In Rickard Township Rickard township is situated 10 miles west of Abitibi lake and can be reached by the Abitibi river as shown on Fig. 10. The banks of the river from Abitibi lake to Couchiching falls, a distance of 5 miles, are low and free from rock exposures, but from Couchiching falls to Twin falls (which is situated to the west of Rickard township), a distance of 20 miles, the river has eroded the channel to a depth of 50 to 100 feet below the general land level, and occasionally rock outcrops may be seen. The rocks at Couchiching falls are pillow lavas intruded by numerous narrow quartz diabase dikes. One and one-half miles below, at Little Couchiching falls, in lot 2, concession IV, Knox township, is a greyish-green carbonate schist with large grains of quartz, representing probably an altered quartz porphyry. Seven or eight outcrops of altered ellipsoidal basalt may be seen between Little Couchiching and the west side of Rickard township. On account of the proposed development of Twin falls which will maintain the Fig. 10-Sketch map showing Rickard and other townships lying between the T. & N. O. Ry. and Lake Abitibi. river above the dam at the level of Lake Abitibi, thus drowning out Couchiching. falls, the timber along the river has been cleared away on each side, to make a wider water channel for the towing down of pulpwood. Much of Rickard township will be flooded, as shown by fig. 11. In July, 1917, gold was found on the southwest quarter of the south half of lot 7, concession IV of the township. The discovery was made by a Finn named John Raty at a point 200 yards from a telephone line which runs from Iroquois falls to Couchiching falls on the Abitibi river and had been travelled for some years by the officials of the Abitibi Pulp and Power Company. Shortly after the discovery, representatives of two mining companies sampled the vein, but obtained low values. Later, in sinking, the prospector found a rich gold showing at a depth of five feet, which resulted in the Mining Corporation of Canada securing a working option. At present, April 1918, the shaft is 100 feet in depth at which level some drifting has been done. Some very rich samples have been obtained. The country is undulating, and superficial deposits consist of stratified clay, through which occasional rocks rise as high as 100 feet above the stream valleys. Much of the forest in this area was destroyed by the big fire in 1916. Only a cursory examination has been made by explorers of the geology along the canoe routes, with the exception of J. G. McMillan's exploratory trips across Rickard and surrounding townships in 1904.1 The rocks are pre-Cambrian. consisting of Keewatin pillow-lava schist (meta-basalt), with subordinate areas of altered diabase and cherty Iron formation, all of which have been intruded by narrow dikes of feldspar porphyry and quartz-diabase, probably of Algoman Fig. 11-Rickard township, showing location of the Raty gold discovery. The stippled area will be flooded as a result of the power development at Twin Falls. and Keweenawan age respectively. The greenstones are in places altered to carbonate schists. The quartz-diabase appears to be similar, both megascopically and microscopically, to the Nipissing diabase at Cobalt, but its age cannot be definitely stated. A few narrow dikes of porphyry from two to ten feet in width intrude the greenstones on the Raty claim. About one-half the rock is composed of somewhat rounded phenocrysts of pinkish feldspars with some hornblende and quartz. Under the microscope many of the feldspars are seen to have a zonal struc 1 Ont. Bur. Mines Report, 1905, Vol. XIV, pp. 184-212. ture, there being an occasional albite phenocryst. The hornblende phenocrysts are partly altered to chlorite. The groundmass is microcrystalline, and consists of hornblende, chlorite, plagioclase feldspar, quartz and apatite. Gold was first found near the centre of the claim in a three-inch quartz vein striking east and west in a rusty weathered carbonate schist. The main deposit, however, is on the north part of the claim, and strikes east and west for at least 600 feet. The vein averages about six feet in width and dips almost vertically. Quartz, the chief gangue mineral, has a milky appearance. Calcite occurs as a replacement mineral in the wall rock rather than in the vein itself. Tale and sericite are frequently met with, while feldspar is not so prominent. Next to quartz pyrite is the most abundant vein mineral, there being also small quantities of copper pyrites, galena, and molybdenite. Molybdic oxide and native copper are secondary minerals near the surface. The gold, which is extremely coarse in places and varies in colour from light to dark yellow, occurs in crushed dark portions of the quartz with tellurides and other minerals, the gold usually crystallizing out after the tellurides. In the samples examined two tellurides have been identified, viz.: tetradymite (bismuth telluride) and altaite (lead telluride). A silver telluride may be present, as considerable silver was found on analysis. The values disappeared at a vertical depth of 40 feet. The magmatic waters connected with the porphyry intrusions may have had much to do with the ore deposition. The wall rock of the main vein is now a carbonate schist originating probably from a diabase. A small steam plant is in operation and diamond-drilling is being done. Near Lightning River A gold find was made by L. B. Howey, M. R. Howey, and W. M. Cochenour south of the Lightning river in the autumn of 1917, which resulted in a considerable number of mining claims being staked. The discovery claim, L. 7135, in the recently-named township of Holloway, which is shown in fig. 8, lies approximately one and three-quarter miles northeast of the northeast corner of Elliot township. Messrs. G. Young and S. Cragg, who have optioned the claim, state that gold values up to $40 to the ton were obtained from samples, and that the vein is about one foot in width, 200 feet long and dips about 25° from the horizontal. Silver A trip was made from Hughes station, N. T. C. railway, into the unsurveyed territory 16 miles to the north, where silver was reported to have been found by J. Morin. The trail is over sand plains, swamp and muskeg as shown on fig. 12. On the trail to the north of Fairbairn lake is a small outcrop of massive, pink, medium-grained, biotite granite. Similar rock occurs on Morin's claim, which in addition is cut by a quartz-diabase dike, 60 feet wide and probably of Keweenawan age. In the diabase and running in the direction of the dike for about 200 feet, is a quartz-calcite vein from a few inches to one foot in width, which contains small quantities of chlorite, pyrite, galena and copper pyrites. A few samples from the vein yielded on assay 3 ounces of silver to the ton and no gold. |