The Agnew Lake Mine was a uranium mine located in the township of Hyman approximately northeast of Agnew Lake,

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

and east of

Elliot Lake Elliot Lake is a city in Algoma District, Ontario, Canada. It is north of Lake Huron, midway between the cities of Greater Sudbury, Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Sault Ste. Marie in the Northern Ontario region. Once dubbed the "uranium ca ...

History

90 holes were diamond drilled by New Thurbois Mines Limited in 1954 to 1955. In 1956, Canadian Thorium Corporation Limited purchased the site and completed ground geophysics and mapping. Kerr Addison Mines Limited and Quebec Mattagami Minerals continued to develop the site in 1965 to 1967. Agnew Lake Mines Limited bought the property in 1967 and continued the property development, and started mining. The mine began producing uranium in 1977, utilizing both underground and surface mining techniques. Agnew Lake was the first

biohydrometallurgy Biohydrometallurgy is a technique in the world of metallurgy that utilizes biological agents (bacteria) to recover and treat metals such as copper. Modern biohydrometallurgy advances started with the bioleaching of copper more efficiently in the 195 ...

mining operation. Underground mining was done via sublevel stoping, with oversize rock skipped to surface via a shaft,

bioleaching Bioleaching is the extraction or liberation of metals from their ores through the use of living organisms. Bioleaching is one of several applications within biohydrometallurgy and several methods are used to treat ores or concentrates containing ...

was carried out both underground and on surface stockpiles to produce

Triuranium octoxide Triuranium octoxide (U3O8) is a compound of uranium. It is present as an olive green to black, odorless solid. It is one of the more popular forms of yellowcake and is shipped between mills and refineries in this form. U3O8 has potential long-term ...

(U₃O₈). By the end of 1980 underground mining stopped, and by 1983 the mine closed. The Agnew Lake mine site was decommissioned, buildings removed, and the shaft capped. Monitoring of the site was carried out by Kerr Addison between 1983 and 1988, with the property being turned over to the Ontario government in the early 1990s. In 2005 and 2006 472m of diamond drilling was completed by Ursa Major Minerals Incorporated. Nyah Resources Incorporated did seven more diamond drill holes in 2007. In 2017, Skead Holdings Incorporated did a ground geophysical survey.

Geology

The uranium mineralization at Agnew Lake is contained within a pyritic quartz-pebble conglomerate that

unconformably An unconformity is a buried erosional or non-depositional surface separating two rock masses or strata of different ages, indicating that sediment deposition was not continuous. In general, the older layer was exposed to erosion for an interval o ...

overlies

granitic A granitoid is a broad term referring to a diverse group of coarse-grained igneous rocks that are widely distributed across the globe, covering a significant portion of the Earth's exposed surface and constituting a large part of the continental ...

rocks. This is similar to the style of mineralization found in the Elliot Lake uranium camp.

References

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External links

Agnew Lake Uranium MineAgnew Lake Mine, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
* ttp://www.mindat.org/loc-8079.html Minedat.org - Agnew Lake Minebr>Uranium and Thorium Deposits of Northern Ontario (pg 106)Agnew Lake Uranium Mine - still a good uranium prospect
Surface mines in Canada Underground mines in Canada Mines in Elliot Lake Former mines in Ontario Uranium mines in Ontario 1977 establishments in Ontario 1983 disestablishments in Ontario

History

Geology

See also

References

External links