Shining Tree Mining Camp

Shining Tree, Ontario, Canada was first active as a Mining Community within 1911, when gold was discovered in the area. this led to the development of a school, hardware store, Hotel, and several dams in the area. Gold that was first discovered in the Shining Tree Camp had rather included the very first prospects to gain fame for building Shining Tree at the time. These Gold Prospect site became known to included several exploration projects known as Gosselin Claim, The Caswell Claim, Seville Claim, the Jefferson Claim, Bennett Claim, Knox's Claim, MacDonald and McIntyre Claims, the Moore and MacDonald Claims, The MacQuire Claim, and Holdings Claim. Most of the ground at the time was also access through a rough journey by taking a train service on the Canadian Northern Railway and then hiking through dense wilderness.

Other major development at the time had also included the construction of two dams that were built on the Opickinimika River. This had allowed the water levels to rise in order to enable small gasoline boats or pointers to run from Ruel to the north end of Allin Lake. Boat navigation at the time had also played an important roll in finding valuable ground to stake for prospectors of that time period. For those who were less fortunate, there was always a boat service offered that gave tri-weekly services to West Shining Tree Lake. It was also during 1911, when Mr. John Moore, of Sudbury, would also establish a General Store and Accommodation for travellers on the South side of West Shining Tree Lake. A post office known as the Tungsten was also establish at the store with Mr. Moore being the postmaster of the area.

The Major work in making Shining Tree a thriving community was just about to begun, when promising discoveries of gold were made in the area. Exploration work at the time had also led to development of Auriferous Quartz Veins that 20 to 50-foot deep shafts and crosscuts would further explore. It had also resulted in surveying adjacent claims from the ones being worked which had confirmed the presence of extensions to these gold zones being worked. These included claims that were currently owned by Mr. Bennett, Beilby, Caswell, Clark, Coleman, Coombs, Coulson, Frith, Fulton, Gosselin, Hanch, Johnson, Lennon, MacDonald, Moore, Odium, Pendleton, Peterson, Seville, Speed, and Thompson.

Geology of the area is known to be Keewatin in age, in which consists of ellipsoidal basalts, altered diabase, amphibolite, and hornblende schist. A small amount of area had also included quartz, porphyry, syenitic porphyry and felsite resembling rhyolite that were present in some places. This resulted in a Schistose Structure that had existed in most of the Keewatin, but was pronounced in narrow shear zones that have a general east-west trend and developed schist that dip vertically. Ferruginous calcium and magnesium carbonates were also present in much of the schist formation. A lamprophyre dike was also observed cutting the older Keewatin Rocks on the boundary between Churchill and McMurchy, in the southwest corner of the lateral township. Several numerous dikes and small areas of quartz and olivine diabase were also observed in the area. Most of the diabase Dikes are known to also intrude all other rocks which also cut the gold-bearing veins of the area. A large number of these quartz veins are strongly known to be appear in Keewatin Rocks and many of them had also contained visible gold. Most of these veins are distributed in ellipsoidal basalts, and two other gold bearing veins area known to be located in Hornblende Schist. Veining in the area also is known to commonly vary from 15 feet to a few inches, but most of them are 4 to 6 feet wide. Many of these veins are also associated with east-west shear zones and dip in the same way as the strike and dip of the schist. Other veins of the area also known to have a north-south strike within the massive section of rock.

A second wave of mine development and exploration would take place within the year of 1918, when most of the mining operations closed in 1912, due to costly transportation. Most of the area of Shining Tree, Ontario, Canada was also being accessed by a 20 mile wagon road that connect with West Tree Station that was 80 miles north of Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. This resulted in making a few new working properties like the Ronda Gold Mine, the Herrick Gold Mine, the Gosselin Gold Mine and the Knoxville Gold Mine. The Gosselin Gold Mine was rather known as the Atlas Gold Property, while the Ronda Gold Mine was called the RIbble Gold Property. Not much at this time had taken place as most of the gold operations were at a stand still as companies began to pump them out for further explorations. This resulted in finding more gold to be worked which the development of levels was extended at each of these sites.

As mine development at the time had followed in 1912, the main transportation line was being re-planned at the time. Most of the work in re-planning this line was made towards establishing a wagon road from West Shining Tree to millage 80 on the Canadian Northern Railway. Extensive development at this time was mainly focus on one claim which was known as the Wasapika Claim before it had turned into the Ribble Mine in 1918 and after became famous for being the Ronda Gold Mine Site in the 1930's. The Ronda Gold Mine at the time had also became credited for treating 24,592 tonnes that recovered 2,727 ounces of gold (Au) and 4,830 ounces of Silver (Ag). This gives a total mill recovery grade of 0.111 ounces of gold per tonne and 0.20 ounces of silver per tonnes of ore treated in 1939.

The Harrick Gold Mine was also another important gold discovery made in the area of 1918. It was first under the ownership of the Harrick Gold Mines, Limited, in 1918, which was commonly referred as the Knox Claim in 1911. The main shaft at this time was already down to a depth of 50 feet prior to the company doing diamond drilling to test this prospect. In 1919, the main shaft of the Herrick Gold Mine was still at 50 feet, in which the company at the time had completed 3,000 feet of diamond drilling. Drilling at the time had rather intersected better grading gold veins at depth which resulted in making an engineering plan to sink the shaft further. After completing the follow up diamond drilling program, it was reported that the Herrick Gold Mines, Limited, would sink the shaft to a depth of 120 feet below the surface. It wasn't till about 1931, when the Harrick Gold Property was acquired by the Ontario Mining and Smelting Corporation. Much of this resulted in dewatering the shaft where drilling had taken place in which had traced the gold bearing zone to a depth of 20 feet below the shaft. No other work at this time had resulted in deepening the shaft as it was left to become abandoned.

Shining Tree, Ontario, Canada, is rather a ghost-town that thrives on many different fishing lodges and the lumbering industry. The Lumbering industry is a big part of Shining Tree to this very day, and mineral explorations in the area also continue to take place by Plainex and Trillium Mining Corp. Shear zones of the area also resulted in developing gold deposits further away from the small community of Shining Tree, like the Tyranite Gold Mine of 1930.