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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
Lake Catcha Gold District
Gold was first discovered at Lake Catcha, Halifax County, in 1865 but not much attention was paid to the discovery until 1881.
Most of the mining and development in this district was done by the Oxford Gold Mining Company which was very active from 1881-1896. By 1882 Oxford had acquired a number of areas north of the lake, erected a 10-stamp mill and become a steady producer. Under J. M. Reid, the company’s mine manager, Lake Catcha became one of the most productive gold districts in Nova Scotia.
Unfortunately, Reid had to quit work in late 1894 due to health issues after running the Oxford mine for 10 years. He passed away months later, in July 1895, and the company’s production plummeted from 1643 ounces in 1894, when Reid was running the mine, to 396 ounces in 1895 and 90 ounces in 1896.
While Oxford was the biggest producer in the area, a number of other companies also did smaller-scale mining and prospecting at Lake Catcha. However, their production was measured in hundreds of ounces of gold per year (or less), not thousands, as had been the case many of the years that Oxford was in operation.
After 1915, little work was carried out at Lake Catcha until the mid-1930s when there was again some small-scale mining. Between 1940-41 there was production of 245 ounces of gold, the last produced at Lake Catcha.
There has been sporadic exploration at Lake Catcha since the 1970s and there is likely still significant potential in the area. Over 100 quartz veins were found in the district but historical mining was limited to only about six veins. Modern science also makes it possible to target disseminated gold – tiny flecks of gold scattered throughout host rock – as was done at the Moose River mine which opened in 2017.
In total, 25,947 ounces of gold were produced in the Lake Catcha District, most of it by the Oxford Gold Mining Company which produced 17,166 ounces between 1882-1896.