Silver Crater Mine
  Silver Crater Mine Location near Cardiff, Ontario  Silver Crater Mine Silver Crater Mine (Southern Ontario)  Silver Crater Mine Silver Crater Mine (Ontario) | |
| Coordinates | 45°02′N 78°01′W / 45.033°N 78.017°W |
|---|---|
| History | |
| Closed | 1955 |
| Owner | |
| Company | Silver Crater Mines (International Cobalt and Silver Mining Company subsidiary) |
Silver Crater Mine, previously known as the Basin Deposit,[1] is an abandoned mine in Cardiff, Ontario. It has produced some of the world's most notable betafite crystals.
The mine has been worked since the late 19th-century, with industrial mining of mica starting in 1927. Uranium was sought in the 1950s and the mine has been abandoned since 1955.
Location, nomenclature, and geology
[edit]Silver Crater mine is located 8 miles west of Bancroft.[2] It was previously known as the Basin Deposit or Basic Occurrence.[1]
The mine is located in the Grenville Province geological area.[3] Mining activity enabled access to crustal carbonatite in a biotite-amphibolite and syenitized gneiss rock, located between an area of granite to the north and marble to the south.[3]
Geologists assess that the minerals found at the mine reached the current location about 1,050 or about 1,150 million years ago.[3]
History and activities
[edit]Prospectors have worked the area of the mine since the late 19th-century, seeking mica, phosphate, and feldspar.[3]
S. Orser and D. J. Wilson worked the mine in 1925.[4] In 1927, Bancroft Mining Company started excavations and found a cavity holding albite, fluorite, pyrite, sphene, and apatite crystals on the cavity floor.[5][3] Pits were dug around the mine from which mica crystals as large as four-feet across were harvested until the 1940s.[5] Between the mica formatings, apatite, betafite, and lepidomelane were also found.[5]
Bancroft Mica and Stone Products Mining Syndicate operated the mine from 1947 to 1949 and sold the mica which they extracted from a 30 foot by 65 foot wide open pit.[6]
| Year | Mica Production |
|---|---|
| 1947 | $738 |
| 1948 | $7,474 |
| 1949 | $7,846 |
| 1950 | $10,353 |
Toronto-based Silver Crater Mines incorporated in 1951,[6] bought the mine in 1953,[6] and operated it from 1953 to 1955, hoping to find uranium, and driving a 70-metre deep adit into the hillside.[5][1] Silver Crater Mines is a subsidiary of the International Cobalt and Silver Mining Company[6] (incorporated September 19, 1906, Sault Ste. Marie[7]) Mining activity ceased in 1955.[6]
Over the years, the mine has produced world class crystals of titanite, apatite, mica, and zircon.[3] Silver Crater Mine is most noted for its unusual betafite crystals, which geologists have yet to sufficiently analyse to understand their geological origins.[8] Betafite crystals from the mine contain 15% to 20% uranium, making them highly radioactive.[9]
As recently as 2006, rockhounds visited the mine to collect specimens.[1]
Mineral gallery
[edit]
.jpg)
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Joyce, David K. (January 2006). "Calcite Vein-Dikes of the Grenville Geological Province Ontario, Canada". Rocks & Minerals. 81 (1): 34–42. Bibcode:2006RoMin..81...34J. doi:10.3200/RMIN.81.1.34-42. S2CID 129157370. ProQuest 231984951.
- ^ "Silver Crater Mine, Faraday Township, Hastings County, Ontario, Canada". www.mindat.org. Archived from the original on 2023-02-11. Retrieved 2023-02-11.
- ^ a b c d e f Emproto, Christopher; Alvarez, Austin; Anderkin, Christian; Rakovan, John (7 March 2020). "The Crystallinity of Apatite in Contact with Metamict Pyrochlore from the Silver Crater Mine, ON, Canada". Minerals. 10 (3): 244. Bibcode:2020Mine...10..244E. doi:10.3390/min10030244.
- ^ "Ontario Mineral Inventory Record MDI31E01SE00054: Basin, Silver Crater (Basin)". www.geologyontario.mndm.gov.on.ca. Archived from the original on 2023-02-11. Retrieved 2023-02-11.
- ^ a b c d Gordon, Michael (2015). Rockhound: An Experience of the North. Lulu. ISBN 978-1-312-99297-9.[page needed][self-published source?]
- ^ a b c d e f J. Satterly and D. F. Hewitt, Some Radioactive Mineral Occurrence in the Bancroft Area Archived 2022-01-25 at the Wayback Machine, Province on Ontario, 1955
- ^ Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Sixteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Mines, 1907, Volume XVI, Part 1 Archived 2023-02-11 at the Wayback Machine, L. K. Cameron (printer) Toronto,
- ^ Emproto, Christopher; Alvarez, Austin; Anderkin, Christian; Rakovan, John (7 March 2020). "The Crystallinity of Apatite in Contact with Metamict Pyrochlore from the Silver Crater Mine, ON, Canada". Minerals. 10 (3): 244. Bibcode:2020Mine...10..244E. doi:10.3390/min10030244.
- ^ Steacy, H R; Rose, E R; Moyd, L; Hogarth, D D (1982). "Some classic mineral collecting areas in southeastern Ontario". Mineralogical Record. 13: 197–213.