New industrial mineral opportunities in southeastern Ontario

CIM Bulletin, Vol. 83, No. 934, 1990

P.W. Kingston and A. MacKinnon, Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, Tweed, Ontario, and William F. Caley, Technical University of Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia

The purpose of this paper is to identify a number of currently available opportunities for exploration and/or mine development in the industrial minerals field in southeastern Ontario. The paper is not intended as a complete review of the industrial minerals industry in southeastern Ontario, but highlights what are seen by the authors as areas where there are immediate opportunities for investment and growth. Traditional exploration targets in the Grenville Supergroup in southeastern Ontario have been vein-hosted gold deposits, industrial minerals, and base metals. In recent years, emphasis has increasingly shifted to industrial minerals, in response to changing technologies in the minerals-consuming manufacturing industries, and to an increasing awareness of the industrial mineral potential in this area. This paper examines the resurgence of interest in exploring for and developing a wide variety of industrial minerals, and it examines the work the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines has done under the current Canada-Ontario Mineral Development Agreement. Specific development opportunities are identified in various commodity areas. Use of the industrial minerals wollastonite and nepheline as substitutes for fluorspar in the formulation of synthetic steelmaking slags is also discussed.

Mots Clés: Industrial minerals, Exploration opportunities, Wollastonite, Nepheline, Fluorspar