Copperfield's Mine
Encyclopedia
Copperfields Mine, originally known as Temagami Mine, is an abandoned underground and surface mine on Temagami Island
in Lake Temagami
that opened in 1954 in a sulfide ore
body. Situated in Phyllis Township
, the mine produced 34,000,000 dollars Canadian with 80 million pounds of copper
, 230,028 ounces of silver
and 13,271 ounces of gold
. It was considered to mine
the purest copper ore in Canada
. The mine closed in 1972 and is now flood
ed by water
. Ruins of the Copperfields mill are present as fountains. It is possible to find ore
s and mineral
s in the scrap heaps of the old mine such as chalcopyrite
, pyrite
, bornite
, malachite
, dolomite
, hessite
, merenskyite
, millerite
, palladium
, quartz
and other minerals. The Lake Temagami Access Road was created to ship ore from the mine site.
Copper-nickel mineralization at the mine is associated with semi-massive to disseminated pyrite at the lower contact between altered gabbro
and rhyolite
of the Temagami greenstone belt
. The gabbro is steeply dipping
, approximately 250 m thick and has a strike extent of at least 5 km. The intensity of mineralization varies greatly but is present over most of the defined strike length of the gabbro. Copper is associated with chalcopyrite. Nickel is associated with millerite, gersdorffite
, linnaeite
and cobalt-nickel sulfarsenides.
Copperfields Mine is the discovery site of a bright white mineral
called temagamite
. It was discovered in 1973.
Temagami Island
Temagami Island, formerly spelt as Timagami Island, is an island in Lake Temagami in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It is the largest island within the lake, with Bear Island coming second. The island has many hiking trails that lead into the old-growth forest that is a mix of large white and red...
in Lake Temagami
Lake Temagami
Lake Temagami, formerly spelt as Lake Timagami, is a lake in Nipissing District in northeastern Ontario, Canada, situated approximately 80 km north of North Bay...
that opened in 1954 in a sulfide ore
Ore
An ore is a type of rock that contains minerals with important elements including metals. The ores are extracted through mining; these are then refined to extract the valuable element....
body. Situated in Phyllis Township
Phyllis Township
Phyllis Township is a geographic township in Nipissing District of Northeastern Ontario, Canada.The township is bordered on the north by Joan Township, on the east by Yates Township, on the south by Vogt Township and on the west by Scholes Township....
, the mine produced 34,000,000 dollars Canadian with 80 million pounds of copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
, 230,028 ounces of silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
and 13,271 ounces of gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
. It was considered to mine
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
the purest copper ore in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. The mine closed in 1972 and is now flood
Flood
A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. The EU Floods directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water...
ed by water
Water
Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...
. Ruins of the Copperfields mill are present as fountains. It is possible to find ore
Ore
An ore is a type of rock that contains minerals with important elements including metals. The ores are extracted through mining; these are then refined to extract the valuable element....
s and mineral
Mineral
A mineral is a naturally occurring solid chemical substance formed through biogeochemical processes, having characteristic chemical composition, highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. By comparison, a rock is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids and does not...
s in the scrap heaps of the old mine such as chalcopyrite
Chalcopyrite
Chalcopyrite is a copper iron sulfide mineral that crystallizes in the tetragonal system. It has the chemical composition CuFeS2. It has a brassy to golden yellow color and a hardness of 3.5 to 4 on the Mohs scale. Its streak is diagnostic as green tinged black.On exposure to air, chalcopyrite...
, pyrite
Pyrite
The mineral pyrite, or iron pyrite, is an iron sulfide with the formula FeS2. This mineral's metallic luster and pale-to-normal, brass-yellow hue have earned it the nickname fool's gold because of its resemblance to gold...
, bornite
Bornite
Bornite is a sulfide mineral with chemical composition Cu5FeS4 that crystallizes in the orthorhombic system .-Appearance:Bornite has a brown to copper-red color on fresh surfaces that tarnishes to various iridescent shades of blue to purple in places...
, malachite
Malachite
Malachite is a copper carbonate mineral, with the formula Cu2CO32. This green-colored mineral crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, and most often forms botryoidal, fibrous, or stalagmitic masses. Individual crystals are rare but do occur as slender to acicular prisms...
, dolomite
Dolomite
Dolomite is a carbonate mineral composed of calcium magnesium carbonate CaMg2. The term is also used to describe the sedimentary carbonate rock dolostone....
, hessite
Hessite
Hessite is a mineral form of disilver telluride . It is a soft, dark grey telluride mineral which forms monoclinic crystals.It is named after Germain Henri Hess ....
, merenskyite
Merenskyite
Merenskyite is a rare telluride / bismuthinide mineral with formula: 2. It is an opaque white to light gray metallic mineral that occurs as inclusions within other minerals such as chalcopyrite...
, millerite
Millerite
Millerite is a nickel sulfide mineral, NiS. It is brassy in colour and has an acicular habit, often forming radiating masses and furry aggregates...
, palladium
Palladium
Palladium is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Pd and an atomic number of 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas, which was itself named after the epithet of the Greek goddess Athena, acquired...
, quartz
Quartz
Quartz is the second-most-abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. It is made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz,...
and other minerals. The Lake Temagami Access Road was created to ship ore from the mine site.
Copper-nickel mineralization at the mine is associated with semi-massive to disseminated pyrite at the lower contact between altered gabbro
Gabbro
Gabbro refers to a large group of dark, coarse-grained, intrusive mafic igneous rocks chemically equivalent to basalt. The rocks are plutonic, formed when molten magma is trapped beneath the Earth's surface and cools into a crystalline mass....
and rhyolite
Rhyolite
This page is about a volcanic rock. For the ghost town see Rhyolite, Nevada, and for the satellite system, see Rhyolite/Aquacade.Rhyolite is an igneous, volcanic rock, of felsic composition . It may have any texture from glassy to aphanitic to porphyritic...
of the Temagami greenstone belt
Temagami greenstone belt
The Temagami greenstone belt, also known as the Temagami volcanic belt and the Temagami metavolcanic belt, is a small 2.7 billion year old greenstone belt in the Temagami region of Northeastern Ontario, Canada...
. The gabbro is steeply dipping
Strike and dip
Strike and dip refer to the orientation or attitude of a geologic feature. The strike line of a bed, fault, or other planar feature is a line representing the intersection of that feature with a horizontal plane. On a geologic map, this is represented with a short straight line segment oriented...
, approximately 250 m thick and has a strike extent of at least 5 km. The intensity of mineralization varies greatly but is present over most of the defined strike length of the gabbro. Copper is associated with chalcopyrite. Nickel is associated with millerite, gersdorffite
Gersdorffite
Gersdorffite is a nickel arsenic sulfide mineral with formula NiAsS. It crystallizes in the isometric system showing diploidal symmetry. It occurs as euhedral to massive opaque, metallic grey-black to silver white forms. Gersdorffite belongs to a solid solution series with cobaltite, CoAsS....
, linnaeite
Linnaeite
Linnaeite is a cobalt sulfide mineral with the composition Co+2Co+32S4 . It was discovered in 1845 in Västmanland, Sweden, and was named to honor Carl Linnaeus ....
and cobalt-nickel sulfarsenides.
Copperfields Mine is the discovery site of a bright white mineral
Mineral
A mineral is a naturally occurring solid chemical substance formed through biogeochemical processes, having characteristic chemical composition, highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. By comparison, a rock is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids and does not...
called temagamite
Temagamite
Temagamite is a bright white palladium mercury telluride mineral with a hardness of 2½ on the Mohs scale. Its chemical formula is Pd3HgTe3. It was discovered at the Temagami Mine on Temagami Island, Lake Temagami in 1973, and it represents a rare mineral in the Temagami greenstone belt.It occurs as...
. It was discovered in 1973.
See also
- Barton MineBarton MineBarton Mine, also known as Net Lake Mine, is an abandoned underground mine in Cobalt Mining District of Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It is located on the west shore of the north arm of Net Lake in Temagami North....
- Leckie MineLeckie MineLeckie Mine, also known as Penrose Mine, is an abandoned gold producing underground mine in Northeastern Ontario, Canada, located on the eastern shore of Arsenic Lake north of the town of Temagami...
- Sherman MineSherman MineSherman Mine is a large abandoned open pit mine in Temagami, Ontario, Canada. It was a major producer of iron ore. The mine was the source of a multi-ton boulder of banded iron formation and was mined from 1967 until 1990 by Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company...
- Kanichee MineKanichee MineThe 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...
- Beanland MineBeanland MineBeanland Mine, also known as Clenore and A.E. Perron, is an abandoned gold and silver producing underground mine, located in the Temagami region of northeastern Ontario, Canada. It is one of the several mines within the Temagami greenstone belt, a volcanic belt characterized by felsic and mafic...
- Big Dan Mine
- Northland MineNorthland MineThe Northland Mine, also called the Northland Pyrite Mine and Harris Mine, is an abandoned underground mine in Northeastern Ontario, Canada, located on the southwestern shore of James Lake in Best Township of Temagami. It was operated by the Northland Mining Company during the early 1900s with the...
- Ferguson Bay MineFerguson Bay MineFerguson Bay Mine is an abandoned copper mine in Temagami, Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It is located near the eastern shore of Ferguson Bay of Lake Temagami. A winter road from Sandy Inlet through Coppersand Lake was created to the mine in 1957. Subsequently, a small road, known as Miner's Road,...
- Hermiston-McCauley Mine
- List of mines in Ontario
- Volcanism of Canada
- Volcanism of Eastern CanadaVolcanism of Eastern CanadaVolcanism of Eastern Canada has led to the formation of hundreds of volcanic areas and extensive lava formations, indicating volcanism played a major role in shaping its surface. The region's different volcano and lava types originate from different tectonic settings and types of volcanic...