Opening up the Abitibi belt (1915-29)

Sept. 11, 1915

The rush of prospectors into Kow Kash has developed in the last week into a stampede of a frenzy not seen since the days of the Gowganda trail. All pack sacks, all canoes, all dunnage bags are labelled Kow Kash these days and the express wagon on the National is full of them every day that the train runs. Johnson Creek and the Kow Kash River are full of canoes and gasoline launches and Howard Falls, the one big portage on the route is aflame with bivouac fires of the adventurers after gold. In the bush claims are being staked with a frenzy, which is going to make a lot of trouble for mining recorders and the commissioner in future. The discovery clause is, as always, in a rush utterly disregarded and the prospector ties on to the claim nearest Dodds’ he can find.

July 1, 1916

The remarkable success that has attended the venture of Mr. Harry Oakes to develop the prospect at the Lakeshore into a mine will undoubtedly have a big effect on the Kirkland Lake camp. And the very rich ore that has been found on the 300-foot level will serve to advertise the possibilities of the district as nothing has been done since the early days of the Tough-Oakes mine.

On the 300-foot level in the west drift a very rich shoot of ore was encountered. It was twelve feet long and across the whole face of the drift there were stringers of quartz carrying a remarkable amount of gold and telluride and some molybdenum. A channel sample taken across the top of the drift in the centre of the very rich ore shoot ran well over four thousand dollars to the ton.

Aug. 12, 1916

It has been officially announced at Ottawa that Port Colborne will be the site of the nickel refinery of the International Nickel Company in Canada. The plant will cost between four and five million, according to reports, and it is also stated that the company has the site under option to purchase.

It is quite likely, though, that a small unit will be built first, and when enlarged to treat all nickel necessary in Great Britain will cost four million. Some two hundred acres of land are under option.

Port Colborne should be an ideal site for the refinery, as coal is accessible by water. It was hoped that the refinery would be built in northern Ontario, but the extra cost of hauling coal would more than offset the freight on the matte to Port Colborne.

April 12, 1919

A resolution was passed in the Quebec Legislature calling for a complete exploration of the Ungava, or new Quebec, district. This immense territory is believed to have great mineral resources as well as water power and forest wealth. Hon. H. Mercier, the Quebec minister of Colonization, Mines and Fisheries, said that exploration of the Ungava district would be made this year.

Aug. 16, 1919

Crosscutting at the 100-foot level of the Dr. Reddick property at Larder Lake on Tuesday struck into what is almost certain to prove to be the famous Kerr-Addison 300-foot-wide body of low-grade ore. The two properties adjoin. On the Kerr-Addison this body proved to be 1,200 feet long. The new strike lengthens it to at least 2,000 feet, and vastly increases the importance of this already extremely valuable body.

Free gold in rich patches was exposed by the second round of shots. The matter is identical with that further a long on the Kerr-Addison-highly fractured green schist and quartz. The strike was made 300 feet from the shaft which was sunk on a 50-foot-wide ore body, in a crosscut which had also picked up a vein running from 10 to 40 feet wide. The new strike is in the dolomite ridge.

June 26, 1920

They may have dreamed it, but it is not likely that the first pioneers of Cobalt seriously thought that their efforts would lead to the development of gold and silver mining fields that within half a generation would return dividends of one hundred million dollars. This week with the declaration of the regular Nipissing dividend, returns to shareholders of northern Ontario silver and gold mines reached the sum of $3,679,953.28 for the year.

The grand total to date is $100,180,818.31.

Aug. 28, 1920

Prospecting by aeroplane is not new to the north, for last year a party went into Ungava, their machine following the course of the Hamilton River. This enterprise ended in great hardship for its adventurous participants.

The first instance of air prospecting in northern Ontario is the use, these last few weeks, of a large sea plane to land geologists, prospectors and supplies on the Belcher Islands, in Hudson’s Bay.

Instead of a three weeks’ or a month’s trip, according to weather, by canoe and boat, it is a four to five hour trip to Belcher Islands by air.

Nov. 18, 1922

An old-time rush, in which many large mining interests are taking part, has developed through the gold finds centering on Lac Iremon, in Rouyn Township, about twenty miles east of Larder Lake in the province of Quebec. Several thousand acres have been staked, a large part of which has been optioned or bought outright by New York and Toronto mining people.

Geologically, the new field is the same as the Kirkland Lake area. Economically, according to claims of values secured on surface, the district is one of the first importance. Visible gold, channel sample assays up to $70 odd, and averages of $8 over commercial widths and lengths of 200 and 300 feet are claimed by prospectors and others interested. Discounting by half their reports which have come out of the new field leaves it the most attractive gold area found since 1917.

Feb. 16, 1924

Underground development in a large way is planned for the Horne copper-gold property in Rouyn Township, Quebec, by the Noranda Mines. A complete mining plan is now going in to the property and shaft sinking is to be started as soon as possible. Three diamond drills are at work and these give indications of a very big and rich thing.

Sinking with a large plant should be resumed in a week on the Chadbourne property of Noranda. The first lateral work is to be at a depth of 150 feet.

July 25, 1925

On the Victoria ground, northeast of the Horne, an electrical prospecting device, popularly and facetiously called a “doodle bug” is giving satisfactory results in the way of giving the boundaries of mineralized zones. This Elboff machine, operated by the Electric Prospecting Corporation, New York, is working on the claim alongside the Horne. Two men and one end of the device were working and calling away in a boat on the lake, in the shadow of Horne’s No. 2 shaft. Rows of stakes protruding from the water marked, not a line of fishnets, but a zone of mineralization as indicated by the prospecting machine. Whether ore lies in the zone cannot be stated, but the machine’s work does tell where the mineralization is heaviest and provides the claim owner with a place for starting his diamond drilling or surface trenching. Victoria Syndicate appears satisfied with the indications furnished by the device. It has found them prospective areas in a lake-section and in a land area where the overburden is too heavy for ordinary trenching. Noranda people are moving the device on to their Horne property in a few weeks to explore ground where overburden is too deep to trench, and where diamond drilling would at present be but stabbing in the dark.

Jan. 2, 1926

This week several parties of prospectors left the T. & N. O. Railway points for the Red Lake District in northwestern Ontario. Attracted by reports of unusually fine results there, they are taking one of the most difficult trips that gold has caused in Ontario. The round trip is about 300 miles, with dog-team, and as much of the route had been burnt fallen trees add to the hardship of winter travelling.

Few of the prospectors are going into Red Lake on their own, most of them being financed by local syndicates anxious to get some acreage in the new field to be looked over at their leisure after the snow goes next spring.

Information from Red Lake has been rather meager, but it has been ve
ry optimistic. Several veins are reported to have been found on the Howey claims since last fall when the Hammill interests sent in a group of men who have been working since. The group is under option at a price of about $700,000 and unit shares are finding a ready market in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal at a rapidly increasing price.

McIntyre secured in the early staking days a big acreage adjoining the Howey group. It is said that Dome Mines is also interested in at least one group and other big mining interests have secured acreage.

Nov. 10, 1927

The chief interest in the Red Lake area of course centres on the Howey mines, where a very determined campaign of underground work is being carried on. Here in schisted andesite a very strong vein system has been traced on the surface for 1,800 feet. In some places, particularly at “E” trench, there are a number of quartz lenses paralleling the main vein and mining widths of 50 feet are encountered. The Howey is definitely a mine and it is only a question of underground work to determine how big a mine it will actually be.

Nov. 17, 1927

That Sudbury promises to be the scene of a tremendously increased copper production is indicated by results being secured by Mond Nickel Company on its portion of the famous Frood ore, which it shares with International Nickel. The Northern Miner can say that one recent hole drilled by Mond indicated an actual width of 70 feet of ore, running 22% copper and 1.5% nickel. This was a central hole in the Frood Extension, the ore being cut from 3,112 to 3,238 feet. This is about $60 ore

Mond is now engaged in a big shaft-sinking job on the Frood Extension, designed to hurry the development of the tremendous copper deposits.

Dec. 8, 1927

This week smoke issued from the big stack at the Noranda smelter and the expectation is that the pouring of metal will be started on Monday next, although the official prediction was next Thursday. Some of the directors, including James Y. Murdoch, president, and S. C. Thomson, managing-director, plan to be at the property next week and see Rouyn come into production as a copper-gold producer.

Pilot drilling, chiefly from the 300-foot level, indicates that several of the larger bodies, including large high-grade ones, extend down to and below 500. This work is being done ahead of drives on the 400 and 500-foot levels. These levels should be into the first orebodies in January or February. Work is temporarily handicapped by the putting of the property into production.

Feb. 23, 1928

Porcupine gold camp is recovering from a tragedy. The era of horror is passing into history and the normal state of affairs is returning to Timmins. Following the tragic fire of Feb. 10, Hollinger is once more settling down to the usual run of things. The death toll remains the same at 39 lives lost.

Hardly had the last body been recovered from the mine, which for days previous had been filled with deadly gases, than investigation into the cause of the fire was started. Hollinger officials are standing by their word that they will aid to the utmost any attempt to learn the cause.

As was announced in last week’s Northern Miner, property damage to the Hollinger will be very small. There will be a considerable loss caused by the shutdown of workings for several days.

Mr. N. A. Timmins, president of the company, has announced that all employees will be paid in full for all time lost through the fire. In addition the company will financially assist dependents of those who lost their lives in the mine.

An inquest was opened into the disaster last week and as soon as the smoke was cleared from the workings an inspection was made. Several other rubbish dumps were found underground in old stopes, it is said.

Premier Ferguson has announced that Mr. Justice Godson, judge of the mining court of Ontario, has been appointed to conduct a thorough and searching inquiry. This inquiry will probably follow the inquest.

April 5, 1928

South and centred from Amos is a district which is rapidly accumulating strong public interest as a field of potential gold production. That interest is being translated into development expenditures on a great number of properties. As The Northern Miner has been foremost in making the district known, the following resume should be of value.

The properties at the most advanced stage of development are the Cadillac-O’Brien, Malartic Gold, Siscoe Gold Mines, Stabell Mine and Thompson-Cadillac.

Sept. 20, 1928

The editor of The Northern Miner has just completed an aeroplane trip to the Canadian sub-Arctic, up the west shore of Hudson Bay and across the Barren Lands. He accompanied a director of Dominion Explorers, one of the companies that has undertaken intensive exploration of the north.

Much of the ground traversed is supposed to have never before been covered by man. The plane was the first to cross the Barren Lands that lie between Hudson Bay and the Mackenzie River basin.

The purpose of the trip was to get an idea as to the conditions under which prospecting parties, sent into the territory by Dominion Explorers, N.A.M.E. (Northern Aerial Minerals Exploration Ltd.), Cyril Knight Prospecting, Nipissing Mines or other organizations were working, and as much first-hand information as possible as to results obtained to date.

Except for short delays, caused by unfavourable flying weather, the schedule laid out for the trip was easily kept. It took 40 flying hours spread over 12 days, to cover over 3,900 miles. This is believed to be the most ambitious air trip made in Canada to date.

Every preparation for the trip was made by Dominion Explorers and Western Canada Airways. One of the latter company’s planes was chartered from Winnipeg, and it functioned perfectly throughout. The crew were Western Canada Airways men, C. L. Dickens, pilot and Wm. Nadon, mechanic.

Nov. 1, 1928

The announcement of the formation of Falconbridge Nickel Mines Ltd. was made this week. The company has 5,000,000 shares of no par value, and of those 2,750,000 shares have been issued for the property and the provision of $250,000 working capital, leaving 2,250,000 shares in the treasury.

Oct. 3, 1929

At press time The Northern Miner’s editor, Richard Pearce, was still unreported. He is a member of the MacAlpine two-plane Arctic flight, and one of eight men who left Baker Lake nearly four weeks ago on a trip across the Arctic that should have taken but two weeks.

Oct. 3, 1929

Prospector’s Airways Limited is sending in supplies for exploratory work to be done this winter on its copper discoveries 30 miles west of Lake Chibougamau.

The first very promising discovery was made in this area a few weeks ago. Already the prospectors have found another deposit two miles west of the first. A large block of claims has been staked in the vicinity of these finds. Other organizations are taking up adjoining property.

Nov. 7, 1929

An Arctic party has battled its own hungry way to safety after planes were blinded and forced down by snowstorms. A long, cold and weary vigil ends with a march across a frozen sea.

Famished and freezing, they struggled against bitter gales of an Arctic coast, hunted their own meagre food, lived like Eskimos, proved that experienced Northerners could win against the Barren Lands.

But it was a “close fit.” The MacAlpine party, after eight weeks made food and shelter just in time. They all lost weight, all suffered from the zero cold.

Richard Pearce, editor of The Northern Miner, has wired his office that the eight men made Cambridge Bay after waiting to cross Dease’s Strait, in the Arctic, over ice.