The sun., 1919-09-16
ONTARIO RICH IN MINERAL WEALTH.
WITH VAST FIELDS YET UNOPENED
Silver Copper Forth From Canadian
Also Commercial Quantities
Fields Opened Fifty Years Ago Are Still Producing
BY THOMAS w. GIBSON.

ny AhOmAS W. UAboO1Nt
Deputy Minister Of Mines, Toronto.
Written especially for the Cdnadtdn
Section Of THE SUM-
aim in this article to tell readers of
THE Sun something of the mineral
wealth of Ontario. Look at the'map OF
North America and see how this Prov
ince forms a Canadian salient in the
line between Canada and the United
States. fianked by the great fresh water
lakes which at once divide the countries
and unite them by the cheapest and
best means Of communication.
Ontario is a big province, confront
ing on the south the States Of New
York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan,
Wisconsin and Minnesota Her western
boundary Is halfway between the At
lantic and the Pacific: her extent 4o7.-
900 square miles-much of 1t unknown
and UNEMPLOYED.
The southwestern peninsula contains
the bulk of Ontario's population and her
large cities and towns Its fields and
herds and orchards are within easy
reach of a large proportion OF the city
dwellers south of the line-near to De-
troit Cleveland, Buffalo, Rochester, Chi
cage, New York itself. Until recently
Ontario was famed mainly for her farm
products and timber-her barley, lambs,
shorthorns cheese and sawlogs. Her
farmers and lumbermen are still at
work. but Ontario has a new title to
fame. The riches of her minerals are
being made known. The treasure houses
In the rocks Of the north are being
opened. Her silver. gold, nickel and
copper are being poured forth. In 1918
the whole OF Canada produced minerals
to the value of s210, 900, 900, Ontario's
m "a ~ xuhirh mn mn Al
per cent
The four distinctive metals OF Ontario
are those Just named.
Huge Production of silver.
Fifty years ago Thomas Macfarlane
found nuggets of native silver on Silver
Islet. rock off the north coast of Lake
| Superior, about as big as a good sized
ballroom. From this mine In all. silver
| to the value OF about $3.500.000 was
| recovered. On the mainland OF Lake
Superior too rich deposits were opened
and worked until silver ceased to be a
precious metal and the price fell to one
| half its former value. In 1908, when
| the Timiskaming and Northern Ontario
or Government railway was being built
from North Bay northward. two woods
| men named James II. Mckinley and Err
nest j. Darragh discovered silver on
| the shore of Long Lake, afterward re-
christened Cobalt Lake. About the
| same time a French Canadian black
smith named Fred La Rose, who sharp
! ened the drills for the rock cutting gang,
while poking round the rocks near his
smithy uncovered some rose pink ma
terial and some fragments Of what
| looked like copper ore. Rose pink
meant cobalt bloom and the copper col
| cred ore meant niccollte. rich ore OF
nickel investigations by w. G. Miller,
the Government geologist, revealed the
! fact that the cobalt and nickel of La
! Roses find were accompanied by an
astonishing profusion OF native silver.
In a few days, just before the SHOWS of
winter fell. Miller obtained and brought
back to Toronto a collection of silver
nuggets the size and shape of stove lids.
cocoanuts, hams or suchlike homely OBJ
| jects The news was made public, but
there was no rush.
1t was the belief of old miners that
there was not much silver or gold east
| of the Rocky Mountains. and the public
were slow to grasp the truth. Interest
quickened, however, and in 1904 and
! 1905 the forests on the west shore OF
Lake Timlskaming, which had been the
! highway of travel to the north country
| for $50 years or more, were filled with
I
native silver. Many veins were found
and many mines opened. Up TO the end
| of June 1919, the mines at Cobalt have
| produced 300.000.000 ounces of silver,
| with $175, 100000. To this the cobalt,
nickel and arsenic recovered from the
| ore added another Ss,500,000. Wildcats
there are in all mining camps and CO.
bait was no exception, but that the pro-
| ducing mines have been making profit
f,a NhaN ~
the gross returns from the sales OF sill
YER, nearly one-half. or say $50. 100000
have been returned to their shareholders
in dividends. This is probably record
unequalled in the history of mining
camps anywhere.
Rich Cobalt Area Is Small.
The silver veins of the Cobalt camp
are small Their width runs from half
an inch to eight or ten inches, and their
length from 100 feet to 800 or 400
yards. The rocks are OF the pre-Cam-
brian series. the great metal-bearing
formation of Northern America The
silver veins are contained in three divi-
sions OF the pre- ambrian-conglom
ate, Keewatin and diabase-predominant
lly in the first named. The geological
explanation IS that great eruption OF
the diabase intruded the Keewatin and
Iconglomerate and that in the resulting
| cracks and assures the silver and other
IN,onstituents OF the veins were deposited
from heated waters connected with the
eruption. The Cobalt area is not large
and the mines are all within an area
of. say, ten square miles. The town
of Cobalt has sprung up at the railway
station and a party of visitors from
New York can take a Pullman car and
be landed there without change within
twenty-four hours. The Nipissing. Conf
agas, Buffalo, McKinley-Darragh and La
Rose mines are Immediately at the sta
ton; O'Brien, Kerr Lake and others are
within a couple OF miles. Splendid au-
tomobile roads, instructed from the
proceeds OF the mining tax on profits,
run from one mine to another
The rise In the price OF silver during
the last two years has greatly stirnu-
lated interest in this mining camp. Sill
liver which sold at 80 cents an ounce in
1915 Is now worth s1.11 or $1.12. As
I write these lines a strike which has
closed the Cobalt mines for more than
two months has been settled and the
men will return to work.
The output of the first six months
OF this year was 5,750.O00 ounces, worth
about $1,000, 900; this is less produc-
ton than for the same period of 1918
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Prince of Wales Not
II CaIIad "Crouyn Prince"