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Tributers
E. Percy Brown and the Brookfield Mine
Barachois
Nova Rich Mines
Shad Bay Treasure Hunt
Montague 1937 Accident
Father Lanigan’s “Prospect”
George V. Douglas
The Stewart Brothers
Goldboro
Moose River's Touquoy Mine
Camerons Mountain
Jim Campbells Barren
Stanburne's Puzzling Gold Mine
Pockwock
Beaverbank Lake
Banook Mining Company
Deep Gold Mining
Wellington
Arsenic and Gold
Dynamite
War of Words
King of the Klondike
Oliver Millett
Kempt Gold Mining Company
Carleton
The Memramcook Fiasco
Love and Gold in Oldham
Montague 1893 Disaster
Central Rawdon Consolidated Mines
Cochrane Hill
Amateurish Early Gold Mining
Sable Island Gold
The Sea Wolf
Trueman Hirschfield
Alexander Heatherington
Prospector Joe Cope
Killag Quicksand
George W. Stuart
Wellington
Billy Bell
Cooper Jim Mine
South Branch Stewiacke
Walter Prest
Lake Charlotte
Acadia Powder Mills Company
The Ovens Anticline
Moose River Anticline
Avon Mine Explosion
Montague
Waverley Claims Dispute
Avon River
Moose River Disaster
Mooseland Scam
New York and Nova Scotia Gold Mining Company
Rosario Siroy and the South Uniacke Gold District
Blockhouse
Killag Gold District
Miller Lake
Baron Franz von Ellershausen
Mooseland: Nova Scotia’s first Gold Discovery
United Goldfields of Nova Scotia
Pleasant River Barrens Gold District
Lochaber Gold Mining Company
Rawdon Gold Mines
MacLean Brook
Gold in Clayton Park?!
Forest Hill
Meguma vs. Placer Gold
Uniacke
Voglers Cove
Gold River
Moosehead
Goldenville
Westfield
Indian Path
Harrigan Cove
Centre Rawdon
Nova Scotia’s Gold Mining History
WWII Gold
Middle River Gold District
Early Gold Discoveries
Halifax 1867
Paris Exhibition 1867
Mining and Tourism
An Act relating to the Gold Fields
Molega Gold District
Brookfield Gold District
Gays River
Halifax Gold
Caribou Gold District
Renfrew Gold District
Oldham Gold District
Whiteburn Gold District
Country Harbour Mines
Waverley Gold District
Robert Henderson and Klondike Gold
George Mercer Dawson
Cow Bay Gold District
Lake Catcha Gold District
Wine Harbour Gold District
Franey Gold Mine
Some of Nova Scotia’s most beautiful parks and protected areas contain former mines/quarries! For example, the historical Franey gold mine is part of the Cape Breton Highlands National Park today.
In May 1910, J. H. Brown discovered gold in a large boulder in the area where Clyburn Brook and Franey Brook intersect, about four miles west of Ingonish, Victoria County.
In many instances, gold-bearing boulders were the original discovery that led to gold mines because the boulders erode from bedrock gold deposits. When prospectors found boulders containing gold, it would trigger a search for the deposit from which the boulder originated.
By September 1910, Brown had located the gold-bearing quartz vein the boulder originated from in an outcrop on the west bank of Franey Brook. In October, J. H. Brown, O. Theriault, J. Gannon and H. M. Rogers organized a company to develop the Franey Mine.
In August 1911, Theriault and J. C. C. Brodeur started working the east side of Franey Brook, hoping to locate the continuation of the vein there. They spent $40,000 but failed to locate the vein on the east side of the Brook.
The search for the continuation of the vein was a major challenge with the Franey deposit. The vein was cut by a fault - a fracture, or zone of fractures, between two blocks of rock. Faults are caused by geological forces like tectonic plate movement and they allow the blocks of rock to move relative to each other. In this case, the gold-bearing quartz vein was split by a fault and one side of it was shifted to another – unknown - location.
Various attempts were made to locate the eastern portion of the vein but none were successful. This incurred significant costs and limited the value of the mine.
Despite this challenge, work at the Franey Mine continued. A 1914 report by the Geological Survey of Canada said prospecting and development were taking place with financial backing from American investors and under the supervision of Joseph M. Brown. (It is not clear from records whether this is the same J. H. Brown who discovered the site or if the different middle initial is deliberate and indicates this is a second person with the same last name).
Holes were drilled into the rock with hand drills, explosives were inserted and blasts freed the ore/rock. The ore was wheeled to the foot of the shaft in wheelbarrows (called “burrows” in the report), hoisted to surface and piled on the dump. A five-horsepower boiler and small hoisting engine provided power for hoisting, pumping and ventilation.
A large concrete boarding house, measuring 82 feet by 36 feet, was built, the remains of which can still be seen today.
A number of experienced mining men and metallurgists were reportedly working on the challenge of liberating the gold from its host rock.
Work stalled around this time and the site was largely idle until the early 1930s when Edgar Henderson prospected the site. No mining took place, however.
In total, approximately 900 feet of tunnels were dug and a 60-foot shaft was sunk. Of this, about 270 feet of tunnel and 30 feet of shaft were dug on the vein.
The rest of the digging was done to locate the missing portion of the vein and in prospecting other quartz veins in the vicinity. In other words, more work was done in search of gold than in actually mining it. Despite this expenditure of money and effort, the vein was never found east of Franey Brook.
Because the mine was really a prospecting site, not a fully-functioning mine, the value of its ore was determined from assays (tests) of the ore, not regular production. Assay results varied from trace gold to $130 per ton (all figures in 1914 dollars). One assay produced a result of $3.31 per ton. The Geological Survey of Canada estimated the true average value of the mine’s gold would be about $5.00 per ton.
While we call it a mine, the Franey workings, like many other historical operations, were not a mine in the sense that we use the word now. Historical mines were often pits just a couple feet deep, or a small shaft or two, often even without a mill for processing. There was often very little actual mining or production at such sites...but their stories are often interesting!
You use gold every day. For example, it is in all electronics to make them more reliable and powerful. Electrical signals can be interrupted by corrosion at contact points so gold is used in circuitry because it does not corrode and it's an excellent conductor of electricity.
Learn how prospectors can use gold-bearing boulders to find a gold deposit at https://notyourgrandfathersmining.ca/blockhouse-gold-story
There was a gypsum quarry in Ingonish in the 1920s. See its story at https://notyourgrandfathersmining.ca/ingonish-beach