It looks like an early spring and because of the mild winter people often ask, “Have you seen any bear sign yet?”
They bear their young circa January, mid-winter and they are almost in a slumber. The mother bear nurses them as they are hibernating, she can lactate while not eating or drinking, that’s phenomenal.
From time to time, I venture to the back roads to this not-so-abandoned mining adit to see if there is a sow and her newborn cubs. It is deep into the mine, and from a safe and non-threatening distance, you can see the glare of their sleepy eyes. It is a naturally wonderful birthing site and experience. No photos are taken, they are content, and the quiet retreat ensues from this rock-chiseled tunnel.
This mine
Mining has always been important to the economic well-being of northern Ontario. Sudbury and Timmins have done well. The Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) has just concluded its annual convention in Toronto (since 1932). Mining employs more than 664,000 individuals and contributed $132 billion to Canada's GDP in 2021.
Most communities suffer from the boom and bust cycle of market conditions and the long-term viability of the mineral deposit. This was true of Cobalt, as highlighted in a recent story. North Bay has no active mines in the area but a large mining manufacturing and service sector.
The once active and significant Purdy Mica Mine, north of Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park, apart from gold and silver, remains the most unique of all the mineral occurrences in northern Ontario.
The mine, during its two short terms of operation, was the largest producer of muscovite mica in Canada, and was one of the outstanding muscovite deposits in North America, if not the world. During World War II, the United States government contracted the entire high-quality yield, identified as strategically important to the war effort. The mica was used as an electrical insulator in armoured vehicles, aircraft and battleships. It was also used as a filler in paints, rubber goods and wallpaper.
Located approximately four kilometres north of Highway 17, across the Mattawa River, it is now an abandoned mine, near the boundary of the provincial park and Mattawan Township. There are few remains of the once busy cookery, a bunkhouse that housed 50 men and the stables that held many teams of horses.
What can be startling is the diamond appearance of the deposit. It is now winter but in the other seasons on a sunny day, the sparkling pieces of transparent mica glisten as you walk the roadway to the destination.
This white mica, or muscovite, was found in the granite of the Canadian Shield in 1941 by Justin Purdy of nearby Eau Claire. What he found was pockets of thin sheets of transparent mica that were flexible and elastic to the touch. Millions of years ago, when the area was in tremendous upheaval, these deposits became trapped behind dykes of granite near the surface.
As a silicate, it is packed together in what are often called books. They are the largest and most important class of minerals and makeup approximately 90 percent of Earth's crust.
In the early 1940's Justin Purdy and his partner began a small operation and explored further finding other excellent outcroppings among the granite terrain. It comes in different colours and qualities and has a wide variety of uses. It is extremely heat resistant and is used as an insulation. It is often the cover in the windows of wood stoves. It is now used in plastics and has been used on roofing and as a filler in paint, rubber goods and wallpaper. It is currently used as the sparkle in some cosmetics. The Mattawan mica is primarily white "muscovite" classification.
Hair Raising Experience
Our memories are good but short in duration. Oral history is so important because it gives us the affective side of a recorded event. Our heritage appreciation comes from the people who were there.
A personal interview is sometimes like a mineral discovery especially when looking for information that is not there. Then you discover a gem of a person.
George Blanchette (now deceased) was a miner at the Purdy Mica Mine. He was told that the deposit was first discovered by Justin Purdy's grandfather near the turn of the century and finally located by his grandson in 1941.
Justin Purdy located several large dykes and began the extraction by hand, in an open pit type of operation. He was killed in an automobile accident and the Purdy estate was eventually sold to the Inspiration Mining and Development Company, which extensively developed the project. The war was on and production increased.
Three major workings on more than 10 dykes were located. Open-cut procedures and several shafts were developed to extract the valuable commodity. The average grade was $23.06 per ton of rock. This represents a high grade when compared with the lower figures recorded in New Hampshire during the same period ($7.56 to $17.52).
Mr. Blanchette said the American government, through its agents, the Colonial Mica Company, contracted to take the entire output of this high-grade mica. It was thought that the Purdy Mica Mine was the largest source of muscovite in the "free world" during World War II. Its importance as an electrical insulator was paramount in manufacturing war munitions, used by armed forces around the world.
The mica deposit has been described as a "bonanza." Sources indicate more than three million pounds of mica valued at $1,577,000 (in 1940 dollars), was mined during the two intervals of the mine's history (1941 1945 and 1949 1953). ( So, $100 in 1940 is worth $2,202.98 today.) Then, with the war time emergency over, the mine was closed.
One large mica crystal taken from the Purdy mine measured 9 feet by 7 feet and almost 3 feet thick. Two large sheets are on display at the Royal Ontario Museum https://beardedgeology.com/worlds-largest-crystals/ (scroll to muscovite) and another at the Mattawa Museum.
Mr. Blanchette remembers removing such a large sheet just before Christmas in 1949. A solid piece represented a major find, so his superintendent requested that the miners remove it "before they could go home for Christmas," with the incentive of receiving a bonus.
"Horses were used to drag the chunk up the side of the pit," said Mr. Blanchette. "It was always a hair-raising place to work and we took great care not to shatter such a prize find."
Working as a miner, powder man, driller and hoist operator he said the cold, damp, cramped conditions of the crevices and the shallow shafts made for unpleasant working conditions in the winter. An extensive ladder system, hundreds of feet in length, was developed. Mr. Blanchette recalls it was a "tricky climb" in the dark with only your headlamp. In some places, you would just slide down the side of the slope to the bottom. In these open-cut areas, there was no overhead protection from falling fragments of granite. In traditional mining fashion the "muck" was shovelled by hand, tons of it removed every day.
Eventually, a small track and hopper car system was developed for extracting the usual, hand-sized chunk of mica. These were packed in boxes, and taken out by horse and wagon to the railway station in Eau Claire, where they were sent elsewhere for refining, including New Jersey.
In 1949, James J. Kemney formed the North Bay Mica Company and worked the Purdy site until poor drilling results forced the closing of the mine in September 1953. It was Kemney along with Martin Van Cleaf, two North Bay residents who purchased the Lake Nipissing- Manitou Islands' holdings from James Strohl of Tunkhannick, Pennsylvania in 1953. This became the search for uranium on Newman Island. That’s another story.
Since the mine's closing, there have been several geological investigations and startups. It includes the pink feldspar at the site’s debris piles which was picked and sorted and then sent to Germany for ceramics, particularly for false teeth applications.
Resources
In three seasons a trip to the Purdy Mica Mine can be a pleasurable canoe/walk, mountain bike or ATV ride. There are two accesses, one shorter for the non-motorized enthusiasts and one longer for the mountain biker or motorized recreationalist. The mine is situated at WGS 84 N46° 19’ 01.8” W78° 54’ 21.4” or 17 T 661217 5131418.’ The destination is on private property and the Voyageur Multi-Use Trails (VMUTS) has an agreement with the owner. Signage and a boardwalk are entering the adit, it is a trail destination.
The Purdy Mica Mine was highlighted in the story featuring social media influencer Alexis Outdoors and Back Roads Bill. Find the trail on the Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs site. Here is a winter YouTube video that highlights the adit.
The Purdy Mica Mine was one of the few mining starts in the North Bay area to see active production. The mine has an interesting narrow-gauge track from the former ore cars and the pneumatic air hoses are still present. The remains of an open drift, the tunnels along with samples of the glass-like material are the lasting reminders of the important role it once played. The personal reflections of a miner make for a trails opportunity to see and appreciate what was.
Wear a helmet and take your flashlight!
And this year there was no hibernating bear there. But they will be out and about, soon enough, on the back roads.
