The sun., 1919-09-16

The Mond Company's ore is chiefly ex-
tracted from the Levack, Carson, Worth
ington, Victoria and Bruce. The ore In
the last named mine carries no nickel
but small proportion of copper, and Is
useful mainly for fiuxing purposes.
Besides these companies, the British
America Corporation, which entered the
field under the auspices and with fnan-
cial support from the British Govern
ment, Is approaching the productive
stage. 1t acquired large deposits in the
Murray, Elsie and Whistle mines. and Is
constructing a smelter and refinery, the
latter in the neighborhood Of Hull, Que
bee.
For long II was a sore point with the
people Of Ontario that all their nickel
was refined in other countries. The
practice Is to reduce the ore to matte in
blast furnaces at the mine. The matte
contains about 80 per cent of nickel
plus copper, and formerly all the matte
was exported for refining by the Inter
national Company to Bayonne, N. j.,
and by the Mond Company to
Clydach, Wales. In 1918 the Interna-
tional Company completed magnificent
refinery at Port Colborne, Ontario, at
which they now treat a considerable
proportion OF their matte output The
plant has a capacity of 1900 tons of
nickel per annum and relative guam
tity Of copper. II Is constructed with
the view OF increasing its capacity from
time to time as circumstances require.
There are other nickel ores In On
tario outside of Sudbury. but these
sources are as yet of limited produc-
ton. The Alexo mine, in the Porcupine
area, has produced UP to the present
about $4,000 tons of ore. The produc-
ton from the Sudbury mines reached
1,643.040 tons in 1918.
The nickle ore OF Ontario Is essential
ly a pyrrhotlte mixed with chalcopyrite,
the nickel mineral being also a sulphide
called pentlandite, The ore bodies oc-
cur along the edge of a band of eruptive
rock called norite, which forms the rim
of an elliptical area about thirty-six
miles long and seventeen miles wide.
Biologists differ as to the origin of the
ores. some of them regarding the de-
posts as the result of magmatlc segre-
cation. while others are inclined to the
view that they were deposited from hot
magmatic solutions given off by the no.
rite as it cooled. All agree, however,
that the sulphide, nickel and copper
were derived from the norite. The ore
varies in metallic contents from min
imum of 1.5 per cent up to per cent
nickel, and from / per cent. to per
cent. copper. The average may be taken
| as per cent. nickel and lis per cent.
copper.
Besides nickel and copper. the ore of
the Sudbury mines carries gold, silver,
platinum and palladium. Improve
ments in refining processes could enable
much larger proportion Of the plati-
mum and precious metals to be recov-
cred than is now saved.
Other Minerals In Ontario.
| The metals mentioned above by no
| means exhaust the list of minerals pro-
duced In Ontario. The ores OF iron, zinc
| and lead occur in commercial quantity.
| The immense deposits of siliceous mag
netite found in northern and northwest
| ern Ontario form important reserves for
| future use, especially when feasible
methods of beneficiation have been de-
vised. In the eastern part of the
province, what may be called minor
minerals form the basis of local vet i'm
portant industries. The amber mica OF
Ontario and Quebec is highly esteemed
| for the manufacture of electrical ap-
paratus. One of the largest deposits OF
I tale known to occur anywhere is stu
ated near Madoc, where 1t is raised and
ground for use in the paper and other
| industries
| There are large bodies Of graphite,
' some of them in a solid form and others
disseminated throughout the rock. The
Black Donald mine at Calabogie has a
| graphite deposit of unusual size and
purity. Beds of feldspar on the Kings
ton and Pembroke railway are largely
! quarried, and the product is used in the
pottery factories OF Newark, N. j.,
and East Liverpool, Ohio The French
7b-millimeter guns. which did great ex-
| ecution in the war, were lined with
, molybdenum steel or this metal in the
form Of molybdenite, there are many de-
/ posits in eastern Ontario. The iron
pyrites resources of the province are ex-
tensive, and were freely drawn upon
during the war period as raw materla
for the manufacture of sulphuric acid
essential for the manufacture of ex-
plosives, and indeed for chemicals of all
kinds. At Northpines, Goudreau and
Mokomon in northwestern Ontario, and
at Sulphide, in Hastings county, the
Nichols Chemical Company extracted
hundreds OF thousands of tons mainly for
export to the United States, There are
also number of other operating COM
panies.
salt and NsturaI Gas.
On the banks of Lake Huron and St
Clair are immense beds of salt. which is
OOuBHl up III the form OF prime and is
then evaporated. Natural gas is found
in large quantity on the north shore OF
Lake Erie. and forms the fuel used by
a large proportion of the people in the
southwestern peninsula, The petroleum
fields OF Lambton county were opened
nifty years ago and are still producing
i, though at a much lessened rate
Limestone OF varying composition is
abundant. The marble beds at Ban
croft supply large variety of color and
markings, much of the material being
of remarkable beauty and capable OF
being supplied in very large sizes
summing up the mineral resources of
Ontario. IT may truthfully be said that
they are great and extensive They in
clude all the metals but tin. and an I'M
usually large assortment of the useful
nonmetallic substances. There are no
coal mines. and for this fuel the
province is dependent upon the mines
| of PENNSYLVANIA and West Virginia
There is Ignite on the James Bay slope,
but It is yet too far away for utilization.
! In the Devonian and Sllurian rocks
which cover a large part Of this slope,
there are great beds of gypsum, and
there are possibilities Of petroleum and
natural gas.
But in the vast pre- Cambrian shield
which covers the greater part of northern
Ontario, and which has in the main
been but little explored, It can hardly
be doubted that the prospector will yet
uncover deposits Of gold, and II may
be of nickel and silver also equal in
value and extent to those already found.
| We may look for other Sudburys
CobaltS and PorcuDlnes I'm the now nm