Kanichee Mine

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The Kanichee Mine in Temagami, Ontario, was a mine that produced 3 million lbs of copper, 1.2 million lbs of nickel with gold, silver and PGM credits. The copper and nickel mineralization occurs within a northwest trending extension of a larger gabbroic intrusion. The extension is about 240 m long, 90 m wide and plunges 23° to the southeast and is altered to serpentine and amphibole, while the main gabbroic intrusion is relatively unaltered. Pyrite, pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite are the primary minerals present, occurring as semi-massive to massive veins within the extension zone. There is a significant amount of gold, silver and platinum-palladium occur with the sulphides.

Exploration work was done prior to 1920 (trenches and two shafts). Between 1933 and 1936, Cuniptau Mines, Limited sank a 75 m shaft and installed a pilot smelter. The deposit was later investigated by Ontario Nickel Corporation, Limited (1937-1948) and by Trebor Mines Limited (1948-1949). Kanichee Mining Incorporated worked the property from an open pit from 1973 to 1976.

The Kanichee intrusion lies in the Archean Temagami greenstone belt, which is layered and consists of five Ni-Cu-sulfide-bearing cycles of mainly dunite to clinopyroxenite cumulate rocks, formed from repeated pulses of high-magnesium basalt. The first of these cycles contained the small tonnage of Nickle-Copper-PGE ore, now mined out.