickel-copper matte,
so that only a small percentage of the platinum metals was recovered.
In October, 1903, 155-65 tons of "platinum dirt" were shipped to
the Orford works, according to official records at Copper Cliff, and Air.
Browne states that 90 barrels of gossan were removed in 1903, containing
6-88 per cent copper, and 2-91 per cent of nickel, with 6-5 ozs. of pal-
ladium, 41 ozs. of platinum, 4-3 ozs. of silver, and 0-28oz. of gold per
ton.
Since sperrylite and gold are very easily separated from the gossan
by panning, there is no doubt that most of the platinum and gold could
have been saved by sluices or cradles, and it is surprising to find Johnson,
Matthey & Co. stating that the ore could not be "levigated." The source
of the palladium is not known, since analyses of sperrylite show only traces
of that metal.
In 1902 the Canadian Copper Company began taking out unwe ithered
ore, sinking the main shaft to about 50 feet and drifting in various direc-
tions to follow the ore underground, and there is a record of 198-28 tons
having been shipped in February, 1905. This was very rich in nickel and
copper, averaging 20 to 25 per cent of the combined metals. Assays made,
apparently in 1903, show that the ore contained 4 ozs. of silver, 4 ozs. of
palladium, 1 -5 ozs. of platinum, and f oz. of gold per ton.
An assay of clean chalcopyrite, made by Mr. Waern in the labor-
atory of the Canadian Copper Co., in September, 1909, showed a trace of
gold, 0-79 oz. platinum, 3 -62 ozs. of palladium, and 3-78 ozs. of silver — a
total of 8-13 ozs. per ton of the precious metals.
Assays of its ores gave the following results to the same chemist :
Average Ore Average Ore
Sept. 6-11 Sept. 12-18. Polydymite.
Cu..
Ni..
Fe..
S...
SiOs
10-65
11-70
Cu
0.50
S-80
1515
Co.
0-50
IS -30
20-70
Ni
42-35
19 -80
2:M()
Fe
12-45
28-45
16-60 1
S
38-75
Balance Insoluble..
94-55
Within the last three years the mine on the hill has yielded a con-
siderable amount of ore containing much polydymite and running from
two to four times as high in nickel and co])])er as that of mo.st other mines.
This ore has in part been smelted sei)arately to avoid loss, but there are
difficulties in the way of recovering and se])arating the i)recious metals
it contains, since the gold and ])latinuni could be saved by ordinary stamp
46
mill methods, but the palladium has not been found associated with any
definite compound, like sperrylite, and so would l)e lost.
The finding of gold and sperrylite in both the Victoria and Vermilion
mines affords evidence of a relation between them, though there is no
surface indication of this, and there is no positive evidence as to the mode
by which the small amount of norite and ore reached its position. However
this came about, the ore was greatly enriched in the precious metals before
reaching Vermilion mine.
The Vermilion ore is so rich in nickel and copper as to equal some grades
of matte, and much of the product of the mine has been sent directly to
the converters without a preliminary smelting in a water-jacket furnace.
The Bureau of Alines of Ontario reports that 1,229 tons of ore were
obtained from this mine in 1910.
THE WORTHINGTON OFFSET.
Small outcrops of ore occur at Victoria mine about 600 yards south-
east of the pits near the shaft, and it was believed by the late Mr. M. T.
Culbert my assistant when the region was first surveyed for the Bureau
of Mines, that a curved line of gossan stains could be traced up from
point to point to the Worthington offset.
The first mining development on the offset is found in lot 10, con. Ill
of Denison township, where two pits have been sunk on ore mixed with
spotted norite. A quarter of a mile southwest, just within lot 11, and 50
j^ards south of a meandering creek, there is a larger pit at the Mclntyre
mine, where the ore and norite enclose numerous rounded masses of coun-
try, rock, mostly greenstone, near the foot of a high hill to the south, con-
sisting of greenstone and diabase. Much oi the surrounding country is
drift covered, but hills and ridges of greenstone, green schist and grey-
wacke frequently rise above the general level. From the high hilltop
50 paces south oi the opening one gets a good view of the offset, several
gossan-covered hills standing nearly in line with the rockhouse at Wor-
thington, two miles to the southwest.
The next outcrops of ore are at the Gersdorffite and Robinson mines,
beyond the northwest end of a small lake; and just past the line between
the townships of Denison and Drury, near the north end of con. II, is
the Rowland mine, where a pit displays an interesting crush conglomerate
with greenstone boulders two or three feet through, enclosed in ore. A
smill diabase dyke cuts the ore body steeply, running northwest and
southeast.
From the Howland mine to the Worthington, a distance of a mile,
there is a succession of gossan-stained hills, interrupted in one place by
an irregular band of later diabase.
This row of small ore outcrops is marked by an interesting set of
minerals, including much marcasite, and a little gersdorffite and nickelite,
probably deposited by circulatirg water and accompanied by quartz as a
gangue mineral. No sperrylite is known from the offset, but the arsenical
nickel minerals ^\^th quartz show, perhaps, a further separation of mater-
ials, in which heated waters played a large part.
At the Worthington mine, which is much the most important ore
body on the offset wdiich takes its name, a low but steep ridge of gossan-
covered greenstone rises just to the north of the station on the "Soo"
line. The mine, which was discovered during the construction of the rail-
way, like a number of other mines in northern Ontario, became the property
of the Dominion Mineral Co., and mining was started, according to Dr.
Plate XVIII.
Boulders of greenstone in pyrrhotite: Rowland mine.
2r)873— 6
47
Barlow, in 1890, and continued till September 1894, two shafts being sunk,
one to the depth of 175 feet and the other to 100 feet. It is stated that
about 25,000 tons of very rich ore were obtained, and were sent to Blezard
smelter for treatment. '
When the mine was opened up for examination some years later, the
lower workings were found filled with ice, which had to be blasted out
before it could be removed.
It was in ore from the Worthington mine that Dr. Walker first recog-
nized pentlandite, the only important nickel mineral in the Sudbury
region ; and its ore has been surpassed in richness only by the much smaller
deposit at Vermilion mine. In 1891 a shipment of 123 tons contained
10 per cent nickel and 3 per cent copper; and manager Attwood has
stated that a considerable quantity of selected copper pyrites was shipped,
assaying 18 per cent copper and 2-5 per cent nickel.
As gersdorffite and nickelite, as well as pentlandite, occur at the
Worthington, it has the greatest variety of nickel ores known in the region.
The rock dump includes very little spotted norite, but a considerable
amount of actinolite rock, probably a product of the re-arrangement of
norite or some other basic rock, owing to the crushing and shearing which
is so pronounced along the offset.
Continuing southwest across the railway from Worthington mine, a
shaft 60 feet deep has been sunk on a gossan-covered hill a few hundred
yards away, and a good deal of work has been done on the Totten mine,
about half a mile away, both in lot 2, con. I of Drury township. Here
the pyrrhotite, as in so many other cases, forms the matrix of a crush
conglomerate. A quarter of a mile to the southwest the gossan-stained
ridge of the Totten mine sinks into a swamp followed by a small lake.
On the other side of the lake rusty stains may be followed into the town-
ship of Lome, and these have been traced for perhaps a mile beyond
Totten mine, but no ore bodies of any account have been found on this
extension.
The country rocks southwest of Worthington vary greatly, including
greenstone, greywacke, slate and quartzite; all of which occur as rounded
fragments or boulders along a narrow belt of shearing, with fine grained
norite and ore as a matrix. This offset has been traced for fully four
miles in nearly a straight line, and represents one of the main zones of dis-
location at the time the nickel eruptive reached its present position.
Except from the Worthington mine comparatively little ore has been
produced from this row of (leposits. A few hundred tons have been
taken from the Totten mine and used for experimental ]nirposes in two
plants west of Worthington station, one of which, on the steep hillside
north of the railway, was extensive, but neither process proved satis-
factory.
In addition to the ore bodies along the offset a number of small
outcro})s are known at various other points near by, and several of these
on the northern side of lots 5 and 6, con. Ill of Drury, were visited under
the guidance of Mr. Hermann, who gave nmch assistance also iji looking
up the i)roi)erties along the offset. There are about eight showings of
ore, small ])at('lies of i)yrrhotite and chalcopyrite running roughly east
ancl west along a group of high hills of greenstone and greywacke with
some diorite. Some i)its have been sunk in the ore, and in one case a
small shaft; but the amount of ore seen was not important.
Many other small outcrops of pyrrhotite are known from the town-
ships of Lome and Nairn to the southwest, and one might think of the
norite and ore of the offset as having been squeezed through a num])er of
25873—61
48
small channels among the dislocated blocks of country rock, channels too
narrow to allow any large quantity of the magma to accumulate at one
place.
In a general way the direction of the offset corresponds to the strike
of the sedimentary and schistose rocks adjoining, and no doubt the plane
of fracture and faulting has been much influenced by the structures of the
rocks beneath.
THE CREAX HILL REGION.
Beyond the funnel-shaped southward bend of the norite edge at Vic-
toria mine the basic margin continues for about a mile northeastwards,
and then bends to the east to Crean Hill (or Krean Hill) mine on the south
half of lot 0, con. V of Denison township. Between the two points the
country rocks are greenstone, green schist and small amounts of intermixed
quartzite. The norite is of the grey, coarse grained variety usual on the
southern range, and is sometimes pitted with spots where pyrrhotite has
weathered out, though no ore of importance is known along this part of the
basic edge.
In lot 6 there is a group of high hills which deflect the Algoma Central
railway to the south; but these fall away in lot 5 so that the railway sweeps
north near the western edge of the lot and then turns east to Crean Hill
mine, which is near the other side of the lot. The line in this part follows
the edge of the norite and continues in this relation for a few hundred yards
into lot 4.
The Crean Hill mine has the situation corresponding to a marginal
nickel deposit, and its western part conforms to the usual characteristics
of such deposits. Its southeastern end, however, has features suggesting
an offset deposit and present.^ some very interesting problems. According
to the classification of ore deposits given in a former chapter it is a "faulted
marginal deposit".
Approaching the deposit from the west one comes upon gossany sur-
faces of norite against greenstone just beyond i small stream and ravine
to the north of the bend in the Algoma Central railway. Here a consider-
able amount of ore was obtained from an open pit in the early days of the
mine and near by is a quartz vein in wnich free gold was found in small
amounts. Beyond this on the southward slopes of a hill sinking into
swampy ground, rusty greenstone and norite with strippings and one fairly
large pit extend to the main workings of the mine on a separate gossan-
covered hill For this distance, about 1,400 feet, the arrangement is that
of a normal marginal deposit.
The eastern hill, where the important part of the mine is found, though
gossan-covered and with much ore, consists almost entirely of greenstone
and other country rocks; while the norite rising to the north of a small
ravine, though somewhat spotted with gossan, contains no ore. The
opening up of the mine in depth by the Canadian Copper Co. has provided
a solution of the puzzle, which with their kind permission will be given.
Though discovered fairly early in the history of the nickel region,
before 1906 it was opened up only by stripping and the sinking of test pits.
In February of 1906 the first ore was shipped on sleighs to the "Soo" line
and thence by rail to Copper Cliff, but soon after a branch railway was
built to connect it with the "Soo" line three miles southwest. In 1910 the
49
Algoma Central [railway reached it from Creighton and gave a shorter
haul to Copper Cliff, when the branch to Victoria Mines village was dis-
continued.
CCCo.
Cco/e
Jo O' JO P'-'
Fig. 1.
Though the mine was wcjrked first as open pits, not long afterward
underground levels Avere ])egun, and the shaft has now reached the 7th
level, about 600 feet below the surface.
50
The hill itself sinks on all sides with rather ^^teep slopes to lower
ground, the top consisting mainly of greenstone and green schist with some
bands of greywacke and quartzite, all broken into smsll or large blocks
and often rolled md mashed against one another, with ore surrounding the
blocks. Toward the north the crushing has been more complete than
toward the south, and northward there is a steep cliff facing a narrow ravine
with a gentler slope of norite beyond. In the open pit,.- only the green-
stones and the surrounding ore are disclosed, but in the rock damp spotted
norite is found also, showing that at greater depths this universal accompani-
ment of ores in the region is not wanting. The norite is found in place, as
shown by Mr. Bedford, at various points on the 4th and 5th levels.
From the geological point of view, as well as from that of the miner,
one of the most interesting features of the mine is the occurrence or two
zones of crushing about twenty feet apart, indicated by clay slips sloping
diagonally upward through the mine, where the rock has been ground into
small fragments mixed with clay. These clay slips begin in the shaft 35
feet below the 3rd level and after cutting that level reach the 2nd level
toward the northeast side, rising at the rate of 23° 40' in that direction.
The upper cf these planes of slipping comes to the surface in the narrow
valley northeast of the gossan-covered hill; and the valley evidently shows
the line of weakness where this zone of crushing and slipping separates the
mixed greenstones of the hill from the norite sloping up towards the north.
The clay slips no doubt represent fault planes having an unusually low
angle with the horizon; and it is probable that the many examples of slips
and slickensides in other parts of the mine indicate less regular fault planes.
It is estimated that the horizontal throw of the fault is not less than 200
feet, and it may be very much more.
When the greenstones and sediments making up the hill were thrust
bodily northwards over the edge of the norite there must have been tre-
mendous crushing and grinding among the blocks toward the lower part
where there was friction against the norite below; accouiiting for the
brecciated character of the hill.
The presence of the slip planes referred to above caused great difficulty
and danger in mining operations because of looseness of the rock, until the
workings got below this zone of weakness.
Evidences of the effects of the faulting process just mentioned are
found on the rock dump, where there are all gradations from fairly sound
and fresh rocks to actinolite and talc representing materials completely
rearranged during the squeezing and shearing due to the thrust of the faults.
The shaft was still in greenstone at the 6th level and had not reached norite,
though this may be expected at greater depths. How deep the crushing
and faulting extends has not yet been determined.
Apparently the latest geological event recorded in the bed rocks of the
region was the welling up of a great dyke of diabase through all the other
rocks, along the southwest side of the hill containing the main ore body.
This dyke, 50 or 60 feet wide, and dipping 80° to the southwest, runs nearly
due southeast through the norite, jogs a little to the south at the open pit,
and pursues an irregular course beyond this. It came into position later
than the fault and seems to have been somewhat disturbed in its direction
by the confusion resulting from the faulting.
ORES OF CREAN HILL MINE.
There is more variety in the minerals at Crean Hill mine than in most
nickel mines of the region, though pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite are more
common than other sulphides. The pyrrhotite is often in very platy forms,
51
sometimes having cleavage surfaces an inch across; and the chalcopyrite
is present in much larger amounts than in any other large mine in the
region except the Copper Cliff. Pentlanclite occurs in excellent specimens,
and a little gersdorffite has been found; but polydymite, so important at
Vermilion mine a mile to the southwest, seems wanting.
Among other metallic minerals marcasite is plentiful where water
could circulate, as near the claj' slips; zinc blende occurs in smaller quan-
tities, and magnetite has turned up in large masses. As gangue minerals
quartz and calcite or ankerite are quite common; but often the ore is dis-
seminated among the blades of actinolite so characteristic of the sheared
zones between the less changed rock masses. Tourmaline occurs mixed
with ore in one specimen, and there has evidently been a large amount of
secondary action in this ore body.
Panning of the gossan at several points on the hill disclosed a few fine
particles of sperrylite and still fewer and finer colours of gold; but the mine
is much poorer in this respect than the Victoria or Vermilion mines to the
M'est and south.
The Crean Hill mine has been a larger producer of copper than of
nickel, reversing the proportions of the two metals at Creighton mine,
which are about 2 per cent of copper to 5 per cent of nickel. In 1907
Crean Hill ore averaged 4-84 per cent of copper and 2-35 per cent of
nickel. Since chalcopyrite contains 34 per cent of copper while the ordinary
sulphides of the region average only from 3 to 5 per cent of nickel, it is
evident that Crean Hill ore with the above amount ot copper will
contain far more rock, and hence be leaner in appearance than that,
for instance, of the Creighton mine. It may be three-fourths rock and
yet run 5 per cent of copper and 2 per cent of nickel.
There is much less regularity in the distribution of the ore at Crean
Hill than at most of the mines of the region, and there are not many stopes
where more than a few feet of solid ore can be seen. Generally the copper
pyrites is more greatly mixed with rock matter than the pyrrhotite. and
fragments of various rocks may be enclosed in it, the ore forming a matrix
for angular or rounded pebbles and boulders of all sizes. In some stopes
well rounded masses of greenstone or hornblende porphyrite three or
four feet in diameter may be seen surrounded by narrow belts of sulphides,
often making the winning of the ore a serious problem, and rounded pebbles
completely encrusted with ore sometimes puzzle the rock pickers when
sorting the ore.
The common rule of the region that copper pyrites is present in largest
amounts near the country rock is speci dly well exemplified at Crean Hill
since rich masses of copper ore are found on all the levels in the angle
between the foot-wall and the barren rock to the southeast, as may be
seen from the diagram of the 4th level. The arrangement is roughly that
of a right angled triangle with rich copper ore at the apex, gradually passing
into pyrrhotite toward the hypothenuse of the triangle. The body of
rich ore dips about 60° to the ease, so that in the lower levels it i.^ 100 feet
or more eist of the open pit where the ore body was first opened up. The
nickel ore is generally associated with norite, and the copper ore with
greenstones and other rocks; and the boundaries of the richer copper
ore are pretty well defined to the south and west, but the limits of the
nickel ore toward the north and east are much less definite, patches
extending to the northe ist side of the hill as shown by the strippings.
Though the Crean Hill mine has many of the characters of an offset
deposit, it is of an unusual kind, since the movement of ore seems to have
been upwards from the underlying norite margin some hundreds or perhaps
thousands of feet below, instead of outwards from the basic edge of the
52
norite. In the offset deposits thus far described the norite and ore pushed
laterally or downwards through irregular fissures leading off from bay-
like projections of the norite into the country rock. Here there is scarcely
any visible bay of the norite though there probably is one underground,
and the ore ascended to its present position, at least in the upper parts
of the mine, unaccompanied by norite, the onh' instance of the kind known.
Whether it came up molten into the fissures between the blocks or was
carried upwards later bj- hot circalating waters is not certain, but that
water played a large part is shown by the presence of quartz and carbonates
and of hydrous secondary minerals like talc.
As a general rule in offset deposits the longer and more difficult the
route followed by the ore in reaching 'ts final position the' larger the per-
centage of copper, since chalcopyrite seems more easih' transported than
pyrrhotite. Here the distance upwards was probably not very long,
but heated waters ascending from the basic edge of the norite below may
have effected an unusually complete separation of the copper from the
nickel ore. If this is the case one might expect the percentage of nickel
to copper in the ore to increase with depth until at length ore rich in nickel
as in ordinary marginal deposits is reached. Down to the 6th level, how-
ever, there is little indication cf such a change.
Up to July 1909 Crean Hill had produced more than 250,000 tons
of ore and in 1910 it added 89,211 tons, so that it must be considered
one of the great mines of the region. A large part of the copper produced
in Ontario, as shown in the statistics of the Bureau of Mines of recent
years, must have come from this mine, which has supplied probably 15,000
tons of metal. Of late the proportion of copper to nickel and also the
grade of the ore have been falling off somewhat, .since in 1909 the per-
centage of copper was 3-97 and of nickel 2-30.
FROM CREAN HILL TO GERTRUDE MINE.
Beyond Crean Hill the margin of the eruptive remains gossany for
some distance and turns northeast, with quartzite as a country rock to
the south. About two-thirds of the way across lot 4 it turns southeast
and at its edge or in the quartzite close by patches of gossan and ore occur,
the occasion for several small test pits in the latter rock to the north of
the railway. About on the line between lots 4 and 3, midway in con. V,
the basic edge crosses the railway southeastwards and is then concealed
for nearly half a mile by a muskeg. Rising above the swamp toward
the east as one follows the railway, norite spotted with ore is encountered
and about a sixth of a mile south gossan-covered hills can be seen.
The highest hill represents a turning point in the basic edge, having
greenstone to the south and granite to the east, the latter enclosing a small
lake 200 yards from the slope of the hill. This lake is cut nearly- midway
by the line between lots 2 and 1 toward the south side of con. V. A
considerable amount of stripping has been done on the hills and apparently
there is a respectable volume of ore, but it is said to be low grade, and
therefore has not been developed by its owners, the Canadian Copper
Company.
From this point the boundary of the norite turns northeast with granite
as country rock, and no evidence of ore is to be seen for some distance,
but in lot 1 of Denison, 400 y&Tds northeast of a sharp southward bend
of the railway', gossan surfaces occur and continue eastwards for about
400 yards, passing into lot 12 of Graham township, where some work was
done 3'ears ago by ]\Ir. Wm. McVittie.
53
Beyond this the margui of the norite runs somewhat north of east
to the low drift-covered ground near Vermilion river and no ore nor gossan
was observed along this part of its course. The granite to the south
becomes coarse and red and markedly porphyritic as one approaches the
river, and is probably older than the norite, though this is not positively
proved.
Crossing the Vermilion, granite and swamp extend about 650 paces
north of the railway before coarse grey norite of the normal type is found,
and along this part of the margin a few spots of gossan occur but no con-
tinuous areas. The boundary has minor irregularities but runs on the
whole nearly straight to the northeast corner of lot 8, in concession VI
of Graham township, when it passes into Creighton toAvnship, still follow-
ing about the same course of 60° east of north. The rocks to the south-
east consist of greenstone much cut up by dykes and masses of red granite.
GERTRUDE MINE.
At a small creek on lot 5, con. I of Creighton township the first sug-
gestion of the Gertrude ore bodies shows itself in a small tunnel run into
the side of the valley. The norite varies from coarse to fine grained, form-
ing an irregular mixture, and the ore lies against greenstone and pene-
trates fissures in the latter rock. From this point eastward there is more
or less gossan along the norite edge until the main shaft is reached, about
on the line between lots 4 and 3, and less than a quarter of a mile north
of the boundary of Creighton township.
There are three shafts and several open pits along this line of gossan
which extends from west to east for about three-fifths of a mile, and the
diamond drill shows that at least one other deposit exists to the north of
the main shaft, where in a drill hole reaching a depth of 120 feet, 15 feet of
mixed ore and 20 feet of solid ore were found with a dip of from 55° to 67°
to the north. The relationships of the two ore bodies are probably due to
faulting.
South of the nickel-bearing norite at Gertrude one encounters for the
first time a narrow fringe of older, finer grained and more basic norite,
apparently an earlier eruption from the same magma, which reached the
surface as lava streams instead of cooling at great depths. Henceforth
this is found from point to point along the southern range, often in the
neighbourhood of important ore bodies, and seems to have opened up the
way for the more important laccolithic sheet which brought the ore; though
the earlier norite itself seems devoid of ore. Still farther to the south
there are hills of greenstone much cut by granite, and in less than a mile
granite becomes the predominant rock.
The Gertrude mine Avas purchased by the Lake Superior Power Co.
of Sault Ste. Marie in 1899, and two shafts were sunk, one to the depth ot
120 feet and the other to 80. In the spring of 1901 the Manitoalin and
North Shore railway, now generally called the Algoma Central railway,
reached the mine, making further development possible, so that roast
beds could be arranged and a smelter erected, and ore from the Elsie mine,
some miles farther to the east, was treated along with that from Gertrude.
After a few months run the mine and smelter closed down in 1902, and in
the following year the parent company collapsed for the time, putting a
final stop tc operations at Gertrude^ Some of the l)uildings in the village
have been burned, but several of them, including the smelter, are still
>G.S.C.. Vol. XIV, pp. 3!M0.
54
standing. It is said that the Gertrude ore was very rich in nickel, some of
it containing over 6 per cent of that metal and less than 1 of copper.
Just east of the line between lots 3 and 2 the edge of the norite turns
north, and then curves ease and southeast toward a small lake at the west
end of the Creighton hill. Where the northward bend takes place there is
a small offset to the south on which some ore has been disclosed by stripping,
but along the bend to the north no ore and little gossan are to be seen.
The rock filling the space to the south of the bend is mainly a fine grained
variety of the "older norite" mixed with greenstone, but there are also
some granite and re-crystallised arkose.
Near the small lake from which the water supply of Creighton is
pumped the surroundings are mostly swamp, though weathered norite
crops up at one place, and at another northeast of the lake it is seen in
contact with gneissoid rocks dipping under the swamp.
THE CREIGHTON MINE.
Soon after the norite margin turns eastwards a rusty slope of hill
rises northeast of the small lake, the beginning of the Creighton outcrop of
gossan and ore. The steep hill slopes southeast and becomes more com-
pletely gossan-covered as one advances toward the mine itself. Beyond
the great open pit of the mine the boundary of the norite turns sharplj^
a little west of north for half a mile, and then bends off to the northeast.
A glance at the map shows an unusual combination of circumstances.
The nickel eruptive is here about at its widest, stretching for 4| miles
northwest of the mine, and the mine occupies the best defined bay of the
norite, without an outlet into an offset, along the whole southern nickel
range. This bay lies between the two largest offsets, those of Victoria mine
and of Copper Cliff, and is nearer to the larger of the two. Copper Cliff.
We have here all the conditions for a great body of ore, and find as a
result the greatest nickel mine in the Sudbury region or in the world.
The great thickness of molten magma provided a large amount of sulphides.
and the deep and wide mouthed depression in the country rock furnished
a capacious basin into which the ore could settle; while no important
fissure in the rocks beneath gave an exit for the melted ore.
The Creighton mine is properly regarded as the typical marginal
deposit. The mine is near the west side of lot 10, con. I of the township
of Snider, but the band of gossan and probably the ore beneath extend into
lot 1 of concession I of Creighton, giving some justification for the
name. The mine is about midway between the "Soo" branch and the main
line of the Canadian Pacific railway, but is separated from both by rugged,
hilly country, so that its only outlets are by the Algoma Central railway,
running eleven miles east to Sudbury, or by a wagon road eight miles long
to Copper Cliff. The ore is shipped by the Algoma Central to Clarabelle
Junction, from which it goes south to the roast beds or the smelter at
Copper Cliff.
The Creighton, though the earliest found of the nickel deposits, was
one of the latest to be developed, owing to its inaccessibility before the
railway reached it. It became the property of the Canadian Copper Co.
in 1890, but it was ten years later before it was so far opened up as to ship
H[^H
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i ' * -^jf .'>y
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55
ore. From that time to the present the mine has been of great importance,
because of the quantity and richness of its ore, so that for some time it
supplied almost all the ore used by the company.
GEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATIONS.
As the most im]K)rtant mine in the district its geological relationships
should be considered somewhat in detail. The great extent of norite,
running for al)Out two mih's to the northwest before merging into micro-
])egmatite, is of the typical kind, consisting mainly of labradorite, hyper-
sthene and ordinary pj-roxene, with more scattered bits of brown mica
and bluish Cjuartz. It is in general coarse grained, but becomes finer
grained as it approaches the margin, and half a mile away from the margin
56
it begins to show the round rusty spots indicating blebs of ore, and these
increase as the ore body is approached, though not in a very regular way.
Near the edge of the steep slope of the hill towards the low ground with
its swamps and pond where the great pit was opened, there is a marked
tendency for the gossan to occur in several bands parallel to the brow of
the hill, as if there were irregular sheets of the rock heavilj^ charged and
others less heavily charged with ore blebs.
Near the open pit in earlier days the gossan was thick and continuous
except where drift deposits covered the rock. When the somewhat
sandy boulder clay was being removed north of the pit in 1904 beautifully
polished and striated surfaces of perfectly fresh pyrrhotite were exposed,
but these have now been all mined away. The large pit while being opened
presented a wall of almost pure sulphides 60 feet high on the north side,
a most impressive spectacle when the sun shone upon it.
This great outcrop of ore came sharply against a foot-wall of coarse
granitoid gneiss to the northeast and southeast, and a huge block of the
same rock was enclosed in ore and pyrrhotite norite on the northeast side
of the deposit, probably having slipped in while the materials were still
molten, unless it reached its place by faulting at a later time.
Through the granitoid gneiss, the ore and the norite, impartially, a
number of diabase dykes made their way at a later time, when all was
cold and solid. The diabase, which is beautifully fresh and often por-
phyritic, cooled very rapidly against the ore, causing a glassy selvage, but
less rapidly against gneiss and norite, showing that the solid ore was a
better conductor than the rock. The dykes were from a foot or two to
twenty feet wide, but often sent off apophyses only a few inches in width,
and occasionally curious wen-like or boulder-like projections extended into
the ore, having the same chilled surface as the dyke they were attached to.
Most of these dykes have now been removed in mining operations. In
one case two intersecting dj^kes completely walled off a large body of ore
from the main deposit, but this was obtained by breaking through the
walls.
Within I he past year or two a large northeast and southwest dyke,
formerly hidden by gossan, has been encountered on the north side of the
much enlarged open pit. Mr. Hambly, the manager of the mine, states
that it descends vertically to the 4th level, and then bends off at an angle
of 45° or 50° toward the north.
This tangle of dykes cutting the ore body might be expected to influence
it in some way, but there is no evidence to show that this was the case
beyond a small amount of faulting and readjustment at the time the dykes
made their way in. There seem to be far fewer dykes at other points,
perhaps because the angle between the two walls of country rock and the
great sheet of ore provided a region of weakness more easily fractured
than others.
The general arrangement of norite merging into ore to the southeast,
enclosed on two sides by granitoid gneiss, and cut by a tangle of later
diabase dykes, was readily observed during the earliest study of the mine,
and seemed fairly simple;^ but during later years as the surroundings
were opened up and mining and diamond drilling progressed, the arrange-
ment has been found to be somewhat more complex than was believed
at first.
The norite near the ore body contains large bands or blocks of fine
grained greenstone and green schist, one which was pierced by the diamond
iBur. Mines, Ont., Vol. XIV, part III, pp. 33-34.
25873—7
57
drill having a thickness of 500 feet; and the granitoid gneiss varies in
character from granite to syenite or diorite, all cut by later granite redder
in colour and finer grained. Part of the foot-wall of the ore consists of a
dark green, fine grained rock, which turns out to be "older norite", and
must have reached its place and become solid long before the ore arrived.
This may be seen at one place on the 1st level near No. 1 shaft house,
and the ore encloses blocks of this older norite and of the granitoid rocks
to a considerable extent near the foot-wall and penetrates the rock beneath
as narrow veinlets.
On the hill southeast of the mine the older rocks are found to be tre-
mendously crushed and mixed up, the coarse flesh coloured gneiss being mixed
with masses of greenstone and cut by finer grained syenite or gneiss. There
was clearly some faulting and much readjustment among the underlying
rocks when the ore and norite pushed their way outward from the centre
of eruption toward the edges; but no channel of escape seems to have
been opened for the floods of molten materials to distribute themselves
along an offset.
THE CREIGHTON ORE BODY.
The minerals of the Creighton ore body are few in number and monot-
onous in character, including as important constituents only pyrrhotite,
pentlandite, and chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite making the bulk of the ore with
the other two minerals disseminated through it. On fresh surfaces the
pentlandite so much resembles pyrrhotite in colour as to be easily over-
looked, while the greenish yellow of the chalcopyrite is readily spotted,
but in reality, pentlandite makes up about 15 per cent of the ore and
chalcopyrite only 6 per cent. A small amount of magnetite as tiny
octahedra rounded on the edges occurs also, and there are everywhere,
even in the purest sulphides, particles or crystals of the rock-forming
minerals of the norite, especially plagioclase and the pyroxenes. In
addition there are insignificant amounts of later, water-borne minerals,
galena, pyrite, quartz, and carbonates.
Beside distinct minerals there are always smaller or larger fragments
of rock, granite or older norite from the foot-wall or portions of spotted
norite from the parent rock in the ore; and near the foot-wall a trifling
amount of graphic granite has been found, due to the interaction of norite
and granite, and, as a rarety, fluorite. The copper pyrites is present in
largest amounts against the foot-wall and as small seams penetrating the
country rock, and sometimes considerable masses of it are found in this
position.
The ores, like the norite, grow finer grained against the foot-wall and
evidently cooled in their present position; and it is important to note in
this connexion that perfectly fresh norite, the freshest in the neighbourhood,
is found in the open pit beside the ore and spotted with blebs of ore. There
has, however, been a little secondary rearrangement by water as shown
by the water-borne minerals mentioned above and by the films of chalcopy-
rite, and less often pyrrhotite, in tiny fissures in the diabase dykes. These
sulphides must have migrated into the minute fissures after the dykes
had cooled and shruiiken a liLtle.
The Creighton ore up to Septeml)er, 1910, contained on the average
5-08 per cent of nickel and 1 -63 of cop])er with a total for the two metals of
6-71 per cent, making it the richest of the large mines with the exception
of Copper Clifi". Crean Hill ore api^roaches it, but with the proportions
of the two metals about reversed. It is also the richest in sulphides of all
25873— 7 J
58
the large mines, or, in other words, contains less rock matter than the otiiers,
75 or 80 per cent of the ore being sulphides. It has shown a slight falling
off in grade since the earlier years, since more rock is ]iow included with
the ore, but the sulphides seem to be very uniform in their average
-contents of nickel and copper. In 1891 when the open pit was begun and
almost pure sulphides were mined the percentages were nickel 5-11 and
copper 2 19.
If 25 per cent of rock matter be deducted from the ore, the sulphides
contain the three metals in about the following proportions: —
Fe— 56-44
Ni— 6-77
Cu— 2 17
and the sulphides are present to the extent of al)out 80 per cent pyrrhotite,
20 per cent pentlandite, and less than 10 per cent chalcopyrite.
GENERAL SHAPE OF THE ORE BODY.
Like other marginal nickel deposits the Creighton ore Ijody is unsym-
metrical, having quite different features on the foot -wall from those of the
hanging wall. It is not a vein deposit nor a replacement, and though it
occurs between two different rocks, norite and granitoid gneiss, it is not a
contact deposit in the ordinar}^ sense.
On the surface the ore body appeared as a somewhat pear-shaped
mass with its broad end toward the northeast. The present open pit has
a length of 570 feet from northeast to southwest and a greatest breadth
along the plane of No. 1 shaft, of 355 feet, with an average breadth of
about 300 feet. Deducting the part of the hanging wall removed in mining
operations, the original surface of the ore body must have had about two-
thirds of these dimensions, about 380 by 240 feet. Allowing for the
dip of the ore body, the width of 240 feet means a thickness of about 180
feet. The pear-shaped cross section shown by the present open pit does
not, however, give a very correct idea of the shape or area of the ore body
as it appeared in the early workings. The pit down to the 1st and 2nd
levels shows a somewhat irregular but cjuite definite foot-wall of granite
with a dip of 42° to the west, while the hanging wall was indefinite, being
simply the limit where the mixture of ore and norite proved too low in
grade to mine profitably. In the lower levels the dip of the foot-wall has
changed to about 34° and the thickness of ore has diminished to about
50 or 60 feet. Below the mine workings the only means of determining
the inclination of the foot-wall and ore body are several diamond drill
holes, reaching a depth in one case of 672 feet. These data indicate
that the dip of the deposit flattens to about 32°, and that the thickness
diminishes somewhat, varying from 36 to 52 feet, while the diamond drill
work has proved that the ore extends at least 1250 feet iii a nearly west-
ward direction. It appears that the ore body thins rapidly in the upper
part, and then remains of nearly the same thickness so far as it has been
followed by the drill, while the width seems to be increasing at greater
•depths. It is of interest to find that a new ore body of considerable dimen-
sions has recently been opened up by mining operations at a short distance
southwest of the main workings, showing that some deposits have not
reached the surface at all.
Since its diminution at the bottom of the open pit, the Creighton
deposit has continued so uniformly and regularly, as shown by mining
and the damond drill, that one naturally expects it to extend far beyond
Plate XXII.
Air drill, open pit, ( 'rcigliton.
59
the present known limits, and theoretically there is no reason wh}^ it should
not go on indefinitely so long as the furrow in the country rock in which it
collected continues.
Mr. McCaulley of the engineers department at Copper Cliff makes
the interesting suggestion that the remarkable thickening of the ore body
at the surface represents a sort of spilling over of the molten ore. It is
probable, however, that the ore once extended much higher than the present
surface of the country, and that many millions of tons of it have been
removed during the ages that have elapsed since weathering removed
the edge of the nickel eruptive.
The Creighton has of late years been by far the most productive
nickel mine in the world, with its annual output of more than 200,000
tons of ore containing on the average 4 • 68 per cent of nickel and 1-65 of
copper. The total production up to the end of 1910 was 2,088,531 tons,
and mining at the regular rate has gone on steadily since that time. The
annual production of nickel from this mine has probably surpassed that of
all the other nickel mines in the world.
In the month of July, 1909, 32,348 tons of ore were raised, and the
cost of production was only 34'4 cents per ton, the output per man
employed at the mine being 6| tons. There are probably few mines that
surpass these results for economy of labour and costs.
The Creighton was worked first as an open pit. No. 1 shaft being
sunk later on an incline of 59° in the country rock to the southeast to
handle the ore. The second and third levels were presently opened up
to the first, and the fourth is now opened to the bottom of the pit, which
is about 260 feet deep. In order to keep pace with the required output
No. 2 shaft was sunk 330 feet to the southwest on an incline of 47°, and
most of the third level and the parts below it require underground work,
owing to the dip of the ore body mentioned above.
NORTH STAR MINE.
The basic edge of the norite, after turning a little west of north beyond
the Creighton open pit, bends northeastward for a mile and a half through
swamps and low ground before reaching the North Star mine in the south
half of lot 9, con. Ill, Snider township. The rock to the southeast is
mainly coarse granite or syenite, flesh red to grey in colour, and often por-
phyritic and gneissoid, though there are patches of greenstone, and as
one approaches the mine there is some crush conglomerate including
blocks of greenstone and an irregular strip of "older norite" like that found
near Gertrude and Creighton. The edge of the norite becomes rustier
as the structures of the mine come into view. The coarse granitic rocks
are older than the norite, since the latter grows finer grained against them,
but a dyke of fine grained granite a foot wide can be followed for some
distance through the norite, showing that there were later granite erup-
tions.
The North Star mine was opened in 1902 by the Mond Company,
first as a narrow open pit, and later (in 1904) by a shaft 170 feet deep.
The deposit has a dip of 75° or 80° toward the northwest, the steepest
known in the marginal mines of the region. As reported by Mr. Corliss,
then in charge of the mine, the ore is fairly solid and sharply defined against
the steep foot-wall, though it contains rounded boulders and angular
masses of granite and greenstone; but toward the jiorite it fades out in
the usual way. As the foot-wall is unusually clean cut, and is slickcnsided,
it may be that the steep dip is due to faulting.
60
The North Star ore when free from rock matter is unusually rich,
and it is worthy of note that the great Creighton mine with its rich ore
is flanked on each side by smaller deposits, the Gertrude and the North
Star, having ore of similar grade; the smaller deposits occupying only
slight embayments of the norite edge, while the great ore bodj^ was accu-
mulated in a deep depression of the norite into the Archaean substratum.
The North Star which had not been M'orked for some time, has be( n
reopened in 1912 by the Mond Company.
For a mile beyond North Star the branch and the main line of the
raihvay follow approximately the norite edge, which runs northeastwards
and is more or less rusty but shows no ore bodies. The rock to the south
is mainly granite, though there are patches of greenstone mixed with it.
In lot 8, con. Ill of Snider township the edge of the norite goes south
of the railway and turns to the east; and after a drift-covered stretch ore
shows on a hillside of granite, in lot 7. Upon this a test pit was sunk
years ago, and apparently abandoned, since it was restaked in 1911 by
Messrs. Kirby Thomas and H. L. Carpenter. Not far beyond this a large
patch of granite is included in the norite, near its edge; and the country
is much more hilly than between Creighton and North Star.
In lot 6, con. Ill the basic edge once more turns northeast and the
amount of greenstone in the country rock surpasses that of the granite.
At the shallow bay where the northeastward bend occurs there are several
small outcrops of ore on which test pits have been sunk, and a little "older
norite" occiirs just to the southeast.
The edge now turns nearly east for half a mile, and not far from the
line between lots 6 and 5, but probably within the latter lot, there is another
northeastward bend with a small outcrop of ore on which test pits have
Vjeen sunk.
From this point to a small lake near the southern end of lot 5, con.
IV, the northeast trend of the norite margin continues, with greenstone
as country rock, and no ore in sight. Beyond the lake the margin follows
the same direction, crossing the railway and reaching its most northern
point nearly on the line between lots 4 and 3, and about a quarter of a
mile south of con. V o ' the township of Snider. The boundary then
turns southeast, crosses the railway in a swamp near mile 5, bends east-
ward for a short distance, and then south and southeast toward Clarabelle
lake.
At its northern point this promontory of granite and gneiss is less
than 2^ miles from the acid edge of the nickel eruptive, which is here narrower
than anywhere else on the southern range, except near Whitson lake,
some miles to the northeast. The almost complete absence of ore or
gossan along this part of the basic edge conforms to the rule observed
elsewhere. The norite is coarse textured but grows finer grained towards
the edge, where it is more or less mixed with fragments of the country
rock, mostly coarse porphyritic granite or granitoid gneiss, so that it is
evidently the later rock of the two. The granitoid gneiss rises as a group of
steep hills in the re-entrant angle of the norite edge, but occasionally at
the very edge, the norite forms a hilltop with the granite dipping under it,
relations which are well seen near a small lake south of the railway on
the line between lots 2 and 3, con. IV of Sjiider. Southeast of this pond
the basic edge may be looked on as merging into the Copper Cliff offset.
Plate XXIII.
^^p^'^TJIj
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North Star niirc, gliowirg dip of foot-wall.
61
THE COPPER CLIFF OFFSET.
The basic edge of the norite curves southeast from the ba" ren region
just described, and by walking half a mile eastward along the railway
and just to the south of Pump lake one reaches the other side of the norite
of the ofTset, which half encloses a small area of red granite, sending a
tongue northeast from the Lady Violet mine. From this mine the margin
runs south to No. 6 or Clarabelle mine, close to the north side of the lake
of the same name, where the offset is only about 600 feet wide; but just
to the southeast it expands again to a width of nearly half a mile, then
narrows rapidly once more towards Lady Macdonald lake, where it is
not more than 100 feet wide. It sinks beneath the shallow lake, reappears
at the east end of Nickel island, is covered by water again for about 1000
feet, and then luns somewhat east of south for half a mile as a narrow
irregular band to No. 2 mine.
A gap of about 1500 feet follows in which only drift and a few out-
crops of greenstone and greywacke can be seen, after which a small patch
of rusty norite appears near a small creek; and then, about 200 feet farther
south, the rusty hill of Copper Cliff rises sharply from the drift, runs
southward for 400 feet and then bends to the southeast at the mine itself.
A wide drift-filled valley separates this mine from the next outcrop 2000
feet to the southwest, after which the rusty norite rises upon a hillside
and may be followed with few interruptions for 1900 feet, in a direction
somewhat west of south. The southern end of the outcrop sinks beneath
bog and old lake deposits once more for 4000 feet, when a low hill of norite
mixed with other rocks and gossan-covered, rises at Evans mine, some
distance south of the "Soo" railway. Beyond this point no outcrops
of the nickel-bearing norite are known.
As the Copper Cliff oft'set is much the most important known on the
circumference ot the laccolithic sheet, as far as amount and grade of ore
are concerned, it is desirable to describe its features in detail.
From the account just given it will be seen that the band of norite-
micropegmatite is almost at its greatest breadth to the north of the offset,
where it gradually curves outward on both sides to form a funnel, a mile
wide at the beginning, but narrowing to about 600 feet at Clarabelle lake,
then widening and sending a prong to the northeast, before finally shrinking
to a width of about 100 feet at Lady Macdonald lake. Beyond this it is
seldom more than 200 feet in width and in several places is interrupted, so
far as one can see at the surface, by stretches of country rock showing no
trace of norite or ore.
It will be noted from the map that after it narrows up the norite of the
offset springs from point to point in what seems an erratic manner. The
band runs pretty continuously to No. 2 mine, but is next found quite to
the west of its former diriK'tion, at Copper Cliff mine, and still farther to
the west at No. 1 mine. The apparent gajis in the continuity may not be
so extensive as they seem, since there may be connecting links beneath the
drift, l)ut in some cases the breaks are certainly real, the country rock which
interrupts the offset being well exposed. In such cases one naturally
sui)}ioscs underground channels of connexion, though it is possible that
the conduit was through overlying rocks, afterwards denuded away. Pro-
bably several thousand feet have been removed from the region since
Cambrian times when the norite is supposed to have reached its present
]i()sition.
The length of the offset, measuring from the beginning of the narrow
portion at Latly Macdonald lake, is 14,400 feet, of which less than 5,000
62
feet can be followed on the surface, but perhaps much more is concealed
under the lake or the drift deposits. Wherever the band of norite can be
followed it is heavilj' charged with ore. If the offset is assumed to begin
where the funnel narrows toward the southeast its length is increased by
fully a mile, amounting to nearly four miles in all.
ORE DEPOSITS TO THE NORTHWEST OF LADY MACDONALD LAKE.
On the southwestern side of the funnel where the norite rises against
the granitoid gneiss referred to before, ore and gossan seem to be absent;
but on the eastern side two ore bodies have been more or less opened up,
and there is a large amount of gossan. The difference may be due to the
marked widening of the eruptive toward the northeast as compared with
the southwest. The first ore body is encountered at Lady Violet mine, to
the south o*" Pump lake in the north half of lot 1, con. Ill, wherein early
days the Vivians of Swansea opened two pits at the contact of the norite
with greenstone. The deposit is marginal, Avith coarse grained norite to
the west and no suggestions of offset relationships.
Half a mile to the south near the north shore of Clarabelle lake there is
another large extent of gossan with two pits, called the Clarabelle, or No.
6 mine. For the distance between the two mines granite forms the country
rock in the main, but the gossan-covered hill at Clarabelle is of shattered
greenstone merging into chloritic and hornblendic schists. The rock dump,
in addition to spotted norite and phases of the country rocks, contains
quartz, calcite, dolomite, and actinolite in blades several inches long, indi-
cating considerable secondary action by circulating waters.
During mining operations a mass of about five tons of magnetite was
found completely enclosed in the ore at Clarabelle, the magnetite being
slightly mixed with sulphides and green silicates, and seeming to be closely
related to the regular ores, oxygen replacing sulphur.
Clarabelle mine was for a time connected by rail with Copper CUE
and supplied 4,000 tons of ore containing about 2 per cent of nickel and
1-68 of copper; but for some years it has not been worked, and the rails
have been removed, and the mine dismantled. Much of the norite to the
southwest of Clarabelle is very rusty, suggesting that more ore may be
found when needed.
At the southwestern contact the norite meets granitoid gneiss nearly
vertically and grows finer at the edge and is more or less mingled with the
granite, penetrating all the fissures in the older rock.
The contact along the railway to the southeast of Clarabelle mine shows
patchy norite containing many fragments of a finer grained older norite
and of greenstone or green schist, the neighbouring rocks. Beyond this it
bends northeast on a steep hill rising about 100 feet above the lake. The
hilltop is partly of brecciated rusty greenstone, and on its southward slope
beside a tongue of norite there are the large open pits and workings of No.
4 mine. The size of the workings indicates an ore body of considerable
diinensions; and years ago the mine supplied 43,500 tons of fair ore con-
taining 3 per cent of nickel and 1 -25 per cent of copper, about the normal
ratio for a marginal mine. No. 4 is a quarter of a mile east of Clarabelle
mine at a point where the offset has widened to about half a mile from
northeast to southwest.
On the south side of this expansion of norite there is mainly coarse,
porphyritic granitoid gneiss of the Laurentian type; but to the west near
Clarabelle lake the granite is intimately mixed with greenstone, and is
clearly the later rock. Toward the north there are rugged hills consisting
63
of a mixture of rocks, including hornblende porphyrite with large cleavages
of the mineral, hornblende schist, diorite, and portions of a sedimentary
rock, greywacke or cjuartzite all greatly disturbed. It appears that this
large bay of norite pushed itself wedge-like along the contact between the
granite and the greenstone, which was evidently a zone of weakness.
Where the offset narrows to a point on the northwest shore of Lady
Macdonald lake another ore deposit occurs named Lady Macdonald or No.
5 mine, the first of the series of mines on the Copper Cliff offset to be worked.
The development consists mainly of an open pit close to the lake at the mar-
gin of the norite against a crush breccia of greenstones and granitoid gneiss.
The norite and ore at this mine seem to be cut by a later dyke of pegmatite,
but the exposure is not satisfactory enough to make this quite certain.
The rock clump contains fragments of pegmatite, hornblende por})hyrite,
hornblende schist and arkose, and a few scales of graphite were found in
one mass of gneissoid rock. The mine was at one time connected Ijy a
SAvitch with the railway from No. 4 to Copper Cliff, and is reported to have
supplied 8,000 tons of ore of moderate grade, containing 2 • 83 per cent of
nickel and 1-06 of copper.
The proportions of the two metals are those commonly found in mar-
ginal mines, so that one may assume that the four deposits thus far descriljed
belong to the marginal ty])e and therefore that the offset proper begins to
the south of this point. Just why all the ore should be on the east side of
the bay of norite is not apparent.
THE COPPER CLIFF OFFSET TO NO. 2 MINE.
Lady Macdonald lake has been dammed to provide a water supply,
and so hides the relations of the rocks to some extent; but a small island
in the jiorthern part of the lake shows gossan-covered norite in contact with
granite to the southwest ; while rusty norite rises above a bay to the south-
east with a width of about 100 feet, broadening to 180 feet a little to the
south. For the first 450 feet the band of norite lies between green schist
interbanded with greywacke to the east and coarse granitoid gneiss to the
west; but from this point on it has both walls of gneiss until No. 2 mine is
reached, where greenstone touches it once more.
The whole surface of the band of norite is either pitted with rusty
spots where ore has weathered out or covered with gossan, and a succession
of open pits, now filknl with water, show where small bodies of ore were
mined and taken by a short tramway to the rockhouse of No. 2 mine.
Tlu^ norite her(^ is fine grained and of the offset variety, and it grows
still finer graijied against the granitoid gneiss, showing its later age. At
one point however, about midway between the bay and the open pit of
No. 2, a granite dyke 10 feet wide runs diagonally across the norite, so that
there were granites of two ages, one older and the other younger than the
norite. The later granite is grey and much finer grained than the other.
The granitoid gneiss beside the norite has been greatly crushed and sheared
and often forms a giant In-eccia in which the schistose structure is differently
oriented in different blocks, while the matrix between the blocks is fine
grained and appears to be merely groimd u]) granite of the same kind as
the l>locks.
Just north of th(> o])en ])it of No. 2 mine a sheet of drift covers the band
of norite and the relations are obscured, ))ut a dyke of greatly weathered
diabase about 30 feet wide seems to cut it from east to west.
64
Fig. 3.
65
The large open pit of the mine occupies nearly the whole width of the
offset, sho-udng that ore accumulated here, near the end of a straight band
of norite, in much larger amounts than at points with an unobstructed flow
from the funnel to the northwest. There is only a small amount of norite
spotted with ore left between the pit and the granitoid gneiss.
The pit is about 230 feet long, following the direction of the offset, and
about half as broad, but it is not quite oval in shape, since a projection of
norite bulges out from the southwest side. The pit is 278 feet deep, and
lower down the ridge of norite dies out, the pipe of ore grows more regular
in form, and there are underground levels reaching a depth of about 400
feet.
The ore of No. 2 encloses a good many fragments and rounded masses
of rock and is of moderate grade, containing 2 • 70 per cent of nickel and
1-94 of copper, the proportions of the metals being of the offset type,
showing more copper than would be found in a marginal deposit.
No. 2 mine was opened in 1898 and produced ore till 1903, when the
large output from Creighton mine made it unnecessary to work mines
lower in grade of ore, and it was closed dowTi. It is one of the great mines
of the region, having furnished 399,000 tons of fair ore during the time it
was operated. The mine still contains large amounts of ore, and to meet
the increased demand for nickel the Canadian Copper Company began to
work it once more in 1911.
COPPER CLIFF MINE.
The small steep hill covered with gossan rising in the midst of the
town of Copper Cliff from a wide flat of stratified clay immediately attracts
attention, and it is not surprising that so striking a feature was early dis-
covered even in what was then a thickly wooded region. Though not the
first nickel deposit found it was the first to be mined on a large scale, and
except the Creighton, which was opened up much later, it has been the most
important mine in the Sudbury district. It is situated near the north-
west corner of lot 12, con. II of McKim township, close to the boundary
of Snider township.
The Copper Cliff hill or ridge rises about 400 yards to the westward of
the normal extension of the norite band running from Lady Macdonald
lake to No. 2; but the trend of the ridge is nearly parallel to its extension.
It may be that in a region of so much disturbance they have been separated
by faulting on a large scale, so that a great block including the mine has
been shifted for a quarter of a mile in a direction a few degrees west of
south. It is perhaps more probable, however, that some subterranean
channel really connects the norite and ore of the two mines.
The hill of rusty norite 600 feet long and 200 feet wide is enclosed on
three sides by drift, but on the east joins a higher hill of sedimentary rock,
greywacke conglomerate toward the north and arkose toward the south,
both much fractured by the faulting and crushing which i)repared the way
for the advent of the norite and ore.
The arkose, which is fine grained and flesh coloured, has boon so nmch
recrystallized as to look like an eruptive rock, and consequent h' Avas at
first taken for syenite or felsitc; but its relation to undoubted sediments
prove that it too is sedimentary. Two small dykes of diabase cut the
spotted norite of the hill, and in the arkose just to the east there are two
dykes of reddish, grey, medium grained granite, six or eight feet wide, which
cannot be traced far owing to the gossan covering of the norite contact.
The granite of the dykes is like that of the dyke nortn of No. 2 mine
66
On the rock dunii) southeast of the miuc examples of all of these rocks
■may be found, and in addition dia])ase from a dyke, black and fine grained
and sometimes twenty-five feet wide, which was followed from the 3rd to
the 13th level during mining operations. Diamond drill cores from below
the 13th level shoAv spotted norite and ore, diabase, and a dyke of medium
grained biotite granite like that cutting the arkose. Beside these rocks,
which appear in characteristic forms at the surface, the dump discloses
blocks of norite passing into red granite and also forming coarse varieties
with large grey cleavage surfaces of plagioclose and coarse grained masses
of biotite and hornblende, apparently segregation products of a pegmatitic
character. Some of the blocks might be described as anorthosite, when the
plagioclase is almost unmixed with da'ker minerals. While no examples
of such differentiation are known from the surface of the offset, very similar
occurrences may be seen at Elsie and Murray mines to the north. There
is no evidence that either the dykes or the differentiation products have any
special relationship to the ore and the dykes were certainly much later in
age.
In addition to the pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite of the ore, several other
minerals are found on the dump, such as quartz and calcite or ankerite;
and along one side of the dyke followed by the mine workings there was a
seam of quartz with some ore, and on the other a margin of calcite. Evidently
the contact of the dyke with the norite provided fissures in which water
could circulate depositing secondary minerals such as quartz, carbonates
and galena, but these deposits were formed long after the ore had reached
its position in company with the parent norite magma. The circulating
waters, so far as the evidence goes, brought in little new material, but
rearranged to some extent the minerals of the already existing ore body.
It was largely the study of such later rearrangements of the ores and
other minerals from Copper Cliff and neighbouring offset mines which led
Messrs. Dickson, Campbell and Knight to consider the nickel ore bodies
water-formed deposits clue to replacement of the rock minerals by sulphides.
The cross sections of Copper Cliff mine and the plans of the different
levels, provided by the kindness of Captaui Lawson, show that the ore
body is a rude cylinder, narrowing and widening from level to level, and
forking about 500 feet below the surface. Its longest diameter varies from
75 to more than 200 feet, following the direction of the hill, and the shorter
one runs from 50 to 90 feet. As shown in the vertical section through the
shaft, the somewhat flattened cylinder dips very uniformly at an angle of
77|° towards the east, and reaches a greater depth than 1,000 feet. The
earlier shaft following the apparent clip of the outcrop, soon diverged too
much from the ore bod}^, and a new shaft was begun at the 3rd level having
the dip just mentioned.
In the working of the Copper Cliff mine it was soon observed that when
I he ore body widened it became richer in nickel, while the narrower parts
were especially rich in copper, the first instance of the general rule that the
copper ores accumulated near the country rock and the nickel ores farther
from it.
The Copper Cliff, as its name suggests, was begun as a copper mine,
the nickel contents of the ore being a later discovery. In reality it remained
in one sense a copper mine to the end, since out of the 9-53 per cent of the
combined metals in its ore, on the average, 5-63 per cent was copper and
■only 3'90 nickel. In value the nickel was more important, but in amount
Plate XXIV.
( 'ru.sh conglomerate south ( f Nickel range.
25873—8
67
three-fifths of the output of metal was copper. In this respect it has been
paralleled only by the Crean Hill mine, whose ore was, however, much lower
in grade.
C. C Co
k3£:CT/OA/>5
copf^'fiR cur r mine:
^ ■^co/e
M n r^ *
(VtLfTIC/ll.)
/3^L£.y£L
I'Ki. 4.
During its history from 1886 till it closed down th- mine produced
369,000 tons of ore, very rich but containing a good deal of rock, and in its
production of the two metals no other mine has equalled it except the Creigh-
ton.
25873—81
68
When the mine was closed there was still some verj' rich ore in sight,
though the size of the deposit has diminished considerably. In 1910 the
rockhouse was torn down, and now little is to be seen at this famous mine
except a small open pit and the rock dump. At a few other points on the
gossan hill to the north small pockets of ore have been mined and seams of
copper pyrites may still be seen in some places.
NO. 1 MINE.
2,000 feet to the southwest of the Copper Cliff mine ore-bearing norite
rises above stratified clay on the flanks of a high hill formed mainly of
sedimentary' rocks, greywacke to the east and arkose to the west. There
are three or four small outcrops of ore and rusty norite extending somewhat
west of south for nearly 1,900 feet, following pretty nearly the contact of
the greywacke with the arkose probably because this was a plane of weak-
ness along which faulting and Assuring took place when the norite was
irrupted.
Five pits have been opened on this row of small deposits, No. 1 mine
being the most important, but all are now filled with water so that little
can be seen except the country' rock. The norite and ore in some places
ramify between blocks of greywacke, as on the Worthington offset. At
the southern pit a small band of dark green hornblende porphyrite shows
itself, probably older than the norite; and three dykes of diabase cut both
the norite and the country rocks on each side. This part of the offset is
narrower than most others and at one or two points the ore occupies almost
the whole space between the walls of country rock, much as an ordinary
vein might do, and at the southern end it narrows to a width of only ten
feet.
For a time No. 1 and its extensions produced high grade ore, the total
output reported being 2.3,000 tons, containing on an average 6-98 per cent
of nickel and copper in about ecjual proportions (Xi 3 06, Cu 3 -42). These
openings were worked for only a short time about 1898.
EVANS MINE.
Except for a few low projections of grej'wacke, no rock is to be seen
till one reaches the last outcrop of norite, two-thirds of a mile to the south
of the one just desiu'ibed, at the Evans mine, where a small and low gossan-
covered mound rises above the old lake deposits. Here there are visible
only two open pits, filled with water and the rock dumps, showing little
that is of geological interest.
The ore muse have been somewhat rocky, from the size of the dumps;
and one finds norite, partly spotted with ore, actinolite clue to thew eather-
ing of some basic rock like norite, diabase, probably from dykes, and grey-
wacke. There is much evidence of shearing and slickensiding in the
rocks on the dump.
The Evans mine was worked by open pits to a depth of 160 feet,
and afterwards by underground levels to a depth in all of about 250 feet.
It was one of the first mines opened in the region, work having begun upon
it in 1886, soon after the Copper Cliff mine was started; and, with some
interruptions, it continued to furnish ore till the end of 1899. Its mas-
sively' framed rockhouse was a landmark to the south of the railway
until a few years ago, when it was torn clown. The Evans mine is reported
to have produced 234,000 tons of ore containing 3 per cent of nickel and
69
2-66 of copper; so that it is one of the important mines of the region,
both as to amount and grade of the ore.
A fourth of a mile to the south of the Evans outcrop a hill of gabbro
rises through the greywacke, and in my earlier study of the region — before
the true relationships of the Sudbury laccolithic sheet of norite had been
fully worked out — the ciuestion was considered whether it was not really
connected with this eruptive mass rather than the much more distant
basic edge of the norite. However, the marked difference between the
ore-spotted norite at the mine and the pale bluish-green gabbro, devoid
of ore, to the south, seemed sufficient to connect it with the offset two-
thirds of a mile to the north.
The Copper Cliff offset is much the most important known, with its
three great mines — No. 2, Copper Cliff and Evans — not to mention the
numerous smaller ore bodies which have been worked. It has produced
more than 1,000,000 tons of ore, much of which was unusually high in
grade, containing about 35,500 tons of copper and 33,000 tons of nickel;
and there is every reason to l)elieve that at least one of the mines, No. 2,
will continue to supply ore for a long time to come.
One naturally compares the Copper Cliff offset with the Victoria mine-
Worthington offset fifteen miles to the southwest. The latter is quite as
long as the former, but is not known to contain any ore bodies of the first
rank. •
It will be noticed on the geological map that both leave the basic
margin of the norite at points where the nickel eruptive has an unusually wide
outcrop, with a change of direction of both the acid and basic edges.
Both offsets follow directions of great faulting, crushing, and shearing in
the country rocks, as if there had been extensive shifting; and this is
probabl}' due to the partial collapse and settling down of a great block of
the underlying rock as the liquid norite rose from beneath to spread out
between the overlying sediments and the more ancient rocks.
If this block lost the support of the molten magma once imprisoned
beneath, there must have been important movements at each end, before
things were once more adjusted. At Creighton mine there were no such
openings provided and the ore was unable to escape.
ELSIE MINE.
Return' ng to the basic edge of the main range, the contact can l)e fol-
lowed northwest from Lady Violet mine, passing to the southeast of Pump
lake and then turning east towards Elsie mine. The norite is of the usual
coarse grej' variety with bluish blebs of quartz and brown spots of biotite,
and near Pump lake the adjoining rock is granite, but to the east there is
a steep hill of various greenstones and "older norite." The contrast
between this rugged mass of the older rocks and the low and nearly flat
surface of the norite is very striking, and in the Ijurnt regions to the north
one observes how much more ra])idly the norite is attacked by the weather
than the older rocks to the south. It is being transformed ijito rounded
bouldery masses, partly buried in the coarse sandy materials resulting
from the decay of the enclosing rock, the destruction beginning at the
joints which permit the water to enter.
The rocks to the south are largely lavas, still showing n jilaces the
"pillow" structure and amygdaloids ])roduced where a lava stream has
l^oured into the sea. Parts, however, have been changed from fresh "older
norite" into greenstone, hornblende porphyrite and ])lagioclas(> p()ri)hyrite.
A\'itli the volcanic rocks were caught up many small and large fragments
70
T)f greywacke or quartzite, and all of the varieties of rock mentioned
appear, moie or less gossan- covered, at the southern edge of the ore body,
or even enclosed in the ore.
The fresher parts of the "older norite" consist of labradorite with
much hypersthcne and magnetite, so that the rock is much more basic
than the nickel-bearing norite. Just at the Elsie mine the basic edge
turns towards the northeast, so that it occupies a small bay, as so often
occurs in marginal mines, and the open pit at the mine shows a foot-wall
of greenstone and greywacke slo])ing northwest at an angle of 29°. Twenty
feet of clean ore have been stoped out in most places, but the hanging wall
of pyrrhotite-norite is very indefinite, and sometimes 40 feet of the mixed
rock was thought rich enough to be removed. There has been a good deal
of slipping along the foot-wall, and slickensided surfaces could be seen
while the mine was working; but everything is now hidden by water,
which has filled the underground workings as well as the open pit.
The Elsie mine Avas opened up in July, 1901, by the Lake Superior
Power Co., and ore was shipped to the Gertrude roast yard and smelter
for treatment towards the close of the year, a switch curving round the
west side of the steep hill to the south of the mine, connecting it with the
main line of the Algoma Central railway. The mine closed down, on the
financial collapse of the parent company, after shipping 25,700 tons of
rather Ioav grade ore.
MURRAY MINE.
The gossan-covered edge of the norite against the greenstones at
Elsie mine continues with scarcely a break for about half a mile to the
northwest to the Murray mine, the first deposit found in the region and
one of the earliest worked. Its geological relationships have been studied
bj^ several good geologists, beginning with Baron Von Foullon, who proved
the rock accompanying the ore to be norite, and not diorite, as it had been
named. Later, Dr. T. L. Walker worked out the geology of the mine
and its surroundings in considerable detail while acting as chemist for
the Vivian Company^ ; and stil^ later Dr. Barlow studied the region and pre-
pared a map of the geology on the scale of 400 feet to the inch^. It
will therefore not be necessary to take up details, particularly since the mine
has not been worked for a long time and no fresh exposures are to be seen;
while the mine itself is full of water, making it impossible to examine it.
In 1893 Captain Richards stated to the Inspector of Mines that "the
ore body, which possesses an average thickness of 70 feet, strikes in the
direction northeast and southwest and dips northwesterly 45° from the
horizontal. This agglomerated mass of nickeliferous pyrrhotite and
diorite is contained by diorite walls. The foot-wall at certain points, as
proved by mining operations, presents the appearance of a true fissured
plane, upon which at some time or other the ore body has moved, as
evidenced by the coarse flucan or attrited matter which separates the ore
from the wall. In some places through the occurrence there exist large
inclusions, horses or intrusions of diorite containing fragments of granite."
This description would apply to a number of the marginal nickel
deposits as now known except that for diorite we should put norite to the
northwest and hornblende porphj'rite variously cut by later granite to
the southeast.
'Quar. Journ. Geol. Soc, Vol. LIII, pp. 40-46.
2G.S.C., An. Rep., Vol. XIV, Part H.
71
In addition to the description given above it may be mentioned that
acid segregations a few inches or feet in width occur in the norite, in which
giant crystals of hornblende and plagioclase occur, often with quartz in the
centre. It may be that fragments of quartzite, which occurs with the
greenstones near by, have been digested to produce these curious masses
in the norite.
Dr. Barlow has shown that the greenstones to the southeast have been
greatly shattered and penetrated by a later granite forming a breccia;
and he has mapped two great dykes of olivine diabase having a strike of
about 120°, cutting the norite and country rock at right angles to the con-
tact. The diabase is very fresh and is much later than the ore body.
The Murray mine was operated by the Vivians of Swansea, Wales,
from 1889 to 1894, the smelter having begun work in 1890, but the opera-
tions seem to have been carried on at a loss. In 1896 and 1897 the smelter
was put to use again in working up about 6,000 tons of roasted ore left by
the Vivians, the matte being shipped to Camden, N.J., for the production
of nickel.-''
Dr. H. Winters of Ottawa kindly gives from memory the following
information obtained when he was accountant at the mine seventeen years
ago. The greatest depth reached in the mine was 225 feet, with drifts of
about the same length in each direction at the 100 foot level, and a drift of
about 100 feet southwestward at the 200 foot level.
About 200 tons of ore were mined per day of ten hours, but the mine
was usually closed for three or four months in the winter as the production
of ore was considered more expensive then.
Though the ore was said to contain 2j per cent of nickel they were
not able to obtain more than Ih per cent from the cupola. About 40 tons of
matte, averaging 40 per cent of nickel and 20 per cent of copper, were
produced per month, as was impressed on Dr. Winter's memory by the fact
that the cash received for payment of wages was dependent on a carload of
matte going forward each month, and that there were times when it was
difficult to get the carload away. Dr. Winters does not venture to give
an estimate of the total amount of ore produced by the mine.
FROM MURRAY MINE TO MOUNT NICKEL.
The gossan belt of the Elsie and Murray mines continues without a
break, though in loss amount, for a long distance northeast, and at various
points test pits have been sunk disclosing more or less ore, but the deposits
seem too small to be of importance. For nearly two miles of fairly straight
marg'n one finds small ore bodies or pyrrhotite-norite with enough ore to
cause gossan, and the total amount of ore in this distance must be great,
but there was no marked depression in the floor into which it might flow
so as to form a large deposit such as one might expect where the nickel
eruptive shows a very wide outcrop.
For more than three-quarters of a mile northeast of Murray mine the
country rock is greenstone or weathered phases of the older norite, often
more or less brecciated and pierced by granite; but beyond this in nearly
the same direction the country rock changes to granite, flesh coloured and
of medium grain, rising as rather sharp hills. Along the granite there is
comparatively little ore to be seen until the Cameron mine is reached in
lot 7, con. VI of McKim township, though three or four small test pits
occur half a mile to the southwest.
'Ibid, pp. 30-31.
72
At the Cameron mine there is a small bay of the norite, and a shaft and
some stripp'ngs prove that ore exists. The relations along this part of the
])oundary are obscured })y drift, though there are outcrops enough to show
that for about two miles granite is the country rock; but whether it is
earlier or later than the norite is not cjuite certain. The fact that the norite
with ore leans up against it suggests that the granite is earlier; but in
several cases there is a little green.stone or "older norite" immediately
beside the small patches of ore; and it is conceivable that the or'ginal
country rock was greenstone, and that the granite is later than the norite,
having come up nearly along the old contact.
The relative age of this range of granite hills and the norite is of great
practical importance in relation to the ])robable extent of the ore deposits
of the Frood-Stobie offset to the southeast. If the granite is older the
Frood deposit may extend much farther to the northwest; whereas, if it is
later, the ore and norite are prol^ably cut off from the main range, and the
width of the deposit to the northwest will be fixed by the granite mass.
Beyond Cameron mine the basic edge bends somewhat to the east
for half a mile to Little Stobie mine, granite rising to the south or southeast
for most of the distance. At the Little Stobie, greenstone, green schist and
older norite begin; but this part of the region also is a good deal drift-covered,
so that relationships are not always clear. The open pit shows horn-
blende porphyrite and green schist, but the norite nearby is so crowded in
places with small fragments of "older norite" as to look like a conglomerate
or breccia. The Little Stobie was worked for a short time in 1902 by the
Mond Company, 1,584 tons of ore being sent to Victoria mine for treatment,
but at present things are largely hidden by a second growth of bushes.
About a mile northwest of Little Stobie in lot 8, con. II of Blezard
township, a small pocket of ore was found some years ago by the dip needle,
and a test pit and a diamond drill hole were sunk by a partj^ sent out by Mr.
Edison to explore for nickel ore, without success, however, as no ore was
found below the test pit. The drill core showed norite, weathered or fresh,
to the depth of 1,0.30 feet, but interrupted by a band of schist at about 260
feet, and by a considerable thickness of fine grained granite between 900
and 950 feet.
At this distance from the basic edge, if the dip is about 30°, it would
probably be necessary to sink 1,500 or 2,000 feet to reach the contact of the
norite with the underlying rock where ore might be expected to occur, and
the chances would be strongly against finding a remunerative body of ore.
From Little Stobie the contact runs northeast to the north corner
of lots 5 and 6, con. I of B!ezard, and then east as a small embayment to
Mount Nickel mine. Here there has been a considerable amount of
development work, including the opening of two cuts and the sinking of a shaft
to a depth of 165 feet, some drifting having been done also at the 75 foot
level. In these operations an ore dump of respectable size and quality
was formed, now largely turned to gossan by weathering. A good cleal of
diamond driUing has been carried out in addition, some of it in 1911 under
the management of Mr. Kirby Thomas; and it is stated that the ore body
is fairly large and dips at an angle of about 30° toward the north. In the
open cuts one sees first spotted norite with some ore, then a rude breccia
of greenstone with ore penetrating all the fissures and serving as a matrix
to the rock fragments, the section suggesting that molten pyrrhotite and
chalcopyrite were injected into all the openings of the country rock.
Plate XXV
t^
-"^^
Fault, bouth of Xickel range.
Plate XXVI.
1
"V"T^
\\''M^i^, M
^
V
\ ^^
f
f*^-*h,
Crush conglonierutf, t 'upper C'lifT.
73
THE FROOD-STOBIE OFFSET.
Though the nickel eruptive is wide between Murray mine and Mount
Nickel, comparativel}^ little ore is found along this part of the basic edge
of the norite, partly, no doubt, because the margin bends slightly inwards
instead of outwards. This lack of ore along the edge of the norite is atoned
for by the immense deposits existing in the Frood-Stobie offset, which runs
for nearly two miles somewhat parallel to it about a mile to the south-
east, but separated from the main range by the granite hills previously
mentioned, extending from south of Murray mine to Little Stobie mine.
The Frood-Stobie offset is not quite parallel to the edge of the norite,
since its southwestern end is a mile and a quarter from it, and its Dorth-
eastern end only three-quarters of a mile.
The band of ore-bearing rock may be referred to as a parallel offset,
differing so much from other deposits in the region that it should be placed
in a class by itself, since there is no surface connexion to be found leading
up to the basic edge, and no bay of the norite reaching out towards it,
as in most offsets.
It may be assumed that there is, or was, an underground connexion
between these two great deposits of nickel ore and the main range to the
northwest, so that the ore settling from the great thickness of norite-
micropegmatite found its way out through a broad but somewhat inter-
mittent channel or set of intercommunicating channels to its present
position, as shown in a diagram illustrating parallel offsets on a former
page. This was suggested in my earlier work in the region and has been
confirmed by the results of diamond drilling in later years, showing that
the ore body dips toward the main range at angles which grow flatter
with depth. It is possible, however, that the range of granite hills is
la.er than the norite and has severed a connexion which existed l)efore
its eruption.
The general character of the two ore bodies shows an intermingling
of the features of offset and marginal deposits, since the ore contains
a larger percentage of nickel as compared with copper than in offsets
elsewhere, but is more mixed with rock than in a typical marginal deposit.
The angle of dip is not far from what would be expected in a marginal
mine, and the ore bodies are much longer than broad, both unusual features
in an offset mine.
The outcrop rises from swamps and low ground on each side as a
very striking ridge of rusty rock on Avhich some pines and other trees grow
sparsely, and the highest points reach about 100 feet above the general
level, with slopes toward the swamp so steep as to be clifflike. The gossan
formed by the decay of the ore is a very resistant material and has largely
protected the rocks which it covered from further attacks of the
weather.
The band of rust}' rock varies greatly in width and the norite is cat
completely across at two points, while to the north there are three gaps
of from 300 feet to 700 feet before reaching Stobie mine. The widest
part of the band of norite and gossan is 900 feet across, a little to the south
of Frood mine; and the whole gossan-covered area far ^U! passes any other
in the nickel region, being pro])ably four times as large as the gossan sur-
face at Creighton or Whistle mines, which come next to it. It was an
axiom of the early prospectors that a large area of gossan meant an im-
portant ore bod}^ and in this case at least their belief was justified.
The ridge rising above the swamps does not consist wholly of norite
and ore Init includes considerable areas of other rocks, especially grey-
74
wacko, greenstone, and a gabbro differing considerably from the ore-bearing
norite.
The granite separating the offset from the basic edge of the main
nickel range nowhere comes in contact with the gossan-covered ridge,
more than 800 feet of greywacke and greenstone intervening where swamp
does not hide the rock. Most of the adjoining rocks have schistose or
bedding structures which run parallel to the norite ridge, and the dip of
the sediments is high, generally toward the northwest. The norite seems
to have risen through an irregular belt of weakness in the older rocks,
especially where the structure permitted an easy separation between the
beds of greywacke or of greywacke from bands of greenstone.
As diamond drill cores prove a considerable dip of the ore and norite
to the northwest, flattening at the lowest points reached, we must suppose
either that the eruptive cuts across the structures in depth, or that the
structural planes of greywacke and schist bend rapidly to the northwest
below the surface.
It was thought at first that this offset might be connected Avith the
main range near Blezard mine two miles to the north, the connexion
following i^erhaps a series of marshes; but later study of the region opposes
this, since greenstone and "older norite" are continuous in low outcrops
across the supposed connexion.
FROOD OR NO. 3 MINE.
The southwestern ore deposit is generally spoken of as the Frood
mine, so named for an early prospector, though the Canadian Copper
Company, which owns most of it, refers to it as No. 3 mine. The gossan
surface begins nearly on the line between cons. V and VI of McKim town-
ship, 1,800 feet west of the boundary between lots 7 and 6, the norite
spreading irregularly on a ridge of greywacke and schist, the greywacke
sometimes containing large pseudomorphs after :-taurolite. The norite
extends 1,500 feet in a northeasterly direction, with a width of about 200
feet; but at this point there is a narrow depression across the ridge, when
greywacke reaches from side to side cutting off the ore-bearing rock. It
is interesting to note that the diamond drill has shown that this surface
interruption only goes down a short distance, suggesting that the norite
extends as a contirmous sheet at lower levels.
Rising again rapidly the ridge of norite broadens to about 400 feet
wdih a steep slope of greywacke to the southeast, and a belt of brecciated
rock to the northwest, consisting mostly of angular blocks of greywacke,
with some ore coming out between them at many points. Beyond the
breccia, to the northwest, low knolls of greenstone rise from the swamp
and still beyond are the high granite hills.
After 700 feet of continuous norite one reaches the broadest and highest
pa'.t of the gossan ridge, where an older gabbro is the principal rock, per-
haps an earlier effusion from the nickel-bearing magma. It resembles
the true norite in many ways and is sometimes charged with fine particles
of sulphides, but thin sections show little or no hypersthene.
This older eruptive rock seems to have been shattered so that the
later norite with its sulphides could penetrate in all directions, but the
masses of ore pushing through it are only small, though the whole hill-
top is gossan-covered to a width of 900 feet It was found impossible
to separate the two rocks in mapping These two eruptives make the
Plate XXVII.
I'lood or No. 3 mine, 1910.
Pl.ATK XXVIII
(luison mine.
75
whole width of the ridge at this point and the greywacke disappears on
each side, though some mounds of coarse greenstone or porphyrite show
to the northwest.
CCCo
/V^3 M/NE.
D. D. SECT/ON
i.f.r,£y^O
K^^
iz:
Fig. 5.
While the top of the ridge shows only ^mall masses of ore m the test
pits which have been sunk for exploration, the northeast side was m early
days the most productive part of the deposit and two large pits show
76
where thousands of tons of ore were mined. The edges of the pits are
paitly formed of gabbro, but there is also nmch norite spotted with ore.
Later the m'ne was worked In' a shaft, and since the ore was much
mixed with rock, the large rock dump extending toward the swamp gives
an idea of the fresher materials obtained in mining. One finds mainly
spotted norite and greywacke, but some blocks of actinolite and talc show
that these have been secondary changes resulting from shearing and solu-
tion. There are also angular and rounded masses of rock enclosed in
the ore, some large, others only pebbles; and these may be so well rounded
as to suggest water action. One pebble found was of white (piartzite
like an outcrop about a mile away, but it is probable that these fragments
were due to crushing and that they have been rounded by rolling between
faulted surfaces.
To the northeast of the open pits the noritp sinks suddenly and is
nearly cut off by greenstone, but it presently widens and rises again, show-
ing ore in a number of test pits. It may be followed for 2,400 feet north-
wei-t of the large pit, with some crush breccia on each side, and is then cut
off by greenstone, though small patches of norite rise a little beyond.
The whole length of the Frood portion of the offset is 6,500 feet, and
the gossany surface (somewhat wider than the norite) is estimated at
an average width of 300 feet, giving an area of gossan not far from 'So
acres. ]\Iore or less ore exists almost everywhere on this surface, thougfi
most of it, no doubt, is too much disseminated through the rock to be
workable.
Though Xo. 3 mine was found early i)i the history of the region, it
was not worked, beyond some stripping and the sinking of pits, until
1899. In the follo^\^ng year a railway switch from the Stobie mine gave
an outlet for ore from the mine, but four years later in 1903 the mine was
closed down after 107,942 tons of ore had been sent to the Copper Cliff
smelter. The ore ran 2-66 per cent of nickel and 1-39 per cent copper,
the two metals making up 4-05 per cent, so that it was considerably richer
than its neighbour, the Stobie mine.
The results of systematic diamond drilling across the ore deposit by
the Canadian Copper Companj^ have since proved the amount of ore of a
similar grade to be enormous, certainly 35,000,000 tons. The ore body
dips in its upper part about 65° to the northwest, as shown by drill holes
reaching about 1,000 feet; while later holes, deeper and farther toward the
northwest, show that it co.ntinues in unimpaired volume but with a flatter
dip, so that the amount of ore within reach by shafts of reasonable depth
is very great, perhaps greater than the known reserves of ore in all the other
mines of the Sudbury district.
Almost the whole of the Frood ridge is the propertj' of the Canadian
Copper Company, but a small corner of it is included in the north half of
lot 7, con. VI, formerly the property' of Messrs. Cochrane and McVittie.
Four drill holes were put down near the southeast corner of this property
by the ]\Iond Company, who were satisfied as to the amount of ore avail-
able and purchased the property. In order to work it a shaft is now being
sunk to a depth of 800 or 900 feet. The Canadian Copper Company also
is sinking a three compartment shaft to a depth of 500 feet and building
a direct railway to Copper Cliff, giving a much shorter connexion than the
former roundabout route past Stobie and Sudbury. It ma}' be expected
that this greatest of known nickel deposits will soon be sending ore to the
smelters of the two producing companies, and adding greatly to the avail-
able supply of the region.
it
STOBIE MINE.
From the end of the nearly continuous band of norite and gossan of
the P'rood or No. 3 mine most of the distance to Stobie mine is swamp or
drift-covered, though patches of rusty norite show themselves from point
to point among greenstones and crushed greywacke. The mine is on lot
5, con. I of Blezard township, just to the north of a steep and high hill of
greenstone sloping down to the open pits. The stretch of gossan rises
steeply just west of the pits, showing comparatively little norite, since
most of the surface consists of a confused mixture of rocks, green schist,
hornblende porph^-rite and greywacke, all more or less brecciated. with a
small patch of granite also o.n the south side. Through the spaces between
the masses of older rocks norite and ore have bee.n squeezed from beneath
as if through a colander. The extent of gossan is about 1,000 feet from
east to west with half that width, but the numerous test pits on the hill
itself show no large bodies of ore, so that in many respects it is like the
corresponding gossany hill at Frood.
To the north there is swamp and to the west greywacke, to the south
the higher hill of green schist and hornblende porphyrite, and to the east
the mine openings, rock dumps and rockhouse, co.ncealing most of the
surface; though on the low ground there are outcrops of hornblende por-
phyrite, and also of greywacke containing a band of pebbles, evidently
water-formed, since the pebbles are well rounded and are of several different
kinds of rock. The dump shows spotted norite, gabbro, greywacke, and
quartzite. The magnitude of the openings at this mine is impressive and
plans of the mine show large irregular ore bodies having a dip of 65° toward
the west, somewhat as in No. 3 mine. The earlier mining Avas by open pits,
though later work was done in underground levels reaching a depth of
about 250 feet.
The Stobie mine, which was one of the earliest discovered, began to
produce in 1887 and was closed down i.n 1901, after supplying 418,991 tons
of ore, the largest amount ol)taincd from any mine in the region except the
Creighton. The ore contained 2 13 per cent of nickel and 1-58 of copper,
or 3-71 per cent of the combined metals, so that it was of comparatively
low grade; but it was rich in sulphides and made a good fluxing mixture
with the high grade but rocky ore of Copper ClifT mine, which Avas then
producing largely.
The mine was closed l)ecause that class of ore was .not required after
the Creighton mine began to work o.n.avlarge scale, and it is stated that the
ore is far from exhausted. Occurring in such a similar way to the Frood
and along the same strike, it is probable that this ore body also will be
found to extend with a flatter di]5 toward the northwest. The Frood
and Stobie together have provided 535,933 tons of ore, an amount surpassed
only by the total from the Copper Cliff oft'set and the Creighton.
The rocks in the neighl)ourliood of Stobie show the greatest variety
found in the Sudbury district, including l)oth eruptives and sedimentaries.
To the north beside the greenstone and hornblende porphy rites mentioned
above there are rugged hills made up of "older norite", orbicular diorites,
pillow lavas, and what seems to be hornblende schist crowded with bean-
shaped patches of white quartzite perhaps once an amygdaloid.
The sedimentary rocks are mostly greywacke and its modifications,
sometimes very well ]ireserved and displaying lamination a.nd cross-bedding
on weathered surfaces, at others modified into schistose forms or even fine
grained gn(Mss by the effects of adjoining eruptives. Often they are crowded
with ])ale staurolite crystals of all sizes uj) to four or five irclus in length,
25873—9
78
which are found under the microscope to be pseudomorphs consisting of
sericite and quartz. One variety of greywacke is studded with masses of
quartzite from tlie size of a pea to diameters of three or four inches, the hirger
ones usually suggesting an eye and eyebrow, as if a crescent -shaped shell had
split off and separated itself a half inch from the oval mass. In addition
there are bands of conglomerate and a few small outcrops of grey or white
quartzite.
All of these rocks and also the bands of eruptives penetrating them
have the regular strike of from 40° to 55° east of north and usually high dips,
nearly vertical or steeply inclined to the northwest. They run parallel to
the norite offset just described and probably forced their direction upon
it when the norite and ore made their subterranean escape from the margin
of the main nickel range.
BLEZARD MINE.
Returning to the maia nickel range at IMt. Nickel, the basic edge bends
gently towar d the northeast for three-quarters of a mile to Blezard mine in
lot 4 con. II of the township of the same name. The actual edge is largely
drift-covered and for some distance the outcrops of rock are few and low,
the norite forming a plain a mile or two wide with only gentle ridges rising
above the drift. There are also swamps along the ])ranches of a sluggish
creek Uj^ving northward into Whitson (or Blezard) lake, which cuts across
the acfld edge of the eruptive two miles and a ho If to the northwest. The
basic edge at Blezard is of the typical sort for the southern range, dark grey
norite with bluish quartz and some plates of biotite, and part of it is very
fresh and supplied to Prof. Walker some of the earliest specimens of un-
doubted norite found in the region.
At the mine the country rock rises as rough ridges of greenstone and
quartzite to the southeast, but owing to the dumps and gossan the sur-
roundings are greatly hidden. The pit seems almost entirely enclosed in
country rock and is now full of water, so that Dr. Bell's account of the
deposit as seen in earlj- days may be quoted.
"The ore consists of a body of mixed chalcopyrite and nickeliferous
pyrrhotite mingled "v\ith more or less rock matter, gi\ang the whole the
appearance of a conglomerate. The general strike of the country rocks is
here as elsewhere in the vicinity about northeast and southwest. The
ore-bearing belt, which is associated with a dark quartz-diorite, is about
100 feet wide and dips northwest at an angle of 65°. It is overlaid bj^ a
massive bed of ash-coloured greywacke, the weathered surfaces of which
present raised reticulating lines. Immediately to the northwest of the
shafts there is a dyke from 30 to 50 feet wide, of dark brownish grey crj'stal-
line diabase, weathering at the surface into rounded boulder-like masses,
which scale off concentrically." The "dark quartz-diorite" is norite, and the
"ash-colored greywacke" with "raised reticulating lines" is, no doubt, "older
norite", which occurs from point to point along almost the whole of this
part of the basic edge."
It is said that the pit is 60 feet deep and that the lower workings of
the mine reach a depth of 172 feet. A short distance west of the mine and
connected with it by a tramway is the smelter with its roast beds and a
platform made by dumping slag. As reported by Dr. Barlow the Dominion
Mineral Company commenced operations here in 1889 with a capacity of"
120 to 150 tons daily, and mining operations ceased in 1893, though the
smelter was kept running till July, 1895, chiefly on ore from the Worthing-
ton mine, owned by the same company.
79
The total production of ore from Blezard mine is reported to be at
least 100,000 tons and the sulphides of the ore ran about 4 per cent of nickel
and 2 per cent of copper.^ It is probable, however, that the ore as smelted
contained a good deal of rock and would run considerably below this.
The Blezard is the last mine of the southern range that has been worked
on a large scale until Garson mine is reached five miles and a half to the
east.
FROM BLEZARD MINE TO GARSON MINE.
The basic edge is lost to sight in the low ground along the creek for
about half a mile northeast of Blezard mine, and when it reappears there are
few indications of ore until one reaches the Sheppard mine in the south
half of lot 1 con. Ill of Blezard township. The road which leads from
Blezard to this property is now hard to follow from the growth of bushes.
There is perhaps a small southeastward bay opposite the end of a little
lake along the road, but no ore was seen at this point.
The Sheppard, or Beatrix, or Davis mine has been somewhat care-
fully prospected and a shaft was sunk in early days, as I am informed by
Mr. Kirby Thomas, to a depth of 110 feet, where two drifts were run.
There is a considerable area of gossan, and a dyke of diabase ten feet wide
cuts diagonally across the contact. The shaft seems to have been sunk in
greenstone a little south of the basic edge, and "older norite" occurs near
by. According to Mr. Kirby Thomas seven carloads of the ore shipped out
by sleighs in March and April of 1892, amounting to about 125 tons, aver-
aged 5-75 per cent nickel, and of two other carloads one contained 5-50
per cent of nickel and 0-32 per cent of copper, and the second 5-60 per cent
of nickel and 0-38 of copper. At the time of my first visit to the mine in
1904 the sulphides were in general not yet greatly weathered but included
a rapidly attacked mineral which was thought to be polydymite. If poly-
dymite is present it may account for the high percentage of nickel as com-
pared with copper in the ore as shown by the average assays mentioned
above. At present the mine is difficult of access owing to the burning of a
bridge across the creek, and the sulphides are too deeply weathered to afford
much information.
Beyond the Sheppard mine the basic edge passes into the township of
Garson, becomes schistose and contains fragments of the adjacent green
eruptives sheared out into short narrow bands. Evidently pressure at
right angles to the edge or faulting with a horizontal throw have occurred
to cause the structure. In Garson the edge turns east and presently a little
south of east, and at the crossing of the Canadian Northern railway it is
of the normal kind, unsheared and containing a few blebs of ore, the actual
contact being concealed by drift, though greenstone rises a little to the
south, showing its approximate position. The nickel eruptive is unusually
narrow where it passes into Garson township, having a width of only 2
miles, but from this point eastward the width gradually increases until
Garson mine is reached.
East of the railway and just beyond the lin(^ between lots 11 and 10,
some gossan and ore occur at a point one-third of a mile north of con II,
where a test pit has been sunk by Malbeuf and Martin. To the south of
the pit well stratified greywacke forms low hills rising through clay soil
taken up as farms. The norite from this outcrop eastwards is pale grey
in colour and, but for its continuity with the typical norite near Blezard
'Dr. Harlow, G.S.C., Vol. XIV, Part H, p. 33.
2£873— 9^
80
mine, niisht not be recognized as the niekel-l)earinp; rock. No further ore
or gossan was encountered until the Kirkwood mine was reached in lot 8,
l)ut the margin was mostly concealed under drift, so that the low norite
hills to the north were often widely separated from the greenstones to the
south. The latter sometimes display the pillow structure and amygdaloids
characteristic of ancient lavas, and are in part "older norite".
At the Kirkwood mine, toward the southeast corner of lot 8, con.
Ill, a good deal of work was done in earlier times, including the sinking of
two shafts about an eighth of a mile apart, and a considerable amount of
stripping, but fire has destroyed the mine buildings and the siiafts arc full
of water.
The western shaft is on a low gossan-covered hill of greenstone, the
norite appearing at the foot of the hill fourteen i)aces north, while the
eastern shaft is just at the margin. The norite here is greatly crushed
ami sheared and of the pale grey colour found in this part of the region.
The rocks to the south include greenstone, greywacke and quartzite, often
crushed to a breccia or conglomerate; and at one point lialf a mile to the
•southeast a small j)atch of rusty norite is seen on a hill near the northeast
corner of lot 7, con. II and is sometimes called the ]\IcConnell mine.
Here a shaft full of water is said to be 60 feet deep, and a small rock dump
contains rustj' norite spotted with ore. The hill rising to the west shows
greywacke interbandecl with quartzite and water-formed conglomerate,
having a strike of 100° and a vertical dip. These sedimentary rocks have
been more or less crushed and faulted; but their strike runs parallel to
the edge of the norite an eighth of a mile to the north. This small deposit
is evidently an offset, l)ut a drift covering to the north hides any connecting
links there may be with the basic edge, which here forms a shallow bay.
Farther toward the east the norite edge is lost under drift and swamp
until the Garson mine is reached, Avhile the norite itself rises out of the low
ground as fairly high hills to the north of the boundary, though for nearly
a mile no rock is visible to the south. This is a complete reversal of the
arrangement farther west, where the norite usually forms the low ground
and the country rock to the south rises as hills. A partial explanation of
this difference is probably to be found in the shearing and alteration of the
norite in this eastern section of the range into a rock containing a secondary
hornblende instead of the easily attacked hypersthene, thus increasing its
])ower of resistance to weathering.
GARSOX MINE.
The Garson mine, formerly called the Crjxlerman mine, toward the
southern end of lots 5 and 4, con. Ill of the township of Garson, is much
the most important known deposit of the southern range west of Blezard
mine, and likewise one of the most interesting of the Sudburj- mines from
its complex geological relationships.
When it was visited in 1904 and described under the name of the Cry-
derman mine the large showing of gossan was noted, but little work had
been done beyond stripping and the sinking of test pits. Since that time
it has been acquired by the Mond Company, who have cleared the
adjoining land and established a neat village on the sand deposits to the
south. A branch of the Canadian Northern railway ^ leaving the main
line a mile north of Sudbury Junction, has been built northeast for about
3| miles to the mine, to transport the ore to Victoria mine at the present
ime, and to Coniston whenthe new smelter is constructed there.
81
The norite to tlie north is of the grey variety customary in this part
of tne range, ratlier coarse and here and there spotted with sulphides, and
rising as hills in contrast with the country rock to the south, whicr 's
largelv hidden by sard plains. On the hill a quarter of a mile north of the
mine a few dykes of grey, fine grained granite cut the Tiorite from east to
Avest, but no diabase or other dykes were noticed at the mine, a rather
unusual circumstance in the region.
The mine itself is on a small hill projecting southwards into the sand
plain, dipping steeply down to the west with a gossan-covered slope, and to
the east more gently to a narrow pond and stream valley running west of
south. The rockhouse stands near the western side of the hill, and the
railway embankment and a large rock dump hides much of the rock.
The gossan-covered surface is peculiarly shaped, forming a rough
quarter of a circle sweeping from south to northeast and finally east, with
a broad projection northwestwards from the center of the curve. Just to
the north of the gossan, after a short downward dip of the norite of the hill
be^'ond, there is a band of highly schistose rock grey and fine grained with
nearly vertical dip so far as can be seen. This runs from a small ravine on
the west for a hundred yards eastwards, after which it is drift-covered and
blends into the norite to the north without a break. It is evidently a
sheared portion of that rock similar to schistose phases of the norite edge
which have been noticed in a number of places along this part of the range.
To the south of the schistose band there is a very rusty surface, mainly
of greenstone, but a good deal mixed with norite, extending, where not
hidden by drift, 350 yards eastward, i.e., as far as the ore is known to exist.
The eastern extension of the gossan and greenstone has been opened up by
four test pits, while just to the north a band of quartz may be followed for
some distance in the narrow valley mentioned before. South of the small
gossan-covered ridge spotted norite appears again and extends down the
hill slopes for a hundred yards till lost under drift beside a pond. This is
the onh' known instance of a considerable stretch of norite bej'ond an ore
body, and naturally aroused doubts in regard to the origin of the deposit.
The band of gossan running out toward the northwest covers norite,
partly schistose, mixed Avith greenstone, passing toward tlie southwest into
greenstone and green schist reaching down the slope till lost under drift.
The curve of norite and gossan to the west of the rockhouse ends against
greenstone contai'ung blocks of greywacke, and is no doubt the actual
margin of the norite.
In mining operations the ore has been found to enclose great masses of
country rock, chiefly greenstone, in a way suggesting that the rock was
shattered into large blocks which were shifted so that the ore could ramify
into the fissures and spaces between. Along the north side of the ore body
a large band of quartz occurs, about in the plane which is occupied liy the
schistose norite and (piartz in the narrow valley between the gossan and
the norite on the surface. The same band of quartz, bat even broader,
appears in the first level of the mine with a length of forty feet or more,
and a continuation of the mineralized quartz reaches to the third level, 300
feet below the surface. The quartz is in large enough ([uantities to l)e used
as converter linings at the Victoria Mines smelter.
There are several quite unique features dis])layed in this ore deposit.
As has been mentioned, much of the ore occurs to the north of a large
extent of norite, the only instance of the sort known on the southern range;
while the mine workings and diamond drilling have proved that the ore
body dips southeastward under this area of norite beyond the mine. This
njtd tlic peculiar curved sha])e of the deposit witli its projection to the north-
82
west are unprecedented features in the nickel region. It may be added
that the ore has entirely the character of that from an offset deposit, though
Garson mine occurs partly at the margin of the norite and partly enclosed
by norite on both sides.
These anomalies appear to be explained by extensive faulting in which
either the norite on the north side, beyond the zone of schist and quartz,
has moved horizontally eastwards; or the norite to the south of the ore
has shifted westwards, the latter being perhaps the more prol)able sup-
position. The amount of horizontal thrust must have been at least 750
feet, since the band of greenstone and ore extends to that distance eastward
between the norite to the north and that to the south, and the plane of
faulting must have been inclined considerably to the south.
In this process the blocks of greenstone now arranged roughly as a
quarter of a circle must have been dragged out of position and more or
less rotated. One may imagine that in the beginning the greenstone bound-
ary of the ore ])ody now found west of the rockhouse was 750 feet fartlier
east and continuous with the greenstone and ore at the east end of the
deposit, the whole making an outward curve or bay, as so often happens in
marginal deposits. It is probable that at a considerable depth an ordinary
marginal deposit underlies the whole faulted section and that according to
the regular rule workings of a sufficient depth will encounter ore richer in
nickel than in copper.
It is unfortunate that everything to the south of the mine is drift-
covered so that the margin of the norite cannot be seen. The deepest drill
hole, sunk on an incline, shows that ore extends for several hundred feet to
the southeast of the outcrop of norite, and Mr. A. L. Sharp, manager of
the mine, states that under the village there is quicksand to a depth of 80
feet, so that the final solution of these problems must await the results of
mining operations.
On the whole the situation suggests that of the Crean Hill mine,
described on a former page, though in that case the place of faulting was
flatlj^ inclined and the motion such as to drive the greenstone northwards
over the norite; while here part of the norite edge was thrust sidewise
beyond the ore and greenstone. The large horses of greenstone enclosed
in sulphides, resulting in a very rocky type of ore unusually rich in copper,
are found in both mines, showing that the}' have much in common.
It is only fair to say that Mr. Hall, who has general charge of the min-
ing operations of the Mond Company, does not accept the interpretation
of the complex relationships of the Garson mine, given above; but a study
of the Crean Hill mine, a somewhat less complicated example of a similar
type, makes the explanation probable. It is, of course, not advanced as
a final solution of a very difficult problem, but rather as a working hypothe-
sis to help in explaining the facts.
The Garson mine has been worked to the 7th level, the levels being of
100 feet each, and a diamond drill hole shows ore to 1,300 feet, dipping to
the southeast under the village. As a result of the faulting described above
there are many seams of clay and of quartz in the mine and a few veins o^^
galena apparently without silver. The working of this mine with its
comparatively narrow bands of ore encircling great horses of rock, the whole
arranged in a rude quarter circle, with a dip to the southeast on its eastern
prong, but more to the east on its southern bend, has presented great
difl&culties, which have been skilfully met. The arrangement of the mine
workings is made beautifully clear in the office by plans of the different
levels, prepared on sheets of glass so supported as to bring out the dip of
the ore body.
83
At the time of my visit the mine was producing 350 tons of ore a day,
and was raising about twice as much ore as Victoria mine, on which the
company depended for its chief supply in former years. The Bureau of
Mines reports that 93,542 tons were mined during the year 1910 as compared
with 42,488 tons from the older mine.
For three-quarters of a mile to the east of Garson mine the basic edge
of the norite is hidden by the widespread sand plains of an old glacial lake,
and the actual margin is first found against greenstone in lot 3, nearly a
quarter of a mile north of the most southern point of norite to be seen near
the mine. There is evidently a very pronounced bay of the norite here, and
this with the greater width of the nickel eruptive at this point, probably
accounts for the much larger amount of ore at Garson mine than at any
other known deposit within the township. Low hills of coarse greenstone
may be followed somewhat north of east for a quarter of a mile, about to
the line between lots 3 and 2 of Garson; while norite of the pale grey,
squeezed variety, with few suggestions of ore, rises as much higher hills ot
the north.
Less than a mile east of Garson a road runs northwards, following
the grade of an old railway made by the Emery Lumber Company, giving
a section of the nickel eruptive ; and a branch of the road may be followed
to Wanapitei lake, making another section across the whole width of the
eruptive, but with comparatively few outcrops of rock.
Beyond the line between lots 3 and 2 swamp and rolling surfaces of
drift hide the basic edge for nearlj^ three miles, though there are several
outcrops of norite along a lumber road turning eastwards toward some old
workings in the township of Falconl^ridge. This fact and the continuous
stretch of the acid edge on the north side of the belt of eruptive show that
the outcrop of the laccolithic sheet is unbroken here as elsewhere. Not
far to the south of the prol^able basic edge there are exposures of Huronian
quartzite, which resists weathering better than the greenstone, rising as
hills in a few places, above the wide spread sand plains.
In all there are about three miles of the basic edge on the east side
of Garson township and the west half of Falconbridgc where the actual
edge of the norite is concealed, but it may be that exploration through
the Pleistocene beds along this supposedly barren stretch will in the future
disclose valuable ore bodies.
The Eastern Nickel Range.
About on the line ])etween lots 8 and 7 and nearly half a mile north
of con. Ill of Falconbridgc a hill of greenstone rises to the southeast, but
separated from outcrops of norite to the north and northwest by swampy
ground, so that the contact is not seen. It is evident that here the boundary
makes a sharp turn from nearly east to a direction somewhat east of
north.
From this outcrop of greenstone the bush road turns about 30° east
of north, mostly over drift deposits for half a mile, when rock shows
once more with a thick coat of gossan near the line between concessions
IV and V and half way across lot 7. From this point for half a mile north-
wards ore and gossan are frequently found and several claims were taken
up in early years. The most important showing of ore is where the north-
easterly trend of the norite edge cluuiges to nearly due north, forming
the bay necessary for a marginal deposit of ore, on the west half of the
nortli half of lot 7, con IV. Several of these properties have been
84
acquired by the Dominion Nickel L'oj)[)er Compa ly, of which Messrs. J. K.
Booth and M. J. O'Brien of Ottawa are prominent shareholders, and 1 am
much indebted to their manager, Mr. J. A. Holmes, for aid in visiting
them and for useful information regarding the region. This is the most
easterly point of the norite-micropegmatite sheet.
The norite is of the rather pale variety commonly found east of Blezard
mine and the edge is generally against greenstone mixed with some grani-
toid and gneissoid rocks, thougii in one ])lace a small area of quartzite
shows beside the norite.
On the southern outcrops the former owners did a good deal of stri])-
ping and sank a small shaft, but th(> Dominion Nickel Copper Comjiany
are now testing the properties with the diamond drill. The ore is a good
deal mixed with brecciated, fine grained, greenstone, and blends eastward
in the usual way into pyrrhotite-norite. The drill holes show that in
at least one place the ore goes down nearly vertically for 800 feet so that
the ore l)ody has not the inward dip usual in marginal ore bodies, probably
because of faulting. The evidence for a large body of ore at this south-
eastward bay of the norite is strong, conforming to the general rule in
the region and balancing the large Whistle ore body at the northeast
corner of the l^asin.
Beside the series of strippings and test pits extending for more than
200 yards near the concession line between IV and V, there is an interesting
outcrop a half mile to the north, beyond marshy low ground, recently
opened up by stripping and test pits by Mr. Cryderman. The associa-
tions are the usual ones of norite against greenstone, with some bands of
ore ramifying between the crushed blocks of country rock. It is stated
that in this part of the eastern range coarse grained platy looking ore is
richer than fine grained ore; and though the minerals to be seen on the
dumps are the usual pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite, some of the ore is rich
in nickel, showing that pentlandite also must be present.
To the north of Cryderman 's prospect for nearly three miles no ore
has been found by prospectors, and the basic edge is lost under the thick
deposits of drift covering most of the region. That there is no break in
the nickel eruptive is proved, however, by outcrops toward the west where
the micropegmatite makes an irregular band of pale pinkish grey hills.
The next known deposit of ore is at Boland's claims just southwest
of Massey bay of Lake Wanapitei, on an area of gossan not known during
our earlier examination of the region, showing that discoveries are still
being made. The stripping has been done mainly on lot 8, con. II of
Maclennan township, 20 chains south of the corner post and 100 yards
west of the line between lots 8 and 7; and the outcrop is near the top of
a steep hillside sloping toward the bay, in greenstone with green schist
enclosing a little arkose or quartzite. The actual edge of the norite may
be on top of the hill where drift covers everything for nearly half a mile
to the west, though it is possible that the ore belongs to an offset. The
ore in sight consists of fine grained pyrrhotite with some chalcopyrite,
either in solid seams or ramif^ung into the rock; and the amount exposed
is not very large.
THE BLUE LAKE REGION.
Beyond Boland's the drift once more hides the margin for a mile,
after which the superficial beds thin out and the country consists of rocky
hills separated by narrow valleys often filled with a lake. The basic
edge in this part trends about northwest for six miles; and this stretch
may be called the Blue Lake region. Owing to the good rock exposures this
belt was early taken up as a series of claims, which run without a l)reak
for the whole distance. They are at present rather inaccessible, since
the only road that exists is in very bad condition and it stops entirely at Blue
Lake; beyond which travel must be on foot over very rugged country,
or by a chain of lakes very poorly connected by portage paths, at least
during low water seasons, such as the summer of 191 1.
In the earlier survey this part of the nickel range was worked out by
my assistant the late Mr. M. T. Culbert; and during the examination
made in 191 1 it was not found necessary to make any changes in his mapping,
except in the way of minor details.^ There has been little advance in
conditions since 1905, no work having been done later on any of the proper-
ties; and the weathering of the ore and rock dumps has proceeded so far
that fresh specimens can only be obtained by breaking large masses. Most
of these properties belong to the Lake Superior Corporation or to Cochrane
and McVittie.
The wagon road from Sudbury to Blue lake branches off from the road
described as going north across the nickel eruptive not far from Garsoa
mine, and turning northeast crosses Massey creek, which flows ultimately
into Alassey bay near Boland's. At this point the road approaches the
margin of the norite after passing for two or three miles over sand plains,
and it presently goes down into a narrow valley followed l)y a small tribu-
tary of Massey creek. This tributary stream with the ponds and
marshes into which it expands marks almost exactly the basic edge of
the norite, and for at least a mile and a half the road, which follows the
creek, is scarcel}^ a hundred yards from the edge. The norite has
weathered much more rapidly than the granite and greenstone to the
northeast and also than the intermediate rock and the micropegmatite of
the acid edge to the southwest, so that a trough perhaps a quarter of a
mile wide has been opened up all along its outcrop.
The first four claims, WD4, WD6, WD3, and F8 show no large bodies
ol" ore, though the norite is nearly everywhere spotted with gossan where
it touches the fine grained greenstone or Laurentian granite which forms
the country rock.
F7 and F6 were taken u]) on the east shore of a small lake running
north and south, and WD7, an unusually large location, covers its west
side. This small body of water was called Moose lake by the early pros-
pectors, but as there are already two other Moose lakes in the district,
it has been named Pyrrhotite lake on the present map. The name is
appro]5riate, since almost its whole eastern side is covered with gossan,
and a number of large test pits, as well as two or three small shafts, show
sul])hides, mainly pyrrhotite.
Most of the pits are near the shore, which rises rather steeply for
20 or 30 feet, but others extend for about 100 paces farther up the hill.
The workings are all old and the sulphides of the faces of the pits and on
the dumps have largely changed to gossan, but in several places there are
thicknesses of five or six feet of solid ore to l)e seen. Generally, however,
the ore s a good deal mixed with rock, jiartly spotted norite, l)ut more
often a crush conglomerate^ of greenstone, which makes the country rock.
There has been a vast amount of crushing and shearing of this greenstone
and occasionally al.-^o of granite, which has penetrated the older rock as
dykes. The foot -wall of rusty greenstone has a v(M\v \ineven surface, from
which much of the ore and norite have been weathered, leaving rounded
'Bur. Minc<. Vol. XIW I'ait III, pp. 7:5-4.
86
mounds and hollows, the whole dipping westward under the water of
Pyrrhotite lake at angles varying from 15° to 45°.
This dipping of the gossan and ore into the lake suggest that there may
be considerable deposits under its bed, especially since very little norite
can be seen above or mingled with the ore in the pits. The norite observed
is dark grey, medium to fine grained, with small crystals of biotite and looks
very like the norite of Creighton mine, and thin sections under the micro-
scope show that the composition is the same, except for the change of
hypersthene into hornblende. This dark grey norite seems confined
to the immediate vicinity of the ore, and a quarter of a mile to the west,
on the other side of Pj-rrhotite lake, the rock has the usual pale grey of
the eavStern norite. Microscope sections of this norite show a little more
quartz and no biotite.
The nickel eruptive is unusually narrow here, the width being only
a mile and a half, of which about a third may be considered norite and the
rest quartz diorite or a dioritic syenite with micropegmatitic cjuartz.
Not far to the south the eruptive has a width of about a mile and a
quarter and one would not expect a very large body of ore to segregate
from so moderate a thickness of magma; nevertheless the gossan and ore
at Pj^rhotite lake extend for 1,200 feet, following the shore, and for 760
feet in a straight line, with a breadth in places of 200 feet, so that surface
indications are favourable, and the ore is unusually coarse grained and rich.
Beyond the lake towards the northeast in location F5 several pits
and a small shaft on a steep hill beside a pond display a good deal of gossan,
though not much ore can be seen; and beyond this is a steep hill rising
from the shore of Blue lake with gossan on its slope and two curious deposits
on top. The larger one, 75 feet long from north to south and .35 feet wide,
is completely enclosed in greenstone and seems to be a columnar offset
deposit, though only a short distance from the edge of the norite; the
other one is a few yards to the southeast. Seven years ago the Lake
Superior Power Company did some diamond drilling on Blue lake, proving
the existence of a considerable body of ore, but the lack of railway connex-
ions prevented them from working the mine.
Blue lake consists of two parts joined by a narrow strait, and the ore
deposits just mentioned occur to the east of the strait and south of the
northeastern part of the lake, the southw^estern expansion being w^holly
within the nickel eruptive. Across the northeast expansion a small out-
crop of ore occurs about opposite those just described in location W 1.
From this point the edge of the norite runs northwest to the eastern side
of Clear lake, in W 2 and W 3, where there are strippings and small pits
showing ore, mostly close to the water's edge, but sometimes 100 or 150
yards up the hillside. The country rock northeast of Clear lake rises
with very steep slopes to a rather narrow ridge of greenstone and crush
conglomerate running northwest and southeast parallel to the lake, which
is about a mile long and less than a quarter of a mile wide. The lake
basin was evidently formed by the weathering out of the basic norite
with its fringe of ore.
The outlet of Clear lake is over morainic materials, and the solid rock
is covered to Emma lake, the next little lake or pond, so that the position
of the norite margin is doubtful. A short distance north of Emma lake
there are hills of coarse granitoid gneiss, so that the basic edge evidently
continues northeast under the drift towards a bay of Ella lake. Like
Blue lake, Ella lake is double, with northeast and southwest expansions
having a narrow^s between; but most of the northeastern shore is of granite
or greenstone mixed with granite, and in location WR 11, no ore was observed.
87
Just northeast of the outlet of the lake in WR 10 where a small stream
flows north toward West bay of Wanapitei lake, a considerable patch of
gossan is seen and a large test pit has been sunk showing ore mixed with
rock, and gossan Avith norite and ore occurs in a ravine northeast of the
end of the lake in WR 2. WR 9 and WR 2 are within the township of
Norman.
Between this point and Waddell lake there is much difficulty in placing
the edge of the norite, since the hill seems to be the plane of contact of
norite and ore against the underlying greenstone. The whole surface
is a crush conglomerate and here and there scattered over it are gossany
spots and small patches of norite spotted with ore. Mr. Culbert mapped
the norite edge as bending northeast toward a bay on the east side of WR 2,
and there are undoubtedly rusty portions of norite extending as far as
that, but they seem to be only remnants projecting a little deeper into the
foot-wall rock than usual, and hence of no importance as indications of
an ore deposit. On this account it has seemed better to carry the boundary
nearly straight north to Waddell lake. Along its shore much the same
difficulty is met, since granite occurs at its southeast corner in WR 23,
followed by greenstone farther north, partly covered by a fringe of norite
and gossan running up into WR 7, where a small outcrop of ore occurs
northeast of the end of the lake, probably a short offset, since older rocks
occupy the northeast shores beyond this.
THE WHISTLE MINE.
The Whistle mine has long been looked upon as the most important
ore deposit on the eastern side of the nickel basin because of the great
extent of gossan displayed and also since ore was disclosed in numerous
test pits sunk in earlier years. At the time of the former mapping of the
region it was not easily accessible except by a canoe route following the
chain of lakes referred to as leading northwest from Blue lake, but at present
it is reached by the Nickel Range railway, running three and a half miles
east from Nickelton Junction on the Canadian Northern.
The mine is mainly on lot 6, con. IV of the township of Norman, Ijut
the deposit extends a little way into lot 6, con. V, just to the north, and
beyond it the mining village of Nickelton is rising on a plain of old lake
deposits. It belongs to the Dominion Nickel Copper Company and is,
so far as known at present, the most important in tonnage of ore of their
numerous properties on the eastern and northern ranges.
Coming up from the south there is a fringe of barren norite along the
cast shore of Selwj'n lake, cut by its eastern bay, and running with a very
irregular edge along low hills at the outlet of the lake into Post creek.
A few hundred yards down Post creek a tributary comes in from the
northwest in a broad marshy tract Avliich hides the boundary for a short
distance. To the north of the junction of the two streams near a road
leading northwestward to the mine, gossan is seen extending iiY> the hillside
to the east, on Avhat is called the Wildcap deposit. With few interruptions
gossan and ore can be followed irregularly along the steep hillside or on top
of the hill to the point where the main workings have been carried on near
the shaft house, a distance of more than a third of a mile. Here the boun-
dary suddenly turns westward, crossing the railway an eighth of a mile
northwest of the rockhouse, which is about 180 yards southwest of the
shaft house.
From end to end the gossany edge of the norite and ore extends for
half a mile, witli a width of 250 yards where widest, and lying up against a
88
steep hill which rises 230 feet above the valley, the rusty surface is most-
impressive. Ore or go^^'in extends quite to the top of the hill and may be
followed down the slope to a small tract of swamp at the bottom. ]\Iany
test pits were sunk from point to point in early days showing shallow or
deep ore deposits at the Whistle mine, and since passing into the hands of
its present owners a large amount of diamond drilling has been done on a
systematic plan, so as to explore the property more thoroughly. A drift
has been run into the hillside half way up, cutting a bod}- of ore for 432 feet
and resulting in the incidental jiroduction of several thousands of tons of
ore. In one drill hole in the swamp Ijclow the hill ore was found at a depth
of 893 feet; showing that the hillside does not display all the or(> in the
deposit
The Whistle mine is a typical marginal deposit, formed where the norite
edge makes a sharp bend from north to west, so that it follows the general law
in the district, of a large ore Ijody where there is a pronounced bay of the
norite extending into the country rock. The shape of the deposit is very
complex, since the floor of granite and greenstone is uneven with projec-
tions and also hollows into wliich the ore could settle. A distinct rise of the
Archaean floor separates the Whistle from the Wildcat to the south, and the
A\'histle itself is divided into almost separate deposits by projections of
the rock beneath, one mass dipping at 45° toward the west, and another
passing into the flat at the southwest.
Except close to the ore the norite near the Whistle mine is coarse
grained and unusually pale grey in colour, as may be seen where it rises as a
steep-walled hill a little to the west of the rockhouse. The norite close to
the ore, however, is very fine grained and is sometimes mixed with fragments
of other rock, greenstone and granite or gneiss as a crush conglom(n-ate,
an arra igement found at many other nickel mines. It is probable that
this long known mine will be producing ore on a large scale within a year
or two.
To the west of Whistle mine the iKjundary of the norite, with its
gcssan, is lost in the creek valley, and for a quarter of a mile the contact
has not been seen, since the hill which it crosses is largely covered with
drift and forest. Half a mile to the west, following the railway, small
pits on a gossan-covered surface show some ore a hundred paces south
of the track, and less than a quarter of a mile beyond gossan is seen, a
little to the north of the railway.
Broad lake deposits hide the basic edge for some distance beyond this,
])ut here and there norite with little evidence of ore rises against hills of
granite enclosing some green schist. About two and a half miles Avest of
the mine, following the railway, a path leads a quarter of a mile northwest
to a ravine between a steep hill of norite toward the southwest and of
Laurentian toward the northeast. On the flanks of the latter hill there
is ore to be seen at a small shaft, whose dump consists mainly of crushed
conglomerate mixed with ore. Beyond this to ^^ermilion river no out-
crops of gossan or ore are known.
The Northern Range.
The edge of the norite at Vermilion river is largely drift-covered, and
no actual contact was observed near the river nor along the Canadian
Northern railway at Nickelton Junction; the coarse, rather pale, grey
norite found for a quarter of a mile north of the junction passing out of
'^\'h-ri ......
Crush breccia under norito, Trill.
89
sight several hundred feet before the reddish Laurentian gneiss rises in a
rock cut. From this point southwest for two miles kames and morainic
deposits deeply cover the bed rock in most places, but the norite edge caa
be seen rising as hills against the Laurentian near a small lake at the
corner of lots 2 and 3, cons. Ill and IV of Wisner township. There is no
ore nor gossan to be seen and prospectors have taken up no claims until
lot 4 is reached in the third concession. A well beaten path leads from
Nickelton Junction over the hills just mentioned, and then follows the
chain of claims running westward across four miles of the width of the
township, in places widened or replaced by a lumber road.
The basic edge from lot 4 to Joe's lake follows mainly a creek valley
with swampy margins, where the actual contact of the norite with the
older rocks to the north is usually hidden, and no gossan nor ore was
observed, though prospectors have taken up half a dozen claims along this
part of the range. The edge bends inward here, so that ore in quantity
w^ould hardly be looked for; but toward the west side of location WR 14,
northwest of Joe's lake, and adjoining part of WD 16 to the west there
is a promising outward bend, mainly within the latter claim. Here the
norite boundary is gossany against crushed greenstone, and in WD 16
test pits and diamond drill holes show the presence of a considerable amount
of ore.
The boundary curves southwest in this location, and then WTst once
more in WD 13, where some gossan and ore are seen in test pits. Ore has
been found in WD 15 also, where the norite turns a little south of west
before passing out of Wisner township.
In Bowell township the basic edge extends diagonally from con. Ill
on the east side to the southwest corner, just north of the township of
Lumsden. Ore may be seen on WD 13 and on WD 208, but the most
promising deposits are near the middle of the township, where a long
offset extends toward the west. Gossan begins to show itself against granite
hills near the northeast corner of location WD 35, but is found in much
larger amounts on a hill slope in WD 155, which may be taken as the
beginning of the offset.
THE TOY OFFSET.
Tlie Foy offset, as it may be called, runs past Nickel lake in a north-
westerly direction, then turns west, passing another small lake, and ends
just north of a pond almost exactly in the middle of Foy township. It
is six miles long and fairly continuous, though the norite narrows and widens
and is not always easy to distinguish from certain grey basic rocks rising
here and there in the Laurentian. The rock is heavily charged with ore
for the first mile, and there is a distinct ore body in location WR 5, often
called the Ross mine, at the western end, but the stretch between shows
little gossan, though its whole length has been taken up by prospectors.
Gossan is wides])read on the locations near Nickel lake, and test pits
and drill holes show that ore occurs at a number of points on WD 155,
where the adjoining rock in some places is so largely made up of white
plagioclase crystals that it might be called anorthosite, and there are
small seams of magnetite as well as sulphides. Similar relations con-
tinue to the northwest, in WD 150. lieyond Nickel lake the band of
norite narrows and becomes greatly mixed with boulders and angular frag-
ments of a coarser grained norite and of the country rocks, which are grey
gneiss, greenstone, and a white rock with porphyrinic feldspars not unlike
the anorthosite mentioned above. The whole conglomerate is more or less
90
gossan-covered, and quite similar conditions are seen near the next little
lake, where gossan and the band of crushed rock rise above the water.
Th(^ Laiirentian along this part of the offset is coarse red granite,
sonietliing unusual in the region, where it commonly consists of grey gneiss
with streaks or patches of greenstone. Little gossan or ore is to be seen
beyond this along the offset, until the Ross mine is reached, where two out-
crops rise from the muskeg borders of a small lake against the usual hillside
of Laurentain gneiss; but even here the amount of ore to be seen is not
large. It is reported to assay only 2-75 per cent of nickel, so that it is
not high grade. ^
The crushed and brecciated character of the rock along this offset
reseml)les that on the two other long offsets, at Copper Cliff and Worth-
ington, and may be accounted for as in the other cases by collapse and
faulting during the advent of the nickel eruptive. This offset is, however,
more contiiiuous than the others, scarcely showing any interruptions,
though its width varies from 20 feet to 500 feet in different places. Except
in the earlier part, near Nickel lake, there is no reason to expect any large
body of ore on this northern offset, and the low content of nickel at the
Ross mine is not specially attractive.
Beyond the Foy offset the boundary of the norite follows the south
shore of Roland lake and then turns southwest to another narrow lake
which lies between the norite and hills of Laurentian to the north. The
next point of interest is in location WD 238, where a small offset projects
northward from the edge, running up a narrow valley in location WD 37
and showing gossan and ore as exposed by strippings. Gossan is found
at several points to the southwest, and a few test pits show ore on locations
WD 231, WD 241 and WD 251, the last being at the southwest corner of
the township. The country rock along this part of the basic edge is
gneissic Laurentian rising often as very steep ridges or hills, with the ore
generally toward the l)ottom of the slope. At several points, however,
the margin is in low ground and covered with drift and swam]i.
Taking the northern range as a whole, the number of ore bodies of
promise is not great, though at least two portions, northwest of Joe's
lake and at the beginning of the Foy offset, are known to contain deposits
of importance. The ore is not usually high grade and differs considerably
from that of the southern range in containing less copper and more mag-
netite. In one location there is only 0-15 per cent of copper with 50-57
per cent of iron. About 10 per cent of this ore is magnetite, and sulphur
is present to the extent of only 30 to 32 per cent, so that by simple roasting
an excellent ore of iron could be prepared containing all the nickel. The
amount of copper present is so small that apparently the roasted ore could
be used directly in the production of nickel steel, the plan proposed years
ago by the Lake Superior Corporation for the ore from the Gertrude mine.
BASIC EDGE IN MORGAN AND LEVACK.
The basic edge of the norite, more or less ore-bearing as it runs dia-
gonally to the southwest corner of Bowell township, loses its ore almost
immediately after entering Morgan township. South of a small lake at
this point there are two patches of gossan on which a little stripping has
been done, while to the north of the lake there is Laurentian granitoid
gneiss. The edge of the nickel eruptive shows neither gossan nor ore from
'G.S.C, 1890, Part R, pp. 43-4.
91
this lake to the boundary of Levack township, at the north end of con-
cession IV, so far as our researches go, and no locations have been taken
up by prospectors, whose keen eyes never fail to discover an outcrop of
gossan. The reason for this is probably to be found in the fact that
the eruptive is here at its narrowest, having a width of only three-
quarters of a mile in lot 2, concessions V and VI, and not exceeding a mile
and a half till the margin bends westward toward the Levack ore deposits.
In accord with this narrowing of the eruptive is the petrographic
character of its outer edge, which is pale reddish grey, with the compo-
sition of syenite rather than norite. Comparison of specimens from the
two edges shows very little difference, and one may fairly conclude that the
basic, or norite, part of the eruptive is wanting here, the acid or micro-
pegmatite phase making the whole width, so that under these circum-
stances the lack of ore for six miles is not surprising.
The country rock, where examined at every half-mile or oftener
across the township, is coarse granitoid gneiss of the Laurentian type with
many bands and masses of hornblende schist or greenstone enclosed in it.
The gneiss strikes about east and west and usually has a vertical dip,
and the boundary of the eruptive always shows a crushing and brecciation
of the Laurentian beneath.
Owing to its l^arren character, it does not seem necessary to describe
in detail the margin of the eruptive in this part.
The northern part of Morgan township is almost devoid of roads and
has been left in a very rough condition by the lumbermen; but it may
be reached by canoe on Moose and Trout lakes and by a lumber road over
sand and gravel plains to an old camp near the forks of Sandcherry creek.
THE LEVACK AND STRATHCONA MINES.
As the nickel eruptive widens north of Moose lake, near the eastern
boundary of Levack township, its outer edge once more becomes grey,
though not of a deep tone, and may be called norite again. The widening
continues through the first two lots of Levack township and reaches nearly
two and a half miles opposite the Strathcona and Big Levack mines. Near
the north end of lot 1, con. IV of Levack, 150 yards west of a small lake,
gossan and ore are to be seen in some small test pits, and 100 yards farther
west stripping shows a considerable extent of gossany surface, the latter
probably in lot 2. The country rock is of granite or of granitoid gneiss
and a hill of these rocks projects south, separating the strip]>ing just men-
tioned from the much larger exposure of ore and gossan commonly called
the Big Levack mine. Here the margin of the norite and ore is very
irregular and is spread out over a length of 130 yards from north to south
and a breadth of 70 yards. The underlying surface of granite is hummocky
with depressions and projections, so that the ore sometimes reaches down
several feet, as shown by test pits, while in other places the bare rusty
surface of granite intervenes. The dip of the basic edge is, therefore, very
variable, averaging about 20° or somewhat more.
It ajipears that most of the norite and ore has been weathered away,
leaving only what was protected in the hollows of the harder rock beneath.
It may be, however, that the swamp at the foot of the gentle slope hides
the thicker parts of the ore body.
A swamp-covered gap separates the Big Levack property from the
Strathcona mine in lot 3, where the norite edge projects a short distance
to the west. Here, as on the Big Levack, the ore and norite are widely
hut very irregularlv spread, as seen in numerous test pits. Mr. Ernest A.
25873—10
92
Sjostedt, who examined the property some years ago, when the workings
were fresh, reports on it as follows:
"The mineral zone runs diagonally N.E. and S.W. across the north
half of lot 3 and south half of lot 4, in the fourth concession of Levack
township, and is bounded to the northwest by a range of syenitic granite,
with which it forms a direct contact; and to the southeast by a wide range
of norite, which usually forms one side of the mineralized zone throughout
the Sudbury district. The largest body of ore is shown at the northeast
end of lot 3, although the line of magnetic attraction is practically con-
tinuous across both lots, and ore is shown at various points of lot 4 as well.
Near the northeast end of lot 3 the principal prospecting work has been
done, a space of 3 or 4 acres having been cleared of timber and underbrush,
and in places the formation stripped, exposing the capping and gossan,
which generally reaches a depth of 2 to 8 feet. Part of the ore body is
here shown up by a number of cuts and pits, also by two shafts, of which
No. 1 shaft is 45 feet deep, passing 8 feet through barren cap rock, then
through 25 feet of mixed ore, then through 12 feet of solid pyrrhotite,
and a 10 foot hole having been drilled in the bottom of the shaft, showing
clean ore the entire distance. No. 2 shaft (250 feet north of shaft No. 1)
is 30 feet deep, 6 feet being in cap rock and 24 in solid pyrrhotite.
Pit A (320 feet north of shaft No. 1) and pit D (40 "feet north of pit
A) show ore within 2 feet of the surface, and trench C along a low hillside
about midway between pit A and shaft No. 2, shows a face of ore 50 feet
long, in the centre of which a pit was sunk through 12 feet of solid ore.
From the data furnished by the above-mentioned pits and shafts,
covering an area of about 600 feet in length and width, the amount of
ore in sight on lot 3 is some 60,000 tons, but this includes an area of less
than a tenth of the ground covered by equally promising surface indica-
tions; consequently there is every reason to expect a much larger body.
The ore exists mainly in solid masses within a zone of 200 to 600 feet wide
and some 1,400 feet long.
Following are a number of analyses of samples taken from the above-
mentioned workings, which w 11 show the character of the ore."
Sample from
Insol. Fe. Cu. I Ni.
Shaft No. 1,1 foot from bottom . . . 'D. C. Schuler.
" " piece from dump 'E. A. Sjostedt.
" " 2, from dump |D. C. Schuler..
" " 25 feet depth "
" " piece from dump E. A. Sjostedt.
Pit A, surface iD. C. Schuler..
" B, surface "
" B, bottom I "
" C, surface i "
" C, trench j "
" C, 13 ft. pit
" D, low ground "
Diamond drill hole, near A, 26 ft. . A. B. Wilmott.
Diamond drill hole, near A, 40 ft.. . "
Shafts, all over dumps R. H. Aiken.. .
Near norite wall "
Near norite wall "
503.
Average
Samples taken by Messrs. Cohen and
Bradley, experts for J. R. De-
Lamar, N.Y
Total average.
610.
3-40.
400 50-4
501 54-3
4-71 52-3
0-571
2-78
1-35
3-55
0-70
3-85
2-11
3-54
014
4-65
0-67
2-24
5-47
202
1-54
3-37
0-33
2-40
1-24
3-27
0-28
2-72
0-30
3-21
0-65
3-80
0-58
2-60
2-23
3-15
1-49
1-68
2-43
1-70
1-31
1-99I
2-97
2-67
1-70 2-82
93
The ore is evidently widely spread in these two mines, which are
really one series of deposits, but a very large part of it has been removed
during the lapse of time, so that only remnants now remain on the exposed
surfaces. What may still be preserved beneath the swamps and drift to
the southeast remains to be proved.
The ore as shown in Mr. Sjostedt's table averages lower in grade
than that of the southern nickel range as a whole, though it equals that
of two or three large mines which have been worked profitably. Rather
pale grey norite rises as hills to the south of the chain of ponds and swamps
representing the basic edge of the norite.
At the Levack mine a wagon road begins, following the basic edge
rather closely southwestwards to the crossing of Onaping river, in lot 9,
on the southern side of Levack township. Beyond this the road keeps
to the west side of the river, which here runs south, to the Canadian
Pacific railway at Levack, a distance of a little over five miles along the
nickel range, followed by about two miles southwards across the more
acid phases of the eruptive.
The basic edge runs for two miles southwest from Strathcona mine,
then bends south for two-thirds of a mile past a small lake in lot 6 on
the boundary between concessions II and III. No ore has been found
at the northwestward bend, where one might have expected it, but gossan
shows on a hillside sloping steeply down to the lake at its southern end.
It may be that the boggy floor of the valley to the north conceals ore which
does not show itself on the rocks which rise above it, and no doubt with
the idea that an ore deposit may exist below the marsh and lake, a claim
has been staked by Mr. Black at its outlet.
The test pits near by show very platy pyrrhotite enclosing small
crystals or rounded blebs of rock matter, and the same is true of a large
deposit, generally called the Tough and Stobie property, two-thirds of a
mile to the southeast, where the road passes over the gossan close to the
foot of a high hill, on which several test pits have been sunk.
The Laurentian background of granite, gneiss and fine grained green-
stone, has been very little brecciated at this point and dips fairly uni-
formly at an angle of 33° to the southeast, under the usual swamp; while
hills of grey norite rise across the creek a quarter of a mile away. All of
the Levack properties suggest remnants of once important sheets of ore
leaning up against the Laurentian gneiss, with a possibility that the original
thickness of the deposit may yet be found preserved beneath the drift or
swamp that regularly covers the base of the bills.
To the southwest of this point plains of sand and gravel begin to
spread out along the river valley and the basic edge is mostly hidden for
the next two or three miles.
The short stretch of the basic edge included in the township o' Dow-
liiig between Onaping river and Windy lake, is largely drift-covered and
no ore is known to ex'st akmg it. Near the Canadian Pacific railway
on the northeast shore of Windy lake grey dioritic norite is seen, but the
precise boundary between it and the Laurentian is under the drift. The
Laurentian beyond is gneiss with darker schistose inclusions.
Windy lake itself cuts out two miles of the basic edge, the only example
of a large body of water occurring on the circumference of the basin. A
l)romont()ry stretching out from its northwestern shore is crossed by the
norite margin, but here it is obscured l)y moraines and esker ridges and
a small l^iy pushing north from the end of the lake forms anotiier inier-
ru])tion, followed by wide swamps to the southwest in the direction of
Mi]ik lake. The shore of Mink lake is entirely Laurentian, and the por-
25873—10^
94
tage path between it and Mosquito lake to the southwest crosses only
coarse granitoid gneiss and drift. On the southeast side of the small stream
drain'ng ^link lake into an arm of Mosciuito lake norite rises as a steep
wall of rock, which continues along the shore of this northeast arm and
also borders the main body of the lake. A narrow southern arm of the
lake probably marks the l^oundary there, but no rock was seen on its
shore.
A point projecting from the southwest side of the main lake consists
of spotted norite against Laurentian and it is stated that ore was found
in two pits a little lower down on the point and on a small island off shore;
but at present a dam at the outlet of Mosquito lake has so far raised the
water as to cover all of the openings. The work was done many years
ago by Messrs. McConnell and Tough, and the small ore dump visible
is turned to gossan. Mr. W. Stephens, a trapper well acquainted with
the region, says that a narrow band of rusty rock with some ore is found
also on the shore of a long southeastern arm of Ministique lake (locally
called Mistic lake), but for lack of a canoe at the proper time this was
not visited. The small deposits on Mosquito and Ministique lakes seem
to be parts of an offset.
The southern end of Mosquito lake passes into the township of Trill
and a portage leads west, mostly over drift, to the northeast end of Arm-
strong lake in that township. Including the water stretch of Windy lake
there is a gap of about nine miles between the last outcrops of ore in Levack
and the one just referred to in C'ascaden, the longest blank known on the
basic margin of the nickel eruptive. The next longest blank is in Morgan
township to the northeast, where the eruptive is narrower than anywhere
else. The Windy lake pa t of the eruptive is not unusually narrow, so
that some different explanation must be looked for in this case; and it
may simply be that ore bodies exist but are under the water of the lake
or are covered by the widespread drift and swamp which hide the solid
rocks over much of the region.
THE NICKEL RANGE IN TRILL.
For about two miles south of the last norite seen on Mosquito lake
the basic edge appears to be lost under drift deposits, though a cliff of
norite was found at about the middle of the south side of lot 9 in con. V.
The boundary apparently runs near the west side of a small unnamed
lake, where gra.nite hills rise just to the west, but the first actual contact
was found in lot 10, con. Y, 200 or 300 yards south of the lake just mentioned,
on a hill sloping east, where a little norite occurs in patches on the Lauren-
tian. The bou.ndary ca.n be traced, with drift-covered interruptions,
for half a mile southwest on the same hillside. About a c}uarter of a mile
south of con. V, on the line between lots 10 and 11, the slope of the hill
becomes steeper and turns west, and on its south side gossan appears
in considerable amounts and some test pits show more or less ore. Beyond
this the boundary is once more vague, spots of norite occurring in the brec-
ciated gneiss for some distance up the hill beyond the solid eruptive, and
presently the basic edge bends to the south for three-quarters of a mile,
and then southeast. There is much drift over this portion so that the
precise boundary is not certain, and a little north of the only house left
standing there is a small inlier of Laurentian, apparently a mound rising
island-like through the surrounding norite.
The contact of norite and the mixed granite and greenstone of the
Laurentian is unusually flat in this great westward bay, often having a
95
dip of not more than 5° or 10°, and many scattered shreds of norite, very
fine grained and sometimes spotted with ore, are found as outhers upon
the older rocks, even hundreds of yards beyond the edge of the solid norite.
At the corner post between lots 10 and 11 and concessions III and IV
a hill of greenstone rises steeply facing northeast and along its flanks ore.
occurs in several places at the Trillabelle or Gillespie mine, where in former
years a considerable amount of work was done in stripping, opening pits
and sinking shafts. The old buildings have all disappeared and saplings
are growing up among their foundations, but the gossan-covered clumps
of rock and ore may still be studied.
The rocky hillside consists largely of the crush conglomerate so often
found beneath the norite, with fine grained norite and ore as the matrix
of the large and small fragments of greenstone; and the dip of the contact
is from 35° to 45° to the northeast, in strong contrast with the gentle dip
of the country rock a little way to the northwest. It seems that the steep
slopes beneath the norite, here and also three-quarters of a mile to the
north, halted the molten mass and allowed the ore to separate, while the
easier slope between these two points permitted an unobstructed motion.
A quarter of a mile farther southeast there is an isolated pit with ore,
and 200 yards south of it another pit of considerable size. Beyond this
to the south the margin of the norite is generally drift-covered and no
more ore nor gossan was observed, though in several places granite with
patches of greenstone, or greenstone free from granite can be found to the
west, and norite to the east of the valley followed by the road to Worthing-
ton. At two points there are outliers of norite with Laurentian all round
them.
A bald ridge of pale grey norite rises as a landmark on the line
between lots 9 and 10 near the south end of concession III, just to the west
of the marshy valley of Cameron creek and sinks out of sight a quarter
of a mile farther south. After a half mile of swamp norite again rises
on the hillsides west of the creek near its eastward bend and continues
to the middle of lot 9, con. I, the farthest point toward the southwest
reached by the nickel eruptive. No ore nor gossan was observed along
this belt of norite, probal)ly because the actual edge is everywhere drift-
covered, though in such a bay-like projection ore might have been expected.
Around the bend of Cameron creek everything is lost under dead
water and swamps owing to a dam just beyond; and here a puzzling
problem arose. From the last undoubted norite to the nearest ore deposit
of Sultana mine is less than a mile in a direction a little south of east;
but all trace of the norite seemed to be lost in the space between. To
the north of the creek beyond the dam a reddish somewhat schistose rock
rose as hills and to the south an even steeper group of hills consisted of
greenstone. By careful following up of the nickel eruptive from Sultana
mine, so as to make sure there was no break in the continuity, it was proved
that the basic part of the eruptive is wanting here and that the reddish
schistose rock passes directly into the acid phase of the eruptive. It
has, however, been sheared or squeezed against the greenstone across the
creek and perhaps cut off by faulting. Owing to the covering of drift to
the southwest the relations in that direction could not be seen, but it seems
certain that the southwest end of the boat-shaped syncline is partly split
open by a mass of greenstone half a mile long and a quarter of a mile wide.
In the former mapping of this part of the region the township of
Trill was covered with heavy timber, and outcrops of rock were not easy
to find, so that the norite boundary was made too regular. Since that
96
lime the splendid pine has been cut off ]\v tlie lumberman and the region
has been mostly burnt over very effectually, so that the following of the
rock boundaries has been comparatively easy except where swamps or
stony morainic ridges hide everything. The present map, therefore,
shows much more irregularity in the basic edge than the former one at
the extreme west of the nickel basin.
In the work around Trillabelle mine much assistance was received
from Mr. Kirby Thomas, who was examining the propertj' as a mining
engineer.
In order to give a more complete idea of the nickel-copper contents
of the ores from various parts of the ranges not well represented in the
averages quoted the :"ollowing assays are appended. The samples were
taken as fair specimens of the ore in each case, but it will be understood,
of course, that they are individual samples and may not represent the
average ore from the deposits mentioned.
J^c.
Locality.
Insol.
Cu.
Ni.
Co.
In pure Sulphides.
Cu.
Ni. —
Sultana mine
Mt. Nickel mine
Whistle mine
Chicago (Travers) mine.
Levack mine
W. D. 150, Northern range of
Bowell tp
Worthington mine
mine, Worthington
Totten
offset
Blezard mine
Victoria mine
North Star mine. . .
Elsie mine
Little Stobie mine.
W. D. 155, Northern range of
Bowell tp
Gertrude mine.
10-27
7-62
6-60
9-80
1-50
9-52
17-00
29-52
13-42
0-62
10-09
31-84
6-32
7-47
8-75
0-26
0-31
0-10
0-24
0-84
0-10
0-56
0-08
2-42
0-70
0-26
3-38
0-20
0-32
0-14
2-68
307
2-76
2-50
4-76
2-51
6-45
6-41
3-90
7-95
4-56
1-26
1-58
3-57
3-88
3-07
0-29
0-33
0-11
0-26
0-85
0-11
0-67
0-11
2-80
0-70
0-29
4-96
0-21
0-34
015
2-99
3-33
2-96
2-77
4-83
2-77
7-77
9-09
4-50
8-00
5-07
1-85
1-69
3-86
4-14
Co.
4-3S
The Acid Edge of the Nickel Eruptive.
When it was discovered by Professor T. L. Walker that the norite con-
nected with the nickel ore at Murray mne merged into a more acid rock,
micropegmatite, toward the north, and that the norite near Windy lake
passed into a similar rock toward the southeast, a clue was given toward
97
the explanation of the whole problem of the nickel ranges and their rela-
tionships Under the instructions of the Director of the Bureau of Mines
of Ontario the work of mapping the nickel ranges as fully as possible was
undertaken by myself and my assistants, including Messrs. Culbert and
Moore. In folloAving up the different nickel ranges there were numerous
and sometimes wide gaps where no ore had been found by prospectors.
Often these gaps proved to be caused by swamps or drift deposits; in other
cases the norite could ])e followed unbroken but with an inward curvature
that did not permit the ore to collect.
To avoid the uncertaintj' occasioned by these gaps, it was decided to
map the acid edge of the nickel eruptive also, though in a rougher way; and
from time to time as occasion allowed the inner margin of the micropeg-
matite was traced. This boundary was touched as far as possible at every
half mile, and often much more frequently, so that its position as given on
the map is believed to be reasonably accurate, though it has not been
worked out in great detail.
The results of this work have given greater certainty in regard to
the continuity of the nickel ranges, especially in tying together loose ends,
for example near Sultana mine to the west and Falconbridge to the east.
As the work progressed it was recognized that another valuable result was
obtained. It was found that great width of the eruptive was accompanied
by large ore bodies, and medium width by smaller ore bodies, while the na -
rowest parts of the eruptive had no ore bodies on their basic edge.
The basic edge of the eruptive had usually been found to carry ore at
outward bays, which was explained by supposing that the heavier sulphides
settled b}' gravity into the hollows. On this theory no ore was to be expected
on the acid or upper margin of the eruptive, and actually no nickel ore and
very little copper ore has been found on this margin, though there are a
cons'derable number of small ore deposits of another kind either at the
acid edge or in the overlying sediments which have been more or less
metamorphosed by it. Up to the present none of these deposits have
proved large enough for development as mines, though it is possible that
more important ones may be found when the acid edge has been as care-
fully scanned by prospectors as the basic edge.
In mapping the acid edge unexpected difficulties were encountered.
It was found that the edge was often overrun, even for a hundred yards
or more, because of the great resemblance of the micropegmatite to the
overlying Trout lake conglomerate, which was often so completely meta-
morphosed by hot fluids emanating from the eruptive as to be itself largely
transformed into micropegmatite of a somewhat ruder sort, near the erup-
tive margin. Only the larger granite pebbles and boulders of the con-
glomerate resisted this process and remained as cloudy patches of coarser
or redder granitoid material.
Another difficulty was encountered in the variety of phases presented
by the micropegmatite itself, which was sometimes rather coarse, red and
granitic or syenitic looking, while at others it was gneissoid in appearance,
and at still others it formed a fine grained cleavable green schist. In the
field the one variety was traced into the other, but hand specimens of the
extreme types would never be recognized as the same rock. Thin sections
under the microscope, however, always showed the characteristic inter-
growth of quartz and feldspar called niicropegmatite.
ACID EDGE OF THE SOUTHERN RANGE.
The inner edge of the nickel eruptive on the southern range begins
loward the southwest in a sharp bend on lot 7, con. II, of Trill township,
98
the prow of the boat-shaped syncHne, from which it may be followed east-
ward to Cameron lake and beyond that to the north bay of Fairbank lake.
In this part of its course it is fine grained, schistose and dark greenish in
colour and does not suggest syenite or granite in the slightest degree, though
its chemical composition and its micropegmatite structure, as seen untler
the microscope, show tliat it is the equivalent of these rocks. A Httle to
the south it passes into hills of reddish syenite which i-; unmistakeable.
After continuing a mile and a half eastwards the acid edge bends north-
east to Gordon lake, whose south side it follows and then turns suddenly
southwards for a mile, before turning to the northeastward (Urection. Its
boundary against the conglomerate is as indefinite here as that of the
norite against the Laurcntian in Trill, and for a similar reason; since the
dip of the micropegmatite beneath the sediment is very gentle and the
edge of the conglomerate feathers out irregularly upon the surface of the
eruptive.
There is another feature of interest near this great bay of conglomerate;
the pebbles are more or less rol ed out in a schistose way and the cleavage
of both micropegmatite and schist conglomerate has a strike of 65° or 70°,
i.e. not parallel to the direction of the eruptive contact, while the dip is
about 45° to the southeast This does not correspond to the beddijig,
which is shown by vague layers having few or many pebbles to dip 25° or
30° toward the northwest.
It is probable that these features are to be connected with the long
Worthington offset of the nickel range, which begins four or five miles to
the southwest. The flattening and widening of the conglomerate, the direc-
tion of the schistose structure and its dip to the southeast, as well as the
complex lines of brecciation along the offset, ma}' all be accounted for by
supposing that a great block of the Archaean supports slipped down
beneath the molten sheet of norite-micropegmatite, the plane of faulting
and shearing runn'ng from southwest toward northeast.
After the remarkable southward bend of the acid edge, it once more
assumes the normal northeasterly direction, crossing Vermilion river and
reaching Lake Emma about in the middle. From this it follows Levey
creek rather closely to its exit from Whitewater lake The canoe route
is seldom more than a quarter of a mile from the edge, and it is evident
that the contact of the acid eruptive with the overh'ing sedimentary' rocks
furnished a plane of weakness in which the valley could be cut, though the
actual course of the stream is generally a little north of the Trout lake
conglomerate in the Onaping tuff. The acid edge is still schistose with
sj-enitic looking hills rising immediately to the south and trends about 80°
east of north. Just beyond the edge the northwest quarter of lot 4, con.
V has Vjeen taken up as a zinc claim.
Whitewater lake makes an interruption of three miles in the outcrop
of micropegmatite, which somewhere beneath its waters bends more to the
north than along Leve\' creek. A promontorj- on the north side of the lake
consists of quite schistose conglomerate, having a strike of 60° or 70° parallel
to the average direction of the nickel eruptive, and the cleavage dips 45°
in the direction southeast.
Old lake clays hide the solid rock for half a mile north of Whitewater
lake near Azilda, but syenitic looking rocks rise toward its east end and
there is a rocky hill a half mile northwest of the station just north of the
railway., which displays the acid eruptive in contact with the conglomerate.
Both are pale redd sh and decidedly schistose, the cleavage having a strike
of 15° and a dip of from 15° to 30° to the east, though the boundary between,
the two rocks runs 30° east of north and west of south.
99
There is evidently a well marked bend of the acid edge from 75° or
80° to 30° east of north, though the point where the change of direction
begins is under the lake; and it will be noted that the bend takes place
just opposite the bay of norite leading into the great Copper Cliff offset,
a coincidence which is almost certainly not accidental.
This is in fact the opposite end of the great block of underlying rock
which slipped down during the advent of the nickel eruptive and which was
referred to in connexion with the sharp southward curve of the acid edge
opposite the AVorthington offset. It is an impressive fact that this settling
down of a block of the earth's crust 10| miles long on the acid edge and 15
miles long on the basic side should begin and end with important offsets
of norite and ore pushing into crushed and faulted regions of the older rocks,
and that it should include the great Creighton ore deposit.
The acid edge in Rayside township runs northeast across its southeast
corner, and in lot 2, con. Ill is accompanied by several small deposits of
galena and zinc blende which have been taken up as a mining location.
The ores are associated with pyrite, cjuartz, and ankerite and occur in irregu-
lar fissure veins which have been stripped and opened up by test pits.
The veins are in the somewhat schistose micropegmatite or the adjoining-
schistose conglomerate and tuff. The cleavage of the sedimentary rocks
has a strike of 80° east of north, conforming to the changing direction of
the nickel eruptive, and a dip of 57° to the south.
Passing into Biezard township the acid edge turns nearly east and the
whole eruptive narrows considerably from its widest part, opposite the
Frood-Stobie offset. It is no longer schistose after passing the crisis of the
fault plane, but granitic or s^-enitic in appearance, and this character con-
tinues to Whitson lake toward the east side of the township.
Beyond Whitson lake the acid edge runs in a direction 80° east of
north through Garson township near its north side and finallj' bends suddenly
north at the southw^est corner of Maclennan township. In part the
micropegmatite with the adjo ning conglomerate and tuff rises as steep
east and west hills, in other parts the edge is hidden by swamps or small
lakes. About half way across Garson the eruptive rises as a red cliff,
felsitic in texture and penetrated by many small quartz veins, but on lot
4 it is greyish and schistose, the cleavage having a strike of 125°, much
more to the southeast than the general trend of the eruptive itself.
It is worthy of note that at a certain distance on each side of the fault
planes bounding the central block supposed to have slipped down the slaty
or schistose structures turn southwards, on the west side toAvard the south-
west, on the east side toward the southeast, the whole region having been
subjected to strains and shearing, resulting in structures with this roughly
semicircular curve.
The various types of rock displayed in this part of the acid edge were
formerly mapped as Laurentian by the CJeological Survey, and frequently
their field characters would justify this if one were not aware that they
pass by insensible gradations into the norite of the nickel range toward the
south and southeast.
ACID EDGE OF THE EASTERN AND NORTHERN RANGES.
The acid edge of the Eastern range was studied mosth' by my assis-
tant, Mr Culbert, who found that the micro])egmatite phase begins within
a short distance of the basic side of the eruptive, as might be expected where
the whole is unusually narrow. He describes it in general as flesh coloured
and rather coarse grained, but where examined by myself, in lot 1, con. Ill
100
of Capreol township it is rather fine^ grained and faintly reddish gr(>y, pale
on the weathered surface and darker on fresh surfaces. It shows none of the
schistose structure so common on the southern band.
The acid edge of the eastern range curves gently to the west
near the southwest corner of Norman township, and where crossed by the
Canadian Northern railway is rather fine grained and more like diorite
than syenite or granite in appearance. It runs across Wisner townsliip in
a nearly westerly direction and its contact with the conglomerate is beauti-
fully (^xposed near the shore of the south end of Joe's lake, where a wave
and ice worn surface provides an ideal section. The acid phase of the erup-
tive is granitic looking and sends irregular projections into the conglomerate
with quite vague edges, so that it is by no means easy to fix the boundary.
The micropegmatite blends with the conglomerate as if it were continuous
with its matrix, though patches of redder coarser granite represent boulders
not completely digested. About 400 feet south of the edge tuff replaces
the conglomerate.
One of the most interesting contacts of the two rocks is found on the
south shore of Trout lake (in Bowell township) where some islets and a
small peninsula show an even better section, the granitic phase penetrating
the conglomerate for 100 yards or more.
East of the southeast bay of Trout lake a small test pit sunk in dark
green rock, probably a variety of the conglomerate or tuff, shows a little
ore, and near the southwest bay in location WD 252 a certain amount of
mining has been done on a larger deposit in conglomerate with dark green
matrix. Here there are distinct veins containing zinc blende, galena, and a
little copper pyrites with quartz as gangue, the latter occurring partly as
well formed crystals projecting into the ore, which was evidently deposited
later. A small shaft has l)een sunk but the amount of ore to be seen does
not seem very encouraging. These deposits at the two ends of the lake
are both in the Trout lake conglomerate a little south of the greatly altered
contact phase described above.
The acid edge beyond Trout lake passes southwest across a corner of
Lumsden township, with relationships like those described. Near Nelson
river it is covered by drift for some distance, but on a small unnamed lake
to tlie west it is a grey green rock more like a variety seen on the southern
range, though not schistose. About midway across Morgan township
the eruptive is narrowest with a breadth of a little less than a mile, and the
acid phase seems to extend right across so that specimens from the two
sides look much alike.
At the southeast point of Moose lake the acid edge is flesh coloured
and granitic looking with small veins of green epidote, and similar roundish
patches of green epidote with a little flesh coloured feldspar occur in the
matrix of the conglomerate not far off. On the railway near Onaping river
the edge is greenish grey and fine grained, with platy development of the
feldspars, while not far to the northwest railway cuttings show coarse red-
dish syenite. Southwest of Windy lake the acid phase is flesh coloured and
granitic or gneissoid looking while the conglomerate at the contact looks
like a coarse variety of Laurentian gneiss in places and was so mapped in
the earlier surveys of the region.
Beyond this the acid edge bends more to the south, crossing the ends of
Ross lake and an unnamed lake in lot 7, con. Ill of Trill township, its
character remaining much the same along the whole southwestward portion
of the margin. The acid part of the eruptive is here much wider than the
basic part, rises as hills of rather coarse grained syenitic looking rock, and
at the edge against the conglomerate becomes finer grained and usually
101
grey rather than flesh coloured; but it is seldom schistose, having evidently
undergone much less squeezing and shearing than on the southern range.
There seems to have been no great collapsing of the older rocks beneath the
eruptive on the north range to correspond to the arrangement between
Victoria mine and Copper Cliff on the south.
It is probable that a good deal of the overlying conglomerate has been
stoped down and absorbed in some places, bringing the upper edge of the
eruptive almost in contact with the base of the next formation, the Onaping
tuff and at such points the colour of the acid edge is darker and greenish,
as if it had digested some of the more basic material. Where the conglo-
merate band is wide the colour of the acid edge is generally paler and with
a tinge of pink.
Economic Minerals of the Interior Basin.
Ores of zinc and lead with more or less pyrite and chalcopyrite have
been mentioned at a few points on or close to the acid margin of the n'ckel
eruptive and others have been reported by prospectors, but were not
visited owing to their unimportance economically. There are similar
deposits, usual y with more pyrite in the rocks of the interior basin at a
greater distance from the micropegmatite and yet probably to be brought
in connexion with it. As the geological work undertaken in the region
had especial y the nickel ores and their associations in view, other deposits
were visited only incidentall3^
The one which has attracted most attention is the Creighton gold
mine in lot 11 of the fourth and fifth concessions of Creighton township,
where in 1892 to 1895 Mr. J. R. Gordon attempted to work a large
quartz vein in the tuff. A company with a capital of SI, 000, 000 was
formed, a shaft was sunk 200 feet and the quartz was explored by a good
deal of drifting and diamond drilling. It is said that free gold was occasion-
ally found in the quartz, but it was on the whole of much too low grade
to pay for working, and after a short run of the small Crawford mill which
had been erected, the mine closed down.^
A similar deposit was prospected on lot 2, con. IV of Fairbank town-
ship about two miles to the west, but in this case much less work was done-
and small quartz veins like this have been found at several places, but
have not attracted much attention and need not be mentioned in detail.
At Stobie Falls, on Vermilion river, in lot 10, con. VI of Creighton
township, a considerable deposit of zinc blende with pyrite occurs in the
Onwatin slate, and has been opened up on a small scale near the river
bank.
It will be observed that all of these deposits lie along an extension
of the zone of shearing and faulting on the west side of the block, which
sli])ped down during the incoming of the nickel eruptive, as described on
former pages.
Small deposits of pyrite and pyrrhotite (almost free from nickel) are
found at other places in the slate, e.g. north of the Canadian Pacific rail-
way a mi]e or two west of Larchwood and at the east end of Lake Onwatin,
the latter having been taken up as a nickel property, though it contains
only traces of the metal. Mr. R. R. Rose informs me that test pits have
>Bur. Mines, Ont., Vol. II, p. 236, Vol. Ill, pp. 47 and 7; Vol. IV. p. 233 and Vol. V, p. 261.
2Ibid, Vol. Ill, p. 47.
LIIJKARY
UMVERSn Y OF CALIFORNIA
SAMA BARBARA
102
been sunk on a deposit of galena, sphalerite, and pyrite with much
quartz, on lot 9, con. V of Balfour township.
The most interesting deposits in the Onwatin slate are, however, the
veins of anthraxolite which cross it at various points, giving rise to reported
finds of coal, the best kno'\\'n of these being the one on lot 10, con. I of
Balfour township, not far north of Stobie Falls and along the same belt
of faulting. It has been reported on by the present writer and by Dr.
W. H. Ellis, • and ma}- })e described briefly as originally a vein of bitumen,
derived from the enclosing black slate, which contains from 6-8 to 10 per
cent of carbon, as determined by Dr. Ellis. The material has, however,
now lost almost the whole of its hydrocarbons and oxygen and has much
the composition of anthracite. Samples anaslyed by Dr. Ellis show the
following composition:
Moisture
Volat le matter.
Fixed carbon...
Ash
Average.
Selected.
400
1-30
74-20
20 -.50
4-00
180
90-10
4-10
10000
10000
As the ash is quartz, which occupies the shrinkage spaces due to the
loss of volatile matter, it is possible to obtain small shining cubical masses
of the anthraxolite with still less ash. Such a specimen gave the following
results on ultimate analysis:
Carbon 94-92
Hydrogen , : 0-52
Nitrogen -.- 1-04
Sulphur 0-31
Ash 1-52
Oxygen 1-69
100- 00
Subtracting ash in both cases. Dr. Ellis compares the Balfour town-
ship anthraxolite with Pennsylvania anthracite, as follows:
Volatile
matter.
Fixed
Carbon.
.\iithraxolite.
Anthracite . .
1-98
7-83
97-02
92-17
showing that the loss of volatile constituents has gone farther in the
anthraxolite than in the anthracite.
The finding of the Balfour anthraxolite naturally roused hopes of an
important coal region a few miles north of the nickel mines, and so-called
experts on Pennsylvania hard coal declared the rocks similar and prophesied
»Ibid, Vol. VI, pp. 1.59-166.
103
"the development of valuable coal deposits. The original mine was soon
abandoned, since the anthraxolite in it is mixed with 20 or 30, or even more,
per cent of quartz and considerable pyrite, and all the anthraxolite in
sight would not amount to more than a few thousand tons, at most.
Coal has been sought for at several other points in the same general
region, and a company was formed to exploit a recent find on lot 4, con. II
of Balfour township, which has been opened up within the last two years.
The pure anthraxolite is a concentrated carbon, which would make a
.strong but slow burning fuel if it could be obtained free from the inter-
mixed quartz and pyrite. It is decidedly improbable that it will be found
free from these impurities, however, owing to its origin by the volatization
of hydrocarbons, leaving contraction spaces to be filled later by circulating
water.
It is likely that the Onwatin slate was highly charged with bitumin-
ous matter in the beginning, like the oil shales of Scotland and other places,
and that the heat of the nickel eruptive when it spread out beneath, first
drove part of the petroleum or pitch into fissures in the slate and then
volatilised the hydrocarbons, leaving only the fixed carbon.
Quartz Mines.
The smelting processes employed on the Sudbury ore require quartz
and sometimes limestone as a flux, under certain conditions, and also
•quartz for lining converters, so that fairly pure silica is necessary. This
has been mined at various points by the companies which have smelted
the ores to matte. The Mond Company first used quartz from a large
vein a little south of a nickel ore deposit two miles west of Victoria mine,
but of late they have provided their quartz from a bed of quartzite north
of the present smelter. The quartzite beds stand nearly vertical with a
strike of about 110°, and the supply of material, averaging 88 per cent of
silica, is inexhaustible.
The Canadian Copper Company has operated several mines, the
earliest one conveniently placed about a mile south of Copper Cliff on the
top of a range of gabbro hills along the north shore of Kelley lake. It
had the appearance of a gigantic segregation out of the gabbro, since the
pure and glassy quartz was mixed at its edges with an intergrowth of white
feldspar, forming "graphic granite." Around this came a coarse rock
consisting of the Avhite feldspar and green crystals of hornblende and finally
the green-grey gabl)ro.
There are a number of large white masses of the same sort along the
crest of the hill, but apparently none so large as the one worked, from which
for a time a daily output of 100 tons was obtained. It is possible, and
perhaps probable, that these quartz masses, with their rim of pegmatitic-
looking acid rock, were originally great blocks of quartzite, "roof pendants"
when the laccolithic gabbro pushed its way up, and in that case the feld-
sj)athi(' rock enclosing them is in reality a "reaction rim."
When this sup])ly Ijecame exhausted, another quartz mine was opened
in the Huronian on lot 8, con. I\' of the townshi]) of Waters, aliout one
and a half miles northeast of Xaughton station on the "Soo" branch from
which ].")() tons of quartz per diem Avere produced in 1907.
In 1010 a new quartz deposit was opened uj) in the township of Dill,
near the station of the Canadian Northern railway named Quartz, and
about ten miles south of the Canadian Pacific. This deposit is in a region
always mapped as Laurentian, though its immediate associations suggest
the rireuville series rather than the ordinarv gneisses of the Laurentian.
104
Somewhat to the west of the mine there is a hill of coarse, reddish
gneiss, much crumpled and characteristically Laurentian, with a strike
of 60° to 80° and a vertical dip; but after crossing a creek near the railway
fine grained grey gneiss rises as a low ridge well stratified and looking like
the Grenville gneisses, with a strike of 150° and a dip of 45° or 50° to the
east. Apparently the two are separated by a fault in the drift-covered
bed of the creek. With the grey sedimentary rock there are some beds
of green hornblende schist cut by small dykes of granite, and in a cutting
of the railway to the east there is a band of coarse and crj'stalline quartzite,
folloAved by some coarse grey gneiss, with a strike of 20° and dip of 45°
to the west.
Beyond the railway to the east is the open pit of the mine, with
coarsel}' granular quartzite parted by some narrow sheets of mica schist,
striking 150° and dipping 45° to the east. The structure seems to be
anticlinal, but the relationships are too much disturbed to be easily
interpreted. To the east of the wide band of quartzite of the mine a steep
ridge of coarse pegmatite, of later age than the quartzite, since it has car-
ried off blocks of it, runs north and south, and beyond it there is quartzite
again dipping 45° to the east. Five hundred feet east of the hill there is
a parallel band of grey gneiss.
The age of these bands of quartzite is not certain, but they are much
more crystalline and metamorphosed than the Huronian or Temiscaming
quartzites a few miles to the north. They are distinctly older than the
pegmatite which cuts them, and their association with gneisses like the
Grenville and the presence of some crystalline limestone not far to the
north make it probable that the whole series of sedimentary rocks here
is more ancient than the Huronian. The Dill quartz mine bids fair to
last longer than the others and furnishes pure silica to the extent of 300
tons a day.
Limestone for fluxing purposes is brought in from a distance. The
crystalline limestone occurring in Laurentain amphibolites about two miles-
north of the quartz mine, in a cutting on the Toronto branch of the
Canadian Pacific railway, is not extensive, and an analj^sis shows only
76-87 per cent of CaCO?, so that it is too impure to replace the flux now
in use. This comparatively small outcrop is the only limestone in the
Sudbury region, and if larger and purer deposits could be found they would
meet with a considerable local demand.
Composition of the Sudbury Nickel Eruptive.
In a former section it was shown that the nickel-bearing eruptive
consists of micropegmatite on its inner, or acid edge, passing gradually
into norite on its outer, or basic edge, the more basic part having settled
to the bottom of the basin, where in bays or offsets it becomes mixed with
ore as pyrrhotite-norite and ends with solid masses of ore containing only
a few crystals or fragments of the rock-forming silicates.
It is of interest to trace the transition, and for this purpose the follow-
ing analyses, largely made bj- Prof. T. L. Walker,^ but partly taken from
a Bureau of Mines Report, ' may be quoted.
'Quar. Journ. Geol. Soc. Lon., Vol. LIIL p- -56.
2The Sudbury Nickel Field, Vol. XIV, Part III, pp. 116 and 117.
105
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106
In the above table of analyses No. 1 is of ore from the Creighton mine,
on the authority of Mr. David H. Browne.^ Nos. 2 and 3 are from the
ba-;ic edge of the southern range near Blezard mine, analyst Dr. T. L.
Walker. No. 4 is from near the basic edge of the northern range at Onaping,
analyst yir. E. G. R. Ardagh, Chem. Dept. University of Toronto. No. 5
is from the basic edge near the Creighton mine, analyst Mr. M. T. Cul})ert.
No. 6 is a syenitic looking specimen taken from the middle of the Onaping
section, analyst Dr. Walker. No. 7 is from the middle of the Blezard-
Whitson lake section, analyst Dr. Walker. No. 8 is from the acid edge of
the Onaping section, the rock being greenish grey, analyst Mr. Ardagh.
No. 9 is from near the acid edge on the north shore of Fairbank lake, the
rock being dark greenish grey and somewhat schistose, analyst Mr. Ardagh.
No. 10 and No. 11 are from points near the acid edge of the Blezard-Whitson
lake section, Mr. C. B. Fox, chemist of the Hamilton Iron and Steel Com-
pany being the analyst of No. 10 and Dr. Walker of No. 11.
The analyses are so arranged as to give first the most basic material,
the ore, next the norite (Nos. 2-5), then the micropegmatite at various
stages to the acid edge. In the table No. 5 from the basic edge near Creigh-
ton mine, is not typical, since it appears to have al)sorbed some of the ad-
jacent granite and contains some micropp-j-matite and microcline, while thin
sections of other specimens close to the ore are almost free from this mineral.
In the cases of No. 6 and No. 8 also, there is an anomaly, since the
so called acid edge (No. 8) contains less silica than the middle of the erui)tive
(No. 6); the relations being accounted for probably by the absorption of
basic material from the overlying tuff in No. 8, giving rise to its greenish
colour as compared with the red syenitic looking specimen from the middle
of the eruptive.
Omitting analyses No. 5 and No. 8 we have Nos. 2, 3 and 4 representing
the basic side of the eruptive and Nos. 6, 7, 9, 10 and 11 belonging to the
acid side. It is of some interest to get the average composition of the norite
and micropegmatite, which works out as follows:
Basic
average.
Acid
average.
Average
composition
Si Os
52-770
18-493
0-283
9 140
4-940
7-617
2-597
1-330
1 ■ 263
1-097
130
67-862
12-688
1-740
5-072
1-164
2-468
3-956
2-780
1 ■ 050
0-456
0-178
0-036
62-831
AI2O3
14-623
Fe203
1-2.54
FeO
MgO
CaO . .-
6-428
2-423
4-184
Na20
K2O
H2O
3 -.503
2-297
1-121
Ti02
P2O5.
0-670
0-162
MnO
0-024
Total....
Specific Gravity.
99-760
99-450
99-520
2-897
2-718
Along the southern range the basic portion (norite) extends over about
a half of the width, but on the eastern and northern ranges it makes up
less than a quarter of the whole. On this account in computing the average
^Economic Geology, Vol. I, p. 471.
107
Composition of the eruptive, the acid (micropegmatite) portion was con-
sidered to have twice the contents of the basic portion, with the results
given in the third column.
It will be observed that silica and the alkalies are present in smaller
amounts on the basic side of the eruptive than on the acid side, while iron,
magnesium, and calcium have increased in amount. It would be easy to
continue the series beyond the average Creighton ore into pure pyrrhotite,
where the iron might make 60 per cent of the whole. Every gradation
could be obtained from a rock with 69 per cent of silica and 4 per cent of
iron, to ore, which may be looked upon as the most basic phase of the rock,
with 60 per cent of iron and no silica.
Along with the concentration of the sulphide of iron in the hollows
beneath the norite went the concentration of nickel, cobalt and copper
sulphides, and also of the precious metals, gold, silver, pljitinum, and pal-
ladium, and in a general way the longer the distance traversed by the mate-
rials the more complete the separation, so that offset deposits are much
richer in the precious metals than marginal deposits. The segregation
has not alone separated micropegmatite from norite and norite from ore,
but has tended to concentrate the heaviest materials of all in the offsets.
Though the ore is only the heaviest constituent of the magma, and so
is in reality an ultra basic phase of the rock, its total amount, so far as
known, is relatively insignificant. If it were once more mixed with the
barren rock it would be almost imperceptible.
The total amount of ore mined in the region up to the present is roughly
5,500,000 tons, of which probably 4,000,000 were actually sulphides,
containing perhaps 2,400,000 tons of iron and its associated metals, nickel
itself amounting to only about 133,000 tons. The greater part of this ore
has come from open pits 200 feet or so in depth. If evenly distributed
along the 40 miles of the southern range it would mean 100,000 tons of
sulphides per mile. This is of course far beloAv the real amount, since only
the better grades of ore are worked and the vast amount of sulphides in
the pyrrhotite-norite have not been touched. More than half the total
has come from the few hundred feet of margin at the Creighton mine, so
that things are very unequally distributed.
Including the great Frood-Stobie offset there are certainly 30,000,000
of tons of workable ore still to be mined on the southern range above a
depth of 1000 feet, and very probalily much more. All told it is not
unreasonable to assume that there are 100,000,000 tons of sulphides, workable
and unworkable, along the whole range, which amounts to about 2,500,000
tons per mile.
The average width of the nickel eruptive in the southern range is a
little over 3 miles and the average^ dip of the foot-wall 30° giving a thickness
of the eruptive of 10,000 feet to provide the amount of ore estimated above.
Assuming this thickness of magma, and a 1,000 feet of base, each mile of
the sheet would contain a])out 52,800,000,000 cubic feet of rock, or
4,400,000,000 tons, and the 2,500,000 tons of ore per mile works out to
0-057 per cent. The prol)able amount of ore in the southern nickel range
formed then a quite negligil)le part of the whole sheet of molten matter as
far as percentage goes, though an extremely important part from the point
of view of the miner. There is far more iron combined with silica in the
pyroxenes of the rock or with oxygen in its magnetite than with sulphur
in the ores, since the analyses show from 5 to 131 per cent of iron, and the
sulphides so far as knowji amount to only 057 ])er cent, of which less than
.60 per cent is iron. This minute })roportion of sulphides seems, however,
25873—11
lOS
to have concentrated in itself most of the valuable metals as if in a mini-
mum of matte from an overwhelming amount of slag.
PROPORTIONS OF METALS IN THE SUDBURY ORES.
It has been shown that the known amount of sulphides in the original
magma was very small so far as percentage is concerned though of great
practical importance when concentrated in ore deposits. In these ore
deposits themselves under the present conditions of smelting by which the
iron is entirely sacrificed, the amounts of the valuable metals recovered
represent only a small fraction of the whole, as appears from the table of
statistics given above. The nickel reported averages 2-69 per cent and
the copper 1-85 to which should be added the amount of loss in roasting
and smelting, variously estimated at from 10 to 20 per cent of the metals
contained in the ore. If 15 per cent of loss is assumed the projjortions of
metals in the ores wdll be 3-09 of nickel and 2 - 12 of copper, with a total of
5-21 per cent.
Iron is present then in much the largest amount in the suli)hido.s and
probably averages not far from 45 per cent in the ores as mined, followed
by 3 • 09 per cent of nickel and 2-12 per cent of copper. Next comes cobalt,
which is present in all the ores, though scarcely represented in the statis-
tics, since it makes only a fraction of a per cent of the ore and is so readily
slagged off as to appear only seldom in analyses of matte. The few analyses
recording its presence show from 1 -40 to 1 • 133 as much as cobalt as nickel.
The Precious Metals.
The precious metals occur in still smaller quantities, bessemer matte
containing 2| to 7 ozs. of silver per ton, 0-17 to 0-5 ozs. of the platinum
metals and 0-02 to 0-3 ozs. of gold per ton.
MATTE ANALYSES.
The results of the most complete analyses of bessemer or other high-
grade mattes available are given in the following table:
•
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
Nickel
p.c.
1 48-82
25-92
2-94
22-50
oz.
002
3-14
0-13
002
0-02
trace
trace
p.c.
/ 41-58
\ 0-71
24-99
9-82
p.c.
40-37
0-78
24-95
9-64
p.c.
} 41-18
44-87
0-94
11-62
oz.
0-30
5-10
p.c.
39-96
43-36
0-30
13-67
oz.
0-1
to 0-2
7-0
0-25
p.c.
/ 41-88
1 0-33
37-37
1-07
oz.
0-66
4-87
•40
Cobalt
Copper
Sulphur
Gold
oz.
0-15
""6-56
oz.
0-10
2-50
0-44
Silver
' 1
109
I is by T. L. Walker, of Murray mine bessemer matte. ^
II and III are by Donald Locke, of Ontario Smelting Works matte^
mainly from Creighton ore.
IV is by J. W. Bain, of Copper Cliff matte in 1899, from Stobie, Copper
Cliff and Evans mine ore.^
V is by Titus Ulke, in 1894, of Copper Cliff and Evans ore, probably
with some ore from Stobie.^
VI is by Donald Locke, of Victoria Mines bessemer matte. ^
Analyses I, II and III are of matte whose ore came chiefly from large
marginal deposits, the Murray and Creighton mines. IV and V are partly
of ore from mines of the Copper Cliff offset (Copper Cliff and Evans) but
partly from Stobie mine. VI is from an offset mine but very close to the
margin of the nickel-bearing eruptive, Victoria mine.
It will be noticed that the precious metals increase when there is more
copper in the matte, and that offset deposits, which always contain more
copper than marginal deposits, are also much richer in gold, silver and the
platinum metals. The latter increase, however, in a much greater ratio
than the copper, as if the lighter metals were more or less left behind in
the wanderings through devious ways from the norite edge to the offset
deposits.
Reckoning back the amount of the precious metals in a ton of matte,
to the corresponding amount of sulphides required to furnish the matte,
the following results are obtained:
I. Murraj'
II and III. Creighton mine, etc
IV. Copper Cliff, Stobie, etc...
V. Copper Cliff, Evans, etc. . . .
00146
No?. II and III included some ore from the offset mines of the
Canadian Copper Company, and do not represent the Creighton alone.^
It will be noted that in the analyses of matte given above only one
shows palladium and then only a trace. It came therefore as a surprise
to learn that for several years more palladium than platinum was recovered
from the Canadian Copper Companj-'s matte during the process of refin-
ing it at Constable Hook. In 1902 no less than 2,375 ozs. of platinum and
4,411 ozs. of palladium were recovered doubtless partly belonging to ore
mined in previous years. If it all came from the ore mined in 1902 there
were 0-0102 ozs. of platinum and 0189 ozs. of palladium or 0-0291 of the
combined metals, per ton of ore. In 1903 the amounts were 0077 of
platinum and 0-0144 of palladium, and in 1904 0052 ozs. of platinum and
'Am. Journ. Sc. Vol. 1, 4th Scries, 1896, p. 112.
n),. Biirlow, p. 206.
'Bur. Mines, 1900. p. 218.
<Min. Industry, Vol. Ill, p. 460.
^Dr. Barlow, p. 206.
«Bur. Mines, Vol. XIV, Part III, p. 153.
25873—111
no
0-0093 ozs. of palladium; showing a rapid falling off, due probably to the
fact that Creighton ore (marginal) had largely rei)la{'ed the ores from the
Copper Cliff offset.'
Since 1904 no platinum or palladium has been reported, though the
recent working of the Vermilion mine, so very rich in sperrylite, must have
provided a considerable amount of platinum at least.
It has been shown in a former chapter that the Vermilion ore may
contain as much as 8 13 ozs. of precious metals per ton, consisting of gold
a trace, of platinum • 79 ozs., palladium 3 • 62 ozs., and silver 3 • 78 ozs. It is
worthy of note that the Vermilion mine is the smallest offset deposit yet
worked and that it is far from the norite edge and with no suggestion of a
direct connexion with it.
Since the Victoria mine in early days contained so much sperrylite
flnd gold that they could be panned from its gossan it is probable that the
Clydach refinery in which its bessemer matte is treated must separate im-
portant amounts of gold and platinum and also of palladium, though
ihere is no published account of the production of the metals.
One naturally compares our ores with the similar ones of Norway,
l^ut in comparing the ratios of the metals in the two countries it must be
Jcept in mind that their deposits correspond to our marginal ones and not
to our offset deposits. Prof. Vogt gives the composition of two Norwegian
bessemer mattes as follows:
Nickel. .
Cobalt..
Copper. .
Iron
Sulphur.
Gol'l
Silver —
Platinum .
Iridium 1
Osmium J
[•about.
Ringerike ' Ev.ie
per cent, i per cent.
5116
1-98
16-40
10-87
19-58
oz.per ton
0-0145
2-46
075
003
41 -.50
0-97
23-00
(13)
(20)
oz. per ton
029
4-06
009
From the table of analyses of Sudbury mattes given on a previous
page, it will be seen that the proportions are quite like those of analyses I,
II and III, from marginal ore deposits, but that the other three show higher
percentages of the rare metals. It will be noticed, too, that the percentage
of copper in the three offset deposits is much greater than in the Norwegian
mattes. Palladium has not, so far as I am aware, been reported from the
Norwegian nickel ores.
Prof. Vogt states that in Norway the proportions of the metals are one
part of gold to 120 of silver, one of platinum to 30 of silver, one of silver
'Ibid, Part I, pp. 5-8.
Ill
to 5,000 of nickel.^ In our ores it would be more natural to compare
the precious metals with copper than nickel since their percentage increases
with that of copper, though somewhat more rapidly.
Other Canadian Nickel Deposits.
The only nickel deposits worked in Canada belong to the Sudbury
laccolithic sheet, but numerous occurrences of pyrrhotite containing more
or less nickel are known from other parts of the Dominion, especially in
Ontario. The townships adjoining the nickel ranges have naturally been
carefully scanned by prospectors, and small low grade outcrops of ore
have been found in a number of places, especially beyond the east and west
ends of the known areas of norite. Near Nairn Centre, 8 or 10 miles south-
west of Worthington, several small deposits occur, perhaps distantly con-
nected with that offset; and a little stripping has been done upon some of
them but without important results. Ore containing 1 -95 per cent of nickel
is reported from lots 1 and 2, con. Ill of Nairn township, and a little is
known to occur in Lome township, southwest of Worthington.
To the east of the nickel eruptive, northeast of Lake Wanapitei,
several locations were taken up for nickel years ago, and ore from Boucher's
mine gave 1-57 per cent of nickel, or 2-1 per cent, if pyrrhotite free from
gangue be taken. Similar small bodies of pyrrhotite occur south of Ramsay
lake.
All of these deposits have a possible connexion with the main nickel
eruptive, since they occur within a few miles of it in rocks which have been
a good deal disturbed and faulted.
A number of deposits of low grade nickel ore have been reported from
more distant localities in Ontario and also from other provinces. Dr.
Barlow gives a sufficiently complete account of them, as far as known up to
1904;'- but since most of those mentioned by him have been proved to
have no economic importance it will not be necessary to describe them here.
The deposits at St. Stephen, N.B., are associated with a weathered basic
eruptive, probably gabbro, and resemble those of the Sudbury region, but
contain much less nickel, assays of two samples of ore showing the following
contents :
II.
Nickel
Cobalt 0-16
Copper I 0-31
1-72 ; 1-82
0-17
0-33
For further particulars Dr. Barlow's discussion of the subject may be
consulted.
Since his report was issued the famous Cobalt silver region has risen
to its climax, furnishing as a l)y product a considerable amount of nickel ore,
and an interesting nickel deposit has been found in an area of serpentine in
Dundonald township in northern Ontario. These two possible sources of
'Zeitschr. far pr;ikt. (Jcol, Year 1902, pp. 25S-60.
'C.S.C, Vol. XIV, 1904, Part H, pp. 147-166.
112
nickel may be briefly referred to, though up to the present, neither has
proved of great importance.
NICKEL ORES OF THE COBALT SILVER REGION.
One of the earhest minerals found in the Cobalt region was nickelite
(Ni As), and chloanthite (NiAso) also occurs, as well as millerite (NiS),
and the gossan mineral annabergite (NisAs^Os + SHoO) is frequent. ^
Nickelite Avas one of the earliest minerals deposited in the silver veins, and
the total amount occurring in the mines is verj' considerable. For a full
account of the geology and mineralogy of the region Dr. Miller's excellent
report should be consulted. J\Ir. T. W. Gibson, Deputy Minister of Mines,
estimates that in 1910 the 34,282 tons of ore and concentrates shipped
from Cobalt contained on the average 1 -47 per cent of nickel. The year's
output of the metal is estimated at 604 tons and the total output at 2,601
tons.
Probably a portion of this was recovered in various metallurgical
plants after the silver had been separated, but there is no record available
as to the amount, since the nickel in the ore is not paid for. It may be
mentioned that the three Canadian smelting companies at Copper Cliff,
Deloro and Thorold, up to the end of 1910 had treated 28,013 tons of the
ore. It may be added that cobalt, usually so much rarer a metal,
was present to the extent of 6-76 per cent.
The Cobalt ores in their small narrow and very irregular veins form
a very striking contrast with the huge masses of solid ore at Sudbury and
in origin the two are equally different, the Cobalt ores being derived from
circulating waters and the Sudbury ores from magmatic segregation. The
nickel is found combined with arsenic in the Cobalt ores as compared
with the sulphides almost free from arsenic in the Sudbury ores.
THE ALEXO MINE.
The most promising recent find of nickel ore in Canada, aside from
the Sudbury deposits, is the Alexo mine in Dundonald township, near
Matheson in northern Ontario, where pyrrhotite with chalcopj'rite is
associated with serpentine, originally peridodite, in exactly the same way
as the sulphides are with norite in the Sudbury region. The serpentine
with its margin of ore leans against a face of older rock, apparantly
andesite, though it is too badly weathered tomakeentirelysureofitsoriginal
composition-; and dips at angles of from 45° to 60° to the north, as shown
by diamond drilling, just as marginal deposits do near Sudbury.
There is every gradation from nearly pure ore, through intimate
mixtures of ore and serpentine, to pure serpentine; and sharph' formed
crystals of olivine, now transformed to serpentine and magnetite, are
seen in thin sections completely surrounded by ore with no hint of secondary
attacks upon the enclosed pseudomorphs. Beyond the narrow outcrop
at the foot of the hill of andesite drift deposits cover the serpentine, and
iBur. Mines, Ont., 1905. Part II.
2Mr. Uglow in Bur. Mines, Vol. XX, 1911, Part II, pp. 34-38, calls the serpentine the oldest rock
in the district and speaks of the hill to the south as rhyolite; however, the serpentine seems to cut
the other rock in a dyke like way and the freshest specimens of the rock from the hill consist of lath-
shaped plagioclase feldspars and hornblende, with no quartz, so that the rock comes nearest in miner-
alogical composition to ande ite.
Plate XXXI.
Olivine crystals (c-hanged to serpentine und
magnetite) enclosed in pyrrhotite:
Alexo mine.
113
the area and general relationships of this rock are unknown, except that
it appears to be later than the andesite.
Fig. 6. Section of Alexo mine. Scale, 100 fcet = l inch.
The ore crops out for about 200 feet, with about 6 feet of solid ore
at the widest place, followed by several feet of mixed ore and rock, and
finally by serpentine with only a few specks of ore. Below the surface
the solid ore thins out and at 100 feet depth there is only mixed ore and
rock against the foot- wall.
The ore is high grade, a specimen taken by myself assaying 5-79 per
cent, while specimens assayed by Mr. W. L. Uglow averaged 7-08 per
cent. The latter gentleman studied polished surfaces of the ore, finding
delicate stringers and veins of pentlandite in it, so that the association
of minerals is precisely that found in the Sudbury ores.
The total amount of nickel ore disclosed by the diamond drill work
of the Canadian Copper Company was not sufficient to justify the pur-
chase of the property, and later drilling done by the Mond Company
confirms this conclusion, so that the new nickel field will not rival that
of Sudbury unless larger deposits are somewhere hidden by the widespread
drift deposits.
The analogy between the Alexo mine and the Sudbury marginal
deposits is so close that one naturally turns to the same theory in explaining
its origin; seeking the probable source of the ore in magmatic segregation
from the original olivine rock, now transformed to serpentine.
Mr. Uglow, from the study of polished surfaces of the ore concludes
that it is of secondary aqueous origin, but some of the reasons assigned
for that view really favour the magmatic theorj^; and his other points simply
show that the ore has been rearranged by water action at a later time,
as is so often the case in offset deposits at Sudbury. The ore occupies
a bay in the andesite but is confined to the serpentine and diminishes
downwards, showing that its source was from above and not from beneath,
as the replacement thcM^ry seems to demand.
Fuller accounts of the Alexo deposit may be found in Economic
Geology,' by the present writer, and by Mr. Uglow in the paper mentioned
above.
'Econ. Geol. Vol. V, 1910, pp. .•^7.■^37fi.
114
Nickel Deposits in the United States.
The Ga]) mine in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, was begun, like
the Copper C'liff mine of Sudbury, as a copper mine; but met with little
success, until in 1852 it was discovered that nickel was present in the
ore. It was not, however, until 1862 that work on the mine began in
earnest, when it had passed into the hands of David Wharton. It
became the largest nickel producer of its day and remained active for
many years until it was finally closed in 1891 because of the increasing
competition of New Caledonia.
The associations are closely like those of Sudbury, the visible ores
consisting of pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite connected with a lens-shaped
mass of amphibolite, once, no doubt, gabbro; and the ore occurs only at
the edges of the eruptive mass against the countr}^ rock of mica schist.
As compared with the more important Sudbury deposits it was quite
insignificant but yet supplied the demand for nickel in the United States
for a number of years. The ore body worked was nearly vertical and
was followed to a depth of 250 feet, with a greatest width of 30 feet, and
the ore contained 1-3 per cent of nickel, 0-25 to 0-75 per cent of copper
and 05 to 15 per cent of cobalt.^ Its total production is given as
2,000 tons, but its importance as introducing the use of nickel and as
aiding to develop the methods of treatment of these difficult ores of nickel
and copper, has been considerable.
Sulphide ores associated with basic rocks have been found at other
places in the United States, as at the Key West mine in Nevada, where
diabase intrusive into crystalline schists contains sulphides running 3 ■ 5
per cent of copper, 2-5 per cent of nickel, 1 to 3 ozs. of silver and 0-25 to
0-30 ozs. of platinum per ton. The ore occurs in lenses 10 to 50 feet thick
and 50 to 600 feet long, and one deposit is estimated to contain 150,000
tons; but up to the present no nickel has been smelted from these
deposits-.
Somewhat similar deposits, though of lower grade ore, are reported
from Floyd and Roanoke counties in Virginia, where the United Chemical
and Nickel Corporation is developing pyrrhotite ores said to contain 1 • 75
per cent of nickel, less than 1 per cent of copper, and less than 0-4 percent
of cobalt.'' It is doubtful if ores as poor as this can compete with those
of Sudl)ury.
Most of the other nickel deposits of the United States are of a ciuite
different kind, being formed by the weathering of slightly nickeliferous
peridotite or serpentine, thus forming superficial residual sheets or pockets,
like those of New Caledonia. Of these the Webster mine, Jackson county,
North Carolina, is a good example, known for a number of years ancl
described by Dr. Barlow^
The ore is genthite, much like the New Caledonia garnierite, a
hydrous silicate of nickel and magnesia of a pale green or apple green
colour, resulting from the weathering of dunite; but it is reported not to
contain more than 2 per cent of nickel; so that its only possible utility
will be in the direct production of nickel steel. In 1909 it was reported
that it was being smelted in an electric furnace in lump form with about
>Barlow, G.S.C., Vol. XIV, Part H, pp. 174-5. and Kemp, Ore Deposits of U.S. and Can.,
Ill Ed., pp. 4.32-4.
2Eng. Min. Journ., Vol. 86. Julv-Der. 190S, p. 73.
'Ibid, Vol. 92, 191?, p. 884: also Trans. Am. Inst. Min. Eng. Vol. XXXVIII, lOS, pp. 683-697.
'G.S.C., Vol. XIV, Part H, p. 170; also Journ. Can. Min. Inst.. Vol. IX p. 3 3. etc
115
10 per cent of coke to produce a silicate of nickel and iron, which was
afterwards to be reduced to nickel steel. ^
Similar ore has been known for many years in southern Oregon, having
been discovered in 1864, but as the deposits have not yet produced any
large amount of ore, it may be concluded that they are not likely to com-
pete seriously with New Caledonia or Sudbury.-
Practically all the nickel obtained from native ore in the United
States since the closing of the Gap mine has come as a by product in the
mining and smelting of lead ores in Missouri, first from Mine la Motte,
which produced in 1899, 22,500 lbs., but gradually fell off to 5,748 lbs.
in 1912\ In 1905 the North American Lead Company of Fredericktown,
Mo., began to supply, as an accompaniment of its lead ore, 50 tons per
clay concentrated sulphides averaging 5 per cent of copper and 3 per cent
each of nickel and cobalt. In 1906 it was reported that a special smelting
and electrolytic refining plant had been erected; and in the following year
a first shipment of 10,000 lbs. of nickel, 98 per cent pure, was made. In
1908 and 1909 its output was estimated at 500,000 lbs., for each year;
but in 1910 it passed into the receiver's hands and was sold to the Domin-
on Nickel Copper Company of Ottawa, mentioned earlier in this report
as developing mines on the northern and eastern nickel ranges at Sud-
bury^.
The process of separating and refining the nickel-copper ore is that
patented by Mr. Hybinette and successfully used on matte from Norwegian
ores at Kristiansand; and it is expected that the mine will soon be produc-
ing lead, nickel, and copper again under the new management.
A small quantity of nickel is obtained also from complex western ores
coming from Omaha, which sends blister copper to the American Smelting
and Refining Co. of Perth Amboy, near Baltimore, for final treatment;
but taken all together the total amount of nickel produced from ores of
the United States is insignificant as compared with that prepared from
Sudbury matte.
Nickeliferous Iron Ore in Cuba.
One other country in the Western Hemisphere may prove to be of
importance in the production of nickel steel, since the vast iron ore deposits
of the eastern end of Cuba are believed to carry enough of that metal to
add to the value of the steel produced from its ores. As reported by Mr.
Dwight E. Woodbridge'', the deposits are of the nature of laterites, brown
ores high in moisture and alumina and low in silica and phosphorus, with
an average of 0-8 per cent of nickel, the extremes being 0-44 and 1 -28 per
cent. A typical analysis of these ores dried at 212° Fahr. is about as fol-
lows:
Silica 3-37
Iron 43-67
Alumina 13-07
Cliroiiiium 1-745
Nickel an.l cobalt 0-8025
Pliosphurus 0-008
Sulphur 0-107
Conibinod water 11-59
'Mineral Industry, Vol. XVIII, 1909, pp. 544-5.
2G.S.C., Vol. XIV, Part H, p. 178.
3Ibid, p. 179.
<Min. Industry, 1905, p. 461; 1906, p. 589; 1907, p. 735; 1908, p. 663, 1909, p. 545; and 1910, p. 501.
'Can. Mining Journal, Vol. XXXII, 1911, pp. 738-741. also from Iron Ore Resources of the
World. Vol. II, p. 795.
116
It will be seen that these deposits will not furnish nickel ore in the strict
sense, but that the small amount of nickel present would represent 1-86-
per cent if included in the 43 per cent of iron. The ores exist as a soil in
comparatively thin, widespread sheets and from the presence of nickel and
chromium it is naturally inferred that they arise from the decaj' of a basic
eruptive rock, probably peridotite, since some serpentine is found with
the deposits, and so may be compared with the New Caledonian ores.
Nickel Ores in Europe.
Nickel has long been obtained from European deposits, which were
naturally the first sources of the metal to become known to the scientific
world, though nickel alloys had been used by the Chinese long before. The
first recognition of the metal was by Cronstedt in ores containing nickelite
associated with cobalt minerals from Helsingland, Sweden; and a small
amount of the metal has since been obtained in Sweden, though much less
than in the neighbouring country, Norway.
The European deposits hitherto worked on any important scale are
in Scandinavia and are associated with norite, thus resembling the Sud-
bury mines; and those of Norway may be taken as typical.
These deposits were examined and described by Prof. J. H. L. Vogt
of Christiana long before the Sudbur}' mines had attracted much attention,
and his working out of the magmatic theory of their origin was of great
assistance in the study of the Sudbury region by Canadian geologists. A
statement of his results may be found in various numbers of the Zeitschrift
fiir Praktische Geologie\ including brief accounts of most of the Norwegian
mines, as well as references to other European localities where the same
type of deposit is found and to Sudbury, New Caledonia, etc.
There are no less than 40 outcrops of nickel ore known in Norway,
scattered over different parts of the countrj^, mostly in Archaean schists
but always accompanying areas of norite or of a gabbro too much weathered
to make sure of its original constitution.
He describes the ore bodies in the best mines as not reaching a greater
length than 200 metres, and as being usually not more than 120 to 150'
metres long, with a greatest thickness of 15 metres and an average thickness
of 3 metres (about 10 feet). The ore averages 1 -5 to 2 -5 per cent of nickel,
though the pure sulphides often run considerably higher than this.
Vogt discusses interestingly the relations between the size of the ore
bodies and the areas of norite with which they are connected, reaching the
conclusion that large ore bodies are generally in large areas of the eruptive
rock and vice versa, though there is no strict relation between the two.
This may be compared with the results of mapping in the Sudbury region,
where the largest deposits are at bays of the norite, where the width of the
nickel-bearing eruptive is greatest.
The Flaad mine in Saetersdal, sometimes called the Evje mine, from
the village three miles to the south where the smelter stands, is the only
nickel mine working in Norway, or in Europe, and was visited in June,
1911, for the sake of comparison with the deposits of Ontario.
The mine is situated on a steep hill rising several hundred feet above
the valley and was opened in the beginning as a copper mine, like Copper
Cliff, and was only later discovered to contain nickel.
The ore is at the edge of a mass of norite six miles long now weathered
so that no hypersthene remains in thin sections and greatly resembling.
'Vol. I, 1893, pp. 125, 2.57, and Vol. II, pp. 41, 134, and 173.
117
coarse weathered norite from the southern nickel range at Sudbury. The
country rock is hornblendic gneiss or amphibolite penetrated by coarse
and fine grained granites. The norite close to the ore body is thickly
shotted with spots of ore, a true pyrrhotite-norite, merging into ore on tl e
one side and norite free from ore on the other. The sulphide minerals
collected are pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite, the latter tending, as at Sudbury,
to follow the crushed edges of the country rock. Some magnetite was
observed in the wall of the shaft, an unusual mineral in the Sudbury mines,
but every feature of the deposit and its surroundings could be matched at
some point in our nickel region.
Dykes of aplite from a few inches to a foot wide penetrate the country
rock and also the ore, and a dj'ke of pegmatite 30 feet wide cuts the norite
but some ore penetrates the aplite in thin seams, as happens in the diabase
dykes cutting the ore at Creighton mine.
The ore deposit, which has been followed down on an incline of 45° to
a depth of 530 feet, began on the surface with a length of only 67 feet, but
in depth it has increased to 330 feet. The ore often encloses rock matter
as small or large masses, sometimes angular and someti les rounded.
Selected ore, at the time of my visit, ran 4-6 per cent nickel and 1 -5
per cent copper, but the average was stated to be 2-3 per cent nickel and
1 -2 per cent copper, much above the results reported from year to year in
the Mineral Industry; e.g. in 1909, when 6,600 tons of ore were mined,
resulting in 168 tons of matte and 70 tons of nickel. 115 tons of ore were
mined per day and were sent down by cable tramway to the smelter at
Evje, 4-8 kilometers to the south, the ten horse power needed for this work
being generated from a fall in Otra river at the smelter.
The ore dump at the smelter was very rocky and looked no richer in
sulphides than some rock dumps near Sudbury; but costs of mining and
smelting are so low in Norway that the ore appears to be worked at a profit.
I am indebted to Mr. B. Thorkildsen, M.E., of Evje, for guidance about
the mine and for much valuable information.
The Flaad mine is small when judged by Canadian standards, having
produced altogether only 35,000 tons of ore up to 1893, as reported by Vogt,
while its largest annual output as reported in the Engineering and Mining
Journal has been 6,600 tons, in 1909, as mentioned above^
The nickel deposits of Sweden and Finland appear to be all of the same
type as those referred to in Norway, and as ihey have been less productive
and none of the mines are now working, it will not be necessary to mention
them specially.
A number of other European deposits connected with basic eruptive
rocks and probably formed by segregation like those of Sudbury have been
described, such as the deposit of Varallo in Piedmont, and others near
Horbach and Totmoos in the Grand Duchy of Baden, where pyrrhotite
containing 12 per cent of nickel is reported, but as they are not now of
economic importance it will not be necessary to mention them further; nor
are the Russian or Spanish (k^posits now producing ore in any quant ity,-
though the; one near Bilbao in Spain is reported to carry ore containing 6
per cent of nickel, 7 per cent of coi)per and 3 of cobalt.
One of the most interesting nickel deposits in Europe, on the Grecian
island of Locris, east of Athens, is at present attracting attention and may
prove to be of value in the future. This was not visited by the writer
owing to lack of time; and there appears to be no description of it in print.
'E.M.J. , Vol. 89. p. 1271.
C, Vol. XIV, Part H, pp. 171-3.
118
Through the kindness of Dr. Mohr, of London and Mr. V. Hybinette of
Kristiansand, Norway, brief accounts of the mine were given me, as well as
specimens of the ore. The mine was opened for hematite and has been
worked as an iron mine; but below the iron ore a somewhat rich ore of
nickel is found, dull brownish and earthy in appearance, but with some
bands or spots of apple green material suggesting gonthite or garnierite.
A complete analysis made for the Kristiansand nickel refinery shows
the following composition:
SiOs 37-00
AI2O3 9-81
FesOs 28-37 (Fe = 19-86 per cent)
MnO 2-85 (Mn = l-92 percent.)
CaO 0-39
MgO 1-91
s o-oe
As 0-15
CuO 007 (Cu = 0-06 per cent.)
NiO 9-17 (Ni = 7-22 per cent.)
Co Traces
P2O5 009
Loss on heating 8-50
CrzOa 1-37
99-74
From its appearance the ore suggests the weathering of a basic erup-
tive rock, such as peridotite or serpentine, with the accumulation of the
nickel toward the bottom of the products of weathering, and so may be
compared with the New Caledonian deposits, though with much less of
the green nickel magnesia silicate, garnierite.
This ore deposit has been examined by the Mond Companj' and the
Norwegian Company, and the latter have made use of a shipload of the ore,
some of which is still to be seen at the Evje smelter. A portion of the nickel
produced at the Kristiansand refinery is therefore not from Norwegian,
but from Grecian ore.
So far as known at present none of the European nickel deposits are
of sufficient magnitude or of sufficiently high grade to be serious rivals of
the Canadian and New Caledonian mines; and much the largest part of
the nickel refined in Europe comes from these two regions.
Nickel Ores of New Caledonia.
Next to the Sudbury region the French penal colony of New Caledonia,
900 miles east of Australia, in lat. 22°, is far the most important source of
nickel in the world. Nickel was discovered there in 1865 by M. Jules
Garnier, and it was through his exertions that the nickel mining industry
sprang up. Many accounts of the region have been given in French and
English, the most complete being the description of the mines and their
conditions by M. E. Glasser who reported on them for the French
government^; though good accounts of the nickel region are given by Dr.
Barlow-, Mr. G. M. Colvocoresses'' and others. The following account
is mainly drawn from Mr. Glasser's report, as translated for the Bureau of
Mines of Ontario, by the present writer^.
The island consists of ancient schists and Mesozoic sediments, pene-
■etrated by numerous eruptives, of which the most important is a very
lAnnales des Mines, 15 Series, Tome IV, 1903, pp. 299-392 and 397-536.
2G.S.C., Vol. XIV, Part H, pp. 180-6.
3Eng. Min. Journ., Vol. 84, 1907, pp. 582-5.
<VoI. XIV, Part III, 1905, pp. 147-150.
119
basic rock, peridotite, consisting of olivine and enstatite, now more or less
transformed into serpentine. Deposits of nickel, cobalt and chromium
are asssociated with the serpentine. The original peridotite is no doubt
the source of the ore, and analyses show that the fresh rock contains small
percentages of nickel and cobalt. A specimen of olivine from one of the
mines contains 0-11 per cent of nickel and cobalt oxide while the enstatite
associated with it in less amount contains 0-4 per cent. Examples of
peridotite are said to have been found containing as much as 2| per cent
nickel. The peridotites cover most of the southeast end of the island and
form a discontinuous chain of outcrops running nearly to the northwest
end, as a mountain range, rising in places to 5,500 feet. In most cases
serpentization has advanced far, and at many points the serpentine has
changed into a red claj^ey material, which is associated with nickel ore.
The ores are all hydrated silicates in which nickel has replaced mag-
nesia to a greater or less extent. The richest silicates, which are green
and soft, may contain even 48-6 per cent of nickel oxide, and are called
garnierite and noumeaite, the two varieties seeming to blend into one
another. Their composition varies greatly, but their nickel content
averages higher than that of the genthite referred to as occurring in Oregon
and North Carolina.
The green minerals occur as small veins in the serpentine or peridotite,
as a scaly covering of fragments of the rock, or as concretionary masses.
The colour varies from pale to deep green or almost black, and the garnierite
is associated with a chocolate brown mineral which was at first rejected,
but is now known to be a similar nickel ore coloured with iron oxide, and
forms the larger part of the ore mined. There are also siliceous masses
of a green colour, containing, however, only 9 to 10 per cent of nickel.
As examples of the best garnierite the following analyses msiy be
given from M. Glasser's report:
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
Si02
p.c.
42-61
21-91
18-27
0-89
p.c.
35-45
45-15
2-47
0-50
p.c.
44-40
38-61
3-45
1-68
0-43
1-07
10-34
p.c.
37-78
33-91
10-66
1-57
p.c.
38-35
32-52
10-61
0-55
p.c.
.37-49
29-72
14-97
0-11
P.O.
47-90
24 00
12-51
3 00
NO
MgO
AhOs FeaOs
FeO .
C'aO
trace
12-73
H2O
15-40
15-55
15-83
17-97
17-60
99-08
99 12
99-98
99-75
100-00
99-89
100- 14
There may l)c every gradation from specimens like these, which come
from different parts of the island, to silicate of magnesia with only a small
percentage of nickel, so that the ore has the composition of serpentine in
which a variable amount of nickel has replaced magnesia.
25873—12
120
M. Glasser distinguishes four varieties of ore deposits, vein-like deposits,
brecciated deposits, masses of altered serpentine impregnated with niekel,
and niekeliferous earths.
While the pure garnierite is very rich, most of the ore is of very much
lower grade, and the miners mix rich and poor ore so as to adjust the out-
put to an average of 7 per cent of nickel, after drying at 100°C. This means
practically that the hydrous ore, before drying, runs about 5j to 5| per
cent of nickel, since the percentage of water is high. The waste dumps may
contain 3 or 4 per cent of nickel.
The veins are seldom large, and are never worked to any important
depth, so that there are few underground mines. Most of the deposits
form sheets covering the surface, nowhere more than 15 or 20 feet thick,
and are worked as open pits. The largest group of mines mentioned by
M. Glasser, on the plateau of Thio, had produced up to the time of his
report 250,000 tons; and during its greatest prosperitj'^, in 1890-1894 had
reached a production of 25,000 or 30,000 tons per annum, which later
had fallen off to 10,000 tons. The tenor of the ore in early daj's was 10
to 12 per cent, but latterly had fallen to 6| per cent of nickel. A large
amount of waste rock has now to be rejected and the group of mines is
approaching exhaustion.
The deposits are always found on gentle slopes or basins on the flanks
of the mountains and lie between the red clay mentioned before and the
rock. They have resulted from the superficial weathering of the rock,
accompanied b}' a concentration of the nickel as silicate by surface waters,
the nickel being precipitated more readily than the magnesia. Under
these conditions none of the deposits can be expected to cover continu-
ously a large surface. The largest of the bands of ore are not more than
about half a mile long and they are comparatively narrow. Many of
the deposits are already worked out, but a large number still furnish ore
and probablj^ many new deposits will yet be found. If the grade of the
ore required were lowered to 5 per cent of nickel, the amount which could
be furnished Avould greatly increase.
As the ores generally occur high up on the mountains where roads
are difficult to construct, transportation is a serious difficulty and cable
tramwaj s have often to be provided. Another drawback is the thickness
of red clay which has to be stripped from many of the deposits before they
can be worked by open quarrying, which is the usual method. The poor
character of the labour available, Kanakas, convicts, or sometimes Japanese,
is another drawback mentioned by M. Glasser, who adds that the long
ocean voyage and the remote situation of the island greatly hamper the
marketing of the ore at a profitable rate.
Though nickel was discovered by Garnier in 1865 scarcely any mining
was done until 1875 and the output did not rise to great importance till
1889, when 21,000 tons of ore were shipped. This amount had increased
to 103,908 tons in 1899 and to 128,653 tons in 1902, according to statis-
tics furnished by M. Glasser. In 1889 the contents of nickel in the ore
sent from New Caledonia rose to 1,680 tons, while previously it had not reached
1,000. In 1902 the nickel contents were placed at 7,045 tons, though
M. Glasser doubts the correctness of the return.
The most productive mines are still the old ones in the neighbourhood
of Thio on the northeast side of the island near its southeast end, but
their output is diminishing and the total is kept up b}^ the working of a
large number of small veins in different parts of the island.
121
M. Glasser discusses interestingly the formidable competition of
the Canadian nickel mines, though he states that "thanks to a more or
less complete understanding between the producers, New Caledonia pre-
serves her rank ; but it is none the less true that the nickel industry is develop-
ing in Canada and that the production of its mines has been rapidly
increasing of late years. Must one say that New Caledonia has much to
fear from this competition? We do not think so; for, so far as we can
judge from the documents at our disposal, the natural conditions of the
Canadian deposits are, in themselves, much less favourable than those of
our colony." He goes on to show that the Sudbury ores are sulphides
of nickel and copper, variable in the percentage of the two metals and
reciuiring a complex method of refinement. Quoting the statistics of the
Bureau of Mines, he admits that the nickel resources of the region are
considerable, though the tenor of the ore seems to be diminishing. He
was influenced in his view by the absurdly high estimate of our ore reserves
given by an official report to the United States Secretary of Marine in
1890.
While M. Glasser thinks our prospects less bright than those of New
Caledonia, he admits certain advantages. "On the other hand the general
industrial situation of Canada appears to be very favourable and has per-
mitted in late years an important development in mining and treating
the ores, in consequence of which the production of nickel in Canada is
steadily increasing."
The New Caledonia ore has one apparent advantage for purposes
of treatment over ours, in the absence of sulphur, and another real
advantage in its freedom from copper. The first advantage is, however,
neutralized by the fact that the New Caledonian ore is smelted with coke,
which always contains sulphur. Owing to the great affinity of nickel
for sulphur, this is taken up by the metal, and must later be separated
from it. This fact interfered with Garnier's original idea of direct smelting
of the nickel, and it is now smelted with sulphur compounds, such as
gypsum, and made into a matte which must afterwards be refined by methods
not very different from our oAvn. The absence of copper makes its separa-
tion unnecessary, but the copper, when separated, is an element in the
value of the Sudbury ores.
Since 1903, when the above account was written, conditions have
somewhat changed in regard to the New Caledonian mines, and ores of
slightly lower grade, containing G • 5 per cent of nickel, are now being shipped
to Europe. One serious handicap for the New Caledonian ores is the length
of the voyage, half round the world, before they can be marketed and
hence the heavy freight rates which have to be met.
To diminish this expense it was natural to attempt the first smelting
to matte on the island, but early efforts in this direction were unsuc-
cessful. In 1909, however, a new electrolytic process was introduced and
in 1910 a furnace of this kind was at work, so that 709 tons of matte figure
in the export statistics, while two other furnaces were nearly ready for
operation. The output of ore has for some time been standing still at
80,000 to 120,000 tons, audit is suggested that a heavy tax be placed on
unworked nickel lands in the island, so as to force the owners, especially
the greatest owner, the "Societ6 le Nickel," to work more actively the
mines leased from the government. How much result will flow from
these measures remains to Ijc seen.
The International Nickel Comi)any is stated to own nickel mines
in N(>w Caledonia, l)ut at present works only its Sudbury mines, which
furnish nearly the whole nickel supply of America; while the New Cale-
25873— 12i
122
donia ores are employed in France, Germany, and Scotland in the numerous
small smelters and refineries operated by branches of the Societe le Nickel.
The Mond Company uses Canadian matte, and the Scandinavian Company
uses mainly Norwegian ore.
It is interesting to note that the New Caledonian ores practically
never contain sulphur, the only instance of a nickel sulphide reported
by M. Glasser being a little millerite found in the Esperance chromium
mine ; so that these southern ores, due to the weathering and surface con-
centration of basic olivine rock, form an extreme contrast with the sulphide
ores segregated from norite, a much less basic rock, in the Sudbury region.
The two types of ore deposit are about as opposite in character as could
be imagined, the latter being formed directly from the molten mass, largely
separated bj' gravity; while the former results from two very slow pro-
cesses, the transformation of olivine into serpentine by hydration and the
weathering of serpentine into clay, with the accumulation of the minute
quantity of nickel in the original rock as a secondary deposit of the hydrous
silicate of nickel and magnesia called garnierite.
Nickel ore has been reported from one or two points in Australia
also, the most interesting locality being at Trial Harbour, north of Mac-
quarie harbour in Tasmania, where sulphide ore was found in a mine opened
for asbestos, evidently in serpentine, so that the deposit is more like that
of Alexo mine in Ontario than the New Caledonian mines. It is reported
in 1904 that 136 tons of this ore, valued at £554, were exported from this
mine, but as no further references can be found to the deposit, it has prob-
ably not proved to be of importance.^
Nickel Ores of Cape Colony.
Nickel ores were found at Insizwa, Cape Colony, many 3'ears ago,
but have onlj' recently attracted much attention. As described by Mr.
Du Toit of the Cape Survey, they resemble rather closely the Sudbury
deposits, consisting mainly of pyrrhotite with chalcopyrite and pentlandite,
though a few other nickel and copper minerals occur also, as well as the
metal platinum. The ores accompany gabbro or norite which forms a basin-
like sheet as at Sudbury. The sheet is 2,000 or 3,000 feet thick.
Two trial shipments of the ore, of some five tons each, sent to Messrs.
Johnson, Mathey and Co. in England for examination, are reported to run
as follows:^
Copper 3-40 per cent. 3-50 per cent.
Nickel and cobalt 4-90 per cent. | 5-25 per cent.
Gold (per ton) 6 grains. 6 grains.
Platinum I 2 dwt. 12 grs. 12 grains.
Silver 10 dwts. 12 dwts.
If the ore sent represents the average of the deposits, they seem to
be of high grade, and if the ore is present in large amounts the region may
be of importance.
»Eng. Min. Journ. Vol. 78, 1904, pp. 95 and 382.
2Dept. of Mines, 1.5th An. Rep. Geol. Com., Cape of Good Hope 1910, pp. 111-142.
123
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124
The above statistics are taken from various reports of the Bvireau of
Mines of Ontario. In regard to the amount of nickel produced in 1910, a
table summing up the production since 1906 reads as given; but the general
statistics for 1910 show 19,140 tons of the metal, since 504 tons estimated as
contained in Cobalt ores shipped to various smelters are included. Pro])abl3^
not much of this extra amount was actually refined, however.
Of the amount of ore mined in 1910, 391,575 tons came from the Creigh-
ton mine, 89,219 from the Crean Hill mine, 26,381 from No. 2 and 1,229
from the ^'ermilion mine belonging to the Canadian Copper Company;
while the Mond Company produced 93,542 tons from the Garson mine,
42,488 tons from Victoria No. 1, and 7,958 tons from Victoria No. 4.^
It is probable that 15 per cent of the two metals is lost in roasting,
smelting and refining the ores, so that the original contents of the ores
were 15 per cent larger than the amounts given in the table.
NEW CALEDONIA.
Year.
1875.
1876.
1877.
1878.
1879.
1880.
1881.
1882.
1883.
1884.
1885.
1886.
1887.
1888.
1889.
1890.
1891.
1892.
1893.
1894.
1895.
1896.
1897.
1898.
1899.
1900.
1901.
1902.
1903.
1904.
1905.
1906.
1907.
1908.
1909.
1910.
Value S.
Tons
of
Nickel.
Smelted
on the
island.
327
,406
,377
155
6,
21,
24,
54,
35,
45,
40,
38,
37,
57,
74,
103,
100,
133,
129,
77,
98,
125,
130,
101,
120,
82,
115,
65,4001
340,600
344,400
9,200
528
069
025
881
888
228
921
602
616
000
590
081
951
613
089
976
467
639
614
908
319
676
653
360
653
289
688:
708
028
937
342
5,058
6,292
6,768
7,994
1,095
1,250
1,900
160
101,200
162,800
324,800
248,000
315,752
146,384
36,840
515,000
165,400
525,000
565,400
1,135,600
644,700
775,400
561,246
389,760
317,203
403,473
671,526
1,101,425
1,175,400
916,000
915,800
39
408
525
18
253
407
8121
620
871
418
92|
688
530 1
1,680
1,960
4,326
2,507
3,180
2,795
2,484^
2,388
3,458
4,356
5,6401
5,975
7,218
7,045]
506
537
615
637
99
114
174
15
iBur. Mines, Ont., Vol. XX, Part 1, 1911, p. 26.
125
In the table given above the statistics up to 1902 are taken from M.
Glasser's report on New Caledonia^ and the later ones from the Mineral
Industry.- The value of the ore and its contents in nickel are not given in
the later years, but the average. contents of the ore is stated to be 6^ per
cent. In comparing these statistics with those of the Sudbury district an
uncertain amount of loss in smelting should be allowed.
The output of nickel from Norway and other countries has of late years
been nil or very small as compared with the two great producers of which
statistics are given above.
If the contents in nickel of the new Caledonia ores be put at 6| per
cent, its output of the metal in 1910 was 7,497 tons, from which possiblj^ 15
per cent should be deducted for loss in smelting; so that Sudbury produced
Methods of Prospecting and Exploration.
The scour of glaciers during the Ice Age must have swept most of the
nickel deposits bare of gossan, leaving clean surfaces of unchanged sul-
phides; but after the retreat of the Labrador ice sheet some thousands of
years ago weathering processes became active again. Pyrrhotite is one
of the most easily attacked sulphides, and where unprotected, fresh sur-
faces quickly become rusty and within a few j-ears the surface is changed
to limonite and little or none of the original ore is to be seen. Glacially
scoured surfaces may, however, be hermetically sealed by a sheet of boulder
clay left by the ice; and when this is stripped, as was the case some years
ago at Creighton, the clean surface of pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite with
distinct striae is found unchanged.
Probably in almost all cases there are parts of the ore body exposed to
weathering and gossan formation, and in the beginning prospectors naturally
looked for such gossan-covered surfaces. It was soon found that only
gossan connected with a particular rock, "diorite" as it was then callecl,
indicated good ore. In only a few years after 1883, when the Murray mine
was discovered, every deposit known to be important had been found, so
alert had the prospectors become to the indications of ore.
In many cases the deposits rose as rusty hills or covered steep hill-
sides, so that they thrust themselves on the attention and could harclly be
missed in walking through the woods. Copper Cliff, Murray mine, Creigh-
ton, the Frood, and other deposits, which have since become famous, chal-
enged the eye with their rusty brown surfaces rising from the green of
swamps, and it reciuired no great skill to locate them once the general
trend of the nickel ranges had been discovered so as to keep the work
within reasonalile bounds. But a number of other outcrops occur in low
ground largely covered with drift or swamps, and here more patience was
required.
It may be that important deposits remain undiscovered beneath
such drift areas or muskegs where no gossany point rises above the conceal-
ing mantel. Up to the present, however, there have been scarcely any
finds of this sort made in the region.
It was soon noticed by the prospectors that the compass is useless near
nickel deposits, sinc(^ pyrrhotite (magnetic pyrites) causes local attraction;
and it was naturally tliought that magnetic disturbances might help out
'An. dcs Minos, 10 Series, Tome IV, p. 512,
=Vol. XIX, 1910, p. 505.
126
in the discover^' of these ores. In a number of instances the dip needle was
used over swampy ground and in the case of Mr. Edison's parties a wide
range of country was swept })y such a magnetic survey, with little or no
reference to the geological relationships, and with no results of value, since
after months of work not a single ore deposit was located. The method
was thereby unduly discredited.
A serious difficulty in the use of magnetic survey methods is found in the
variable amount of magnetism in pyrrhotite, which in some localities is
feeble and in others strong, though never so strong as that of magnetite.
Since its attractive force is usually not great the presence of a rock contain-
ing a small amount of magnetite may affect the dip needle as strongly as a
consideraljle bod}' of ore, and stri])i)ing has sometimes proved this to Ix'
the case.
More careful methods, using the Thompson-Tlialen magnetometer
were later introduced by Mr. Xystrom, a Swedish engineer who had received
his training in the old world, and have later been applied by other engineers
in the region. For a complete and scientific account of the method and
its underlying principles reference may be made to the "Location and
Examination of Magnetic Ore Deposits by Magnetometric Measurements"
by Dr. Eugene Haanel.
Although magnetometric methods have distinct limitations they hava
proved of great service, not so much in discovering nickel deposits as in
defining the boundaries and giving an idea of the amount of ore in known
deposits. At least two of the companies interested in the region systemat-
icall}' carry out such a survey before going on to more expensive methods;,
and the regularly arranged pegs used for the purpose may be found blocking
out the surface at most of the still unworked deposits.
USE OF THE DIAMOND DRILL.
The magnetometric survey is looked on as an inexpensive preliminary
method of examining a property, but before purchasing usually a more
thorough examination is made with the diamond drill; and diamond
drilling is used also to determine the reserves of ore in working mines and
to fix the most suitable position and inclination of shafts for exploiting the
deposit. In fact the extended use of the diamond drill is one of the most,
striking features of modern methods in the nickel region. Formerly when
a drill was used the positions and directions of the holes were decided on
rather at haphazard, but of late the work has been carefully systematized
by the more important companies, the holes being planned so as to come at
regular distances apart and along definite planes, giving more or less complete-
cross sections of the ore body, from which the amount of ore may be worked
out with a good deal of certainty. The drilling is now usually carried out
with careful reference to the geology, especiallj^ in marginal and parallel
offset deposits, and thus more valuable results are obtained with fewer
barren holes. In earlier days holes were frec^uently put down in country
rock where no ore could be looked for, but the relations of norite to ore and
country rock are now better understood, and the drill holes put down give
far more effective information.
The Canadian Copper Company, for example, have developed a
complete system, not only for the placing of holes, but also for the examin-
ation of the cores and the classification of the materials, with carefully
planned forms for entering the results so as to be available for immediate-
reference. Cross sections of ore and country rock are easily prepared from.
127
these records and give reliable results as to the amount and grade of the
ore present, so that mining can be carried on with almost complete certainty.
All the companies examining or operating mines in the region within
the last few years have made great use of the diamond drill, and the two
most important companies have sunk many thousands of feet of drill holes
to determine the value of properties or to decide on the most efficient method
of developing them.
Methods of Mining.
Every variety of development is illustrated among the mines of the
Sudbury district from prospects on which a little stripping has been done,
to great and carefully planned mines, like the Creighton, raising and
shipping more than 1,000 tons of ore a day; and the methods employed
vary accordingly.
]\Iany of the deposits have never got beyond the prospect stage in
which the superficial limits of the ore have been disclosed by trenching
or costean pits, and the presence of a certain amount of ore proved by
test pits of greater or less depth. This point has been reached bj' dozens
of properties, not only on the southern, but on the eastern and northern
ranges, from which no ore has been shipped, though in a few cases hundreds
or sometimes thousands of tons lie in the ore piles exposed to the weather
and rapidly changing to worthless gossan. In many cases also shafts
have been sunk from a few feet to 200 feet to show the extent of the ore
body or in preparation for mining operations which never materialized.
Sometimes hundreds of feet of drifting have been done at one or more
levels with the same object in view.
The number of mines which have actually produced ore on the com-
merical scale is, however, not large, scarcely exceeding 20; and only 9
appear to have supplied as much as 100,000 tons and so to have reached
the rank of important mines. On the other hand one mine has provided
more than 2,000,000 tons of ore.
Usually the mines have passed through two more or less distinct
stages recjuiring different mining methods, beginning as open pits and end-
ing with underground mining, with an intermediate stage of mixed methods
connecting them.
During the prospecting stage man-])ower or horse-power is employed,
often succeeded later by temporary steam hoisting plants and drills the
fuel frecjuently being wood from the adjoining forest. When the mine
begins to supply ore a more elaborate steam ])lant is usually installed
for hoisting and air drills, the fuel being coal, which is very expensive
at Sudbury. Finally, in all the pr(>sent important mines, the costly steam
plant is replaced by electricity supplied from water powers, which may
be as much as 25 miles away, and the steam plant is held in reserve in
case of accident to the turbines or transmission plant.
In the earliest stage of opening up a mine the work is practically
quarrying, but presently it becomes necessary to sink a shaft in the country
rock close by at a suitable angle to keep within easy distance of the ore
body. The ore quarried in the o])en ])it is loaded by hand in cars which
run on narrow gauge moveable tracks radiating from the short tunnel
leading to the shaft, where the ore is dumiied into skips and hoisted to
the rockhouse which stands just behind the shaft.
In the case of the Creighton mine No. 1 shaft with two hoisting com-
partments and a ladder way, was sunk on an incline of 59° in granitoid
128
gneiss just southeast of the open pit, to the first level at a depth of 60 feet.
Later the shaft was extended to the second level at 140 feet and a drift
was run into the ore, which was then stoped out to the first level, making
a great open pit of that depth with a length of 500 feet by a breadth of
300. ]\Ieantime No. 2 shaft was being sunk 330 feet to the southwest
since the ore was dipping in that direction. Stoping was carried on at the
third level from both shafts and the eastern part of the ore body was stoped
out to the floor of the second level, deepening the open pit to 190 feet;
the same method being continued at the fourth level. Below this depth
the workings are underground. A brief general description of the mine
may be taken from an account by Mr. G. E. Sylvester. ^
There are two shafts in parallel planes about 330 feet apart.
No. 1 shaft, inclined 59°, has two hoisting compartments and ladder-
way. It is still served by the original timber framed rockhouse with
the interior someAvhat modified.
No. 2 shaft, inclined 47° has, besides the ladderway, three hoisting
compartments, one of which is intended more particularly for develop-
ment work and hoisting barren rock, leaving the other two for the ordinary
work of hoisting ore, without interference.
The rockhouse, 45 feet bj' 90 feet, is of reinforced concrete up to
and including the bin bottoms. The bins, which are in three rows, served
by three tracks running underneath, are 12 feet by 15 feet by 14 feet deep,
built up of 3 inch by 10 inch plank laid flat and lined with 2 inch plank.
The structure above the bins is of heavy timber framing with double
wooden sheeting.
The ore is dumped on grizzlies at a height of about 70 feet above
surface level. From the foot of the grizzlies, it is carried by massive
curved chutes directly into two 18 by 30 inch jaw crushers, which are large
enough to take anything that can be handled into tramcars underground.
These chutes are removable in case ore should be encountered which
would require sorting on the crusher floor. The wearing plates of the
crushers are manganese steel. Each crusher discharges into a trommel
screen, 36 inches by 10 feet, fitted with manganese steel plates with one-
inch perforations throughout, as only two sizes of ore, fines and coarse,
are separated.
The coarse ore from each screen falls upon a 36 inch rubber picking
belt, 50 feet long between centres, in two sections. There is also a screen
and picking belt under the grizzlies. From these belts the ore and rock
are distributed to their respective bins. The crushers, screens and belts
are operated by two 50 horse-power constant speed induction motors.
The rockhouse has a capacity of about 1,200 tons in 24 hours. The picking
floor is steam heated. A few steam coils in the fines bins, covered with
a false lining of steel plate, effectually prevent the freezing and hanging
up of damp fines.
The tracks under both rockhouses are on a grade, so that empty
cars can be placed on the upper side, then dropped through by gravity,
and loaded without anj^ further attention from a locomotive.
In the mine the drilling is practically all done with 3| and 3j inch
standard type rock drills, and the blockholing by small hand air drills of the
hammer type. The pressure at the drills runs about 95 pounds.
The tram cars are 18 inches gauge and 18 inches wheel base. The
front and back journal boxes on each side are rigidly connected in a single
steel casting, bolted under the side frame, ensuring a permanently true
iJourn. Can. Min. Inst., Vol. XII, 1909, pp. 220, etc.
l^SSSi
:^-
/ -'
129
alignment of the axles. The wheels are 14 inches diameter, of manganese
steel, one fast and one loose on each axle. The cars weigh 2,000 pounds
and hold about three tons.
The skips are 46 inches gauge, and hold a full tram carload. The
wheels are of manganese steel 14 inches diameter, with broad treads on
the rear wheels for dumping. The track stringers are 8 by 10 inches,
shod with 3 ])y | inch steel straps. Guard timbers are 6 by 8 with 2k by |
inch straps.
The shafts and stations are lighted with incandescent lamps and
^Cjuipped with electric hoisting signals, but in the stopes large acetylene
torches are used, with individual lamps for drifts and confined spaces.
The mine pumps are of the vertical single acting, three cylinder,
crank type, geared to 15 horse-power motors.
The engine house is 93 feet by 39 feet, with brick walls on concrete
base. Steel columns built into the walls support a crane runwa}' and steel
roof trusses. The roof covering is 3 by 3 dressed lumber with tarred felt.
A high tension switch tower of brick, 10 feet by 11 feet, adjoins the
building in one corner, and a transformer room 8 feet by 20 feet is walled
off inside. A 10 ton hand-pov/er travelling crane runs the full length
of the engine room. The floor is of reinforced concrete surfaced with
cement tiles.
The equipment is as follows: —
Two electric driven mine hoists, a two drum for No. 1 shaft, and a
three drum for No. 2 shaft. The drums are 60 inches in diameter, and
have a capacity of 1,000 feet of one inch cable in one lap. The drums
are arranged to hoist singly or with any pair in balance. Each hoist is
geared to a 150 horse-power variable speed induction motor, the hoisting
speed being 600 to 800 feet per minute.
A 1,650 foot cross-compound compressor, direct connected to a 300
horse-power induction motor at 120 r.p.m. delivers air at 100 pounds
pressure. An after-cooler is provided as well as an extra large intercooler.
In addition to this, the condensed moisture is trapped in a special leg in the
air line in the shaft.
A 1,000 gallon, 6 inch, 4 stage turbine fire pump, direct connected
to a 150 horse-power induction motor, furnishes fire protection for all
the mine buildings; and a 250 gallon, 3 inch, single stage turbine, with
5 horse-power motor, circulates cooling water to the transformers and
compressor.
The office and warehouse are in one building, 30 feet by 60 feet in
dimensions. The walls are of brick, on concrete base, with steel roof trusses
and roof covering of hollow book tile with tar and gravel. The floor
is of reinforced concrete. In the basement is situated the steam heating
plant for all the buildings.
The dry, or men's change house, is 36 feet by 80 feet in size, of similar
construction to the warehouse building. It is equipped with basins, shower
l)aths, hot and cold water, closets and urinals. There is a 12 by 16 open
steel sanitary locker for each man and a private room is provided for fore-
men. The building is thoroughly heated and lighted and has a caretaker
always in attendance.
The water for the various buildings and for fire protection is pumped
from a small lake about 3,000 feet distant, into a steel tank holding 60,000
gallons, situated just outside the engine room. The jiump is a 250 gallon
4 inch, 2 stage turbine with 20 horse-power motor, in a small concrete
l)uilding.
The tank is connected directly with the suction of the fire jnini]),
and furnishes a gravity supply for the buildings generally.
130
CREAN HILL MINE — METHOD OF MIXING.
The mine, in the first stages, was developed with a view to removing
only the high grade copper ore along the foot-wall, which is fairly regular
and well defined, the presumption being that the various patches of low
copper and higher nickel ore cut by the diamond drill holes in the hanging
wall side of the deposit could, probably, not be Avorked profitably. Sub-
secjuent development work, however, showed the ore to be fairly continuous
and that the enclosed rock occurred in masses, sometimes very large, and
usually not intimately mixed with the ore. The question then arose — how
to win this nickel ore at an economically possible co.st. It was evident
that a very large percentage of the ground broken would consist of rock,
which would necessarily recjuire to be disposed of in the stopes, quickly
and cheaply.
Following is a brief description of the method now employed : —
At each level the ground is blocked out by exploratory drifts, which
are carried to the boundary of the mineralized section. Wherever an
enrichment occurs, these drifts are widened and raised to a height of about
16 feet, and then carried as breast stopes.
In breast stoping the richer portions only are removed, in order to
avoid handling rock, but on the back stopes, where the rock can readily
be disposed of, pretty much all rock containing mineral is broken and
handled, except the very large masses, which are left as pillars, care being
taken to lay out the pillars where rock occurs.
Until sufficient space has been provided in the breast stopes, all rock
as well as ore must be hoisted, but, as soon as practicable without hamper-
ing work at the breast stopes, the rock is piled up along the walls of the
stope.
Masons are then employed to build the dry stone walls, which take the
place of drift sets to maintain the tramways. The walls are built about 4 feet
thick and 7 feet high, reinforced at intervals with round timber. These
walls are stronger and less expensive than drift sets. In the walls are
built ore chutes and manwaj's. The latter commence at the floor, of
rectangular form, and large enough to admit a tramway. In them are
placed ladders and drill chutes.
The ore chutes are built up solid to the bottoms, which are formed of
wood lined with steel or cast iron plates. The chutes are circular in form,
above the roof of the drifts, which, where manways and chutes occur,
are about 12 feet high. The main tramways are double tracked, covered
with round tamarac or pine lagging.
No effort is made to fill to the top of the walls with rock from the
breast stopes, the deficit being supplied b}' returning through chutes pro-
vided for the purpose, waste rock from the surface, all rock hoisted direct
or rejected in the ore house being returned to the mine. The first fill is
made to within 8 or 10 feet of the back and is carefully levelled off with
crushed rock from the surface to form a smooth floor.
Back stoping is commenced on top of the fill by slicing and raising
until the back has reached a height of 35 to 40 feet above the filled floor,
the stope being then carried as a breast stope, but having the advantage
that the bottom is cut away. By this means maximum footage is attained
by the drillers and maximum tonnage from the drilling.
Drilling is performed on bars, on top of the muck, and the drill holes,
after the proper height has been attained, are nearly all underhand or wet
holes (the latter a verj^ important advantage in such hard ground). The
roof is easily accessible for scaling, and but little delay occurs after blasting
Plate XXXIV
Dry wall, Crean Hill mine
131
25873—13
132
before the machine men can again start to set up their machines. The
trammers also can begin work promptly at the beginning of the shift.
On a new fill considerable waste of fine ore is inevitable, but, by drop-
ping a slice 30 feet thick and handling it on one floor, this waste is mini-
mized.
Some careful engineering is required to provide convenient dumps for
the rock rejected on the back stopes. With this object in view the stopes
are carried one ahead of the other (i.e. one higher than the other) in the
form of terraces, the stopes being advanced in opposite directions to the
fills, the reject of one stope forming filling for the succeeding one.
The ore bearing rock is transferred from the chutes to the tramcars
by means of air operated gates. The gate is hung radially to the lip of the
chute, on a square shaft placed underneath the bottom of the lip, and held
in position by means of arms which are integral parts of the gate. The
bottom of the lip is about a foot above the side of the tramcar. When
the gate is opened it swings under the lip. The stream of ore flows into
the car until it blocks. The car is filled to its full capacity and heaped up,
but not overflowing. The air is turned on and the gate cuts up through
the pile of coarse rock, separating the rock in the car from that in the chute.
No adjustment of the load is necessary, and no delay occurs, unless the
chute happens to be blocked. The whole operation of loading usually
does not consume longer than one minute.
Tramcars and skips have each a capacity of three tons.
CREIGHTOX MINE.
In all levels of the mine below the 3rd, and all of the western part
of all levels, the method of mining is similar to that pursued at Crean Hill,
except that the walls and filling consist entirely of ore. By this means
a large reserve of broken ore is always available in case of a shortage of
labour, or a sudden demand for increased tonnage. The latter emergency
was met last winter by withdrawing filling from part of a stope in which
stoping has been completed.
Treatment of the Sudbury Ores.
MECHANICAL.
The Sudbury ores include essentially only four ingredients, a mag
netic sulphide of iron, which is practically free from nickel and copper-
a sulphide of nickel and iron, which is nonmagnetic; a sulphide containing
equal parts of iron and copper, which is nonmagnetic; and a variable
amount of rock matter which may be of several different kinds, in the
main nonmagnetic, norite or the products of its weathering predominating.
The valuable constituents of the ore are nickel and copper, the former
being much more valuable than the latter; and these two metals must
be separated first from the useless materials and afterwards from one
another.
Some of the ores are low in copper and high in iron, and if these could
be selected so as to contain only a minimum of copper the large amount
of iron present in the ore could be utilized directly to form ferro-nickel,
and the costly separation of the copper could be avoided. This would,
of c ourse, be the ideal method to pursue, but the only attempt to put
it into practice on a large scale, by the Lake Superior Power Co. on Gertrude:
ore, proved a failure because of the presence of too much copper.
25873— 13i
133
The fact that the components of the ore include a mineral which is
TQagnetic, while the others are not, or only feebly so, suggests a natural
means of concentrating it, by crushing and passing the crushed ore through
a magnetic separator. This has appealed to a number of investigators
who have occupied themselves with these ores and their treatment, and
a large amount of ingenious experimentation has been performed in search
of an economic method of magnetic separation, hitherto without success.
The fact that pyrrhotite varies greatly in the strength of its magnetism
adds to the difficulty of separation.
The question of magnetic separation is fully discussed by Dr. Barlow,
who gives fairly complete references to the literature of the subject as
well as an account of experiments carried out at McGill University under
his direction for the purposes of his own report." Careful work along
this line has been done by Mr. David Browne, the well known metallurgist,^
Dr. C. W. Dickson,^ and Mr. W. M. Ogilvie,^ the latter gentleman working
on ores provided by Dr. Barlow.
Mr. Browne gives the following table of the results which he obtained
from three important mines of the Canadian Copper Company, using
picked nickel ore : —
Copper Cliff Mine, 7th Level.
Analysis
of total
ore.
Magnetic.
Analysis.
Nonmag-
netic.
Analysis.
Nickel in
magnetic
part,
Pyrrhotite
Nickel in
nonmag-
netic part,
Pentlandite
Cu 000
Ni 11-00
Fe 50-40
S 38-01
i 78-6<
0-00
4-62
55-70
38-58
1 f
\ 21-4^
J I
000
35-05
29-80
34-35
i 34-00
66-00
Stobie Mine.
Cu 0-00
Ni 2-75
Fe 58-00
S 35-35
f
97 -1751
000
2-15
57 00
36-10
1 f
2-825]
000
34-70
29-90
33-90
[ 72-00
2S-00
Evans Mine
Cu trace
Ni 902
Fe 51-50
S 39-28
i 84-04
0-00
3-82
56 00
40-18
15-96
J I
0-00
34-12
29-95
35-43
35-47
64-53
The results of Dr. Dickson's experiments on representative examples
of pyrrhotite ground to pass through sieves of varying mesh are shown
in the following table. No. I giving the original contents of nickel; No.
II that of the magnetic concentrate after passing through a 100 mesh
'G.S.C., Vol. XIV, Part H, p. 132, etc.
2Eng. Min. Jour., 1893, p. 566.
^Trans. Am. Inst. Min. Eng., 1903.
*Dr. Barlow, Rep., pp. 136-140.
134
sieve; No. Ill the same samples crushed first coarsely and then more
and more finely, with magnetic concentration in each case; and No. IV
the final concentrate after a similar succession of crushings ending with
grinding in an agate mortar.
The table is of interest also as showing the nickel contents of approxi-
mately pure pyrrhotite plus pendlandite from various mines.
Mine.
II. III. 1 IV. Description of samole.
Ni.
I.Elsie mine 2-44 2-22
0-98 ! Fine grained pyrrhotite.
2. Stobicmine 3-05 2-14 0-68
3. Frood mine 2-40 | 2-07 1-05 0-65 Coarse "
4. Mt. Nickel mine... I 3-06, 2-14 0-75 0-70 Medium"
5. No. 2 mine, Copper' i
Cliff... I 400' 2-00 0-70 Coarse "
6. No. 4 mine, Copper I
Cliff 3-.30 I 2-.32 0-83
7a. Creightonmine... 2-.32 2-2.5 1-20 0-70 " " "
76. Creighton mine... 4-15 0-45 Fine " "
8. Gertrude mine 4-00 2-30, MO Massive"
9. Victoria mine 3-40 2-46 0-80 Fine " "
I I
It will be seen that by successive magnetic separations, in which
the materials are crushed finer and finer, the nonmagnetic portions being
removed, the amount of nickel in the magnetic portion is greatly reduced
though not entirely lost even after very fine grinding.
The experiments carried out by Mr. Ogilvie in the mining laboratory
at McGill University for Dr. Barlow's report were more elaborate, and
included ores from the Creighton, Victoria, Garson (Cryderman) and
Mt. Nickel mines, and from the Tough and Stobie property in Levack
township, and the Cochrane property near Blue lake. The ore came
from widely distributed localities, mainly from the southern range, but
some also from the eastern and northern ranges so as to represent the
marginal deposits of the region very fairly. The work was done with a
Wetherill magnetic separator which permitted various adjustments of
the strength of the current, of the distance between the two magnets, and
of the speed of the belts conveying the powdered ore. It was found that
the material varied much in magnetic properties, ore from the Creighton
being least magnetic and that from Blue lake being most magnetic. For
details of the process Dr. Barlow's report may be consulted.
The work done resulted in the separation of three products, magnetic,
feebly magnetic, and nonmagnetic; and it was found, in the case of Creigh-
ton ore, that from 40 to over 50 per cent of the nickel remained in the
magnetic portion, which represented from 75 to 90 per cent of the whole
sample, while the rest was contained chiefly in the feebly magnetic portion.
The copper also was found to be largely concentrated in the feebly magnetic
or nonmagnetic parts. The results from the other ores were similar,
sho^dng that pentlandite is largely left behind in the magnetic separation,
but that too much of it is carried over with the pyrrhotite to make the
process a commercial success.
A glance at the photomicrographs of polished surfaces of ore from
some of these mines, as illustrated by Campbell and Knight, shows clearly
why magnetic separation is so incomplete, since pentlandite and also
chalcopyrite ramify through the pyrrhotite in the most minute and intri-
cate way.^ It appears, therefore, that under present conditions magnetic
iJour. Can. Min. In.st., Vol. X, 1907, pp. 274, etc.
135
separation is out of the question as an economic process for the ordinary
Sudbury ores. In any case this mode of separation would leave the rich
ores of nickel and copper mixed, so that the most difficult and costly
process would still have to be carried out.
The other useless ingredient of the ore is the intermingled rock matter,
which could be removed by suitable concentrating mills, since the sul-
phides have a much higher specific gravity than plagioclase or pyroxene;
but up to the present this has not seemed necessary.
At most of the mines a certain amount of selection of the ore is carried
out by hand picking, either in the mine itself, or on travelling belts or
otherwise in the rockhouse, so that stony masses below a certain grade are
removed. Usually, however, the waste dumps display a considerable
amount of ore, especially in the very rocky mines, like the Crean Hill,
where much of the ore is copper pyrites. In some cases there are on the
dumps hundreds of thousands of tons of waste rock which contains 1 1 or
even 2 or more per cent of the metals, mostly copper, deposited there
because a certain standard of ore is demanded for the smelter. Some of
these dumps run as high in copper as do ores worked on a large scale
in western mines, e. g. in the Boundary country in British Columbia; and
it is to be expected that at some time these rocky low grade ores will be
put through concentrating mills so as to recover the large amount of sul-
phides contained in them. This may not take place, however, until there
is no longer a sufficient supply of ore from high grade mines like the Creigh-
ton.
Ore almost as rocky and low grade as the rock dumps of some of the
Sudbury mines is being smelted, apparently at a profit, in the Evje valley
in Southern Norway, as will be shown later.
The mechanical separation of the sulphides from the rock can never
be very complete because of the intimate mixture of the two in the pj'rr-
hotite-norite, into which the solider ore usually passes. The crushing of
the tough rock fine enough to set free the enclosed ore must result in a
great amount of fines ^^^.th such soft and brittle minerals as pyrrhotite,
pentlandite and chalcopyrite; and the later treatment of fines is trouble-
some.
Metallurgical Processes.
The usual metallurgj- of the Sudbury ores includes four distinct pro-
cesses, (1) roasting to remove part of the sulphur, (2) smelting in water
jacket furnaces to produce furnace or standard matte, (3) resmelting the
standard matte in converters to make a matte of 75 or 80 per cent of nickel
and copper, and (4) the separation and refining of the nickel and copper.
At least six companies in the Sudbury region have produced standard
matte, the Drury Nickel Company at the Chicago or Travers mine, the
Mond Nickel Company at Victoria mine, the Lake Superior Corporation
at Gertrude, the Canadian Copper Company at Copper Cliff, the Vivians
at Murray mine, and the Dominion ]\Iining Company at Blazard mine.
In addition several plants have ])eon formed for experimental purposes
without reaching the point of producing any large amount of matte or
metal. All of the companies which have used smelters have followed the
practice of heap roasting and smelting in a water-jacket furnace to matte,
the general methods eni))loyed not differing greatly in principle, though the
size and equipment of the various plants have differed immensely.
130
Beyond this stage there have been considerable variations in methods
of producing the high grade matte, Manhes furnaces having been used
by the Vivians, ordinary acid lined converters by the Mond Company
and formerly also by the Canadian Copper Company, while a reverber-
atory tj'pe of furnace was used for some years by the Orford Company to
raise the Copper Cliff standard matte to high grade matte.
Within the past year the Canadian Copper Company has introduced
immense basic lined converters, which will be described later by Mr. David
Browne. In addition they are supplementing the usual furnaces with
reverberatory furnaces to treat fines and flue dust, which have accumulated
to a considerable tonnage.
The processes thus far mentioned are all carried on in the Sudbury
region itself, and the methods are well known, so that there is no attempt
at secrecy in the smelters. The last set of operations, in which the metals,
nickel and copper are reduced from the 80 per cent matte, and separated
from one another, are carried on in other countries by methods which
have been partly patented but are in part kept secret.
The divergences of method up to the stage of high grade matte are
unimportant, at least as regards the principle involved; but the final
separation and refining of the two metals are carried on by totally different
methods.
Canadian matte from Copper Cliffis treated by special smelting methods
at Bayonne, N.J., by the International Nickel Company, while Canadian
matte from Victoria mine is treated by the Mond process at Clydach,
Wales, in which the reduced metals are acted on by carbon monoxide, and
the nickel removed from the copper as a volatile compound which is later
decomposed, setting free the nickel. Finally Norwegian matte, very
similar to the Canadian converter matte, is separated electrolytically
by the Hybinette process, at Kristiansand, Norway.
There are, then, three ways of obtaining and separating nickel and
copper from the high grade matte, each absolutely different from the
others, and not merely variations of a single method. All three processes
seem to be commercially successful and able to compete with one another
and with the somewhat different process used in the treatment of New
Caledonian ores. In this respect nickel is unique among the metals pro-
duced on a fairly large scale.
EOASTING THE ORE.
All the Sudbury nickel-copper ores contain much more sulphur
than is required in standard matte, so that a large part of this element
must be driven off before the matte is obtained. Up to the present, most
of the sulphur has been removed by the simplest possible method, heap
roasting. Attempts have Vjeen made to introduce pyritic smelting by the
Canadian Copper Company, but with little success, so that the greater
part of their ore is still roasted in heaps^ All the other companies which
have produced matte have roasted a large percentage of their ore. It
has often been suggested that a more scientific process of roasting should
be adopted, including the manufacture of sulphuric acid to prevent waste
of the sulphur and to preserve the adjoining country from the action of the
'Pyritic smelting of Sudbury ores is discussed at length in the Engineering and Mining Journal
by Mr. G. T. Beardsley, who carried out experiments for the Canadian Copper Co. (Vol. 84, 1907,
pp.343, etc. ); and Mr. Hixon (Ibid. p. .507); while others give their experience in the pyritic smelt-
ing of copper ores in the same volume (Ibid. pp. 601, 749 and 837).
Plate XXXVII.
Building roast beds: Victoria Mines.
Plate XXXVIII.
Roast beds, Copper Cliff.
Pi
o
o
o
137 •
fumes of sulphur dioxide. However, there is little demand for sulphuric
acid in the Sudbury region and freight rates would be a serious item if so
cheap a product was shipped to a distance; and the country just around
the roast beds is usually of small value as farm land, so that the simpler
and cheaper method of disposing of the sulphur will probably continue
in use for some time to come.
For heap roasting a flat surface that canbedrained is prepared, SAvampy
tracts or old lake terraces being generally chosen for the purpose, though
some of the smaller plants have used flat surfaces of rock. The general
principle involved in the roasting is that the sulphur in the ore itself serves as
a fuel when ignited, so that it is simply necessary to provide wood enough
to start the fire, and then to make sure thatthecombustiongoes onuniformlj^
over the whole pile.
In preparation for a roast heap a layer of cordwood or of dead pine from
the neighbourhood is laid down to a depth of a foot or eighteen inches, the
spaces between the larger sticks being filled in with smaller pieces to make
a sjmewhat uniform level surface. Small channels filled with kindling
wood lead at intervals of eight or ten feet toward the center of the pile,
so as to light the whole heap uniformly. On this bed coarse ore is placed,
either by barrows or by dumping from cars running on a rough trestle,
making up about two-thirds of the whole. This is followed by medium
sized ore and then all is covered with fines, the whole amounting in most
cases to 2,000 or 3,000 tons, arranged in a trim rectangular shape with a
nearly flat top and sides sloping at the angle of stability for the material.
The wood is set fire to, and according to Captain McArthur, burns
out in about 60 hours, after which the sulphur of the ore is well ignited
and will continue to burn without further aid, though rapid combustion
at any given point is checked by covering it with fines. The usual large
heaps require 3 or 4 months to burn, when all but 10 or 11 per cent of the
sulphur has passed off and the iron is more or less completely oxidised,
so that the heap takes on a reddish colour.
In the earlier stages a good deal of sulphur is sublimed from the lower
part of the heap and condenses as a pale yellow coating on the cooler
upper part, but later this too is burnt away. The fumes of SO2 are heavy
and do not rise readily, but condense moisture from the air forming a
cloud which drifts with the wind low along the ground, making a choking
citmosphere to breathe, though it is apparently not found unhealthy by
the men who work in the roast yards.
These regularly shaped heaps are built in parallel rows only a few
feet apart, and north of Copper Cliff, for instance, one may study heaps
at every stage from the process of building to cold burnt out ones which
are being loaded on cars for the smelter.
During the roasting process, especially when rains come on, various
sulphites of iron, nickel and copper are formed as green stalactitic masses
in the cavities between the pieces of ore, and a not inconsiderable amount
of the metals may be leached out and lost. An old pick or shovel im-
mersed in the greenish water of some hollow or ditch is gradually replaced
by copper, giving ocular evidence of the loss due to this cause.
The roasted ore is usually somewhat sintered together and may be
fused into such solid masses as to need explosives to break them up. "While
the surfaces of the bits of ore are well roasted and rusty looking, there
still remains a certain amount of unroasted sulphides within the blocks.
The effects of the sulphur fumes on the surrounding vegetation are
disasterous, especially to coniferous trees, so that soon after a roast yard
138
is established the nearby cedar swamps show only bare trunks, and many
plants are killed even two or three miles away in the direction of the pre-
valent winds. It is of interest to note that the maple stands the sulphur
fumes best of all the trees, so that small clumps may be seen springing
up on many of the bare hillsides near Copper Cliff since the roast yard has
been removed a mile to the north behind a group of hills. Mr. Turner,
President of the Canadian Copper Company, has tested a large number
of plants in his garden and finds that some flowers stand the effects of the
sulphur much better than others. If carefully looked after, grass forms
a turf once more at Copper Cliff and a good field of Indian corn thrives
just behind the hospital.
An interesting geological effect results from the roasting process,
since the destruction of the plant life covering the old lake beds in the
vicinity exposes the clay to rain erosion, which is going on very rapidly.
The roast beds send hundreds of tons of sulphur dioxide into the air
every twenty-four hours, and it is perhaps surprising that this active reagent
does not accomplish more destruction than can be observed. Fortunately
there is practically no arsenic in the ore, so that the gases, though some-
times distressing to breathe, are not poisonous. Perhaps the most injurious
effect is on iron or steel, which are rapidly corroded, so that wire fences
and telegraph wires last only a short time within reach of the fumes.
NICKEL-COPPER SMELTING PLANT AT COPPER CLIFF.
After heap roasting the next operation is the smelting of the ore in
water-jacket furnaces to standard matte. A concise description of a smelter
and its equipment as used by the Canadian Copper Company at Copper
Cliff was given by Mr. G. E. Sylvester, of that company, in 1909^;
and the present account is essentially his, though modified to bring it
into accord with modifications introduced since 1909. Information as
to these changes has been furnished by the kindness of Mr. D. H. Browne,
whose notes have been used in rewriting the earlier account.
The blast furnaces and the basic converters employed in the two
smelting processes used at Copper Cliff are in adjoining buildings and the
general arrangement is described first.
"The site of the present smelter was decided upon after a careful
contour survey covering all the available ground in the vicinity. The grade
of the receiving track, on top of the storage bins, having been fixed at 67
feet above the smelter yard grade, it was necessary to fit these two governing
levels into the topography in such a way as to give the easiest possible
railway connection to each, and at the same time to obtain a good slag
dump, with sufficient area and depth to last for many years without eleva-
ting slag. These several conditions are all met in the present site as may
be seen from the accompanying drawing.
The storage bins, dust chamber, stack, sampling building, and labora-
tory are all built on solid rock, and the furnace building, steam power
house, and electrical substation almost entirely so. The other buildings
were constructed later, on 15 or 20 feet of poured slag.
The storage bins are of massive timber construction with bents 6
feet centres on masonry footings. They are 700 feet long, 30 feet wide
and 32 feet high, carrying two standard gauge tracks at 15 feet centres.
The bins are covered with a running shed having a continuous louvred
iJour. Can. Min. Inst., Vol. XII, 1909, pp. 218-239.
Platk XL.
•
jS^ -»'tCt
' >
Rain erosion where vegetation has been killed by f^ulphur fumes, Copper Cliff.
25873—14
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25873— 14i
139
ventilator, and sheeted and roofed with i\ inch asbestos lumber. The
total storage capacity is about 400,000 cubic feet. Under the bins and
Fic. s.
on the same level as the furnace charge floor run two parallel tracks, 36
inch gauge, and 15 feet centres. The bin bottoms are double ho])pered
with discharge gates every 6 feet, directly over each of these tracks. The
gates are of a patented type, convex on the under side and operated by
geared cranks.
At one end of the ])ins are three-ton suspended track scales on each
track, with the beams and weigh check houses between the tracks. Along-
140
side are small open bins for adjusting the components of the charge. Two
more of these scales will be installed near the centre of the bins to relieve
the pressure on the present ones.
The centre line of the ore bins is parallel to that of the furnace build-
ing and 200 feet distant from it. The tracks under the bins are carried
round in a semi-circle at each end and through the furnace building, one
track on each side of the furnaces, thus forming a double track belt line, with
crossovers at convenient points. These tracks are covered between
buildings with a wooden shed, and for a considerable distance along the
furnace slag track are carried on a trestle resting on 14 foot masonry piers.
This prevents danger of fire from slopping of hot slag from the cinder cars.
In this trestle, under the charge tracks, are coal pockets with chutes which
discharge in front of the boilers in the steam power house, described later.
There are also two cooling pockets for locomotives. The trestles mentioned
above are of wood but are to be replaced by steel structures.
Around this belt line the five furnace charging trains are operated,
running alwaj's in the same direction. Each train consists of eight or nine
side dumping steel ore cars, weighing about 1,500 lbs. and holding about
3,000 lbs. of ore, hauled by a 5 ton electric locomotive with 1,200 lbs.
draw bar pull at 6 miles per hour, equipped with overhead trolley and using
direct current at 250 volts. The tracks are 56 lb. steel, copper bonded
throughout. The charge cars are 6 feet long over all, this being also the
length of the furnace charge doors, and the centre to centre spacing of bin
gates. The charging trains also supply the coal pockets referred to above,
the coal being weighed in transit.
The furnace building is 370 feet long and 80 feet A\4de, with a lean to
shec. 30 feet wide and 280 feet long on one side. It is of steel construction
throughout, except one side wall of brick, with heavy pilasters,
which carry one track of the crane runway, and having 8 feet arched door-
ways every 20 feet. The roof covering is reinforced tile. A section of
roof 12 feet wide in each space between furnaces is raised two feet above
the general level for ventilation. A monitor, enclosed with louvres, is
also carried up 8 feet above the main roof around each furnace. The lower
part of the building is divided longitudinally into three portions or bays,
as follows: —
a. The slag floor at the back, 33 feet wide, served by two standard
gauge through tracks.
b. The matte floor in front, 33 feet wide, served by a 50 ton and a 20 ton
electric ladle crane of 32 feet 10 inches span, and by a railway track run-
ning about 80 feet into one end of the building.
c. The furnace and settler floor in the centre, 20 feet wide and 10 feet
above the balance of the floor. The raised portion consists of massive
masonry walls, and for the columns which carry the charge floor and
crane runway. These walls are filled in between and floored over with
concrete, which is carried out over the matte floor about 9 feet on steel
supports, forming a continuous tapping platform and furnace runway.
The charging floor is 35 feet above the matte and slag floor, and 25 feet
above the furnace floor. It is 30 feet wide, of reinforced concrete on heavy
steel framing, with sides sheeted up to the roof, forming a separate enclo-
sure.
The blast furnaces, five in number, are of the rectangular water-
jacketed type, 50 by 204 inches inside at the tuyeres, 19 feet high from the
nearth plate to the charging level, and rated at 500 tons per day. They
are spaced in line, at 61 feet 6 inches centres, with their longitudinal centre
Ah
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141
line coincident with that of the building. The supporting frame is of
heavy steel construction, the charge deck of cast iron. The hood or super-
structure above the charge deck is of firebrick, with 18 inch walls, built
into a skeleton of very heavy structural steel. The end walls unite in a
catenary arch to form the roof, the top of the arch being 33 feet above the
charging level, making the total height of the fur ace 58 feet above the
tapping platform. The side walls are vertical and in one of them is the
do\\Ti-take opening, with its centre 27 feet above the charge floor.
The dowTi-take is 8 feet in diameter, lined with 4 inches of firebrick
for the first 20 feet. It inclines 30 degrees in a straight line from the furnace
to the dust chamber, passing over the slag tracks. The design of hood on
these furnaces has given great satisfaction in the way of perfect draft, and
almost absolute freedom from scale. The hearth plate is supported on jacks
on a concrete pedestal. There are two tiers of water jackets, the lower or
tuyere jackets 8 feet, and the upper 6 feet 4 inches high. Cast iron tuyere
jackets have been substituted in the lower tier for the ordinary steel plate type
formerly used; and they have water circulating pipes cast into an other-
wise solid slab, with stiffening flanges.
A new blast furnace, now in construction (1912), is of the same style
but somewhat larger, having diameter of 50 inches by 255, and tuyeres
arranged in the same way but 50 inches longer. All the tuyere jackets
used for the past 3 or 4 years are of cast iron with the circulating pipes for
water cast in, as mentioned above. The settling wells which were originally
round and 16 feet in diameter with a height of 5 feet 6 inches, and the set-
tlers, furnace hearth, and spout are lined with chrome brick. The present
type of settler is oval in shape and larger, having diameters of 16 feet by
19 feet 6 inches, with two top j ackets for matte. The larger size settler gives
slag lower in copper and nickel by from • 1 to • 15 per cent of the metals;
and having two tap holes, if one becomes clogged the other may be used,
or can be repaired while the other is in use.
Water cooled cast iron slag spouts on the settlers discharge into 25
ton cinder cars, with sectional cast iron bowls, rack and worm geared, on
standard gauge trucks. Small catch pots, operated by compressed air
crawls, receive the slag streams during cinder car shunts.
The matte from the settlers is tapped into 7 ton steel plate ladles,
clay lined, which are placed by the travelling cranes on low transfer trucks
and hauled by a compressed air winch across into the converter building.
The water-jacket overflows into two continuous cast iron launders,
on either side of the furnaces, sloping both ways from the centre furnace,
and thence flows through 20 inch drains to an open cooling reservoir.
As the water supply is limited and the furnaces alone use about 1,000
imperial gallons per minute each, most of this is pumped back from the
reservoir and used over and over. For this service three pumps are installed,
two 8 inch, 1,500 gallons, and one 14 inch, furnishing 5,000 gallons. All
are single stage turbines direct connected to constant speed induction
motors. These discharge through an 18 inch flanged cast iron pipe into a
reinforced concrete tank 25 feet in diameter and 32 feet high. Duplicate
cast iron mains connected with this tank run on either side of the furnaces
just under the charge floor. The tank is also connected with the smelter
supply main, the static head of the latter being just balanced in the tank.
This arrangement gives a very steady pressure on the furnaces, the head
being 28 feet above the jackets.
The dust chamber is of ,^. steel plate of the balloon type, 20 feet
in diameter, 34 feet high and 500 feet long, supported on steel columns
142
with expansion joints about every 60 feet. The only lining is in a section
about 12 feet square opposite every down-take opening. The bottom has
hoppers and clean-out doors every 6 feet, discharging the flue dust directly
into cars on a continuous track beneath.
The stack is 210 feet high and 15 feet inside diameter at the top. The
upper 150 feet is circular, built of perforated radial stack brick; the base
is 24 feet square, of granite masonry, with a circular lining of firebrick.
This stack accommodates also the steam power house boiler.
SMELTING IN THE BLAST FURNACES.
The present blast furnace practice is described ])y Mr. Browne as fol-
lows: — The ore when properly roasted contains about 10 or 11 per cent of
sulphur. It is lifted from the roast heaps by a steam shovel and placed
in steel drop-bottom 50 ton cars and taken to the ore bins from which the
furnaces are supplied.
The five ore trains mentioned above as running on the oval track con-
necting the bins and furnaces include eight or nine side dumping steel ore
cars, the first three carrying the coke charge, which is adjusted at the scales
to a certain percentage of the weight of ore and flux, the amount varying
from 10 to 12 per cent. The three cars behind the coke contain the ore,
usually about 9,000 or 10,000 lbs. of roasted ore forming a charge. Another
car carries 2,000 or 3,000 lbs. of Crean Hill ore, which being low in sulphur
(12 to 14 per cent) does not require roasting. Sometimes if the ore is well
roasted 2,000 or 3,000 lbs. of Creighton green ore can be used in the charge.
The furnace scrap, when used, is carried in a separate car, as is the quartz,
the amount of the latter used varying from nothing to 2,000 lbs. per charge
according to the silica in the ore.
If the furnaces are choked by siliceous ore or fine ore, lime may be
used for a few charges instead of quartz. The coke is clumped in the fur-
nace first, then the ore with its flux, and then the scrap or floor screenings.
The blast is normally 24,000 cubic feet of free air per furnace at about 25
to 35 ounces pressure. If the furnaces are choked by fine ore the blast will
form blow holes, throwing the heat to the top of the furnaces and forming
incrustations or blocks of half fused material. In this case the blast is
reduced and a " clean-out " charge of green ore and lime is given. This
melts easily and carries the heat to the lower part of the furnace, under-
cutting the blocks, which are then easily removed by barring.
There is no regular rule for the operation of the furnaces, the charge
varj'ing from day to day, often changing from hour to hour as the ore
changes in quality chemically or phj^sically.
The five blast furnaces smelt from 40,000 to 45,000 tons of ore per
month, the amount of green ore varying with the condition of the roast ore.
The charge may be two parts roast ore to one part of green ore if much of the
Crean Hill ore is used; or it may be four parts of roast ore to one of green
ore, if the Crean Hill ore is not received in sufficient quantity.
Green ore alone could be used in the blast furnaces, but this would
make a very low grade of matte and would throw a great amount of work
on the converter department.
A comparison of the amount of work necessary to convert matte of
different grades into bessemer matte is interesting. To make 100 tons of
bessemer matte per day from a 10 per cent furnace matte would require 14
basic converters; from 15 per cent matte would require 7 converters; from
20 per cent matte, 5 converters; from 25 per cent matte 4 converters,
and from 30 per cent matte 3 converters.
o
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25873—15
25873—15^
Plate XLVIII.
Blast furnace flue: Canadian Copper Co. smelter, Copper Cliff.
143
The whole smelting operation requires very careful balancing. At
present five converters are being installed, which should allow the use of a
20 per cent furnace matte.
THE CONVERTER BUILDING.
This building is of steel construction throughout, extra braced on
account of the heavy travelling cranes. The main building is 552 feet long,
60 feet wi de and 47 feet to the roof trusses, with lean to sheds 30 feet wide,
392 feet long on one side and 112 feet on the other. A monitor 24 feet
wide and 8 feet high, with louvres, runs the entire length except the end
bays. The roofing is of reinforced concrete tile and the sheeting of galvan-
ized corrugated iron, except 130 feet toward the southern end which is
covered with cement plaster on metal, giving greater protection against
frost. The building contains different departments; 280 feet in length
being provided for blowing, while the rest is used for drying and crushing
quartz, etc. Formerly this was employed in drying, grinding and crushing
quartz and clay for relining the acid converters, and in the slow process of
relining them. The introtluction of large basic converters, as described by
Mr. David Browne, has made great changes in this respect.
RECENT IMPROVEMENTS AND ADDITIONS TO THE SMELTING PLANT OF THE
CANADIAN COPPER CO.
(The following account is taken unchanged from a paper prepared by Mr.
Browne for the Canadian Mining Institute, 1912).
In the year 1910 the Canadian Copper Company had in operation ten
stands of acid converters. The shells were 84 inches by 126, and were
lined with the usual mixture of quartz and clay. In each shell were eight
tuyeres, one inch in diameter, and six inches apart. The center or mould,
around which the lining was rammed was oval in shape, 3 feet 4 inches high,
5 feet by 2 feet 6 inches at the top and 4 feet 6 inches by 2 feet at the
bottom. Each shell consumed about 3,000 cubic feet of free air per minute
at 9 to 11 lbs. pressure.
The production of matte from these shells depended largely on the
grade of furnace matte with which they were supplied. On a 36 per cent
furnace matte one lining lasted for about eight hours Ijlowing time and
produced seven tons of finished bcssemer nuitte, 80 per cent copper-nickel.
On a 30 per cent furnace matte one lining was good for about 5 -3 tons
besscmer matte.
As the amount of metal lost in furnace slag depends very much on the
grade of furnace matte made, this pointed to the desirability of producing
lower grades of furnace matte with cleaner slags, throwing on the con-
verters every year an increasing burden. The converters received lowei
grade furnace mattes, containing not only less copper-nickel but more iron
In a 40 per cent furnace matte one pound of copper-nickel is a('('om])anie{l \)y
0-88 lbs. iron, in a 30 per cent matte by 1-28 lbs. iron, and in a 20 pe;
cent matte by 2-4 lbs. iron.
As this iron is removed by oxidation and combination with silica to
form a slag, and as the amount of air passing into the convcu-ters is a fixed
factor, practically 3,000 cubic feet per minute, it is evident that lower grade
mattes take longer to blow than higher grades. When using a 36 per cent
urnace matte about one hour and five minutes blowing is required to
144
produce a ton of 80 per cent bessemer matte, while with a 30 per cent
furnace matte an hour and fiftj'-five minutes is required.
Furthermore the amount of scrap, or material thrown out of the
mouth of the converter while blowing is a factor of the time of blowing.
The amount thrown out by the blast is about the same per hour. Therefore
as the furnace matte becomes of lower and lower grade the production of
the converters becomes less and less, first, because they have more iron to
remove and need longer time to do it, and second, because during this
longer time they slop out more and more material on the floor.
These considerations decided the Canadian Copper Company to dis-
card this type of acid converters and to substitute basic converters, such as
had been installed by Smith and Pierce at the Garfield plant of the Amer-
ican Smelting and Refining Co.
A basic converter is simply a cylinder lined wdth magnesite ))rick.
The function of the converter is exactly the same as in the acid converters.
Air blown in through the tuyeres passes through melted matte and oxidizes
iron. The oxide of iron combines with silica and forms a slag. The
difference lies in the fact that in the acid converters the siliceous material is
rammed in to form the lining of the converter. The iron attacks this
lining and melts it off to get at the silica, so that after a few" hours blowing
the lining is all cut away and the shell must be relined. In the basic con-
verter the lining consists of basic bricks and the quartz or other siliceous
material is dumped into the converter on top of the matte from time to
time as the converter requires it. The magnesite bricks which form the
lining are very slowdy w^orn away above the tuyeres, but a basic conver-
ter wnll make three or four thousand tons of bessemer matte before it
requires repair, while an acid converter requires relining after making six
or seven tons.
In ^March 1911 the first basic converter was blown in. During the
remainder of the year the acid stands w^ere taken out and basic converters
put in their place. At present all the acid converters have been removed
and their place taken by five basics.
These basic converters are 37 feet 2 inches long by 10 inches in diam-
eter, outside measurement. They run on four tread rings 12 feet in diam-
eter, The stack or opening in the roof for the escape of gas, is in the centre
of the cylinder instead of at the end, as in the Garfield plant. There are
44 tuyeres, Ij inches in diameter and 7 inches apart. There are no tuy-
eres directly under the stack. The length inside the lining is 33 feet 3 inches.
The bottom is 2 ft. thick, the back or tuyere wall is 18 inches and the front
15 inches thick. The roof is a 12 inch arch. The brick directly around
the tuyeres is 24 inches thick.
These converters have two openings or spouts in the front wall oppo-
site to but above the tuj'ere line. The shell is turned down to pour slag
and matte from these openings or turned back to blow" by means of two
wire ropes which surround the shell on either side of the central stack. These
ropes are fastened to a hydraulic piston working in a horizontal cylinder,
having a stroke of nine feet.
As the usual hydraulic equipment would not be suitable to the climate
of Northern Ontario, oil is used instead of water, since oil remains fluid
at low temperatures.
This is moved in the cylinders by air pressure. Two tanks are pro-
vided, one for regular use, one for emergency. These tanks are of f inch
steel 4 ft. diameter by 15 ft. high. Into these tanks a small amount of oil
is pumped, and the space above the oil is filled with air at 75 lbs. pressure.
Ph
(U
145
An electrically driven pressure pump now forces more oil into the cylinders^
compressing the air to 300 lbs. pressure. At this pressure the pump auto-
matically stops. When it is desired to turn down the converter a valve is
opened on the converter platform, allowing the oil to pass to one side or
the other of the hydraulic cylinder, moving the piston and so by means of
the rope tackle turning the converter as desired. In this operation the air
in the tank above the oil expands and loses pressure. When the pressure
in the tank falls to 200 lbs. the oil pump starts automatically pumping
oil into the tank till the pressure rises to 300 lbs.
As the entire equipment of the plant is electrically driven it is mani-
fest that if for any reason the power went off the line the converter blower
would stop blowing air into the tuyeres. The matte would then run back
through the tuyeres, as the mechanism for turning the converter down,
being also electrically driven, would be useless. To avoid this a spare
tank always contains- oil under 300 lbs. pressure. This spare tank is
connected to the hydraulic cylinder by a valve which is held closed by a
solenoid brake. The flj' wheel of the converter blower is of sufficient
size to keep the engine turning over and dehvering air for perhaps 15 to 20
seconds after the power goes off. The solenoid brake is actuated by the
electric power, and the moment the power goes off the solenoid brake clrops,
opening the valve, and admitting oil to the proper side of the cylinder to
turn the converter down.
It sometimes happens that a thunder storm twenty-five miles from
Copper Cliff will cut off the current on the power line. The safety device
al)Ove described, being aljsolutely automatic and entirely sej^arate from the
regularlj' used turning device, has proved quite satisfactory.
The basic converter takes an initial charge of about 60 tons of furnace
matte. About 10 per cent of quartz rock, previously dried is dumped into the
converter, and the blast is turned on. Blowing is done entirely by the clock.
The charge is blo-uii from one-half to three-quarters of an hour and is then
turned down to skim slag. While the slag is being poured off, 5 or 6
tons of furnace matte are poured into the converter. After the slag is
poured about 3 tons of quartz or siliceous ore and quartz are added and
the shell is blown for another fixed time. The length of the blow, the
amount of slag removed, the weight of matte added after each skim, and
the per cent of flux required are all factors of the grade of matte and have
to be determined by experience.
The blowing and the addition of matte is kept up until there remains
in the converter 70 or 80 tons of finished product. This may
require from 300 to 400 tons of furnace matte and from 30 to 50 hours blow-
ing time (le]M'nding on the matte grade. The finished matte is then cast
into moulds, and the cycle of operations re-commences.
The basic converter has several advantages over the acid converter.
The units are very much larger. This simplifies the problem of dealing
with large quantities of matte. There is practically no material slopped
out of the converter during the blow, hence less furnace matte is required
to produce a ton of bessemer matte. The slag made is lower in silica which
means economy of flux. The converter slag contains less copper-nickel
than the acid converter slag, but since all the converter slag has to be
re-treated, this of itself, is not material. As a whole the opcn-ation of con-
verting has been much simplified by the change.
146
THE REVERBERATORY FURNACE.
During the last few years about fifty thousand tons of flue dust have
been recovered from the blast furnace dust chambers. Several attempts
have been made to briquette or sinter this flue dust so as to make it useful
as a blast furnace charge, but these have proved ineffectual, either by
failure of the method or by extravagant cost. The flue dust has therefore
been set aside in piles to await the building of reverberatory furnaces.
There has been a similar accumulation of green ore fines from the mines,
material under \ inch diameter which is too small for the blast furnaces.
In the year 1911 the Canadian Copper Company commenced the
erection of two large reverberatory furnaces. The first of these was blown
in at the end of December, 1911.
These reverberatory furnaces are interesting as being the first
designed to burn pulverized coal. Experiments in the use of pulverized
coal have been previously made by Chas. Shelby at Cananea, and by S. S.
Sorensen at the Highland Boy smelter, but while these experiments proved
that this method of coal firing could be used, local conditions prevented
its adoption. In neither case were the furnaces specially designed to meet
the reciuirements of this fuel.
The furnaces built at Copper Cliff are 112 feet by 19 feet hearth area.
The side walls are 27 inches thick. The roof is 20 inches thick for the first
35 feet near the coal burners and 15 inches thick for the rest of the way.
The extreme height inside is 6 feet. The bottom is an inverted arch of
magnesite brick with a spring of 12 inches. The spring of the roof arch
is 19 inches, one inch rise to the foot.
The foundation of these furnaces was made by building a trestle about
14 feet high, and pouring furnace slag from this, to build up within the
outer walls a solid block of slag ten feet high above the yard level. On
this foundation the side walls of the reverberatory furnaces were built.
Slag was poured inside these walls to form a hearth or furnace bottom
about two feet thick. By this means a solid mass of slag about 12 ft.
thick was formed under the furnace. Between the furnace openings were
formed by concrete retaining walls, so as to leave tunnels entering the slag
foundation at the yard level, at either side of each furnace. Through
these tunnels the melted converter slag is brought to the reverberatory
and matte is taken back.
The hearth of the furnace is formed by levelling up the poured slag
bottom with concrete so as to provide an inverted arch of the same curve
as the magnesite brick lining. On this form one layer of firebrick was laid
flat, 2| inches thick. Over this 2 inches of ground chrome ore was laid, and on
this the final bottom of 9 inches of magnesite brick was laid. This brick
hearth was laid in a mixture of ground magnesite and linseed oil. Expan-
sion strips of wood were placed between every six courses. The expansion
allowed is | inch to the foot.
The side wall is of sihca brick 18 inches thick. On this the roof rests.
Inside this wall a flash wall of magnesite 9 inches thick is built. This
does not support, but is brought close up to the roof. The tap hole is so
placed as to retain 12 inches of matte in the hearth, so that the bottom is
always protected by a pool of matte.
Slag is removed, not at the front of the furnace as is usually the case,
but at either side where the side walls commence to narrow in, about 11 feet
Jfom the front of the furnace. The space at the front usually occupied
by the slag door, slopes up gradually from the hearth to form a straight
o
o
o
25873—16
A.
147
outlet for the products of combustion. The area of the throat is about 27
square feet. The gases meet no obstacles whatever, but pass straight into
a cross flue 6 feet by 9 feet, which is covered by cramps. This flue is 70
feet long, and leads to the main or dust chamber flue. The main flue is 15
feet by 19 feet by 200 feet, and connects with the stack. The stack is 17 feet
2 inches in diameter at the bottom, 15 feet 4 inches in diameter at the top,
and 200 feet high.
At the fire end of the furnace two sets of charging bins are provided.
These are used to drop flue dust, ore fines and other pulverized material
into the furnace. Each bin has five hoppers, discharging by slide gates
through the roof.
The most interesting part about the reverberatory is the method of
firing. Coal is dropped from the trestle into storage bins. Out of these
bins it passes through a coal cracker on to a conveyer belt. This coal
I inch in size, and under, is carried by this conveyer belt to the coal grinding
room and dropped into a bin. From this bin it is fed by a screw conveyer
to a Ruggles Coles dryer. The dry coal is elevated into bins from which
it drops into two Raymond impact pulverizers, which grind the coal to
the finest powder, most of it passing a 200 mesh screen. The pulverized
coal is sucked up by a fan into a separator on top of this building, passed
by screw conveyers into the reverberatory building, and dropped into
bins at the end of the furnaces. From these bins it is taken by five vari-
able speed screw conveyers 4 inches in diameter which deliver the coal
into five burners, dropping it in front of nozzles which carry air from a fan.
The air blast sends the coal into the furnace in the form of a cloud or spray
of dust which burns just like fuel oil. Each burner can be run independ-
ently and the amount of coal or air can be varied at will.
The converter slag from the building is brought to the reverberatory
furnace in ten ton pots by a locomotive, which enters the tunnels between
the furnaces. Through openings in the roofs of these tunnels the rever-
l)eratory cranes pick up the slag pots, and pour the slag through an opening
in the roof into the furnace. The slag skull being left in the pot, the pot is
set back on its truck in the tunnel, and reverberatory matte is tapped into
it, and taken back by the locomotive to the converter building to be charged
into the basic converters.
The reverberatory building was put in operation before the bins were
completed. At present flue dust and green ore fines are charged through
the side doors by hand and as the charge is wet and frozen the amount
charged is at present low. The coal firing system however is quite satis-
factory and no difficulty is experienced from coal ash. A small amount
of ash settles in the flue near the end of the furnace, and is removed through
doors about twice a week.
As the plant has been in operation only a few weeks and under abnor-
mal conditions, no comparisons can be made with western practise. It
may be stated however that the system of firing is quite satisfactory, and
that with the charge put in through the bins it is expected that this method
of firing will prove much cheaper than l)urning coal on a grate. There
is no loss of fuel efficiency, sijice all the carbon in the coal is consumed.
The ash offers no difficulty and the heat of the furnace is maintained uniform.
After the furnace has been in operation a few months under normal
conditions some comparisons may be instituted. Present indications are
that these comparisons will siiow that this system of firing has many advan-
tages over the grate firing of coal which has heretofore been the customary
practise.
148
The Power Plant of the Canadian Copper Co.^
When the present smelter was blown in, the construction of a hydro-
electric plant had not been considered. The various mines and shops, etc.,
had their individual steam equipments, and for the first two yearsthe smelter
was operated by steam generated power.
The steam power house is 100 feet by 1(30 feet. The walls are Ijrick
with masonry foundations. Steel trusses support a roof of hollow l)ook
tile covered with "plastic slate. A longitudinal brick fire wall runs through
the centre of the building and divides the engine room from the boiler room.
The floors are of reinforced concrete.
There are two pairs of 400 horse-power water tube boilers furnishing
superheated steam at 160 pounds pressure, and the necessary feed pumps,
feed water heaters, hot well pump, dry vacuum pump, and a 24 inch
barometeric condenser. In the boiler room are also a 1,000 gallon under-
writer pump, 700 gallon duplex furnace feed pump, and a cross-comi)oun_d
18 X 11 X 18 compressor.
As all the water used at the plant contains from 15 to 20 parts per
million of acid, it was necessary to install a purif\'ing plant. This supplies
also the locomotive water tank.
In the engine room is the following equipment: —
Two furnace blowing engines, cross-compound Corliss steam, 13 X 25
X 42, duplex air, 57 X 42, giving a pressure of 60 oz. Capacity 20,000 feet
per minute at 85 r.p.m.
One converter blowing engine, cross-compound steam, 15 X 30 X 42,
duplex air, 40 X 42, giving blast pressure up to 15 lbs. Capacity' 10,000
feet per minute at 85 r.p.m.
Two generator sets, each consisting of 350 horse-power tandem
compound Corliss engine, 13 X 26 X 24, 200 r.p.m. direct connected to
200 k.w. 600 V. 3 phase, 25 cycle generator, with 11 k.w. belt driven exciter.
One 30 k.w. motor generator set, delivering direct current at 250 volts.
All this equipment is kept as a reserve in case of serious accident to
the hydro-electric plant. One boiler is kept under steam, banked in summer
and supplying steam heat to the various buildings in the vicinity in
winter.
For lack of room in the electrical sub-station, there is installed in the
steam power house also one 300 foot rotary furnace blower, rope driven
by two 225 horse-power induction motors. There are three speeds, the
maximum giving 30,000 cubic feet per minute.
The water power referred to above was developed by a subsidiary
company, formed for this and other purposes, known as the "Huronian
Company". The site is at High Falls on the Spanish river in the town-
ship of Hyman, about 4 miles from the "Soo" line of the Canadian Pacific
railway, at a point about 23 miles west of Copper Cliff station. It is
connected with the railway by a spur line from Turbine station.
Work was begun on this spur line in the spring of 1904, and on the
power development proper in the following September. Power was turned
on at Copper Cliff in February, 1906. The power house is situated on the
lower point of an island in the river, across which the water is carried.
The natural head was 67 feet, w'hich has been raised by the dams to 85 feet.
The effective watershed is upwards of 2,000 square miles, practically all
unimproved, containing a large area of lakes.
The dams are all of concrete construction on solid rock. This work
was carried on continuously throughout the winter of 1904-05. Log slides
iCanadian Mining Institute, Vol. XII, 1909, pp. 231-239.
Ah
149
and booms had to be provided, to handle the very large cut of timber
which is annually driven down the Spanish river.
From the bulkhead wall, three 9 foot steel penstocks for the generators,
and one of 3 feet for the exciters, are carried down the slope to the power-
house, which is of brick on a concrete substructure, with steel roof
trusses.
The roof covering is 2 X 4 lumber on edge, sheeted with galvanized
iron. The building is 106 feet long by 71 feet wide, with an annex 33 X 30
at one end for workshop and heating boiler. The blow system of heating
is used.
The generator room is 55 feet wide, leaving 16 feet along one side for
the transformer rooms and switch tower, which are separated from it by fire-
proof brick walls and steel doors.
There is space for four generating units, three of which are installed.
Each unit consists of a 2,000 k.w. generator, 3 phase, 25 cj'cle, 2,400 volts,
direct connected to the shaft of a 3,550 horse-power turbine, on which are
mounted two 34 inch bronze runners in a single case.
The head is 85 feet and the speed 375 r.p.m.
There are two exciters of 200 k.w. each, either of which can furnish
excitation for four generators. Each exciter is driven by a small turbine,
direct connected.
Three sets of transformers, of three each, step up the voltage from
2,400 to 35,000, at which it is transmitted.
The operators' bench board occupies a central elevated position in
front of the switch tower, giving a full view of the generator room, and
the switching operations in the tower. All switches are distantly controlled,
and there is nothing higher than 125 volts on the board.
A small motor driven air compressor is installed for cleaning purposes,
and for handling oil by air pressure.
For fire protection there is a 500 gallon 2 stage turbine pump, direct-
connected to a 50 horse-power d.c. motor, operated from the exciter. The
pump suction is connected to the penstocks.
No trouble has been encountered in this plant from frazil, there being
no rapids upstream for six miles. The penstocks, bulkhead gates, and
screens are housed, and the use of a small amount of current at critical
points efTectivel}' prevents the l)uilding up of ice in the tubes.
Transmission Line:-^The main transmission line is about 30 miles
long, from the power house at High Falls to the sub-station at Copper
Cliff, for the most part on its own right-of-way, 100 feet wide, all cleared.
It is of double cedar pole construction, with poles at 8 feet centres, bolted
to a common crossarm, the pole stands being placed 120 feet apart.
There are two independent 3 phase circuits of No. 1 wire, arranged
in two eciuilateral triangles, 4 feet apart, and 4 feet to a side. One circuit
is transposed and the other straight.
Branch lines of single pole, single circuit construction, run from the
main line to Crean Hill mine and Creighton mine, each being about 3^
miles in length. These are both connected to the same main circuit with
aerial switches.
Lightning arresters, of the horn type, are provided outside the power
house and the sub-stations at Copper Cliff, Creighton, and Crean Hill.
A telei)hone line runs direct l)etween the switchboards in the power
house and smelter sub-station, along the transmission line. It is carried
on a short crossarm, 6 feet below the main crossarm, with wires transposed
every fifth pole. It gives perfect service.
150
A second telephone line, carried for the most part on the poles of the
Canadian Pacific Railway's telegraph, connects the terminal stations-
with the Copper Cliff central, and also with Crean Hill and other points
between.
Smelter Sub-Station: — This is the main distributing station of the
system, and supplies motors in the building itself, and elsewhere, having
a total capacity of over 7,700 horse-power, besides arc and incandescent
lighting for the smelter, shops, etc., and the town of Copper CHff. Most
of the circuits in the furnace and converter buildings are placed under-
ground in fibre conduits, laid in cement.
The building is 92 feet wide, by 194 feet in length. The foundations,
walls and floor are of concrete. Steel roof trusses are carried on a central
row and two outer rows of steel columns, the latter being built into the con-
crete walls. Two ten ton hand-power cranes are carried on two parallel
runways extending from end to end of the building. The roof is of hollow
book tile, covered with tar and gravel.
The transformer rooms and high tension switch tower are arranged
along one side, separated by fireproof walls.
The following equipment is housed in this building: —
Two banks of transformers, three each, 667 k.w., 35,000 to 2,400 volts.
Three transformers, 175 k.w. each, 2,400 to 575 volts.
Most of the motors outside this building operate at 550 volts.
Fifteen panel switchboard.
Storage battery for controlling switches.
Four furnace blowing engines, duplex, radial valve, 70 X 42, capacity
about 24,000 cubic feet of air per minute, delivered at 50 oz. pressure with
75 r.p.m. These are driven with fourteen 1| inch ropes, English system,
two by 600 horse-power and two by 500 horse-power motors. The motors
have special pole changing controllers giving three speeds.
Each of these blowing engines is connected to one or more furnaces
by a 48 inch blast pipe, carried on steel trestles. Two of these blast pipes
are carried through, past the furnaces, to the steam power-house where they
are connected to the rotary blower, and the two steam blowing engines pre-
viously referred to. Each blast pipe is equipped with a 22 inch multiple
spring blow-off; and each engine with automatic gravity oiling system,
revolution counter, recording pressure gauge, etc.
One converter blowing engine, duplex, Corliss valve, 40 X 30, capacity
10,200 cubic feet of air per minute at 12 lbs., 100 r.p.m., supplying four
converter stands, driven In- 500 liorse-power motor with sixteen 1 h inch ropes.
One converter blowing engine, duplex, Corliss valve, 60 X 48, capacity
20,700 cubic feet per minute at 12 lbs., 70 r.p.m., supph'ing 8 converter
stands, drive i by 1,200 horse-power motor, with forty-two 1| inch ropes.
An additional blowing engine of the same kind has been installed for the
new basic converter.
These two engines are each equipped with automatic unloading device,
gravity oiling system, recording gauge, etc. The}' both discharge into
a common receiver, from which a 36 inch blast pipe is carried on a steel
trestle to the converter building.
One cross-compound 100 lb. air compressor, 15 X 24 X 24, capacity
1,500 cubic feet per minute, direct connected to a 300 horse-power motor
at 120 r.p.m. The air from this machine is piped all over the plant, and
is used for various purposes, such as blowing out motors, tamping converter
linings, shell drying, operating air lifts on furnace doors and elsewhere,
driving air winches and hoi.sts, air tools of various kinds, forges, etc.
151
One 1,000 gallon 6 inch 4 stage turbine fire pump, direct connected
to a 225 horse-power motor. This pump, as also the underwriter pump
in the steam power house, is connected to a series of dry fire lines, which
are laid around the smelter buildings, with hydrants and hose houses at
frequent intervals. A closed circuit electric fire alarm system is in service.
One 100 k.w. motor generator set, 575 a.c. to 250 d.c, operating
the electric locomotives for furnace charging. This is the only direct
current used anywhere in the system.
One 75 k.w. frequency changer, delivering 60 cycle alternating current
for arc lighting. About 50 enclosed arc lamps are used for lighting the
furnace and converter buildings, and the smelter yard, and 25 are supplied
to the town of Copper Cliff for street lighting.
The building is heated by air, blown over coils by a motor-driven
fan and distril)uted through ducts and floor registers. With the blowing
engines removing usually over 100,000 cubic feet of air per minute, any
ordinary means of heating would be futile, were it not so arranged that
the engines receive their air direct from outside the building, through
a large cold air duct in the basement, to which all the intake valves are
connected.
A complete system of electric signals, with gongs and coloured lights,
for the operation of the various blowing engines, connects this building
with the furnace floor and the converter pulpits.
This sub-station, in addition to serving the smelter, is also the dis-
trilniting point for No. 2 mine, for the shops, for municipal and domestic
lighting, and for the cobalt smelter, which plant does not come within
the scope of this paper.
The sampling plant is a three storey building, 30 X 48 feet. The
upper floor is on a level with the furnace charging tracks, to which it is
connected by a track carried on a trestle and forming a tangent to the
curve at one end of the belt line. There are 24 bins, into which samples
can be dumped direct from cars brought in by electric locomotive. These
bins discharge into small tramcars on the crusher floor below. Two small
jaw crushers are used, with "Duplex" samplers. Two laboratory crushers
with riffle samplers form the next step, from which the material goes to
various grinders and pulverizers for final division.
All the discard goes to a common bin at the bottom of the building
from which it is hoisted in regular furnace charging cars by an electric
elevator at the end of the building. This serves also to hoist to the crusher
floor, samples which originate on the lower yard level.
The crushers and elevator are operated by a 15 horse-power motor,
and the smaller machines by a 5 horse-power motor.
The laboratory is 34 feet by 79 feet, of concrete, brick and steel
construction, with book tile roof. Care was taken to make it fireproof,
as two lal)()ratories had previously been destroyed by fire.
b The l)uilding consists of one storey, with 9 foot basement. The main
floor contains an analysis room, 32 X 40, and four smaller rooms, each 13 X
18, w hich are the head chemist's office, the balance room, the H2S room,
an 1 the bacteriological analysis room, which also contains an assay furnace.
Al partitions are brick. The large room is open to the roof, and in each
ga ble is a bull's eye window with an electric ventilating fan.
The hood is of down draft construction, with top light. It is made
of concrete, iron and glass, and is ventilated l)y a suction fan in the base-
ment. Electric hot plates are used, with tlie temperature controlled
by plugs. Acetylene gas is used for the Bunsen burners.
25873—17
152
In the basement, wliich has a separate outside entrance, are the stor^
rooms, hivatory, private research room, photographic (hirk room, and th^
heating system, which is simihir to that in the sub-station.
Warehouse: — A central warehouse l)uikling has been constructed
at the smelter, which serves as the main distributing point for supplies for
the various plants and mines. The buikling is 60 feet by 150 feet, two
storeys and basement, built of concrete, steel and brick, with concrete
tile roof. The floors are of reinforced concrete, designed for 300 and 150
pounds per square foot. There is an unloading platform 20 feet wide the
full length of the building, and a three ton electric elevator serving all three
floors. In this building are also the purchasing office and the electrical
repair shop.
The Shops: — These include machine, locomotive, blacksmith, boiler,
car, carpenter, and pattern shops; foundry and pattern storage. These
buildings are at present rather inconveniently situated, and quite inade-
quate for the machines installed, and the volume of work done. As
mentioned above, larger ones of modern construction are to be built. Most
of the ordinary repairs and renewals for all the plants are executed here,
including car and locomotive work.
Water Supply: — The general water supply is obtained by gravity
from two small lakes. A heavy concrete dam has been constructed at
their outlet, forming a very considerable reservoir, from which a 16 inch
cast iron main leads directly to the smelter. Other mains supply- the shops,
etc., and the town of Copper Cliff.
Transportation: — To furnish efficient transportation service to the
various departments, considerable equipment and organization is necessary.
There are about 25 miles of tracks in service, mostly laid with 80 pound
steel. Two standard hundred ton track scales are installed, one at the
roast yard, and the other in the main yard near the shops. Both are
properly housed, the latter containing also the transportation offices.
The motive power consists of nine locomotives. Four of these are
117 ton, six wheel switching engines. Two others are about 90 tons each,
and three about 60 tons. There are also a 15 ton capacity locomotive
crane, and two gasoline motor cars. The rolling stock includes twelve
50 ton dump cars, 125 flat cars, and 125 five ton dump cars, besides test
car, wrecking tool car, and flanger.
For housing the motive power there is provided a six stall round house
of steel, brick and concrete construction, with concrete floor and pits.
This is served by a standard 70 foot, half deck steel turntable, with concrete
foundations.
A complete telephone system, with twenty-four hour service, connects
the general office with all departments, including the outlying mines and
the power plant.
For the physical well being of the employes, there is a thoroughly
equipped modern hospital, with a staff of physicians and nurses. There
is also an accident insurance fund administered by a committee of the
employes.
From the assurance of eminent authorities from almost every country
who have visited this plant, the Canadian Copper Company feel justified
in believing that, after the completion of the new shops, they will have,
while not the largest, at least, all things considered, one of the best smelting
plants in the world."
153
The Orford Process of Separating Nickel and Copper.
The bessemer matte produced in the basic converters at Copper Cliff
is shipped to the Orford Copper Company's works at Bayonne, New Jersey,
for final treatment. The method used is that of smelting the matte with
coke and an alkaline sulphate, usually sodium sulphate, which dissolves
the sulphides of iron and copper, allowing the heavier sulphide of nickel to
go to the bottom. The different layers of molten materials may be tapped
off at different levels; but the process is not complete at one melting, and
must be repeated until the nickel sulphide is satisfactorily freed from the
iron and copper.
As the Orford company do not permit an examination of their works, no
detailed account of their methods is possible beyond the statements in-
cluded in their patent, a copy of which is printed at the end of this volume,
as appendix.
THE MOND PROCESS.
The bessemer matte produced by the Mond Company at Mctoria
Mines is shipped to Ch'dach, a suburb of Swansea, Wales, for final treat-
ment by one of the most ingenious processes imaginable. It was discovered
in 1889 bj^ Dr. Carl Langer, working in conjunction with Dr. Ludwig Mond,
that carbon monoxide, passed at a temperature not exceeding 80° centi-
grade over finely divided nickel, combined with the metal to produce a gas,
nickel carbonyl, which could be decomposed again at a temperature of
180° C, thus depositing the nickel. The process was patented and an.
experimental plant was erected in 1892 at Smethwick, near Birmingham,
to test it. As described by Roberts-Austen in 1899, the process was
developed during some years of patient work, in which the plant had sev-
eral times to he reconstructed to make it a practical success.^
Essentially five operations are required in order to produce the nickel,
(1) dead roasting to drive out as much of the sulphur as possible; (2) the
extraction of about two-thirds of the copper by sulphuric acid, the resulting
sulphate of copper being sold in that form; (3) the reduction of the nickel
and remaining copper to the metallic state by water gas or producer gas
rich in hj'drogen in an apparatus called a "reducer", the temperature
of which is under perfect control, so that 400° C is never exceeded; (4) from
tliis ai)paratus the substance, now reduced to the metallic state, is taken
tlirough air-tight conveyers and elevators into another apparatus called
a"volatilizer "inwhich it is subjected to the action of carbon monoxide gas at
a tem])erature not exceeding 80°C; (5) the nickel carbonyl thus pro-
duced passes into the "decomposer", a tower or horizontal retort heated
to 180°C so as to release the nickel in the metallic state.
The process is not complete in one passage through the five stages,
however, and the materials are made to circulate for a period varying from
7 to 15 days between stages (3) and (4) until about 60 per cent of the nickel
has been removed as carl)onyl. The residue from this operation, amount-
ing to about a third of the original calcined matte and jiot differing much
from it in composition, is returned to the first operation and follows the
same course as l)efore.
In operation (5) the carbon monoxide is released and is returned
to the volatilizer to take up a fresh charge of nickel. When the operations
are in progress the carbon monoxide gas and the partially reduced oxides
of nickel and copper are continually revolving in two separate circuits
'Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Vol. CXXXV, pp. 29, etc.
25873—171
154
which join and cross each other in the volatilizer (4). The nickel is depos-
ited on granules of ordinary commercial nickel which are automatically
removed after reaching a certain size; and the product contains between
99-4 per'cent and 99-8 per cent of nickel.
Roberts-Austen describes the process as he observed it at Smethwick
as follows: —
"The material under treatment during the author's visit was ol
Canadian origin, and had been received as calcined bessemer matte
containing 35-4 per cent of nickel, 41 -8 per cent of copper, and about 2 per
cent of iron. This material was first passed through a ball mill and
dresser with a sixty mesh riddle, and was then treated in quantities of
3 cwt. in a small lead lined mixer with 200 lbs. of ordinary sulphuric acid
155
which had previously been diluted with about 20 cubic feet of mother
liquor from previous operations. These appliances are shown in the right-
hand portion of the plan and elevation, Fig. 10. The temperature of the
mixture soon rises by the action between the copper oxide and the sulphuric
acid, and is kept, by means of a steam jet, at a temperature of about 85° C,
for ha'f an hour. From this mixer, the charge is run out into a centrifugal
hj'dro-extractor, provided with a filtering cloth, in which the solution of
Fig. 10. Verticil sections through the dcfomposer: Mond process.
copper sulphate is separated from the solid residue containing the nickel.
After the filtration of the charge is finished, the speed of the hydro-extrac-
tor is increased, and the residue is thus rendered sufficiently free from the
liquor.
The solution containing the extractetl copper runs from the hydro-
extractor into a well, from wliich it is pumped into the crystallizing vats
shown on Fig. 11. After a period of about 8 days to 10 days, the crystals
of coj)per sulphate are tak(>n out of the vats and the mother liquor is mixed
with fresh acid and is again used for the extraction of coj^per. As already
mentioned, a small amount of nickel and a little iron are also dissolved
156
in the sulphuric acid during the copper extraction, so that the mother
liquor from which the copper sulphate has crystallized becomes gradually
contaminated with these two metals. It is therefore necessary to replace
some of the mother liquor from time to time by fresh water, and to recover
the nickel from the solution. The simplest method is to evaporate the
solution to dryness and to roast the nickel and copper sulphates so obtained.
The oxidized material is again introduced into the main process. The
copper sulphate crystals from the crystallizing vats are charged into a
second hydro-extractor, where they are washed with a little clean water to
remove all acidity; they are then dried and are ready for packing. The
copper sulphate thus obtained is sufficiently pure for market, as it contains
only 05 per cent of nickel and 048 per cent of iron.
The residue from the copper extraction is taken from the hydro-
extractor and stored in a bin until a sufficient quantity has been collected
to make up a charge of 5 tons to 6 tons for the nickel extracting plant.
It now contains 52-5 per cent of nickel, 20-6 per cent of copper, and 2-6
per cent of iron. The material is charged by hand at the rate of half a ton per
hour into a feeding hopper, described as the matte inlet in the lower part
of the plan, Fig. 11, which communicates, through a rotary valve, with the
conveyer, consisting of a tube enclosing a revolving spiral, which transports
the material to an elevator. This lifts the material to the top of the redu-
cing tower, and discharges it through another rotary valve into this redu-
cing tower.
The reducer and the volatilizer (shown in the centre of Figs. 12 and 13)
in which the treatment with carbon-monoxide takes place, are fully des-
cribed in Dr. Mond's patent (No. 23,665 of December 10th, 1895). The
reducer consists of a vertical tower about 25 feet high, containing a series
of shelves, which are hollow so as to admit of their being raised to a tempe-
rature of 250°C by producer gas. The roasted matte falling on these
shelves from above is stirred and made to descend from one shelf to that
below it by rabbles actuated by a central vertical shaft. Water-gas passes
up the tower to effect the reduction of the material. There are about
fourteen of these shelves or trays in the tower. The five lower shelves are
not heated by producer gas, but are cooled by a stream of water in order
to reduce the temperature of the roasted and reduced matte to the tempera-
ture at which the volatilizer is worked.
The volatilizing tower resembles the reducer, but the shelves are not
hollow, as there is no necessity to heat them. The reduced nickel requires
a temperature of only 50°C, to enable it to combine with carbon monoxide
and form a volatile compound, and the matte and gas are sufficiently hot
to maintain this temperature. In the plant at Smethwick the volatilizer
was made the same size as the reducer, but in the new plant it is somewhat
smaller.
The decomposer has been devised with much care, and has, in its
present form, only recently been patented. The nickel is deposited in it,
from its gaseous compound with carbon-monoxide, on granules of ordinary
commercial metal. The arrangements by which this is effected are very
ingenious, and may be described almost in the words of Dr. Mond's latest
patent. The object is to obtain metallic nickel from nickel carbonyl
in the form of pellets, which are specially suitable for the production of
nickel alloys. For this purpose gases containing nickel carbonyl are passed
through granulated nickel, which is kept at the temperature required
for the decomposition of the carbonyl, about 200°C. The nickel which
thus separates from the carbonyl becomes deposited on the granulated
157
nickel, which consequently increases in size. In order to prevent cohesion
of the granulated nickel, it is kept in motion. When a number of the
pellets have attained a convenient size, they are separated by sifting
without interrupting the depositing operation, the smaller granules being
returned to receive a further deposit from the nickel carbonyl. A convenient
form of apparatus for effecting the process described is shown in Fig. 10,
which represents vertical sections of the apparatus on planes at right angles
to each other. A is a cylindrical vessel, preferably built up of short cylin-
ders, a a, bolted together; it contains a central tube, C, provided with gas
outlet holes O, through which the gas containing nickel carbonyl, entered
at the gas inlet, B, passes into the vessel which is filled with shot, or small
granules of nickel. The gas permeates through the interstices between
these granules, and is brought into intimate contact with them, and when
the nickel carbonyl is decomposed, the nickel is deposited on the granules.
e
^33
l^oooo
CRVaTALLlZIKS V»T»^.
o o o o o
"O 1"
-p^l
PLAN.
'C_
Fig. U. General arrangement of Mond process plant: after Roberts-Austen.
158
The gases finally escape through the outlets, L, into the gas exit pipe M.
In order to prevent the granules from cohering, they are kept slowly moving
by continuously withdrawing some of the granules from the bottom of the
cylindrical vessel, A, by means of a right and left-handed worm conveyer,
U, which delivers the granules into two sifting drums, N. The smaller
granules fall on to the inclined plane, W, and collect at the base of the
elevator, E, which conveys them again to the top of the cylinder, A, and
feeds them through the feeding-hole, X. In order to avoid the deposition
of nickel from the nickel carbonyl in the central tube, C, it is kept cool by
causing water to circulate down the tube, F, and up through passages,
F, formed in the central tube, to the water outlet F^ The cylindrical
vessel. A, is surrounded by a wrought iron casing, Q, which forms heating-
spaces, H, communicating with heat flues, P, which are so arranged that
the temperature of each cylinder can be separately regulated by dampers,
so as to maintain the temperature of the granules of nickel contained in
the vessel. A, at about 200°C, at which temperature the nickel carbonyl
is decomposed. AVith a view to ascertain whether the cylinder. A, is full
of granules, a rod, R, is fixed to the spindle of an external handle, which
can be turned partly round, so that if the operator feels resistance to the
motion of the R, it is certain that the granules extend to that height.
The appliance used for depositing the nickel originally consisted of a
series of retorts lined with tin steel sheets, on which the nickel was deposi-
ted in layers. It was found, however, that the metal so obtained was very
difficult to cut, and the apparatus above described was accordingly devised.
A magnified section of a granule of nickel, shows a core of nickel
with a crystalline and convoluted structure surrounded by concentric
layers. The central core is ordinary commercial nickel, and the layers
are nickel deposited from its carbonyl. In some cases granules of deposited
nickel are found without any central core. These have grown from minute
fragments of deposited nickel which have become detached during the
course of deposition.
The water gas used in the reducer is generated in gas producers,
three of which are shown on the left of the plan. Fig. 11. Anthracite is
used to decompose the steam, and the water gas is collected in a gas holder,
whence it is taken to the reducing tower, to which reference has just been
made. This gas contains on entering the reducer, about 60 per cent of
hydrogen.
The reducing operation is so regulated that only a small cjuantity of
hydrogen remains in the escaping gas, as a rule not more than 5 per cent to
10 per cent. This waste gas is subjected to the action of a fine water spray
which condenses the steam generated by the combustion of the hydrogen
in the water gas. Part of this waste gas is used for making the carbon-
monoxide required in the volatilizer, by passing it through the CO retort
charged with incandescent charcoal. Fig. 11, which reduces the carbon-
dioxide contained in the waste gas, and this increases the amount of carbon-
monoxide in it. The gas issuing from this retort contains about 80 per
cent of carbon-monoxide, and is stored in another gasholder, which com-
municates with the main circuit of the carbon-monoxide gas. This main
circuit of the carbon-monoxide passes through the volatilizer already
referred to, where the nickel is taken up. The carbon-monoxide, now
charged with nickel, passes through a filter to separate the fine particles of
matte-dust from the gases, then through an apparatus called the decom-
poser, and so described in the figure. In this decomposer the nickel taken
159
160
up in the volatilizer is deposited. The gas now deprived of its nickel passes
to the CO blower, Fig. 11, which sends the carbon-monoxide to the volatilizer
in order that it may take up a fresh charge of nickel.
The solid material from which the nickel is being extracted is kept
circulating through the reducer and volatilizer for a period varying
between 7 days and 15 days, during which time the oxides are gradually
reduced to the metallic state and the nickel volatilized. When the material
originally charged in has had the bulk of its nickel extracted it is run out
through a rotary calciner roaster, Fig. 11, which converts the metals into
oxides, so that they may be treated for the second time with sulphuric acid
and carbon-monoxide. The ratio between the nickel and copper in the
residues from the nickel extraction is practically the same as in the calcined
bessemer matte, with which the operations were started, but the amount
of iron has increased by the removal of the copper and nickel, as the follow-
ing figures sho\y': — Original matte contains, nickel 35-27 per cent, copper
41-87 per cent, iron 2 ■ 13 per cent. After the first treatment of copper and
nickel extraction, the quantities are, nickel 35-48 per cent, copper 38-63
per cent, iron 4-58 per cent; and after the second copper and nickel extrac-
tioa, nickel 35-83 per cent, copper 35-56 per cent, and iron 7-82 per cent.
The amount of nickel extracted in these two cases was, after the first treat-
ment, 61 per cent, and after the second treatment 80 per cent of the nickel
present in the original matte. It must be remembered, however, that in
the second treatment only one-third of the original amount remains to be
treated, while the final residue is only one-tenth. To avoid the formation
of iron carbonyl, the temperature in the reducer has to be kept very low,
and if this is done, the nickel extracted from a matte originally containing
as much as between 6 per cent and 10 per cent of iron will not contain more
than - 5 per cent of iron. If the amount of iron in the residues rises above
this percentage, the extraction of the nickel is very much delayed, on
account of the low temperature which must be maintained in the reducer.
It is necessary, in such a case, to re-smelt the residues before proceeding
with the extraction of the nickel and copper. The following are analyses
of the deposited nickel: —
Nickel
Iron and (AI2O3)
Sulphur 00068
Carbon 0-07
Insoluble residue
The experimental plant at Smethwick has been working for some
time, and about 80 tons of nickel have already been extracted in it from
different kinds of matte. The results obtained were quite satisfactory,
and they point to the conclusion that the process is fully able to compete
with any other process at present in use for the production of metallic
nickel.
161
By the kindness of Dr. Mond, the author is able to exhibit plans for
a large manufacturing plant, and Figs. 12 and 13 show a front elevation,
plan, and cross section of it. This plant will, it is estimated, produce 1,000
tons of nickel per year. The plant is so arranged that the matte is continu-
ously charged into the first reducer and traverses the whole set of appliances.
CROSS SECTION ON B B
Fig. 13. Cross-section of reducers and volatilizers: Mond
process: after Roberts-Austen.
When the matte issues from the last volatilizer the first nickel extraction
is finished. The matte is re-roasted and submitte!d to the second copper
and nickel extraction. There are ten appliances, consisting of one large
reducer, eight combined reducers and volatilizers, and one large volatilizer.
They are so arranged that the matte has first to pass through the large
reducer, and is then lifted by means of an elevator and convej'er, into a
volatilizer (erected on the top of the next reducer). The relative positions
of the reducers and volatilizers are best shown in the cross section, Fig. 5.
It passes through the volatilizer into the upper ])()rti()n of the reducer and
in traversing tiiis it is further reduced. It is then lifted again to the next
volatilizer, and so on till it finally reaches the larger volatilizer at the end of
the whole series, and, after i)assing through this, it is discharged into the
roasting furnace. The conveyer on the top of the volatilizers into which
the elevators discharge, is common to the whole set of volatilizers and
reducers, so that, in case any portion of the plant has to be disconnected,
the rotary valve through which the material is discharged from the conveyer
162
into the volatilizer is stopped. The material then passes on through the
conveyer into the next vohitiUzer. The two gases, carbon-monoxide in
the volatilizers and water gas in the reducers, are kept separate by rotary
valves of the same construction as in the small plant. The water gas
connexions are so arranged that each reducer receives fresh gas from the
main, with the exception of the first large reducer, through which the waste
gas of all the other reducers is passed, so as to burn completely all the
hydrogen in the water gas. The carbon-monoxide passes through the volati-
ilizers from a common main, and is collected, after it has passed through the
filters, in a main leading to the })lower. From the blower the carbon-
monoxide charged with nickel passes through a set of decomposers, and again
into the main which feeds the volatilizers."
The works at Clydach are equipped in the way described by Roberts-
Austen but with many more units, so as to produce 1,700 tons of nickel,
7,000 tons of copper sulphate, and 800 tons of nickel sulphate including a
little nickel ammonium sulphate. Dr. Langer states that the nickel now
produced is 99 ■ 98 per cent pure and is sold in the shot form to the Armstrong
Co. for armour plate and to smaller firms of steel workers and producers of
German silver and nickel plate. Some is sold also to Arthur Krupp, and
to a pure nickel goods company at Berndorf near Vienna.
The works show none of the roughness and disorder of the usual metal-
lurgical plant, but are as clean and scientifically managed as a laboratory,
everything being accurately adjusted, and the temperatures of the different
parts being frequently taken and recorded.
The gases employed in the process are very poisonous but so much care
is taken as to joints and fittings that for eight years there have been no
cases of poisoning.
The plant is run continuously except for a stop of three weeks in the
year to clean flues and repair machinery; and the demand for nickel has
increased so much that plans are made to double the present works.
Clydach, being in the midst of the Welsh anthracite and steam coal
fields, supplies at a minimum of expense the varieties of coal needed for the
production of carbon-monoxide and for other purposes in the running of
the plant, as explained by Dr. Langer, and also gives a convenient dis-
tributing point for the sulphate of copper and other products resulting from
the process.
I am under great obligations to the Mond Company for permission to
visit the Clydach works, and to Dr. Langer for his courtesy in taking me
through them.
Methods of Treatment at Evje and Kristiansand.
Although no Canadian ore or matte is used in the works at Evje and
Kristiansand, in Southern Norway, their ores so closely resemble those of
Sudbury that their methods might, no doubt, be used also in Ontario. The
Flaad mine, three miles north of Evje in the Saetersdal valley, sends its
ore by a cable tramway somewhat like that of Victoria Mines to the smelter
beside Otra river. The ore is not subjected to heap roasting, partly, no
doubt, because it is comparatively rocky in character, but goes directly
into small water-jacketed furnaces. It averages 2-3 per cent of nickel
and 1 -2 per cent of copper, according to Mr. Henricksen, who was in charge
of the smelter. The ore requires no flux but is mixed with from 7 to 10
per cent of coke from Westphalia, and a low grade matte is produced which
Plate LIX.
Evje smelter, Saetersdal, Norway.
Plate LX.
Evje smelter, Saetersdal, Norway.
Plate LXI.
Reduction works, Kristiansand, Norway.
25873—18
Plate LXII.
Water jacket furnaces: Evje, Norway.
Plate LXIII.
^
: ; '
■
I'uinacis fur liitili Krude matte: Evje, Xurwuy.
25873—18*
163
may contain from 8 to 15 per cent of nickel and copper, but usually not
more than 8 to 10 per cent.
An example of ordinary matte contained 5-3 per cent of nickel and 3 • 15
of copper, while the slag ran 0-21 of nickel, 0-10 of copper, 26-2 of iron,
and 38-6 of silica. Another example of matte from the larger of their two
furnaces contained 5-25 of nickel and 3-30 of copper, with a slag running
0-30 per cent of nickel, • 12 of copper, 23-4 of iron, and 39-4 of silica. A
special grade of matte is sometimes produced containing 8 • 9 of nickel and
5 • 35 of copper ; but apparently the standard of 30 per cent of the two metals
usual at Sudbury is not aimed at, since the lower grade matte implies a
smaller loss of nickel and copper in the slags.
Connected with the building containing the two water-jacket furnaces
are sheds open on one side in which a number of small furnaces are used in
making high grade matte with 70 or 80 per cent of the two metals, corre-
sponding to our bessemer matte. These furnaces are open, almost like a
blacksmith's forge, beneath a hood to carry off fumes, and are worked in
what seems a most primitive way by two men who get the required result
by a kind of instinct.
In this second smelting most of the sulphur is got rid of and Ih tons
of silica to 1 ton of the resulting high grade matte are required to flux off
the iron, while to produce the necessary heat a ton of coke is needed. Mr.
Borthen, one of the engineers of the works, informed me that high grade
matte contained:
Nickel 50 — 60 per cent
Copper 30—20
Iron 1—2
Sulphur 20
and that the slag from the process contained one or two per cent of nickel
and was sent to the water-jacket furnace with the ore. An estimate of the
composition of the high grade matte supplied by Mr. Henriksen runs,
however, somewhat lower.
Nickel 40^ — 53 per cent
Copper 27—22
Iron 8—1
An assay of a particular sample ran as follows : —
Nickel 55-44 per cent
Copper 22-88
Iron 2-04
Apparently the somewhat crude and rough method employed gives
rise to considerable variations in the composition of the high grade matte.
Mr. Hybinette states that the cost of mining the Evje ore is $1 .25 per ton,
and that the smelting to low grade matte amounts to about as much; but
that the second smelting costs about $20 per ton of iiigh grade matte. One
hundr(Ml men are employed at the mine and as many at the smelter.
The little establishment at Evje is interesting as a contrast with the
great smelting plants at Copper Cliff and Coniston; and it is rather sur-
prising to find so modest a plant with such simple methods able to compete
successfully with these large, costly, and highlj- organized enterprises.
164
The high grade matte is shipped by narrow gauge railway to Kristian-
sand, the seaport at the end of the valley, to the refining plant which is
under the charge of Mr. V. Hybinette. The works, which are a little west
of the city, have been in operation for over a year and have been so success-
ful that plans are under way for a large increase in the plant. I am under
obligations to Mr. Hybinette for taking me through the works and
explaining the process, which is in accordance with U.8. patents Xo. 805,550
and Xo. 805,969, taken out in 1895, and first used in the plant in the South-
ern States now owned by the Dominion X'ickel Copper Company. As
this electrolytic process is described in the patents, it ^\i\\ be unnecessary
to refer to its features in detail at this point.
At the time of my visit — June, 1911, about one ton of nickel was
produced a day having a composition as follows:
Xickel 98 ■ 70 per cent
Copper • 07 "
Iron 0-63
Sulphur 0-02 "
Arsenic 005 "
Cobalt 0-90
In a general way it may be said that the matte is roasted to convert
the metals into oxides, then leached with weak sulphuric acid, which
extracts principally the copper. The residue is heated with sulphuric acid
to a temperature at which hydrous sulphates do not exist, and is again
leached with weak sulphuric acid to extract copper. The residue is then
heated with hydrochloric acid to a temperature sufficienth' high for partial
decomposition of the anhydrous chlorides and again leached with weak
acid, the heatings being repeated if necessary, in order to obtain a residue
of nickel oxide suitable for further treatment.
Treatment of New Caledonian Ores.
Garnierite, the chief nickel ore of Xew Caledonia, is free from sulphur
and copper and theoretically might be looked upon as a source of iron as
well as of nickel; so that Garnier suggested that it be smelted direct to
ferro-nickel. For this purpose two blast furnaces were built at Xoumea
in Xew Caledonia, and a refiner}' near ^Marseilles, in France. It was found,
however, that there was sulphur enough in the fuel to rob this process of
its value, since nickel has a high affinity for sulphur.
The method adopted therefore was to produce matte by adding fluxes
and sulphur or some compound containing sulphur, in the smelting opera-
tions. The resulting matte, as described by M. Levat, contained 60-55
per cent of nickel, 25-30 per cent of iron, and 16-18 per cent of sulphur,
which was treated with quartz sand in a reverberatory furnace to flux off
the iron, or in a be.ssemer converter.^
The usual source of sulphur is gj-psum, though pyrite, Xorwegian
pyrrhotite, and native sulphur have been used, gypsum apparently being
used most frequently.-
It is stated that a similar method is still employed, but the policy of
the Societe Anonyme Le Xickel of refusing information or access to its
smelters makes it difficult to get exact information. Mr. G. A. Boeddiker^
'Bur. Mines, Vol. II, 1892, pp. 151-3.
2Pro{. .J. W. Bain, Ibid., Vol. IX, 1900, p. 215.
165
of Henry Wiggin and Co., Birmingham, has kindly supplied the information
that their refineries are in Scotland, France, Belgium, and Germany, and
that formerly nickel ore from New Caledonia was treated also at Birming-
ham. He states that the method used in Birmingham was to smelt to a
nickel-iron-sulphide or matte by mixing the ore with gypsum and coal or
coke dust. The matte was crushed, calcined, melted in a cupola and
tapped into a small bessemer converter and blown till free from iron. This
matte was treated in the usual way by calcining to remove the sulphur,
producing a pure oxide which was used for reduction into nickel.
Uses of Nickel.
An alloy of copper, nickel and zinc, called packfong, has been known
to the Chinese since time immemorial, and it is stated that an alloy con-
taining 77 • 58 per cent of copper, 20 • 04 per cent of nickel and 1 • 72 per cent
of impurities was used for coinage by Ethydemos, who reigned over Bactria
about 235 B.C.; so that alloys of nickel were used long before the pure
metal had been separated from its ores. It is interesting to note that the
Bactrian alloy is closely like that now used for subsidiary coins in the
United States.
Pure nickel is employed in small amounts for a number of purposes
because of its strength and durability and its white colour, which resists
tarnishing. For these reasons several nations have introduced it for coin-
age, e.g. France, Switzerland and Turkey, and its cleanness and hardness
contrast very favourably with copper or bronze on the one hand and silver
on the other. It is rather surprising that Canada, which produces two-
thirds of the nickel of the world, should still retain its ugly bronze cents
and troublesomely small silver five cent pieces. These and the ten cent
piece should certainly be replaced by pure nickel coins.
One might expect also that iron kitchen utensils, which constantly
grow black and rusty, might well be made of the clean and white, and
untarnishable metal nickel. For many purposes steel is now plated with
nickel to preserve it from rusting.
Though the importance of pure nickel is likely to grow, the chief use
of the metal is in the production of alloys, particularly nickel steel, in which
the greater part of the nickel now refined is employed.^
The alloy of nickel with iron is no novelty, since all native iron of
terrestrial as well as meteoric origin contains nickel. The telluric iron
from Ovifak and elsewhere in Greenland contains, according to Dana,
from • 34 to 6 • 50 per cent of nickel, with an average of 2 • 1 1 per cent ; and
meteoric iron from various sources runs much higher, containing, according
to the same authority, from 3-81 to 59-69 per cent. In Greenland such
iron was long ago utilized by the Esquimo, who used to hammer off flakes
of it from the large masses left on the surface by the weathering of the pareat
basalt, making from them knives and spear points. Peary with his supplies
of modern steel tools and weapons put an end to this industry, at least for
the present, and removed the largest masses of telluric iron to the United
States.
Steel containing from 2h to 3| per cent of nickel has certain of its pro-
perties greatly improved, so that for many purjioses it is replacing ordinary
structural steel. Its value for armour plate has long been known, and the
rivalry of the great maritime nations in the building of Dreadnoughts is
'See Bur. Mines, Vol. XIV, Part III, pp. 165-6.
166
one of the causes for the recent increased demand for nickel. It is stated
by Mr. Alonell, President of the International Nickel Company, that the
growth of the motor vehicle business is important in this respect also; and
its value for bridge building is shown by the selection of nickel steel for the
rebuilding of the Quebec bridge, which fell so disasterously some 3'ears ago.
By the kindness of Dean Galbraith of the Applied Science Department
of the University of Toronto, and of Mr. C. R. Young, the following data
bearing on this use of the alloy may be given:
COMPARISON OF CARBON AND NICKEL STRUCTURAL STEELS.
Based upon Average Present Practice (1912).
Medium
Carbon
Steel
Medium
Nickel
Steel
Percentage of Carbon I 0-20 0-.3S
Percentage of Xi 3-50
Elastic limit (lbs. persq.in) , 30,000 (Min.) 60,000 (Min.)
Ultimate tensile strength (lbs. per sq. in.) 60,000 (Min.) 105,000 (Min.)
Modulus of elasticity I 29,000,000 : 30,000,000
Safe working stress in tension (lbs. per sq. in) 16,000 t 28,000
APPROXIMATE SAVING IN WEIGHT AND COST OF BRIDGES EFFECTED BY USE.
OF NICKEL STEEL.
Mixed Nickel and Carbon Steel —
Saving in weight up to 25 per cent.
Saving in cost up to 17 per cent.
Nickel Steel throughout —
Saving in weight 10 to 30 per cent.
Saving in cost up to 12 per cent.
Alloys much higher in nickel are employed for special purposes, such
as Invar, steel with 36 per cent of nickel, which has the property of varying
very little in length with change of temperature, making it of great value
for tapes to be used in the accurate chaining necessary' in geodetic surveys.
MONEL METAL.
Next to nickel steel the most important alloj' is monel metal, so named
for Mr. Ambrose Monell of the International Nickel Company, consisting
of 68 to 72 per cent of nickel with the balance copper, except for trifling
impurities (0-5 to 1-5 per cent of iron, 073 to 0-15 per cent of carbon,
and 0-014 per cent of sulphur). The proportions of nickel to copper are
those of the ores now worked by the Canadian Copper Company, so that
the alloy may be produced directly from the matte, at a cost not much
greater than that of copper. The alloy is silver white and takes a brilliant
polish, which slowly turns greyish on exposure. It melts at 1350° C, has
the same specific gravity as copper and can be cast or rolled and treated
in various ways like copper or steel, but is distinctly' stronger than ordinary
steel or than manganese bronze. The Orford Copper Company in a cir-^
cular to the trade makes the following statements as to strength, etc.:
167
Castings. ^'H'^
RODS.
i inch
plates.
Grade C.
Grade D.
Rolled,
annealed
and cold
drawn.
Tensile strength (lbs. per sq. in.)
Elastic limit (lbs. per sq. in.)
70,000
27,000
30
35
85,000
40,000
25
25
110,000
80, 000
25
50
90,000
45,000
30
60
Elongation in 2 in. (per cent)
Reduction in area (per cent)
They are prepared to furnish ingots, sheets, rods, bars, castings, tubes,
and wire of this alloy; and it is stated that the sheets are as flexible and mal-
leable as copper, and that wire may be drawn of all sizes down to 004 in.,
the finest being as soft and pliable as silk thread.
It is not alone strong but resists corrosion, and so may be used for many
purposes for which steel is unfitted, such as propellers, boilers, and roofs
exposed to acid fumes. During 1908 about 300,000 square feet of monel
metal sheets were used to roof the Pennsjdvania tunnel station in New
York city.^
Because of its great colouring poAver nickel has long been alloyed with
copper, zinc, etc. to produce a white metal imitating silver, and called by
various names such as German silver, Brittania metal, or argentan. These
alloys are familiar from their use in household articles, such as spoons,
forks, etc., which are generally plated with silver.
'Mineral Indu.stry, Vol. XVII, p. 671.
APPENDICES.
Patents relating to the
SEPARATION OF NICKEL AND COPPER
and the
REFINING OF NICKEL.
171
APPENDIX I.
METHOD OF SEPARATING NICKEL AND COPPER SULFIDS.
UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.
Ambrose Monell, of New York, N. Y.
No. 802,012. Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Oct. 17, 1905.
Application filed January 19, 1903. Serial No. 139,630.
To all whom it may concern:
Be it known that I, Ambrose Monell, of New York, in the county
and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Method of Sepa-
rating Nickel and Copper Sulfids, of which the following is a full, clear, and
exact description.
In the reduction of ores containing nickel and copper where a matte is
produced containing sulfids of nickel, copper, and iron, a process has been
devised in which a separation of the nickel sulfid is effected by the use of
sodium sulfid, advantage being taken of its power of dissolving the sulfid
of copper and iron freely and forming a solution of less specific gravity than
the nickel sulfid. The matte mixed with coke and sulfate of sodium has
been charged into a cupola-furnace. When this charge is smelted, the sod-
ium sulfate is reduced by the coke to sodium sulfid and, forming a solution
with part of the copper sulfid and iron sulfid, flows with the undissolved
and melted sulfids of nickel, copper, &c., through the tap-hole, which is
kept constantly open, into molds, where the molten constituents separate
in accordance with their specific gravity, the sodium sulfid containing the
dissolved copper and iron sulfids floating on the surface and the undissolved
sulfids settling to the bottom. When the contents of the mold have solidi-
fied, the parts are separated by fracture and the tops containing the copper
and iron are recharged into a smelting-furnace, where the sodium sulfid is
fluxed off in an iron slag, l^eing then lost. The bottoms contain most of
the nickel sulfid of the original matte; but owing to the imperfection of
the separation they also contain so much copper sulfid and iron sulfid that
it is necessary to resmelt them with fresh additions of coke and sodium
sulfate, and thus to repeat the smelting and separation to the fourth or
fifth time before the bottoms are l)rought to sufficient degree of freedom
from iron and copper to enable the resultant nickel sulfid to be economically
subjected to the succeeding steps of the refining process. The process as
thus carried on is slow and wasteful and l^ecause of the cost of materials and
the amount of labor and handling required adds greatly to the expense of
the nickel or nickel oxid, which is the final product. I have discovered
172
that these difficulties can be overcome and the separation rendered quick
and inexpensive by the following process.
Instead of smelting the compound matte, as heretofore, in a cupola-
furnace and running the product continuously into molds I so smelt the
matte that when melted it will remain in a molten state subject to the high
temperature of a furnace for a consideral)le period of time, daring which I
find that the copper and iron sulfids will be thoroughly dissolved by the
sodium sulfid, and in one melting a gootl separation can be effected, and by
two such treatments results are obtained equal or superior to the results of
the four or five meltings which have been employed heretofore. For this
purpose I employ as the smelting-furnace an open-hearth reverberatory
furnace lined with magnesite brick, as I find that silica-lined furnaces are
quickly destroyed by fluxing with the sodium sulfid. Into such furnaces I
introduce a charge of nickel-copper-iron matte, either solid or molten,
together with coke and sodium sulfate, the latter being preferably present
in the proportion of sixty per cent of the weight of the matte and the coke in
the proportion of fifteen per cent of the matte. The sulfate is preferably
added in the form of commercial niter-cake. Where, for example, a fifty-
ton charge of matte is treated containing, say forty-five per cent of nickel
sulfid and thirty-five per cent of copper sulfid, it is, melted in the furnace
and retained subject to the heat for some time — say four to five hours after
fusion has occurred — during which time it is preferably "poled" — that is
to say, treated by immersing beneath its surface poles of green wood,
which evolve hydrocarbon gases and vapors, and thus aid in the reduction
of the sulfate and produce an agitation of the material, which facilitates and
renders more thorough the solution of the sulfids to be removed. Nearly
complete solution of the copper and iron sulfids in the sodium sulfid reduced
from the niter-cake is thus effected, and the molten charge may be tapped
from the furnace and allowed to separate in molds; but to get the best
results I tap the different strata from the furnace separately, tapping first
the solution of copper and iron sulfids floating on the surface of the bath
and finalh' tapping the undissolved nickel sulfid, or the order of tapping
may be reversed, the lower stratum of nickel sulfid being removed first.
The great proportion of the iron and copper is thus separated the nickel
sulfid obtained being nearly pure. Where greater purity is desired, the
nickel sulfid may be recharged into the furnace and treated again in like
manner.
The skilled metallurgist will be able to modify the apparatus and also
to use other solvent materials. For example, sodium sulfid may be charged
into the furnace instead of sodium sulfate, in which case, as no reduction is
required, the coke may be omitted or a less quantity of it employed, and
even when sodium sulfate is used deoxidation may be performed by the
operation of poling without the use of coke or with only a little coke.
Instead of sodium sulfid I may employ the sulfids of other alkaline
metals or sulfid of maganese.
I claim —
1. The method herein described of separating metallic sulfids, which
consists in adding to a matte containing such sulfids, a material which is
solvent for some of the sulfids therein, heating the mixture to the point of
fusion of said solvent, maintaining the mass in fusion until substantially
all of the soluble sulfids have been dissolved, and allowing the undissolved
sulfid to settle and separating it from the dissolved sulfid or sulfids.
2. The method herein described of separating metallic sulfids, which
consists in adding to a matte containing such sulfids, a material which is a
solvent for some of the sulfids therein, heating the mixture to the point of
173
fusion of said solvent, agitating the mass and maintaining it in fusion until
substantially all of the soluble sulfids have been dissolved and allowing the
undissolved sulfid to settle and separating it from the dissolved sulfid or
sulfids.
3. The method herein described of separating metallic sulfids, which
consists in adding to a matte containing such sulfids, a material which is a
solvent for some of the sulfids therein, heating the mixture to the point of
fusion of said solvent, maintaining the mass in fusion until substantially
all of the soluble sulfids have been dissolved, and allowing the undissolved
sulfid to settle and withdrawing the molten strata separately.
4. The method herein described of separating metallic sulfids, which
consists in adding to a matte containing such sulfids, in an open-hearth
furnace, a material which is a solvent for some of the sulfids therein, heating
the mixture to the point of fusion of said solvent, agitating the mass and
maintaining it in fusion until substantially all of the soluble sulfids have been
dissolved, and allowing the undissolved sulfid to settle and separating it
from the dissolved sulfid or sulfids.
5. The method herein described of separating metallic sulfids, which
consists in adding to a matte containing such sulfids, in an open-hearth
furnace, a material which is a solvent for some of the sulfids therein, heating
the mixture to the point of fusion of said solvent, agitating the mass and
maintaining it in fusion until substantially all of the soluble sulfids have
been dissolved, and allowing the undissolved sulfid to settle and with-
drawing the molten strata separately.
6. The method herein described of separating metallic sulfids, which
consists in adding to a matte containing such sulfids sodium sulfate and a
reducing agent for the sulfate, heating the mixture to the point of fusion of
the resultant solvent, maintaining the mass in fusion until substantially
all of the soluble sulfids have been dissolved, and allowing the undissolved
sulfid to settle and separating it from the dissolved sulfid or sulfids.
7. The method herein described of separating metallic sulfids, which
consists in adding to a matte containing such sulfids, a material which is a
solvent for some of the sulfids therein, heating the mixture to the point of
fusion of said solvent, poling the mass and maintaining it in fusion until
substantially all of the soluble sulfids have been dissolved, and allowing
the undissolved sulfid to settle and separating it from the dissolved sulfid or
sulfids.
8. The method of separating metallic sulfids, which consists in adding to
a matte containing such sulfids, in an open-hearth furnace, a material which
is a solvent for some of the sulfids therein, poling the mass, and maintaining
it in fusion until substantially all of the soluble sulfids have been dissolved
and allowing the undissolved sulfid to settle and separating it from the dis-
solved sulfid or sulfids.
9. The method of separati.ng metallic sulfids, which consists in adding
to a matte containing such sulfids, in an open-hearth furnace, a material
which is a solvent for some of the sulfids therein, poling the mass, and main-
taining it in fusion until substantially all of the soluble sulfids have been
dissolved, and allowing the undissolved sulfid to settle and withdrawing the
molten strata separately.
In testimon\' whereof I have iiercunto set my hand.
Witnesses: AMBRCtSE MONELL.
Ervu F. Wood,
Bend B. Gattell.
174
APPENDIX II.
PROCESS FOR REFINING COPPER-NICKEL MATTE.
UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE
NoAK Victor Hybinette, of Westfield, New Jersey.
No. 805,555. Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Nov. 28, 1905.
Application filed November 25, 1904. Serial No. 234,160.
To all whom it may concern'.
Be it known that I, Noak Victor Hybinette, a citizen of the United
States of America, and a resident of Westfield, county of Union, and State
of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in
Processes for Refining Copper-Nickel Matte, of which the following is
a specification.
The raw material for my process is a copper-nickel sulfid produced by
roasting and smelting of ordinary copper-nickel ores. This raw material
generally called "concentrated matte", contains about twenty-five per
cent sulfur and one-half per cent to five per cent iron, the remainder being
copper and nickel in differing proportions, generally about thirty-five to
forty per cent of each metal.
The first step in my process is now to grind and roast the matte.
The roasted material is leached with sulfuric acid until the material will
no longer neutralize the acid. This step in my process is not new in itself
and is well known to those conversant with the metallurgy of nickel.
I prefer to grind the matte to a size passing through a screen with thirty
meshes to the inch. The roasting is starting at a low temperature and
gradually increased until the sulfur contents are brought down to about
one per cent. More or less copper and nickel will be changed into sulfates;
but such sulfur as is present as sulfates is not detrimental; but after the
material is leached with water there may still be allowed to remain about
one per cent sulfur. When the material is being leached with sulfuric
acid, I take the precaution to use only dilute acid, so that the amount of
free acid in my solution will at no time be more than five to ten per cent.
In this way it is possible to remove the bulk of the copper without at the
same time dissolving much nickel. My solution will contain one part
nickel to about ten parts of copper. If I do the leaching with stronger acid,
the proportion of nickel will be greater. The solution so prepared is crystal-
lized and boiled down and again crystallized, and at each repeated crys-
tallization I receive crystals of commercially pure copper sulfate. The
mother-liquor from such crystallization contains copper and nickel in
about equal parts. I concentrate it and boil it down to a solid mass of
copper-nickel sulfates. The material that has been leached contains
about fifty-five to sixty per cent nickel and twelve to eighteen per cent
copper and is subjected to the second operation in my process. I mix the
material with sulfuric acid of about sixty per cent free acid in such
quantity that there will be sufficient acid to form sulfate of copper with all
the copper that is present. The mass is then slowly brought up to a low
red heat and roasted at that temperature for a short time. The reaction
that takes place is that the free acid becomes combined with copper and
nickel to sulfates of these metals; but sulfate of copper is preferably formed.
When the material reaches a temperature of about 800° centigrade, the
175
sulfates begin to decompose; but the sulfate of copper is not affected in
the same way as the sulfate of nickel, and the consequence is that when
the sulfates are completely decomposed, or nearly so, and the material
drawn from the furnace and leached with weak sulfuric acid I again obtain
a solution with about ten parts of copper to one part of nickel and which
upon crystallization will yield commercially pure sulfate of copper. The
mother-liquor from this second leaching is of the same nature as that above
referred to and is boiled down, giving more salts of about equal parts of
copper and nickel. This heating with sulfuric acid may be repeated, and
after one or more such treatments I have a residue after leaching which
contains about seventy per cent nickel and three to five per cent copper.
The next step in my process is to mix this residue with hydrochloric acid
or a mixture of common salt or chlorid of sodium and sulfuric acid. The
material is again heated to a low red heat, and chlorids of nickel and copper
are formed. As, however, chlorid of nickel is far more readily decomposed
by heat than chlorid of copper, I can continue my roasting operation to a
point where a maximum of copper and a maximum of nickel are present
as chlorids. I then draw the material from the furnace and leach it with
water and weak acid, whereby I obtain a residue of practically pure nickel
oxid with about one-half per cent copper still present. The treatment
with hydrochloric acid may be repeated, in which case a still more pure
nickel oxid is obtained, assaying about seventy-seven per cent nickel and
one-tenth per cent copper. This chloridizing roasting of nickel oxid
for the sake of removing small percentages of copper is not unlike the
ordinary Henderson process for the extraction of copper from ores and is
well known to those conversant with metallurgy of nickel. The reactions
that take place in my sulfuric acid process are probably not corresponding
to or congruent with those of the chloridizing roasting. In the latter
case chlorid of nickel is first formed and is decomposed as the roasting goes
on, and more and more chlorid of copper is formed at the same time.
By careful roasting copper can be extracted in this way down to mere
traces. In the sulfuric acid treatment there is no decomposition of nickel
sulfate with simultaneous formation of copper sulfate. In the leaching
of the mixed oxid of nickel with weak sulfuric acid the copper is dissolved
as long as the oxid of nickel in the mixed oxids is not in such excess as to
protects the oxid of copper from the action of the acid. This point is
reached when the copper percentage is down to twelve to fifteen per cent.
It is lower the more copper was contained in the original material and the
lower the temperature of roasting. After this point no separation of copper
by leaching is possible, and such material has heretofore been handled
in the very expensive way of completely dissolving the whole mass in
hydrochloric acid and precipitating the metals separately from such solution.
I have now found that if the material is heatetl in a furnace with concentra-
ted sulfuric acid large quantities of both copper and nickel form sulfates,
but always so tiiat a greater proportion of copper than nick(>l is made
soluble. This pro])ortion is more favoral)le the higher the copper contents
are in the material. If, therefore, the percentage of copper is as high
as, say, eighteen per cent, I can (Iraw the material from the furnace at
a point below red heat, where only the free acid is driven off, and the
solution with water will then contain copper and nickel in about equal
quantities. When however, the copper is down to twelve per cent or
below, I find that an undue proportion of nickel is made soluble, xmd I
do therefore raise the heat to a point where all or nearly all nickel sulfate
is decomposed. At this point the copper is also made insolul)le in water,
25873—19
176
but not in the name \V'ay as the nickel, because it is again made soluble
by very weak acid, and the solution so obtained contains very little
nickel. I have no theoretical explanation to offer for this process; but
it is a fact that each time the material is heated with sulfuric acid I can
afterward extract a portion of the copper with acid so weak that it would
have no influence on the material before said heating. This nickel oxid
is refined to metallic nickel in one of the several ways now in use and Avell
known to those conversant with the art. Preferably I may smelt the oxid
to metallic nickel anodes containing about ninety-five per cent nickel.
Such anodes are suitable for refining by ordinary electrolytic processes.
This last leaching of chlorids leaves a solution from which no pure salts
can be separated. It contains nickel and copper in about equal parts.
Each one of the three steps in my process has left a solution of mixed
copper and nickel salts. I prefer to heat these salts to a strong red heat,
whereby all the nickel sulfate and chlorid are changed in oxid. This
residue is leached with water and weak sulfuric acid, whereby copper
sulfate is again o])tained, and the residue from the leaching is nickel oxid
of about the same purity as that produced by the regular process.
It is evident that instead of heating with acid I may use its chemical
equivalent, such as sodium bisulfate, which upon heating will give off
sulfuric acid, and instead of using hydrochloric acid I may use sodium
bisulfate and sodium chlorid, which upon heating will produce hydro-
chloric acid.
The treatment which I have called the "second step" is naturally
more expensive than the first, and there is no call for its use until the
copper contents are reduced to about twelve per cent, at which point
the operation called the "first step" refuses to work satisfactorih\ This
second step give less favorable results the lower the copper contents are
and has to be substituted by the treatment with hydrochloric acid
when the percentage of copper is brought down to five to three per cent.
This third step is not practical when the copper contents are above three
to five per cent.; but l)y combining the three steps I can successfully
treat all grades of material.
I do not intend to make any claim to the first and third steps in
themselves. They have long been known to be well suitable for the sepa-
ration of copper; but as the first step becomes impractical when the
copper contents have been brought down to twelve per cent and the third
step cannot very well be used until the copper is as low as three to five
per cent it has been impossible fo combine the two in a practical process.
I have now invented the process of separating copper from nickel by
heating with sulfuric acid and leaching with weak acid, a process which
is well suited to handle the material after the first step is no longer useful
and leave a product which can be conveniently treated b}' chloridizing
roasting.
There are many electrolytic copper refineries which treat nickel-
bearing copper. These factories made as a by-product a mixed sulfate
of about equal portions of nickel and copper. With former processes
this salt has to go through a long and expensive separating process;
but according to my invention these salts may be handled as the
mother-liciuor from crystallization of sulfate of copper, as herein described.
What I claim as my invention is —
1. The process of separating copper from nickel in copper-nickel
matte, consisting in first roasting the matte to oxids, then leaching with
weak sulfuric acid, thereby extracting principally sulfate of copper, then
heating with sulfuric acid at least to a temperature where hydrous sulfates
177
do not exist, leaching with weak sulfuric acid, thereby extracting princi-
pally sulfate of copper, then heating with hydrochloric acid to a tempera-
ture enough for partial decomposition of the anhydrous chlorids, leaching
with weak acid and repeating the said heatings when necessary thereby
obtaining a nickel oxid, suitable for refining by ordinary means.
2. The process of separating oxids of copper and nickel by heating
with sulfuric acid at least to a temperature where hydrous sulfates do
not exist, leaching with weak sulfuric acid, thereby extracting principally
sulfate of copper, then heating Avith hydrochloric acid to a temperature
high enough for partial decomposition of the anhydrous chlorids, leaching
with weak acid and repeating the said heatings when necessary thereby
obtaining a nickel oxide, suitable for refining bj^ ordinary means.
3. In the process of separating oxids by heating with sulfuric acid
and leaching with weak acid, the method of heating the material to at
least partial decomposition of the anhydrous sulfates and leaching with
weak acid, thereby extracting copper oxid formed in said decomposition
without extracting the nickel oxid formed at the same time.
Signed at New York this 22nd day of November, 1904,
NOAK VICTOR HYBINETTE.
Witnesses :
C. Sedgwick,
J. M. Howard.
25873—19^
178
APPENDIX III.
IIYBINETTE PROCESS FOR THE ECONOMIC SEPARATION OF ALLOYS INTO
THEIR CONSTITUENTS, BY ELECTROLYSIS.
UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.
NoAK Victor Hy'binette, of Westfield, New Jersey.
Xo. 805,969. Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Nov. 28,1905
Application filed November 25, 1904. Serial No. 234,159.
To all whom it may concern:
Be it known that I, Noak Victor Hybinette, a citizen of the United
States of America, and a resident of Westfield, in the county of Union and
State of New Jersej', have invented certain new and useful Improvements
in the Separation of Metals, of which the following is a specification.
I have discovered a process for the economical separation of alloys
into their constituents by electrolysis. It has been designed specially for
the separation of nickel and copper from alloys of these metals, which are
generally also associated with iron; but it may be employed for the treat-
ment of other alloys.
The fundamental principles on which the process is built are as follows :
First. If copper-nickel alloy is electrolyzed, the nickel will dissolve
more rapidly from the anode and the result will be that the anode-slimes
falling to the bottom of the tank will consist mainly of copper compounds.
If at the same time sulfur is present in the anode, sulfid of copper is separ-
ated as anode-slime. This reaction is one of the means used in my process
for separating copper from nickel. I find in practice that about one-half
of the copper which I take into the process is recovered as such slimes.
Second. There are at present in use several well-known processes for
removing large proportions of copper from copper-nickel mattes. For
instance, if a copper-nickel matte is roasted and leached with sulfuric acid,
practically only copper is removed until the residue contains nickel and
copper in the proportion of three to one. I have therefore in my power to
produce an anode containing three parts of nickel and one part copper,
and by the selective action of the electric current I have only to handle one
part of copper to ever\' six parts of nickel through mj^ electrolytic solu-
tion.
Third. By this combination of processes I therefore come down to
such proportions between copper and nickel that it becomes commercially
possible to eliminate the copper by allowing it to pass off as an impurity
through a solution of nickel, which is regenerated or purified as soon as the
copper has accumulated in the solution to such an extent as to make the
nickel deposit contain more copper than is allowed in the market.
Fourth. To be able to circulate a nickel solution in the way now men-
tioned, it has been necessary to invent a ready way to purify the same
without in the least disturbing its plating qualities and return it in its
original condition. Several electrolytic nickel processes have been proposed
in the past; but all of them have had to make up new solution from time to
time by an outside and independent process. Not all nickel-plating
solutions would be suitable for such a process of constant regeneration; but
179
I have now found a solution which will lend itself to my purpose in a weak
neutral solution of nickel sulfate to which a weak acid — such as phosphoric,
boric, acetic, or lactic acid is added. That nickel can be plated in such solu-
tion is not new; but it has never been used for this purpose before.
Fifth. Means by which such solution can be purified from copper will
readily suggest themselves to the trained metallurgist; but for the best
results commercially I want to make use of one particular way — namely,
cementation — and in this connection I have discovered certain conditions
under which the cementation of copper on nickel and even on copper-nickel
alloy will take place as readily as to make the reaction available for com-
mercial purposes, as will be further described below. With this system of
circulation and purification the quality of the nickel produced to a certain
extent will only be a question of how fast the solution is circulated; but
the process would not be so economical had I not introduced means by which
a pure nickel could be produced at the same time, as the solution passing
from the plating-tanks contains a considerable quantity of copper.
Sixth. I accomplish this end by separating anode from cathode in a
novel way. It is done by inserting between the two poles a filtering-dia-
phragm directing the current of solution perpendicularly from the surface
of the cathode to that of the anode. Such diaphragms have been used
before, but never for the purpose of separating metals from an alloy con-
stituting the anode. I believe also that I am the first one to use such
diaphragm in a case where the least decomposition of the solution would
prevent the plating of the metal on the cathode. Furthermore, I do not
know that anybody has succeeded in giving to such diaphragm a mechan-
ical construction which will allow of its being used in an ordinary electrolytic
plating-tank where the anode and cathode are hung vertically.
After now having given an outline of the different means which I
employ for obtaining my results I will give a more detailed account of the
different steps which constitute the process.
Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 is a vertical section of the apparatus
which I use, and Fig. 2 is a plan view.
A is the tank in which the electrolysis is carried out. It is preferably
a wooden tank with or without lead lining. It has the overflow G, which
always keeps the level of the solution at I and contains a filtering-l)ag D.
The filtering-bag is made up of the wooden frame K and the two thicknesses
of cotton cloth D, separated by the wooden frame K.
C is the cathode-plate with the wooden rib E, which is shown in the
drawings to extend over the bottom edge of the cathode; l)ut it may for
still better protection extend all around the plate.
B represents the anodes.
F is the inflow, which is regulated in such a way that the solution in
the l)ag stands at the level H, which is about one inch above the level I.
The rib E prevents the cathode from warping and making contact with
the bag.
In separating copper and nickel I preferably employ as electrolyte a
dilute solution of sulfate of nickel with a small proportion of weak acid —
such as phosphoric acid, boric acid, lactic acid or other organic acid well
known to those conversant with the trade — and I particularly prefer a
solution of nickel sulfate and weak acid so diluted that it will not crystallize
at ordinary tem])erature. Other solutions — such as a very concentrated
solution of sulfate or chlorid of nickel with or without inactive salts, such
as sulfate or chlorid of aluminium or magnesium, used at comi)aratively
high temperature and with high current density as means of making a
180
coherent nickel deposit — are not well adapted to my process, and I therefore
intend to make a specific claim to the employment in this process of a solution
INVENTOR
ATTORNEY
Fig. 14. Apparatus for the economical separation of alloy.s into their con.stituents
by electrolysis.
of weak acid with the sulfate of nickel which will give good results at low
temperature and with low current density. My other claims, however,
are not limited to the use of that particular solution.
181
The first step of my invention consists in placing in the electrolytic
solution an anode composed of the alloy to be separated and a cathode-
plate upon which the metal is to be deposited and separating the electrodes
bj' a pervious diaphragm, such as filter-cloth or filter-paper. This is done,
preferably, by inclosing one of the electrodes, preferably the cathode, in a
bag of such cloth or paper. In that it has a decided filtering capacitj^ my
diaphragm is of a different nature from those porous diaphragms ordinarily
employed in electrolytic processes, which diaphragms allow one reaction
to take place on one side and a different reaction on the other side. My
diaphragm is so porous that if it were alone relied upon to separate the anode
side from the cathode side the solutions would mix and become homogeneous
in a short time. Its action is therefore supplemented by keeping the solu-
tion in motion, causing it to flow from the cathode to the anode through
the porous material, and thus preventing the metal which has been dis-
solved at the anode from coming into contact with the cathode. The
diaphragm-bag is, in other words, only a convenient mechanical device for
directing the circulation of the liquid in a direction from cathode to anode.
The anode may consist either of a pure alloy of copper and nickel,
containing, say, equal parts of these metals or containing them in other
proportions, or it may contain considerable proportions of sulfur, iron,
carbon, silicon, oxygen, etc., its composition in this regard being determined
by the conditions prevailing at the works where the process is employed.
When the copper contents are high, I prefer to remove part of it by some
well-known process before making my anode. I have also found that an
anode containing less than one per cent of sulfur is preferable on account of
the smaller percentage of scrap which remains after the solution of the
anode. On the other hand, a higher percentage of sulfur will leave more
copper in the anode-slimes. I have also found that it is best to have not
more than three or four per cent of iron in the anode, as it is cheaper to
remove iron by furnace treatment when it is in excess of that amount.
The cathodes preferably consist of copper plates, which should be
greased or otherwise treated, so as to prevent the deposited nickel from ad-
hering thereto, and each cathode made of heavy metal — say -10 tc -15
inch thick — is held by a non-conducting, preferably wooden, frame. These
thick metal plates when held in the frame will not warp and come into
contact with the bags, which would interfere with the process. To make
the bags more reliable, I prefer to employ two thicknesses of cloth at a
distance from each other of about one-half inch, and this improvement I
consider most important. The anodes described above are placed in the
bath with the cloth-incased cathodes in vertical position. A solution of
the metal desired to be plated on the cathode is caused to flow into the
bag and through the filter-cloth at right angles to the surfaces of the elec-
trodes to the anode side of the tank.
By causing the solution to flow in a regular stream into the cathode-bag
it may be made to stand therein at a level of, say, about one inch above the
level of the solution outside the bag, thus imparting to the entire body of
the solution within the cathode-bag a uniform hydrostatic pressure of one
inch of liquid, causing it to flow outwardly through the pores of the entire
bag in a direction perpendicular to the surfaces of the electrodes and at a
uniform rate. The rate of flow is easily regulated by maintaining a desired
difference of level l^etween inside and outside the bag — for exami)le, by
having an overflow at a proper level outside the bag and an inlet-i)i])e
admitting the sulfate-of-nickel solution in a regulated stream inside the
bag. I can thus maintain such a flow of the solution as will prevent
182
any of the ions dissolved at the anode from penetrating the bag to the cat-
hode side. After the bag has been in use some time the pores become filled
up with slimes of basic salts. This feature, far from being harmful, is a
very desirable one. The electrical resistance of the diaphragm or bag is
insignificant and the plating process goes on apparently as if no diaphragm
were employed. There is, however, this important difference — namely,
that an equivalent of nickel is deposited on the cathode within the bag and
an ion of sulfuric acid is left free. This ion decomposes the molecule nearest
to it, and so on throughout the bath, so that the final exchange will cause
an ion of sulfuric acid to be liberated at the anode and at the same moment
an ion of nickel to be deposited at the cathode. The ion of sulfuric at the
anode immediately causes an ion of copper or nickel to be dissolved in the
solution. As the exchange of ions goes on the newly-dissolved atoms of
copper and nickel are traveling in a direction toward the cathode; but this
movement is counteracted by the current through the porous bag, and the
dissolved ions cannot pass to the cathode. Thus if I introduce into the
cathode bag a solution of nickel sulfate containing forty grams of nickel per
liter the reaction will leave in the solution outside of the bag on the anode
side of the tank, say, thirty-nine grams of nickel and one gram of copper
per liter, the atomic weight of copper and nickel being approximately the
same. A constant flow of the nickel sulfate is supplied to the cathode-bag
and although plating is going on the solution standing in the bag does not
become deprived of its nickel, and thereby acidulated, but it contains at all
times the same forty grams of nickel per liter. This process does therefore
illustrate the theor}' for the wandering of the ions in a way that to my
knowledge has never been done before. The operation thus goes on contin-
ually, nickel being deposited at the cathode until a sufficiently thick plating
has been made, when the cathode-plates are removed and the nickel stripped
therefrom, and there is a corresponding simultaneous solution of the copper
nickel, and iron at the anode until the anode is dissolved, when it is replaced
by a fresh anode of impure alloj'. The insoluble constituents of the anode —
such as platinum, palladium, gold, etc., together with considerable copper — •
are deposited as a slime on the bottom of the tank. Copper, and specially
sulfid of copper, is thus deposited as a slime, because the nickel of the
anode, being more electropositive, is dissolved at a more rapid rate.
If desired, the anodes may be set in the porous bags and the solution
drawn off from inside the bags. I prefer, however, to employ the arrange-
ment above described.
It is evident from what I have said above that the process can be
worked under the claims without the porous diaphragm and that still by
far the greater part of the copper can be separated, partly as slime and
partly through the regeneration of the solution; but nickel produced in
such a way will always be very impure and can either be sold as such for
special purposes or else will have to be refined.
The second step of the operation is to remove the dissolved iron and
copper from the liciuid which flows from the electrolytic tank. I may do
this in various ways — for instance, by electrodeposition; but I derive
great advantages by cementing the copper on nickel or an alloy of nickel
and copper. Copper has been cemented heretofore on metallic nickel,
but the reaction has always been slow, and complete cemetation has only
been obtained by applying the nickel in the form of a fine powder, fresh
portions of which are added to the solution from time to time. Ordinary
nickel in the form of grains, shots, or sheets, such as are obtainable in the
market, has been so slow in its cementing action that it is practically impos-
183
sible to use it when it is desired to free the solution substantially from copper.
I have discovered that the slowness of the cementing action which has
attended such use of nickel is due to the fact that it has contained a small
percentage of carbon, silicon, or sulfur. If these impurities are removed,
there is no trouble in cementing all the copper out of a solution, especially
when it is kept at a boiling temperature, and it is a remarkable fact that
complete separation takes place even when the nickel, which is conveniently
cast in slabs, becomes covered by a hard layer of cemented copper as much
as an inch in thickness. I have also discovered that I can not only use
pure-nickel slabs in this process of cementation, but I may employ efficiently
slabs of copper and nickel alloy containing as much as thirty per cent of
copper, the alloy being free from sulfur, silicon, and carbon, as above
explained. This novel use for such alloy is a very important step in my
process, inasmuch as the metal can be produced cheaply by roasting and
smelting of copper-nickel matte. Therefore after drawing the solution
from the electrolytic tank I first heat it and then regenerate it with nickel
by passing it into a vessel in which it is maintained at a boiling temperature
ancl is brought into contact with suspended slabs of nickel and copper alloy
containing, say, thirty per cent of copper. In this tank copper is very
largel}' cemented out of the solution upon the slabs, its place in the solution
being taken by an equivalent of nickel dissolved from the slabs, so that if
on entering it contains thirty-nine grams nickel and one gram copper per
liter it will contain after cementation, say, 39-9 grams nickel and 0- 1 gram
of copper, together with some iron dissolved from the anodes. I then
prefer to complete the cementation by transferring the solution into a
second tank, where it is also maintained at a boiling temperature in contact
with pure nickel slabs, which, being more efficient in cementing action than
the copper-nickel alloy, will more rapidly remove every trace of copper,
leaving the solution containing fort}' grams nickel per liter, as it originally
did, minus the iron dissolved from the anodes, as Avell as from the slabs of
nickel and copper alloy. The nickel slabs should be free from the impurities
above stated.
The next step of the process is to remove the iron. This I do, prefer-
ably, by passing the solution through an electrolytic tank containing
insoluble anodes of platinum, lead, or carbon, by which the iron compound
is converted by oxidation from FeOSOs to Fe2033S03. The solution is
then passed into a tank where nickel carbonate is added to it in excess.
This precipitates the iron as iron carljonate, and it is then removed from the
solution by filtering. The solution which then contains the original forty
grams per liter of nickel as sulfate is delivered into a tank or reservoir from
which it is supplied to the porous cathode-bags, as explained above. The
process is therefore a continuous one, the nickel electrolyte being supplied
to the porous bags in a continuous stream, so as to maintain an outward
current from the cathode, the equivalent of copper, nickel, and iron being
dissolved in the liquid on the anode side. The liquid thus treated is regen-
erated by cementation on sla])s or plates of nickel or nickel-('()])per free from
carbon, silicon, and sulfur. The iron is then extracted from the solution,
preferably by oxidation and precipitation, and the liquid thus regenerated
and purified is again supplied to the electrolytic tank.
I have found that a current density at the cathode of ten amperes per
square foot is suitable; but my invention is not limited in this respect.
My invention may be employed for the separation of other metals.
For example, in separating an alloy of copi)er, zinc, and lead I introduce a
pure solution of zinc-salt into the cathode-lxigs and regenerate the solution
184
when dra'WTi from the anode side of the bags by cementing it on zinc or
zinc alloy. My invention lessens very greatly the cost of separating the
constituents of alloys of this nature and it enal)les me to effect great economy
in the treatment of complex ores which hitherto have been separated by
furnace treatment at very much greater expense. In some cases the expense
has been so great as to be prohibitive, and as a consequence large bodies of
such ores remain undevelo])ed.
The various ste]:)s of the process may be modified and the individual
steps covered in the claims may be employed separately or in other com-
binations.
The process of circulation by means of the porous bag, particularly in
combination with cementation, is applicable to the separation of alloys in
general. The particular cementation of copper on nickel and copper-nickel
alloy is of great value in all processes of electrolytic refining of nickel and
also in those cases where electrolysis is not used.
What I claim as my invention is —
1. The process of separating nickel from copper consisting in electroly-
zing an anode containing substantially an alloy of copper and nickel in a
solution consisting of nickel sulfate and a weak acid, regenerating the solu-
tion and returning the same.
2. The process of separating nickel from copper consisting in electroly-
zing an anode containing substantially an alloy of copper and nickel in a
solution consisting of nickel sulfate and a weak acid, removing the copper
partly at least from such solution by cementation on a metal containing nickel
and returning the regenerated solution.
3. The process of separating nickel from copper consisting in electroly-
zing an anode containing substantially an alloy of copper and nickel in a solu-
tion consisting of nickel sulfate and a weak acid, removing the copper partly
at least from such solution by cementation on a metal containing copper-
nickel alloy and returning the regenerated solution.
4. The process of separating nickel from copper consisting inelectroly-
zing an anode containing substantially an alloy of copper and nickel in a
solution consisting of nickel sulfate and a weak acid, circulating such solu-
tion in a direction from cathode to anode, regenerating the solution and
returning the same to the cathode.
5. The process of separating metals consisting in electrolyzing an alloy,
circulating the solution from cathode to anode, causing the solution sur-
rounding the cathode to contain only one of the metals constituting the anode,
regenerating the solution partly at least by cementation on the metal
produced in the electrolytic bath.
6. The process of separating metals consisting in electrolyzing an
alloy, circulating the solution from cathode to anode, causing the solu-
tion surrounding the cathode to contain only one of the metals consti-
tuting the anode, regenerating the solution partly at least by cementation
on an alloy consisting mainly of the metal produced in the electrolytic
bath.
7. The process of separating nickel from copper consisting in electro-
lyzing an alloy and removing the copper from the solution partly at least
by cementation on slabs of metal consisting mainly of nickel and refined
at least to a point at which carbon, silicon, and sulfur are practically elimi-
nated.
8. The process of separating nickel from copper consisting in electro-
lyzing an alloy and removing the copper from the solution partly at least
by cementation on slabs of metal consisting mainly of copper-nickel alloy
185
refined at least to a point at which carbon, silicon, and sulfur are practically
eliminated.
9. The process of separating nickel from copper consisting in electro-
lyzing an alloy circulating the solution from cathode to anode, causing
the solution surrounding the cathode to contain nickel only, and removing
the copper from the solution partly at least by cementation on slabs of
metal consisting mainly of nickel and refined at least to a point at which
carbon, silicon, and sulfur are practically eliminated.
10. The process of separating nickel from copper consisting in elec-
trolyzing an alloy, circulating the solution from cathode to anode, causing
the solution surrounding the cathode to contain nickel only, and removing
the copper from the solution partly at least by cementation on slabs of
copper-nickel alloy refined at least to a point at which carbon, silicon, and
sulfur are practically eliminated.
11. The process of separating nickel from copper consisting in elec-
trolyzing an alloy, circulating the solution from cathode to anode through
a porous diaphragm, causing the solution surrounding the cathode to
contain nickel only, the solution on the other side of the diaphragm and
surrounding the anode containing copper and nickel, preventing the passing
of the copper through the diaphragm by maintaining a pressure on the
cathode side of said diaphragm and by circulating the solution from cathode
to anode, regenerating the anode solution by substituting nickel for copper
and returning said regenerated solution to the cathode-compartment.
12. The process of separating metals, consisting in electrolyzing an
alloy, circulating the solution from cathode to anode through a porous
diaphragm, causing the solution surrounding the cathode to contain only
one of the metals constituting the alloy, and the solution surrounding the
anode containing all the metals dissolved from the anode, preventing the
passage of the metals contained in the anode solution into the cathode-
compartment l)y maintaining a pressure on the cathode side, and circula-
ting the solution through said diaphragm.
13. The process of separating nickel from copper by electrolysis
of an alloy in an electrolyte of nickel sulfate and a weak acid, circulating the
solution from cathode to anode through a porous diaphragm and maintain-
ing a pressure on the cathode side and regenerating the solution partly
at least by cementation on nickel.
14. The process of separating nickel from copper by electrolysis of an
alloy in a solution of nickel sulfate and a weak acid, circulating the solution
from cathode to anode through a porous diaphragm, maintaining a pressure
on the cathode side and regenerating the solution partly at least by cement-
ation on copper-nickel alloy.
Signed at New York, this 22nd day of November, 1904.
NOAK VICTOR HYBINETTE.
Witnesses:
C. Sedgwick,
J. M. Howard.
186
APPENDIX IV.
PROCESS FOR TREATING NICKEL AND COPPER CONTAINING MAGNETIC
PYRITES, AND THE SEPARATION OF THE NICKEL AND COPPER
CONTAINED IN SUCH ORES.
UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.
EmIL GuNTHER AND RuDOLF FraNKE, OF ElSLEBEX, GERMANY.
No. 879,633. Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Feb. 18, 1908.
Application filed June 18, 1907. Serial No. 379,535.
To all whom it may concern:
Be it known that we, Emil Gunther and Rudolf Franke, citizens
of the German Empire, and residents of Eisleben, Germany, have invented
an Improved Process of Treating Metallic Ores or Mattes, of which the
following is a full, clear, and complete specification.
The invention is directed more particularly to the treatment of nickel
and copper-containing magnetic pj-rites and the separating of nickel and
of copper contained in such ores. It is knowTi that the metals contained
in the said ores can be concentrated by converting the ores into matte or
copper-nickel-regulus which may be done by treating the ores in suitable
furnaces. However till now there exists no satisfactory process for obtain-
ing the metals themselves from said copper-nickel-regulus.
The object of this invention now consists in a process of treating the
said copper-nickel-regulus and of separating the metals from same in an
economical manner.
Our new invention consists broadly in bringing the copper-nickel-
regulus to reaction with chlorin either in the form of gas or in statu nascendi
with the effect that chlorids of copper and nickel are formed and in processes
of separating the pure metals from said combinations with chlorin.
The steps for carrying our invention into practical operation are
different depending from the form in which the chlorin is brought to reac-
tion with the copper-nickel-regulus. If the chlorin is used in the form of
gas we prefer to proceed as follows : The ground regulus is introduced into
a closed drum together wdth the solution of a chlorid, such as sodium
chlorid, calcium chlorid, magnesium chlorid, subchlorid of copper and so
on and treated with chlorin gas. The reaction which takes place if the
temperature is not too much raised may be represented by the folloA\ang
equation:
aXiS+6Cu2S+cFeS+rfCl2+eNaCl =
aiXiCl2+6iCuCl2(Cu2Cl2)+ciFeCl3(FeCl2)+(a2+62+C2)S+eXaCl.
From this equation it can be seen that the sulfids of the metals are
converted into the corresponding chlorids or subchlorids, while at the same
time sulfur is set free. Under practical conditions a more or less part of
the sulfur contained in the copper-nickel-regulus is not obtained in chemical
pure condition, but in the form of sulfuric acid. In order to reduce the
quantit}' of sulfuric acid it is necessary to take care that the temperature
is permanently kept at an invariable point.
The metals contained in the copper-nickel-regulus being converted
into the form of chlorids, the solid particles are separated from the solution
187
and the solution is freed from sulfuric acid and other impurities so that,
technically speaking, a pure nickel-copper-solution is obtained. This
nickel-copper-solution is electrolyzed with insoluble anodes. Copper is
deposited at the cathode while at the anode chlorin is developed. The
chlorin may be used for treating new portions of copper-nickel-regulus.
The electrolyte becoming poorer in copper during the electrolyzing process,
fresh copper-nickel-solution is added continuously or intermittently till the
contents of the bath in nickel is raised to certain desired concentration.
Now the bath is freed from copper preferably by electrolysis and by preci-
pitating the last traces of the copper by chemical reagents, for instance by
metallic nickel. The bath solution purified from copper and forming then
a solution of subchlorid of nickel is likewise electrolyzed after purification
with insoluble anodes. In this electrolyzing process chlorin is again set
free and may be used for treating fresh portions of the copper-nickel-regulus.
The nickel is deposited at the cathode in the same way as in the former
electrolyzing process the copper.
The solid mass separated from the solution at the end of the chlorin
treatment substantially consists of sulfur and small portions of sulfids.
The sulfur maj^ be extracted by suitable solvents whereas the sulfids are
added to fresh portions of copper-nickel-regulus and again treated with
chlorin.
In a modified method of carrying the invention into practical operation
we make additions containing gold, silver or other precious metals to the
copper-and-nickel-containing ores or to the copper-nickel-regulus. If
copper-nickel-regulus into which precious metals have been incorporated
in the said way is treated with chlorin gas, as above stated, the precious
metals remain in the solid residue if excess of chlorin is avoided and may
easily be obtained therefrom if chlorin in excess is admitted gold may go
into solution forming chlorid of gold which is precipitated on later cleaning
of the solution.
The process may also be used for producing nickel free from copper
from the so-called concentration nickel-regulus with about 75% nickel and
about 0-2% copper. In this instance the regulus is digested in the above
manner with chlorin, whereupon the nickel-solution is chemically purified
and electrol^'zed with insoluble solutions.
If it is intended to use the chlorin in statu nascendi for treating the
cop])er-nickel-regulus we proceed as follows: The copper-nickel-regulus is
used as anode in an electrolj'zing process in which the electrolj'te is formed
of a hydrochloric solution of copper-chlorid in mixture with an alkali — or
earthy alkali-chlorid, whereas the cathode is formed of a sheet of copper.
In such electrolyzing process at the anode chlorin is produced which con-
v(>rts the sulfids of the metals into the corresponding chlorids liberating at
the same time sulfur. The effect of the chlorin in statu nascendi therefore
is quite analogous to the effect in the previously described process of treating
the c<)i)])er-nickcl-regulus with chlorin in the form of gas. The chlorin
which is developed )jy the electrolytic decomposition of the ])ath solution
is entirely used for bringing metal into solution. At the cathode copper is
deposited. In view of the fact that at the cathode more copper is deposited
than is dissolved at the anode, it is necessary to introduce continuously
or intermittently copper salt into the ])ath which may be produced in the
manner hereafter descri])ed. In the bath solution nickel accumulates,
whereas the contents in copper is kept at an invariable suital)le conc(>ntra-
tion. If after a certain time the concentration of the bath solution in
188
nickel, iron, and other salts is raised to a point that it interferes with the
depositing of the copper, the bath solution is drawn off and electrolyzed in
other vats with insoluble anodes in order to free it as far as possible from
copper and finally the last portions of copper are chemically deposited. In
this way a chemical pure nickel-subchlorid-solution is obtained and elec-
trolyzed with insoluble anodes. In this way pure nickel is deposited at the
cathode, whereas at the anode chlorin is developed which is just sufficient
for treating copper ores containing oxygen or sulfur combinations of copper
with the effect of producing the copper salt which is necessary in order to
carry out the electrolyzing process of the copper-nickel-regulus after treat-
ing with chlorin in statu nascendi.
The above process may also be used for treating concentrated nickel-
regulus and for producing nickel free from copper from such regulus.
We are aware that it has already been proposed to treat ores and matte
with chlorin. However in this instance the products of reaction were after-
wards treated with hydrochloric acid or with other reagents or the metal
chlorids were converted into sulfates, whereas in our process the products
of conversion which are obtained after treating the copper-nickel-regulus
with chlorin are directly used for depositing the metals contained therein.
Also the Browne process in which copper-nickel-matte is at first roasted
offers disadvantages which are avoided in our process, such disadvantages
consisting especially in the difficulty of completely absorbing the roasting
gases.
We wish to be understood that in the following claims the term copper-
nickel-regulus is intended to cover all kinds of matte containing copper
and nickel even if one of these two metals is only present in very small pro-
portions. Furthermore the term alkali is used in a broad sense so as to
cover not only the alkalies properly spoken but also the so-called earthy
alkalies.
Having now descri})ed our invention, what we claim and desire to secure
by Letters Patent is:
1. In extracting metallic ores and matte the method of producing
nickel salt solution for electrolytic deposition of nickel consisting in sub-
jecting copper and nickel containing concentrated regulus to electrolytic
action as anode in a bath of chlorid of copper with addition of chlorid of
alkali in presence of free hydrochloric acid, introducing copper salt into
the bath during the electrolytic process separating the solution when rich
in nickel from the solid residue of the anode and eliminating the contents in
copper from the solution.
2. The method of obtaining pure metallic copper and nickel from
copper and nickel containing regulus consisting in subjecting the copper-
nickel-regulus to electrolytic action as anode in a bath containing chlorid
of copper with addition of chlorid of alkali in the presence of free hydro-
chloric acid with the effect of electrodepositingmetalliccopperatthecathode,
introducing chlorid of copper into the l)ath during the electrolytic
process, separating the solution when rich in nickel from the solid residue
of the anode, electrolyzing the drawn off solution with insoluble anodes
for electrolytically depositing the main portion of copper contained therein,
chemically precipitating the rest of the copper out of the bath, electrolyzing
the nickel salt solution obtained in this waj^ wdth insoluble anodes with the
effect of electrodepositing pure metallic nickel, using the chlorin formed at
the anode for producing chlorid of copper from suitable copper ores, and
using such chlorid of copper as electrolyte when subjecting fresh charges of
copper-nickel-regulus, as anode, to electrolytic action.
189
In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands in the presence of
two witnesses.
EMIL GUNTHER.
RUDOLF FRANKE.
Witnesses :
ViLMA Franke,
Rudolph Fricke.
191
INDEX.
Page.
Acid edge of nickel eruptive 96
Agricultural land 3
Alexo mine 112
American Smelting and Refining Co 115
Analysis, anthraxolite 102
" Cape Colony ores 122
" Cuba nickeliferous ore 115
" deposited nickel, Mond process 160
" mattes 108
" New Caledonia ores 119
" ore island of Lochris, Greece 118
" pentlandite 23
" polydamite 24
" sperrylite 29
" Strathcona mine ores 92
" Sudbury nickel eruptive 105
" " " ores 96
Annabergite 112
Anthraxolite 10,102
Appendix 1 171
II 174
III 178
IV 186
Argentan 167
Arsenic combined with nickel 112
Assay, Alexo mine ore 113
" chalcopyrite 45
" nickel, St. Stephen, N. B Ill
B
Balbach and Co 44
Barlow, Dr., account of other nickel deposits Ill
" magnetic separation work 133
" on source of the ores 30,31
" report on Sudbury nickel region 11
" study of Murray mine region 70
Baron von Foullon, Murray mine visited by 31,70
Beatrix mine. See Shcppard mine.
Boll, Dr. R., map of Sudburv nickel region 112
Black, Mr., claim staked by 93
Bla.st furnaces at Copper ClifT 142
Blezard mine 12, 17, 78
" " analysis 96
" " Dr. Bell's account of deposit (juoted 78
" " Standard matte produced at 135
Blue Lake region 84
Booth, J. R., shareholder Dom. Nickel Copper Co 84
Bornite 26
Bowcll tp., analysis of ores in 96
Biit taiiia lucfal. 167
Jirowno, David H., assistance of acknowledged 1
" " description of Copper ClifT plant 138
" " improvements and additions to Canadian Copper Co. plant 143
" " magnetic separation work 133
P.uilding stone in Timiskaining .series 7
c
Cameron mine 72
Campbell, \Vm., on source of the ores 29
Canadian Copper Co., account of operations, Alex. Gray 11
" " claim not developed 52
" " first mining by 13
" " history and operations of 13
25873—20
192
C — Continued.
Page.
Canadian Copper Co., improvomcnts to plant described 143
" " largest Co., in di&^trict 1
" " operations at No. 2 mine 65
" " operations on Frood property 76
" " ore ininetl 1910 124
" " owners of ( "reighton mine 54
" " " Frood property 76
" " power plant 148
" " principal owners of Frood mine 74
" " purchasers of Vermilion mine 44
" " quartz mines 103
" " reverberatory furnaces described 146
" " smelting plant at Copper ClifT 138
" " standard matte produced by 135
" " tests of Alexo mine property 113
" " use of diamond drill 126
Cape Colony, nickel ores of 122
Carbon monoxide process of refining nickel 17
Carpenter, H. L., claim in Snider tp. staked by 60
Cassiterite 26
Chalcocite 26
Chalcopyrite 25, 47, 50, 57, 06, 84, 112
" assay of 45
" mixed with pyrrhotite 21
Charlton, B., president Vermilion Gold Mining Co 44
Chicago mine 40
" " standard matte produced at 135
" " see also Travers mine.
Chloanthite 112
Clarabelle mine 62
" " magnetite at 26, 62
Clydach, Mond works at 162
Coal, anthracite, and anthraxolite compared 102
" pulverized, used in reverberatory furnace 146
Cobalt 112
" in pentlandite 23
" proportions of in Sudbury ores 108
" St. Stephen, N. B., ores Ill
Cochrane and McVittie owners of properties Blue Lake region 85
" " property on Frood ridge 76
" " " test of ore from 134
" " " diamond drill test 18
Columnar offset deposits 36
Coniston, smelter at 18
Converter building at Copper ClifT 143
Copper and nickel, separation of from matte, three processes 136
" Crean Hill mine 51, 52
" first mining for 13
" in nickel deposits, St. Stephen, N. B Ill
" native, Vermilion and Copper ClifT mines 26
" present in greater amount than nickel at Copper ClifT and Crean Hill 25
" proportions of in Sudbury ores 108
Copper ClifT mine 12, 65
" " a columnar deposit 36
" " first important mining at 13
" " galena at 27
" " later metallic minerals at 27
" " millerite at 24
" " natural gas at 27
" " opened as a copper mine 66
" " results of magnetic separation 133
" " smelting plant 138
" " standard matte produced at 135
" " test of pyrrhotite 134
offset ■ 61, 69
Corliss, C. v., manager Mond Co 1, 18
Crean Hill mine 13, 14, 48
" " faulted marginal deposit 35
gold at 28
" " later metallic minerals at 27
" " method of mining 130
" " pentlandite at 23
" " variety of minerals at. 50
" " zinc blende found at 27
Creighton mine 13, 14, 54
193
C — Continued.
Page .
Creighton mine, amount of ore at 14
" " economy in working of 59
" " equipment 129
" " galena at 27
" " greatest nickel mine in world 54
" " later metallic minerals at 27
" " method of mining at 127, 132
" " output of 59
" " pentlandite at 23
" " test of pyrrhotite 134
" gold mine 101
Cryderman mine. See Garson mine.
" Mr., development work by 84
Cuba, nickeliferous iron ore in 115
Culbert, M. T 46
" " assistance acknowledged 1,85
D
Davis mine. See Sheppard mine.
Diamond drill, xae of 126
Dickson, Er. C. W., niEgrelic sejgiaticn v, cik 133
" " on source of the Dies 29
Dominion Mineral Co 46
" " operations at Blezard mine 78
" Mining Co. operations of 17
" " standard matte produced by 135
Nickel Copper Co 19,84
" " owners of Whistle mine 87
" " purchaser of Murray mine 16, 20
" " purchaser of U. S. nickel property 115
Drury Nickel Co 19
" " standard matte produced by 135
Dundonald tp., nickel deposit in Ill
E
Eastern nickel range 83
Economic minerals 101
Edison, Mr . , party sent by to explore for nickel 72
Ellis, Dr., analj^sis of anthraxolite 102
Elsie mine 19, 69
" analysis 96
" pyrite at 22
" test of pyrrhotite 134
Europe, nickel ores in 116
Evans, J. D., assistant to Dr. Peters 14
Evans mine 12,13,68
" pentlandite at 23
" results of magnetic separation 133
Evjo, method of treatment at 162
F
Flaad mine (Norway) visited 116
Flux, material for 7
Foy ofTset 89
Frasch, Hans A., refining process 19
Frood m inc 13 , 14 , 74
" " results of diamond drilling 76
" " test of pyrrhotite 134
" Thomas, prospector 13
Frood-Stobic offset 73
" " " distinct in character 38
" " " greatest mass of nickel ore in world 37
G
Galbraith, Dean, comparison of carlion and nickel steel 166
Galena 27, 102
" Garson mine 27, 82
Garnierite 164
25873—20^
194
G — Continued.
Page.
Garson mine 18, 80
" " complex geological relations 80
" " faulted marginal deposit 35
" " galena at 27
" later metallic minerals at 27
" " test of ore 134
Geology of region complex 11
" Sudbury region 5
German silver 167
Gersdorffite 25, 46, 51
" mine 25
Gertrude mine 19, 53
" " analysis 96
" " copper pyrites in ore from 21
" " standard matte produced at 135
" " test of pyrrhotite 134
Gillespie " See Trillabelle.
Glidden, J. N., manager Dominion Nickel Copper Co 19
Gold, Crean Hill mine. 28, 51
" Creighton gold mine 101
" proportions of in Sudbury ores 108
" Vermilion mine 28, 44, 45
Victoria " 28, 43
Gordon, J. R., quartz vein worked by for gold 101
Gossan minerals , . . . 27
Graf, Anton, works planned by 19
Graphite, Lady Macdonald mine 27
Gray, Alex., estimate of ore, Frood mine 14
" nickel-copper industry of Ontario 11
Great Lakes Copper Co., experiment by a failure 19
H
Hall, O., mines superintendent, Mond Co 1, 18
High Falls, power development at 15, 148
Hildebrand, Dr., analysis of marcasite 22
Historical sketch Sudbury nickel region 11
Hixon, Hiram W., manager Mond Nickel Co 17
" " " Victoria mine 43
Hoepfncr Refining Co., experiment by a failure 19
Holmes, J. A., manager Dominion Nickel Copper Co 1, 19, 84
Howie, Dr., discovery by 12
Howland mine 46
Huronian Co 148
Individual deposits of Sudbury nickel region 38
Inez mine. See Chicago mine.
International Nickel Co 14
" " owners of mines in New Caledonia 121
Introduction 1
Invar, alloy 166
Iron formation in Sudbury region 6
" in New Caledonia ores 164
" in pyrrhotite 20
" proportions of in Sudbury ores 108
Johnson, Matthey and Co 44, 45
K
Kirkwood mine 80
Knight, C. W., on source of the ores 29
Ivristiansand, method of treatment at 164
Lady Macdonald mine 12, 63
" " graphite at 27 . 63
195
L — Continued.
Page.
Lady Violet mine 62
Lake Superior Corporation 19
" " " owners of properties Blue Lake region 85 '
" " " standard matte produced by 135
" " Power Co., diamond drilling at Blue lake 86
" " " failure in method of separation 132
" " " operations at Elsie mine 70
" " " operations at Gertrude mine 53
Lakes of the nickel region 4
Langer, Dr. Carl, discoverer of carbon monoxide process 17, 153
Lawson, John, superintendent Canadian Copper Co 1, 14
Levack mine 91
" " analysis 96
Limestone for flux 103
Limonite 28
Little Stobie mine, analysis 96
" " " worked by Mond Co 72
M
McAree, John, Creighton niine rediscovered by 12
McArthur, James, assistant to Dr. Peters 14
McBride, Robert, in charge of Blezard mine 17
McCharles, A., prospector 13
McConnell and Tongh, work at Mosquito lake 94
McConnell mine 17, 28, 80
" " first in which gold and platinum found 43
McConnell, Rinaldo, Victoria mine first developed by 43
McVittie, Wm., prospector 13
" work done in Graham tp 52
Magnetic separation 133
Magnetite 6, 26, 51, 57, 90
" at Clarabelle mine 26
Malachite 26
Malbeuf and Martin, test pit in Garson tp 79
Maps of nickel region ' 11, 12
Marcasite 22, 46, 51
Marginal deposits 34
Matte, analyses of 108
methods of treatment 136
Metallurgical processes 135
Mickle, G. R., examination of McConnell mine by 43
Micropegmatite 4, 10, 33
" composition of 106
Millerite, 112
" ore richest in nickel 24
Mining, methods of 127
Molybdenite, only once reported 27
Mond Dr., carbon monoxide process 154
" " purchaser of McConnell mine 17, 43
" Nickel Co., assistance rendered by 1
" " deepest mine in Ontario 18
" " diamond drilling on Frood property 76
" " experimental plant at Smethwick 154
" " history and operations of 17
" " Little Stobie mine worked by 72
" " matt(> shipped to Clydach for final treatment 154
" " North Star mine opened by 59
" " ore mined, 1910 124
" " owners of Garson mine 80
" " standard matte produced by 135
" " tests of Alexo mine property 113
" process 153
" " described by Roberts-Austen 154
" " nickel produced almost pure 162
Monel metal 166
Moore, Dr. E. S., assistance acknowledged 1
Mount Nickel mine 19, 72
" " analysis 96
" " " test of pyrrhotite 134
Murray, first report of nickel by 12
" mine 12, 70
" " acquired by the Vivians 16
" " anal.tsis of pyrite by Prof. Walker 22
196
M — Continued.
Page»
Murray mine, marcasite at 22
operated by the Vivians 71
" " standard matte produced at 135
" " titaniferous maKnetite at 26
" " visited by Baron Von Foullon 31
N
Natural gas at Copper Cliff mine 27
New Caledonia nickel ores 118
" " " treatment of 164
" " production, statistics 124
Niccolite. See Nickelite.
Nickel Alloys Co.. 1
" alloys, various 167
" and copper, separation of from matte, three processes 136
" deposit Dundonald tp Ill
" deposits in United States 114
" deposits St. Stephen, N. B Ill
" first report of 12
" ore alwavs accompanied by norite 32
" output at Cobalt 112
" produced by Mond process almost pure 162
" production, Sudbury district statistics 123
" proportions of in Sudbury ores 108
" steel 165
" uses of 165
Nickel ores, Canadian and New Caledonian compared 121
" " Cape Colony 122
" Cobalt 112
" Cuba... 115
" " description of 20
" " Europe 116
" " New Caledonia 118
" " treatment of, mechanical 132
Nickel region, boundaries of 2
" " lakes of 4
" " physiography of 3
" " position and means of communication 2
" " rivers of 4
Nickelite 25, 46
" Cobalt region 112
No. 1 mine 68
Norite, composition of 106
" nickel ore always accompanied by 32
North American Lead Co 115
North Star mine 59
" " " analysis 96
Northern range 88
Norwegian bessemer matte, composition of 110
Nystrom, Mr., use of magnetometer introduced by 126
O
O'Brien, M. J., shareholder Dominion Nickel Copper Co 84
Offset deposit 35
Ogilvie, W. M., magnetic separation work, .'. . . .133, 134
Olivine 112
Ontario Smelting Works 14, 15
Ore, estimate of quantity mined and available , 107
Orford Copper Co 14, 153
" " strength of monel metal 166
" process of separating nickel and copper 153
" Works, platinum sands treated at 45
Packfong 165
Palladium 28, 44, 45, 109
Parallel offsets 37
Portlandite, Alexo mine ore 113
" at Crean Hill mine ., 51
197
P — Continued.
Page.
Portlandite, at Creighton mine 57
" content of in various mines 134
" Eastern nickel range 84
" first recognized by Prof. Walker 23, 47
" most important mineral of district 22
Peters, Dr., smelting operations in charge of 13, 14
Platinum, proportions of in Sudbury ores 108
" See also Sperrylite 45
Polydamite 23
" at Vermilion mine 24
Power plant Canadian Copper Co 148
Prospecting and Exploration, methods of 125
Pyrite 21, 101
Pyrrhotite 20, 47, 50, 57, 66, 84, 94, 101, 112, 133, 134
" unique specimen of 20
" with nickel found elsewhere than Sudbury Ill
Q
Quartz for flux and furnace lining 103
R
Ranger, Henry, prospector 13
lieverberatory furnace 146
Richards, Capt., statement respecting Murray mine 70
Rivers of the nickel basin 4
Roasting the ore 136
Rocks associated with the ores 30
Rose, R. R., maps and plans compiled by 2
Ross mine 89, 90
S
St. Stephen, N. B., nickel deposits at Ill
Salter, suggestion to examine locality 12
Selwyn, Dr., specimens shown to 12
Serpentine 112
Sharp, A. L., manager Garson mine 82
Sheppard mine 79
" " m illerite at 25
Silver 28, 45
" proportions of in Sudbury ores 108
Sjostcdt, Ernest A., report on Strathcona mine 92
Smelting copper-nickel ores 138
Source of the ores 29
Sperry, F. L., sperrylite named after 28
Sperrylite 28, 43, 44, 51
" analysis of 29
Sphalerite 102
Stobie mine 12, 13, 77
" early discovery of 77
" huge producer 77
" results of magnetic separation ■ . 133
" test of pyrrhotite 134
Strathcona mine 91
Sudbury ores, only nickel deposits worked in Canada Ill
" region, geology of 5
" series, proposed new name 6
Sultana mine 39, 95
" mine, analysis 96
" East mine 40
T
Thomas, Kirby, assistance acknowledged 1
" " claiin in Snider tp. staked by 60
" " diainond drilling by 72
Totten mine, analysis 47, 96
Tough and Stobie, operations at Vermilion mine 44
" " property 93
" " " test of ore 134
198
T — Continued.
Page.
Tourmaline 51
Transportation, means of 2, 3
Travers or Chicago mine 19, 40
" " " analysis 96
Trill Nickel Mining and Manufacturing Co 41
" nickel range in 94
Trillabelle or Gillespie mine 95
Turner, A. P., president Canadian Copper Co 1, 14
Types of Sudbury ore deposits summarized 38
U
Uglow, W. L., assay of Alexo mine ore 113
United Chemical and Nickel Corporation 114
United States, nickel deposits in 114
Vermilion Gold Mining Co 44
" mine 14, 44
" " bomite and chalcocite at 26
" " cassiterite at 26
" gold at 28, 44
" " millerite at 25
" " native copper at 26
" " polydamite at 24
" " sperrj'lite at 28, 43
" ore, richness of 46
Victoria mine 42
" " a columnar deposit 36
" " analysis 96
" gold at 28
" sperrylite at 28, 43
" " standard matte produced at 135
" " test of pyrrhotite 134
Vivian, H. H. and Co 16, 62
" " standard matte produced by 135
Vogt. Prof., composition of Norwegian bessemer matte 110
W
Waern, Mr. assay of chalcopyrite 45
Walker, Prof. T. L., analysis Sudbup' nickel eruptive 104
" " assay of marcasite 22
" " geologj- of Murray mine worked out by 70
" " pyrite at Murray mine 22
" " rocks associated with the ores 31
WhLstle mine 20, 87
" " analysis 96
Wildcap deposit 87
WoodVjury, Mr., manager Copper Cliff smelter 14
Worthington mine 17
" " analysis 96
" " pentlandite at 23
" offset 46
" " only place molybdenite found 27
Y
Young, C. R., comparison of carbon and nickel steel 166
Zinc blende at Crean Hill 27, 51
" Creighton tp 101
199
CANADA
DEPARTMENT OF MINES
MINES BRANCH
Hon. Robert Rogers, Minister; A. P. Low, LL.D., Deputy Minister;
Eugene Haanel, Ph.D., Director.
REPORTS AND MAPS OF ECONOMIC INTEREST
published by the
MINES BRANCH
REPORTS.
1. Mining Conditions of the Klondike, Yukon. Report on — by Eugene Haanel, Ph. D., 1902.
2. Great Landslide at Frank, Alta. Report on— by R. G. McConnell and R. W. Brock, M.A.,
1903. (Out of print.)
3. Investigation of the different electro-thermic processes for the smelting of iron ores, and the
making of steel, in operation in Europe. Report of Special Commission — by Dr. Haanel,
1904. (Out of print).
4. Rapport de la Commission nommec pour etudier les divers precedes electro-thermiques pour
la reduction des minerals de fer et la fabrication de I'acier employes en Europe — by Dr.
Haanel. (French Editon), 1905. (Out of print).
5. On the location and examination of magnetic ore deposits by magnetometric measurements —
by Dr. Haanel, 1904.
7. Limestones, and the Lime Industry of Manitoba. Preliminary Report on — by J. W. Wells,
1935. (Out of print).
8. Clavs and Shales of Manitoba: Their Industrial Value. Preliminarv Report on — bv J. W.
Wells, 1905. (Out of print).
9. Hvdraulic Cements (Raw Materials) in Manitoba: Manufacture and Uses of. Preliminary
' Report on— by J. W. Wells, 1905. (Out of print).
10. Mica: Its Occurrence, Exploitation, and Uses — by Fritz Cirkel, M.E., 1905. (Out of print:
see No. 118).
11. Asbestos: Its Occurrence, Exploitation, and Uses — bv Fritz Cirkel, 1905. (Out of print: see
No. 69).
12. Zinc Resources of British Columbia and the Conditions affecting their Exploitation. Report
of the Commission appointed to investigate — by W. R. Ingalls, 1905. (Out of print).
10. *Experiments made at Sault Ste. Marie, under Government auspices, in the smelting of Cana-
dian iron ores by the electro-thermic process. Final Report on— by Dr. Haanel, 1907.
(Out of print).
17. Mines of the Silver-Cobalt Ores of the Cobalt district: Their Present and Prospective Output.
Report on — by Dr. Haanel, 1907. (Out of print).
18. Graphite: Its Properties, Occurrence, Refining, and Uses — by Fritz Cirkct, 1907. (Out of
print).
19. Peat and Lignite: Their Manufacture and Uses in Europe— by Erik Nystrom, M.E., 1908.
(Out of print).
20. Iron Ore Deposits of Nova Scotia. Report on (Part I) — by Dr. J. E. Woodman.
*A few copies of the preliminary Report, 1906, are still available.
200
21. Summary report of Mines Branch, 1907-8.
22. Iron Ore Deposits of Thunder Bay and Rainy River districts. Report on — by F. Hille, M.E.
23. Iron Ore Deposits, along the Ottawa (Queliec side) and Gatineau rivers. Report on — by
Fritz Cirkei. (Out of print).
24. General Report on the Mining and Metallurgical Industries of Canada, 1907-8.
25. The Tungsten Ores of Canada. Report on— by Dr. T. L. Walker.
26. The Mineral Production of Canada, 1906. Annual Report on — by John McLeish, B.A.
26a. French translation: The Mineral production of Canada, 1906. Annual report on — by John
McLeish.
27. The Mineral Production of Canada, 1907. Preliminary Report on — by John McLeish.
27a. The Mineral production of Canada, 1908. Preliminary report on — by John McLeish. (Out
of print).
28. Summary Report of Mines Branch, 1908. (Out of print).
29. Chrome Iron Ore Deposits of the Eastern Townships. Monograph on — by Fritz CirkeL
(Supplementary Section: Experiments with Chromite at McGill University — by Dr. J. B
Porter) .
30. Investigation of the Peat Bogs and Peat Fuel Industry of Canada, 1908. Bulletin No. 1 — by
Erik Nystrom, and A. Anrep, Peat Expert.
31. Production of Cement in Canada, 1908. Bulletin on— by John McLeish.
32. Investigation of Electric Shaft Furnace, Sweden. Report on — by Dr. Haanel.
42. Production of Iron and Steel in Canada during the calendar years 1907 and 1908. Bulletin
on — by John McLeish .
43. Production of Chromite in Canada during the calendar years 1907 and 1908. Bulletin on —
by John McLeish.
44. Production of Asbestos in Canada during the calendar years 1907 and 1908. Bulletin on —
by John McLeish.
45. Production of Coal Coke, and Peat in Canada during the calendar years 1907 and 1908. Bulle-
tin on — by John McLeish.
46. Production of Natural Gas and Petroleum in Canada during the calendar j'ears 1907 and 1908.
Bulletin on — by John McLeish.
47. Iron Ore Deposits of Vancouver and Texada islands. Report on — by Einar Lindeman.
55. Report on the Bituminous, or Oil-shales of New Brunswick and Nova Sco'ia; also on the Oil-
shale Industry of Scotland — by Dr. R. W. Ells.
58. The Mineral Production of Canada, 1907 and 1908. Annual Report on — by John McLeish.
59. Chemical Analy.ses of Special Economic Importance made in the Laboratories of the Depart-
ment of Mines, 1906-7-8. Report on— by F. G. Wait, M.A., F.C.S. (With Appendix on
the Commercial Methods and Apparatus for the Analysis of Oil-shales — by H. A. Leverin,
Ch.E.).
Schedule of Charges for Chemical Analyses and Assays .
62. Mineral Production of Canada, 1909. Preliminary Report on — Vjy John McLeish.
63. Summary Report of Mines Branch, 1909.
67. Iron Ore Deposits of the Bristol Mine, Pontiac county, Quebec. Bulletin No. 2 — by Einar
Lindeman, and Geo. C. Mackenzie, B.Sc.
68. Recent Advances in the Construction of Electric Furnaces for the Production of Pig Iron,
Steel, and Zinc. Bulletin No. 3 — by Dr. Haanel. (Out of print).
69. Chrysotile-Asbestos: Its Occurrence, Exploitation, Milling, and Uses. Report on — by Fritz
Cirkei, M.E. (Second Edition, enlarged).
71. Investigation of the Peat Bogs, and Peat Industry of Canada, 1909-10; to which is appended
Mr. Alf. Larson's Paper on Dr. M. Ekenberg's Wet-Carbonizing Process: from Teknisk
Tidskrift, No. 12, December 26, 1908 — translation by Mr. A. Anrep, Jr.; also a translation
201
of Lieut. Ekelund's Pamphlet entitled 'A Solution of the Peat Problem,' 1909, describing
the Ekelund Process for the Manufacture of Peat Powder, by Harold A. Leverin, Ch.E.
Bulletin No. 4 — by A. Anrep (Second Edition, enlarged). (Out of print).
79. Production of Iron and Steel in Canada during the calendar year 1903. Bulletin on — by John
McLeish.
80. Production of Coal and Coke in Canada during the calendar 5'ear 1909. Bulletin on — by
John McLeish.
81. French Translation: Chrysotile-Asbestos, Its Occurrence, Exploitation, Milling, and Uses.
Report on — by Fritz Cirkel.
82. Magnetic Concentration Experiments. Bulletin No. 5 — by Geo. C. Mackenzie.
83. An investigation of the Coals of Canada with reference to their Economic Qualities: as con-
ducted at McGill L'niversity under the authority of the Dominion Government. Report
on— by J. B. Porter, E.M., D.Sc, R. J. Durley, Ma.E., and others—
Vol. I — Coal Washing and Coking Tests.
Vol. II — Boiler and Gas Producer Tests.
Vol Ill-
Appendix I
Coal Washing Tests and Diagrams, by J. B. Porter.
Vol. IV—
Appendix II
Boiler Tests and Diagrams, by R. J. Durley.
84. Gypsum Deposits of the Maritime Provinces of Canada — including the Magdalen islands.
Report on — by W. F. Jennison, M.E. (Out of print).
85. Production of Cement, Lime, Clay Products, Stone, and other Structural Materials during
the calendar year, 1909. Bulletin on — by John McLeish.
88. The Mineral Production of Canada, 1909. Annual Report on— by John McLeish.
89. Reprint of Presidential address delivered before the American Peat Society at Ottawa, July
25, 1910. By Dr. Haanel.
90. Proceedings of Conference on Explosives.
92. Investigation of the Explosives Industry in the Dominion of Canada, 1910. Report on — by
Capt. Arthur Desborough. (Second Edition).
9.3. Molybdenum Ores of Canada. Report on— by Dr. T. L. Walker.
100. The Building and Ornamental Stones of Canada. Report on— by Prof. W. A. Parks.
102. Mineral Production of Canada, 1910. Preliminary Report on — by John McLeish.
10.3. Summary Report of Mines Branch, 1910. (Out of print.)
104. Catalogue of Publications of Mines Branch, from 1902 to 1911; containing Tables of Contents
and List of Maps, etc.
110. Western Portion of Torbrook Iron Ore Deposits, Annapolis county, N.S. Bulletin No. 7 —
by Howells Frechette, M.Sc.
111. Diamond Drilling at Point Mamainse, Ont. Bulletin No. 6— by A. C. Lane, Ph.D., with
Introductory by A. W. G. Wilson, Ph.D.
114. Production of Cement, Lime, Clay Products, Stone, and otherStructur.d Materials in Canada,
1910. Bulletin on — by John McLeish.
115. Production of Iron and Steel in Canada during the calendar year 1910. Bulletin on— liy John
McLei.sh.
116. Production of Coal and Coke in Canada during the calendar year 1910. Bulletin on— by John
McLeish.
117. General Summary of the Mineral Production in Canada during the calendar year 1910. 15ullc-
tin on — by John McLeish.
118. Mica: Its Occurrence, Exploitation, and Uses. Report on— by Hugh S. de Schmid, M.E.
(Second Edition).
142. Summary Report of Mines Branch, 1911.
143. The Mineral Production of Canada, 1910. Annual Report on— by John McLci h.
202
145. Magnetic Iron Sands of Natashkwan, Sagucnay county, Que. Report on — by Geo. C. Mac-
kenzie.
150- Tlie Mineral Production of Canada, 1911. Preliniinary Report on — by John McLeish.
151. Investigation of the Peat Bogs and Peat Industry of Canada, 1910-11. Bulletin No. 8 — A.
Anrep, Jr.
1.54. The Utilization of Peat Fuel for the Production of Power, being a record of experiments con-
ducted at the Fuel Testing Station, Ottawa, 1910-11. Report on — by B. F. Haanel, B.Sc.
167. Pyrites in Canada: Its Occurrence, Exploitation, Dressing, and Uses. Report on — by A. W.
G. Wilson.
170. The Nickel Industry: with Special Reference to the Sudbury region, Ont. Report on — by
Prof. A. P. Coleman, Ph.D.
181. Production of Cement, Lime, Clay Products, Stone, and other Structural Materials in Canada
during the calendar year 1911. Bulletin on — by John McLeish.
182. Production of Iron and Steel in Canada during the calendar year 1911. Bulletin on — by John
McLeish.
18.3. General Summary of the Mineral Production in Canada during the calendar year 1911. Bulle-
tin on — by John McLeish.
199. Production of Copper, Gold, Lead, Nickel, Silver, Zinc, and Other Metals of Canada, during
the calendar year 1911. Bulletin on — by John McLeish.
200. The Production of Coal and Coke in Canada during the calendar year 1911. Bulletin on — by
John McLeish.
Note.- — ''Lists of manufacturers of clay products, stone quarry operators, and operators of
limekilns, are prepared annually by the Division of Mineral Resources and Statistics, and copies
may be had on application."
IN THE PRESS.
83. An Investigation of the Coals of Canada with reference to their Economic Qualities: as con-
ducted at McGill University under the authority of the Dominion Government. Report
on — by J. B. Porter, R. J. Durley, and others —
Vol. V—
Appendix III
Producer Tests and Diagrams, by R. J. Durley.
Vol. VI—
Appendix IV
Coking Tests, Vjy Edgar Stansfield and J. B. Porter.
Appendix V
Chemical Tests, by Edgar Stansfield.
156. French Translation: The Tungsten Ores of Canada. Report on — by Dr. T. L. Walker.
196. French translation: Investigation of the Peat Bogs and Peat Industry of Canada, 1909-10;
to which is appended Mr. Alf. Larson's paper on Dr. Ekenburg's Wet-Carbonizing Process:
from Teknisk Tidskrift, No. 12, December 26, 1908 — translation by Mr. A. Anrep; also
a translation of Lieut. Ekelund's Pamphlet entitled "A Solution of the Peat Problem,"
1909, describing the Ekelund Process for the Manufacture of Peat Powder, by Harold A.
Leverin, Ch.E. Bulletin No. 4^by A. Anrep. (Second Edition enlarged).
197. French translation: Molybdenum Ores of Canada. Report on — by Dr. T. L. Walker.
198. French translation: Peat and Lignite: Their Manufacture and L'ses in Europe — by Erik
Nystrom, M.E., 1908.
201. The Mineral Production of Canada during the calendar year 1911. Annual Report on — by
John McLeish.
202. French translation: Graphite: Its Properties, Occurrence, Refining, and U-ses — by Fritz
Cirkel, 1907.
203 Building Stones ofCanada — Vol. II: Building and Ornamental Stones of the Maritime Prov-
inces. Report on — h)W. A. Park
203
MAPS.
t6. Magnetometric Survey, Vertical Intensity: Calabogie Mine, Bagot township, Renfrew county,
Ontario — by E. Nystrom, 1904.
tl4. Magnetometric Survey of the Wilbur mine, Lavant township, Lanark county, Ontario — by B.
F. Haanel, 1905.
+33. Magnetometric Survey, Vertical Intensity: Lot 1, Concession VT, Mayo township, Hastings
county, Ontario — by Howells Frechette, 1909.
134. Magnetometric Survey, Vertical Intensity: Lots 2 and 3, Concession VI, Mayo township,
Hastings county, Ontario — by Howells Frechette, 1909.
t35. Magnetometric Survey, Vertical Intensity: Lots 10, 11, and 12, Concession IX, and Lots 11
and 12, Concession VIII, Mavo township, Hastings county, Ontario — by Howells Frechette,
1909.
*36. Survey of Mer Bleue Peat Bog, Gloucester township, Carleton county, and Cumberland
township, Russell countj', Ontario — by Erik Nystrom, and A. Anrep.
*37. Survey of Alfred Peat Bog, Alfred and Caledonia townships, Prescott county, Ontario — by
Erik Nystrom, and A. Anrep.
*38. Survey of Welland Peat Bog, Wainfleet and Humberstone townships, Welland countj', Ontario
— by Erik Nystrom, and A. Anrep.
*39. Survej' of Newington Peat Bog, Osnabrook, Roxborough, and Cornwall townships, Stormont
county, Ontario — by Erik Nystrom, and A. Anrep.
*40. Survey of Perth Peat Bog, Drummond township, Lanark county, Ontario— by Erik Nystrom,
and A. Anrep.
*41. Survey of Victoria Road Peat Bog, Bexley and Carden townships, Victoria county, Ontario—
by Erik Nystrom and A. Anrep.
48. Magnetometric Map of Iron Crown claim at Klaanch river, Vancouver island, B.C. — by
Einar Lindeman.
49. Magnetometric Map of Western Steel Iron claim, at Sechart, Vancouver island, B.C. — by
Einar Lindeman.
50. Vancouver island, B.C.— by Einar Lindeman.
51. Iron Mines, Texada island, B.C.— by E. H. Shepherd, C.E.
52. Sketch Map of Bog Iron Ore Deposits, West Arm, Quatsino sound, Vancouver island, B.C.
*53. Iron Ore Occurrences, Ottawa and Pontiac counties, Quebec, 1908 — by J. White, and Fritz
Cirkel.
t54. Iron Ore Occurrences, Argent euil county, Quebec, 1908 — by Fritz Cirkel.
t57. The Productive Chrome Iron Ore District of Quebec — by Fritz Cirkel.
t60. Magnetometric Survey of the Bristol mine, Pontiac county, Quebec^by Einar Lindeman.
61. Topographical Map of Bristol mine, Pontiac county, Quebec — by Einar Lindeman.
t64. Index Map of Nova Scotia: Gypsum — by W. F. Jennison, M.E.
T05. Index Map of New Brunswick: Gypsum — by W. F. Jennison.
t66. Map of Magdalen islands: Gypsum — by W. F. Jennison.
70. Magnetometric Survey of Northeast Arm Iron Range, Lake Timagami, Nipissing district,
Ontario — by Einar Lindeman.
t72. Brunncr Peat Bog, Ontario — by A. Anrep.
t73. Komoka Peat Bog, Ontario— by A. Anrep.
t74. Brockville Peat Bog, Ontario — by A. Anrep.
t75. Rondeau Peat Bog, Ontario — by A. Anrep.
Note. — 1 . Maps marked thus * are out of print.
2. Maps marked thus t have been printed independently of reports, hence can be procured
separately by applicants.
204
t76. Alfred Peat Bog, Ontario — by A. Anrep.
t77. Alfred Peat Bog, Ontario: Main Ditch profile — by A. Anrep.
t78. Map of Asbestos Region, Province of Quebec, 1910 — by Fritz Cirkel.
94. Map showing Cobalt, Gouganda, Shiningtree, and Porcupine districts — by L. H. Cole, B.Sc.
95. General Map of Canada showing Coal Fields. (Accompanying report No. 8.3 — by Dr. J. B.
Porter) .
96. General Map of Coal Fields of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. (Accompanying Report
No. 83— by Dr. J. B. Porter).
97. General Map showing Coal Fields in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. (Accompanying
Report No. 83— by Dr. J. B. Porter).
98. General Map of Coal Fields in British Columbia. (Accompanying Report No. S3 — by Dr.
J. B. Porter).
99. General Map of Coal Field in Yukon Territory. (Accompanying Report No. 83 — by Dr. J. B.
Porter).
tl06. Geological map of Austin Brook Iron Bearing district, Bathurst township, Gloucester
county, N.B. — by E. Lindeman.
tl07. Magnetometric Survey, Verticallntensity: Austin Brook Iron Bearing District — by E. Linde-
man.
tlOS. Index Map showing Iron Bearing Area at Austin brook — by E. Lindeman.
112. Sketch plan showing Geology of Point Mamain.se, Ont. — by Prof. A. C. Lane.
tll3. Holland Peat Bog, Ontario — by A. Anrep.
119-137. Mica: Township maps, Ontario and Quebec — by Hugh S. de Schmid.
tl38. Mica: Showing Location of Principal Mines and Occurrences in the Quebec Mica Area — by
Hugh S. de Schmid.
tl39. Mica: Showing Location of Principal Mines and Occurrences in the Ontario Mica Area — by
Hugh S. de Schmid.
tl40. Mica: Showing Distribution of the Principal Mica Occurrences in the Dominion of Canada —
by Hugh S. de Schmid.
tl41. Torbrook Iron Bearing District, Annapolis county, N.S. — by Howells Frechette, M.Sc.
tl46. Distribution of Iron Ore Sands of the Iron Ore Deposits on the North Shore of the River and
Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada — by Geo. C. Mackenzie.
tl47. Magnetic Iron Sand Deposits in Relation to Natashkwan harbour and Great Natashkwan
river, Que. (Index Map) — by Geo. C. Mackenzie.
|14S. Natashkwan Magnetic Iron Sand Deposits, Saguenay county, Que. — b • Geo. C. Mackenzie.
tl52. Map Showing the Location of Peat Bogs inv'estigated in Ontario — by A. Anrep.
tl53. Map Showing the Location of Peat Bogs investigated in Man toba — by A. Anrep.
tl57. Lac du Bonnet Peat Bog, Ontario — by A. Anrep.
tl58. Transmission Peat Bog, Manitoba— by A. Anrep.
tl59. Corduroy Peat Bog, Manitoba — by A. Anrep.
tl60. Boggy Creek Peat Bog, Manitoba — by A. Anrep.
+161. Rice Lake Peat Bog, Manitoba — by A. Anrep.
tl62. Mud Lake Peat Bog, Manitoba — by A. Anrep.
tl63. Litter Peat Bog, Manitoba — by A. Anrep.
Note. — 1. Maps marked thus * are out of print.
2. Maps marked thus t have been printed independently of reports, hence can be procured
separately by applicants.
205
164. Julius Peat Litter Bog, Manitoba— by A. Anrep.
165. Fort Francis Peat Bog, Ontario — by A. Anrep.
66. Magnetometric Map of No. 3 mine, Lot 7, Concessions V and VI, McKim township, Sudbury
district, Ont. — by E. Lindeman. (Accompanying summary report, 1911.)
168. Map showing Pyrites Mines and Prospects in Eastern Canada, and their relation to the United
States' Market— by A. W. G. Wilson.
171. Geological Map of Sudbury Nickel region, Ont. — by Prof. A. P. Coleman.
172. " " Victoria mine — by Prof. A. P. Coleman.
173. " " Crean Hill mine — by Prof. A. P. Coleman.
174. " " Creighton mine — by Prof. A. P. Coleman.
175. " " showing Contact of Norite and Laurentian in vicinity of Creighton mine —
by Prof. A. P. Coleman.
176. " " of Copper Cliff offset— by Prof. A. P. Coleman.
"177. " " No. 3 mine — by Prof. A. P. Coleman.
178. " " showing vicinity of Stobie and No. 3 mines — by Prof. A. P. Coleman.
IN THE PRESS.
185. Magnetometric Survey, Vertical Intensity: Blairton iron mine, Belmont township, Peter-
borough county, Ontario — by E. Lindeman, 1911.
■185.\. Geological Map, Blairton iron mine, Belmont township, Peterborough county, Ontario — by
E. Lindeman, 1911.
flSe. Magnetometric Survey, Belmont iron mine, Belmont township, Peterborough county,
Ontario — by E. Lindeman, 1911.
i'186.\. Geological Map, Belmont iron mine, Belmont township, Peterliorough county, Ontario
— by E. Lindeman, 1911.
|'187. Magnetometric Survey, Vertical Intensity, St. Charles mine, Tudor township, Hastings
county, Ontario — by E. Lindeman, 1911.
tl87.\. Geological Map, St. Charjes mine, Tudor township, Hastings county, Ontario — by E.
Lindeman, 1911.
tl88. Magnetometric Survey, Vertical Intensity, Baker mine, Tudor township, Hastings county,
Ontario — by E. Lindeman, 1911.
tl88.\. Geological Map, Baker mine, Tudor township, Hastings county, Ontario — by E. Lindeman,
1911.
tl89. Magnetometric Survey, Vertical Intensity, Ridge iron ore deposits, Wollaston township,
Hastings county, Ontario — by E. Lindeman, 1911.
tl90. Magnetometric Survey, Vertical Intensity, Coehill and Jenkins mines, Wollaston township,
Hastings county, Ontario — by E. Lindeman, 1911.
tl90.\. Geological Map, Coehill and Jenkins mines, Wollaston township, Hastings county, Ontario
— by E. Lindeman, 1911.
tl91 . Magnetometric Survey, Vertical Intensity, Bessemer iron ore deposits. Mayo township,
Hasting-s county, Ontario — by E. Lindeman, 1911.
tl91.\. Geological Map, Bessemer iron ore deposits. Mayo townsliip, Hastings county, Ontario —
by E. Lindeman, 1911.
tl92. Magnetometric Survey, Vertical Intensity, Rankin, Childs, and Stevens mines. Mayo
township, Hastings county, Ontario — by E. Lindeman, 1911.
tl92A. Geological map, Rankin, Childs, and Stevens mines, Mayo township, Hastings county,
Ontario — by E. Lindeman, 1911.
Note. — 1 . Maps marked thus * are out of print.
2. Maps marked thus t have been printed independently of reports, hence can be procured
separately by applicants.
206
tl93. Magnetometric Survey, Vertical Intensity, Kennedy property, Carlow township, Hastings
county, Ontario — by E. Lindeman, 1911.
tl93A. Geological Map, Kennedy property, Carlow township, Hastings county, Ontario — by
E. Lindeman, 1911.
tl94. Magnetometric Survey, Vertical Intensity, Bow Lake iron ore occurrences, Faraday town-
ship, Hastings county, Ontario — by E. Lindeman, 1911.
t204. Index Map, Magnetite occurrences along the Central Ontario Railway — by E. Lindeman,
1911.
205. Magnetometric Map of Moose Mountain iron-bearing district — by E. Lindeman.
Note. — 1. Maps marked thus * are out of print.
2. Maps marked thus t have been printed independently of reports, hence can be procured
separately by applicants.
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CON.V PEN I SON
GEOLOGICAL MAP
VICTORIA MINE
Scale 0/ Feci
INDEX TO COLOURS
GRBBNBTONa
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NO. 173
^^ CANADA
DEPARTMENT OF MINE.S
MINES BRANCH
HnN, Robert Rijobhs, Minister; A. P. Low, LL.D.. Deputv Minister;
EuoE.vE Haanei,. Ph.D., DinECTOH.
1912
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Hon, R..BEBT RooBRa, Minister; A. P. Low, LL.D.. Deputy Min
EuoKfJI! llAANEl., Ph.D., DiiiE.Ton
1012
GEOLOGICAL MAP
OF
CREIGHTON IVIINE
Scale of Feet
INDEX TO COLOURS
{U&^NoaiTE
/^ /
GEOLOGICAL MAP
SHOWING
CONTACT
OF
NORITE AND LAURENTIAN
IN Vicinity of Creighton Mine
aoo
^mlv of Feet
fSOO
1000
jspo
INDEX TO COLOURS
NOEITE
Greenstone
I )i-i>t;R NuItlTE
IGhanite
no. 175
CANADA
DEPARTMENT OF MINES
MINES BRANCH
Hon Rcibert Rogers, Minister; A. P. Low, LL.D., Depuii Minister
F.i-GENZ Ha.vnel. Ph D., DiHErxoR,
1912
\
3
5l
GEOLOGICAL MAP
SHOWING
CONTACT
NORITE AND LAURENTIAN
IN VICINITY OF CBEIGHTON MINE
Seal, .</• Frrl
O J^ topo ISP O
INDEX TO COLODltS
I Older Noiutb
CANADA
DEPARTMENT OF MINES
MINES BRANCH
Hon. Robert Rogers, Minister; A. P. Low, LL.D., Deputy Minister;
Eugene Haanel, Ph.D., Director.
SCtarabeile
TP.or WATKRS
NO. 176
CANADA
CANADA
DEPARTMENT OF MIXES
MINES BRANCH
Hon. Robert Rogers, Minister; A. P. Low, LL.D., Deputy Minister-
Eugene Haanel, Ph.D., Director.
1912
NO. 178
THE LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
Santa Barbara
this book is due on the last date
stamm:d below.
20«)-6,'62(C9211s4)476
^
CANADA
DEPARTMENT OF MINES
HIKES BRAHCH
CELOLOCICAL MAP
OF
SUDBURY NICKEL REGION
TO ACCOMPANY MONOGRAPH OF
A. P. COLEMAN
Scale. I mile ^o I Inch
INDEX TO SIGNS
=e= Roads ■ Pits and Shafts
Railways + Gossan
Contacts C. C. Co. Canadian Copper Co.
p ^ ..^ ,_ M.IM. Co. Mond Nickel Co.
L. Land Leases D. N.C. Co. Dominion Nickel Cflper Co
CANADA
DEPARTMENT OF MINES
MINES BRANCH
vl-^v-1
N9I7I
THE LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
Santa Barbara
THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE
STAMPED BELOW.
I --.^^ '^1 stamm;]
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