Shafts in the El Dorado Gold Field - Northern Ontario Geology

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Originally uploaded by Mic2006.

Grant is balanced precariously on a ridge that separates two deep holes along the hillside where the digging occured. Unfortunatly for the miners the known gold was all concentrated in the one single spot where it had initially been discovered.

The local geology is such that with the upwelling of the Deloro Pluton and the subsequent cooling of the surrounding rock, the crust contracted and cracked. These fissures all spidered out around the edges of the pluton and it was up these that “superheated waters blasted out from far below. The cooler surface temperatures led to the deposition of quartz that had been carried upward in the mineral/water cocktail as well as numerous metals and of course, gold.

“Guess they figured they had run out”. I ventured that there must be more, “I mean why would it all be concentrated in such a tiny area?” Grant was of the same opinion, “Where there is some - there is more. They’re mining near Bannockburn right now. All you need is the money and the guys to dig”. This observation bought to mind the old addage, spoken by the bitter fortune hunter of a failed gold rush. “A gold mine is no more than a hole in the ground with a fool at the bottom, a liar up top and a crook in the office”.