Question: What precious metal did both McIntyre Mines and the Kemess Mine dig for?

Context articles: Kemess Mine
Cascadero Falls
Thutade Lake
Kanichee Mine
Mercury silvering
McIntyre Mines
Methods of coin debasement
Base metal
Fineness
Precious metal (disambiguation)

The Kemess Mine was an open-pit copper and gold mine, located just northeast of the foot of Thutade Lake, at the head of the Finlay River, in the Omineca Mountains of the Northern Interior of British Columbia, Canada.
 It was operated by Royal Oak Mines from 1998 to 1999, when it was bought by Northgate Minerals.
 Northgate operated the mine until its closure in 2011; that year Northgate was taken over by AuRico Gold.
 In 2014 AuRico Gold partitioned off its portion of kemess Mine ownership creating a new company called AuRico Metals.
 AuRico Metals is actively implementing permits for a block caving mine.
Cascadero Falls is a waterfall on the Finlay River in the Northern Interior of British Columbia, Canada, located just below that river's head at the outlet of Thutade Lake.
 The height of the falls is 180 ft and below it there are numerous cascades or rapids in a twisting course prior to the river's general northeastward trend from this area.
 The falls are slated for hydroelectric development in connection with the area's mines, the largest of which is the Kemess Mine owned by Northgate Minerals Inc., located just east of the foot of Thutade Lake in the valley of Kemess Creek.
Thutade Lake is located in the Omineca Mountains of the Northern Interior of British Columbia, Canada.
 About 40 km in length, and no more than about 2 km wide, the lake is primarily significant as the ultimate source of the Mackenzie River.
 The lake is at the head of the Finlay River, which joins the Peace River via Williston Lake.
 The area is very remote, being located about 260 km north of Smithers, although several mining operations for ores containing copper, lead, zinc and silver have occurred around the lake.
 The largest of these is the Kemess Mine, an iron and copper property originally owned by Royal Oak Mines and now by Northgate Minerals, located in the valley of Kemess Creek, which is off the northeast end of Thutade Lake.
 The mine is accessed by the Omineca Resource Road and other resource routes, and is 400 km by road from Prince George.
 Just downstream from the outlet of Thutade Lake, the Finlay plunges over 180 ft Cascadero Falls, and then through a series of cataracts in a twisting course until it begins its main northeastward trend.
 Cascadero Falls is slated for hydroelectric development in connection with the power needs of the area's mines.
The Kanichee Mine, also less commonly known as the Ajax Mine, is an abandoned base metal and precious metal mine, located in the Temagami region of northeastern Ontario, Canada.
 It is near the small unincorporated community of Temagami North, accessed by the Kanichee Mine Road from Highway 11.
 The Kanichee Mine zone has been explored and mined discontinuously from as early as 1910.
 During the 20th century, it operated and closed down at least three times, with the most recent being from 1973 to 1976.
 To date, the discontinuous operation of Kanichee Mine has produced 4.2 million pounds of metal.
Mercury silvering or fire gilding is a silvering technique for applying a thin layer of precious metal such as silver or gold (mercury gilding) to a base metal object.
 The process was invented during the Middle Ages and is documented in Vannoccio Biringuccio's 1540 book "De la pirotechnia".
 An amalgam of mercury and the precious metal is prepared and applied to the object which is then heated, sometimes in oil, vaporizing most of the mercury.
 The technique is dangerous since mercury is highly toxic.
 Mercury silvering can be detected through a variety of methods.
The McIntyre mine is an abandoned underground gold mine in Schumacher, Ontario, Canada, which has earned a place in Canadian mining history as one of the nation's most important mines.
 Its iconic headframe, located near downtown Timmins, has come to represent the entire Porcupine Gold Rush.
 The McIntyre also yielded a considerable amount of copper over its life.
Coin debasement is the act of decreasing the amount of precious metal in a coin, while continuing to circulate it at face value.
 This was frequently done by governments in order to inflate the amount of currency in circulation; typically, some of the precious metal was replaced by a cheaper metal when the coin was minted.
 But when done by an individual, precious metal was physically removed from the coin, which could then be passed on at the original face value, leaving the debaser with a profit.
 Coin debasement was effected by several methods, including clipping (shaving metal from the coin's circumference) and sweating (shaking the coins in a bag and collecting the dust worn off).
A base metal is a common and inexpensive metal, as opposed to a precious metal such as gold or silver.
 A long-time goal of alchemists was the transmutation of a base (low grade) metal into a precious metal.
 In numismatics, coins often derived their value from the precious metal content; however, base metals have been also used in coins in the past and today.
The fineness of a precious metal object (coin, bar, jewelry, etc.) represents the weight of "fine metal" therein, in proportion to the total weight which includes alloying base metals and any impurities.
 Alloy metals are added to increase hardness and durability of coins and jewelry, alter colors, decrease the cost per weight, or avoid the cost of high-purity refinement.
 For example, copper is added to the precious metal silver to make a more durable alloy for use in coins, housewares and jewelry.
 Coin silver, which was used for making silver coins in the past, contains 90% silver and 10% copper, by mass.
 Sterling silver contains 92.5% silver and 7.5%, by mass, of other metals, usually copper.
A precious metal is a naturally occurring metal of high economic value.
 Precious metal may also refer to: