Dolomite, Quartz (Specimen #100250)

Location: Helen-MacLeod Mine, McMurray and Chabanel Townships, Algoma District, Ontario  

Size: 8.2 x 5.1 x 2.6 cm 

Provenance: Ray Bernatchez Collection  

Description:  An attractive specimen of sharp, transparent quartz crystals with tan coloured dolomite crystals sprinkled on top. The quartz is sparkly and has a bluish tinge and the dolomite crystals are stepped. This is a unique specimen from this long closed locale.

The iron deposits north of Wawa lake were discovered during the Michipicoten gold rush of the late 1890s. The first mine to come into production was the Helen Mine in 1897. Goethite was the principal ore body until [it] exhausted in 1918. Attention in 1939 was then directed to mining siderite ore. The Helen Mine remained an open pit operation until 1950 and in 1960 the George W. MacLeod Mine went into production next to the Helen Mine. Specimens came from both mines, and it is very difficult to distinguish locale – so specimens are labelled as the Helen-MacLeod Mine. The MacLeod Mine closed in December of 1997 as Algoma Steel announced that they could no longer support the high cost of extracting low-grade iron from Algoma Ore.