Asbestos, Its production and use: With some account of the asbestos mines of CanadaJones, Robert H.
Science
Asbestos, Its production and use: With some account of the asbestos mines of Canada
Jones, Robert H.
Asbestos; Asbestos mines and mining -- Québec (Province)
4th. A steatitic asbestos rock, resembling "Mountain leather," forming
important masses, which enclose small concretionary pellets of asbestos,
the centres of which contain a nucleus of serpentine.
Very little (the report says) has yet been done on the island to develop
these asbestos veins, perhaps owing to the difficulty of transport
across the lake. This, however, would probably be more than
counterbalanced by the magnificent returns which this locality promises
to afford.
Dr. Reed at present is altogether neglecting the asbestos and devoting
his attention to the development of a very promising antimony mine on
the shore of the lake.
Indeed this estate might very justly be termed a typical Canadian
mineral estate, and is, in its way, unique, for comprised within its
2,000 acres, there are found to exist not only rich veins of antimony
and asbestos, and, as was stated in the notice of Broughton, enormous
quantities of soapstone, but there are also immense deposits of iron,
magnetic, chromic, and bog ore, as well as copper and sulphur. Silver to
the value of $4 per ton of ore is found with the antimony, and reefs of
auriferous quartz run through the entire property, from which a
practical miner from Australia, who was examined before the committee
appointed in 1887 by the Dominion Government to investigate the
gold-fields of Canada, stated that he had taken samples which on assay
gave 2-½ ozs. gold to the ton. Nickel also is found on the property,
and cobalt.
Everything necessary for the working of those valuable deposits
already exists on the ground--unlimited water supply, and timber for
building and mining purposes, as well as for charcoal for any furnaces
that may presently be erected: sufficient, if judiciously managed
according to the rules of forestry such as obtain in Germany, Austria,
and Russia, to last until a new growth matures. In regard to transport,
the roads are good, and a line of rail connecting the Grand Trunk with
the Intercolonial will touch the property next summer, and will, it is
expected, have a station there just below the antimony mine. In regard
to steatite, the quantity here is so enormous that an expert (Captain
A. M. Evans, of the firm of Blakemore and Evans, the well-known civil
and mining engineers of Cardiff), who was lately sent by me to report
on this property, speaking of steatite, says, "All I can say is, there
are mountains of it."
This mineral is a more or less pure and compact talc. When pure and of
close hard grain it is used as a refractory for lining furnaces,
especially those designed for anthracite. It is in demand also for gas
burners, not being liable to rust or corrosion, and also for the
construction of small portable furnaces and open stoves. It is used also
in the manufacture of paints. When very strongly heated, steatite loses
the small portion of combined water contained in it, and then in
consequence becomes much harder.
WOLFESTOWN.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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