Mining

Being located up in the Canadian Shield, the areas in and around Temagami are rife with minerals, from nickel in the Sudbury Basin to the silver in Cobalt and the gold in Kirkland Lake. Temagami was a source of copper and iron, and currently exploration is occurring south of the lake for platinum-group precious metals as well as diamonds.

Copper
The Temagami Mining Company opened Copperfields Mine, a copper mine here on Temagami Island in 1954. It contained one of the purest copper deposits anywhere, and the blasting shook the ground beneath our cabin on a fairly regular basis. For the first few years, ore trucks were barged the length of the north-east arm of the lake to the Village of Temagami, but this soon proved to be too expensive. The Mine Road (now the Lake Temagami Access Road) was built in 1958 to transport ore, and soon after, islanders began bypassing Temagami Village and the boat lines to drive their cars to the hub of the lake. By 1972, the mine had closed, and over the years this road has improved from a rut-infested single lane endurance test to a gravel road that has seen some cars top freeway speeds at times.

The former diesel-powered ore barges are still in service to this day, one run by the Bear Island Band and the other by a private sewage contractor.

Before the road we had our own private bay surrounding our island: now we have a neighbouring marina where the road grazed the water’s edge across from us. But without the road, we would not have the luxury of electricity, garbage pickup, building material delivery and mail service that we now enjoy. So every cloud has a silver lining.

For hikers on Temagami Island, a great mineral collecting opportunity exists in the scrap heaps of the old mine. One can easily find chalcopyrite, malachite, bornite, dolomite, and quartz among other minerals.

Iron

This is not a lake issue as such, but iron mining was part of the economic backbone of this locality. Between the Sherman Iron Mine and Milnes Lumber, there was a reason for workers to live in the area, and this has spawned many offshoot businesses which cottagers like us can enjoy - the bank, grocery store, post office, restaurants, car repair clinic, hardware & building supply centre, etc.

Iron ore production from the Adams Mine in Boston Township and Sherman Mine in Strathy and Chambers townships, totaled approximately 190 million tons of iron ore containing approximately 20% iron to produce more than 55 million tons of iron pellets. These pellets were shipped by rail to Dofasco in Hamilton (The fenders of your car might even be made of a piece of Temagami!). Declining metal prices and dwindling ore reserves eventually forced the closure of both of these mines. The Sherman Mine (located just north of Temagami) closed in 1990, about the same time as the Milne sawmill closed, resulting in some noticeable economic hardship for the Town of Temagami.