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United Goldfields of Nova Scotia
Pleasant River Barrens Gold District
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Rawdon Gold Mines
MacLean Brook
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Uniacke
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Gold River
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Nova Scotia’s Gold Mining History
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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
Blockhouse Gold Mine
Robert Henderson and Klondike Gold
George Mercer Dawson
Cow Bay Gold District
Lake Catcha Gold District
Wine Harbour Gold District
MacLean Brook
The first written reference to a gold mine in MacLean Brook, in Cape Breton Regional Municipality, was in a Geological Survey of Canada report in 1876. There do not appear to any other written references to the mine until the early 1990s.
In 1993-94, the Department of Natural Resources investigated the site, finding blocks of mineralized quartz in the brook’s bed which they followed upstream to its source in a trench located along the east bank of the brook (325 metres southeast of Highway 223). The trench is not part of the original mine – it’s about 10 metres south of the mined vein – and it’s not known who dug the trench, or when.
DNR also found a pile of quartz waste rock from the from the trench. Samples revealed a bunch of metals in the rock, including gold, silver, lead, copper and zinc.
Panning of streams in the area also has shown there to be free gold in two streams.
Unfortunately, there is little additional information available about the historical mine or the other occurrences of metals in the area. The area is overgrown and the mine was likely very small with few records kept. However, it is an interesting – and somewhat mysterious! – site that may deserve further exploration.