Potash exploration at Malagawatch, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia

CIM Bulletin, Vol. 78, No. 880, 1985

L DEKKER Senior Exploration Geologist, Chevron Minerals Ltd. Vancouver, British Columbia

In 1979 Chevron Standard Limited and Irving Oil Limited intersected a thick, high-grade sylvinite zone in the Windsor Group in the Chevron Irving Malagawatch No. I well in central Cape Breton. This well was the third and final hole of a program designed to evaluate a non-commercial oil discovery made by Chevron Standard's Mineral Staff in 1978 while carrying out base metal exploration. Nine holes were subsequently drilled to evaluate the significance of the potash discovery. The delineation drilling proved the Malagawatch structure to be complex with the potash zone showing erratic grade and thickness distribution. Based on the drill information the potash accumulation at Malagawatch is uneconomic, however, other salt "structures" in the Bras d'Or Basin may in time prove to have better potential.

Mots Clés: Potash, Exploration, Drilling, Geology, Structural geology, Stratigraphy, Windsor Group, Bras d'Or Basin.