McFaulds Lake is a
lake
A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...
located in the
Unorganized Part of
Kenora District
Kenora District is a district and census division in Northwestern Ontario, Canada. The district seat is the City of Kenora.
It is geographically the largest division in Ontario: at , it covers 38 percent of the province's area, making it larger ...
in
northwestern Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
.
It is part of the
James Bay
James Bay (french: Baie James; cr, ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, Wînipekw, dirty water) is a large body of water located on the southern end of Hudson Bay in Canada. Both bodies of water extend from the Arctic Ocean, of which James Bay is the southernmost pa ...
drainage basin
A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...
and is in the
Hudson Bay Lowlands
The Hudson Bay Lowlands is a vast wetland located between the Canadian Shield and southern shores of Hudson Bay and James Bay. Most of the area lies within the province of Ontario, with smaller portions reaching into Manitoba and Quebec. Many wid ...
area. There are two unnamed inflows, at the south and north. The primary outflow is an unnamed stream at the northeast leading to the
Attawapiskat River, which itself flows to James Bay.
Geology
McFaulds Lake is at the centre of the
Northern Ontario Ring of Fire,
a region of geological activity which has left a rich source of minerals, including
nickel
Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow ...
,
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 ...
,
platinum
Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver".
Pla ...
,
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 ...
,
chromite,
vanadium,
diamond
Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, ...
and
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 me ...
, buried beneath the
muskeg. Muskeg refers to a
peat
Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficient ...
forming the ecosystem common in
Arctic
The Arctic ( or ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenland), Finland, Iceland, N ...
and
boreal areas, although it is found in other northern climates as well.
Mining interests
The area near the lake has attracted the attention of junior mining exploration companies. Since a 2002 investigation of the area, some 20 companies have staked claims, forming joint ventures (JV). There have been numerous finds,
though none have yet moved to the exploitation phase.
First Nations
First Nations
First Nations or first peoples may refer to:
* Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area.
Indigenous groups
*First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including:
**First Natio ...
communities in Northern Ontario are involved in the mining exploration. These communities include the
Webequie First Nation
Webequie First Nation is located on the northern peninsula of Eastwood Island on Winisk Lake, 540 km (336 mi) north of Thunder Bay in Ontario, Canada. Webequie is a fly-in community with no summer road access. The primary way into the c ...
and the
Marten Falls First Nation
Marten Falls First Nation is an Anishinaabe First Nation reserve located in northern Ontario. The First Nation occupies communities on both sides of the Albany River in Northern Ontario, including Ogoki Post (Ojibwe: ''Ogookiing'') in the Cochran ...
.
See also
*
List of lakes in Ontario
This is an incomplete list of lakes in Ontario, a province of Canada. There are over 250,000 lakes in Ontario, constituting around 20% of the world's fresh water supply.
Larger lake statistics
This is a list of lakes of Ontario with an ar ...
References
{{reflist
Lakes of Kenora District
Mines in Northern Ontario