Copperfields Mine, originally known as Temagami Mine, is an abandoned copper and silver mine on

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-gr ...

Lake Temagami Lake Temagami, formerly spelled as Lake Timagami, is a lake in Nipissing District in northeastern Ontario, Canada, situated approximately 80 km north of North Bay. The lake's name comes from ''dimii-agamiing'' "tih-MEE-uh-guh-MEENG", which me ...

, Ontario, Canada. The mine opened in 1955 and comprises both underground and surface workings within a sulfide

ore Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically containing metals, that can be mined, treated and sold at a profit.Encyclopædia Britannica. "Ore". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 April 2 ...

body. Situated in Phyllis Township, the mine produced 34,000,000 dollars Canadian with 80 million pounds of

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

, 230,028 ounces of

silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

and 13,271 ounces of

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

. It was considered to be the largest deposit of nearly pure

chalcopyrite Chalcopyrite ( ) is a copper iron sulfide mineral and the most abundant copper ore mineral. It has the chemical formula CuFeS2 and crystallizes in the tetragonal system. It has a brassy to golden yellow color and a hardness of 3.5 to 4 on the Mo ...

ever discovered in Canada. A mill was not initially needed because the ore was 28% copper. The mine closed in 1972 and is now

flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

ed by

water Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a ...

. Ruins of the Copperfields mill are present as foundations. It is possible to find

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. ( ...

specimens in the spoil heaps of the old mine, such as

pyrite The mineral pyrite (), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Iron, FeSulfur, S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral. Pyrite's metallic Luster (mineralogy), lust ...

bornite Bornite, also known as peacock ore, is a sulfide mineral with chemical composition Cu5 Fe S4 that crystallizes in the orthorhombic system (pseudo-cubic). Appearance Bornite has a brown to copper-red color on fresh surfaces that tarnishes to v ...

malachite Malachite is a copper carbonate hydroxide mineral, with the formula Cu2CO3(OH)2. This opaque, green-banded mineral crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, and most often forms botryoidal, fibrous, or stalagmitic masses, in fractures ...

dolomite Dolomite may refer to: *Dolomite (mineral), a carbonate mineral *Dolomite (rock), also known as dolostone, a sedimentary carbonate rock *Dolomite, Alabama, United States, an unincorporated community *Dolomite, California, United States, an unincor ...

hessite Hessite is a mineral form of disilver telluride (Ag2Te). It is a soft, dark grey telluride mineral which forms monoclinic crystals. It is named after Germain Henri Hess (1802–1850). Hessite is found in the US in Eagle County, Colorado and in ...

merenskyite Merenskyite is a rare telluride / bismuthinide mineral with the chemical formula . It is an opaque white to light gray metallic mineral that occurs as inclusions within other minerals such as chalcopyrite. It crystallizes in the trigonal crystal ...

millerite Millerite is a nickel sulfide mineral, Ni S. It is brassy in colour and has an acicular habit, often forming radiating masses and furry aggregates. It can be distinguished from pentlandite by crystal habit, its duller colour, and general l ...

palladium Palladium is a chemical element with the symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas, which was itself na ...

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...

and others. The

Lake Temagami Access Road The Temagami Greenstone Belt (TGB) is a small 2.7 billion year old greenstone belt in the Temagami region of Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It represents a feature of the Superior craton, an ancient and stable part of the Earth's lithosphere t ...

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 () is a phaneritic (coarse-grained), mafic intrusive igneous rock formed from the slow cooling of magnesium-rich and iron-rich magma into a holocrystalline mass deep beneath the Earth's surface. Slow-cooling, coarse-grained gabbro is che ...

and

rhyolite Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals (phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The mineral ...

of the

Temagami Greenstone Belt The Temagami Greenstone Belt (TGB) is a small 2.7 billion year old greenstone belt in the Temagami region of Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It represents a feature of the Superior craton, an ancient and stable part of the Earth's lithosphere ...

. 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 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 ...

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 (1707–1778). Linnaeite forms a series with polydymite Polydymite, Ni2+Ni23+S4, is ...

and cobalt-nickel sulfarsenides. Copperfields Mine is the discovery site of a bright white

called

temagamite Temagamite is a bright white palladium mercury telluride mineral with a hardness of on the Mohs scale. Its chemical formula is Pd3 Hg Te3. It was discovered at the Temagami Mine on Temagami Island, Lake Temagami in 1973, and it represents a rare ...

.Temagamite: Temagamite mineral information and data.
Retrieved on 2007-08-30 It was discovered in 1973.

References

External links

*{{cite amis, 03768, Temagami, 2011-07-19 Copper mines in Ontario Geological type localities Gold mines in Ontario Mines in Temagami Precambrian volcanism Open-pit mines Silver mines in Canada Surface mines in Canada Underground mines in Canada

See also

References

External links