MINERA~1 Record

MINERAL INVENTORY FILE NO.

941

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PRODUCT

LIMESTONE

NTS AREA

63C14SE

REF.

LST 1

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NAME OF PROPERTY

MAFEKING (2 quarries)

OWNER OF OPERATOR ADDRESS

1978 – Genstar Limited (Inland Cement Indusries Limited)
P.O. Box 2555
Edmonton, AB T5J 2T1

OBJECT LOCATED

____________

MINING DIVISION

__________

Latitude

N. quarry 52°50.00’
S. quarry 52°49.45’

Longitude

101°03.05’
101°03.15’

Uncertainty (m)

50 m

Northing

_______

UTM Zone

_____

Easting

_______

L.S./Quarter Section

14
2,3,6,7

Section

29
32

Township

44
44

Range

25 WPM
25 WPM

DESCRIPTION OF DEPOSIT

Mottled buff micrite and biomicrite of the Point Wilkins Member of the Devonian Souris River Formation occur in a large area around Mafeking and Steeprock Point (former Point Wilkins). At the Mafeking South Quarry, the Point Wilkins Member is overlain by a thin layer of till and soil and underlain by the part of the Souris River Formation. Beneath all these units is the First Red Bed. A Manitoba Mines Branch drill hole in the bottom on the quarry found base of the lower Souris River Formation 8.22 m beneath the quarry floor.
Broad domal flexures are present in the quarry.
Mottling in the Point Wilkins Member may be caused by a very fine grained angular to subrounded patches of limestone in a matrix of slightly coarser limestone. The lower part of the Souris River Formation is a more argillaceous limestone.
Chemical Properties: Analyses of the Point Wilkins member ranged from 95.33% CaCO3 with 1.72% MgCO3 to 98.01% CaCO with 0.88% MgCO3. Analyses of the lower Souris River Formation ranged from 84.42% CaCO3 with 2.36% Mg CO3 to 95.31% CaCO3 with 0.61% MgCO3 (Bannatyne, 1975; p. 92).
Physical Properties: See Parks (1916) for standard tests for building stone.
Use: Portland cement (must be<5% MgCO3) at Regina. Some stone has been used by Manitoba Forestry Resources Limited in their lime kiln at their Manfor Plant, The Pas.

ASSOCIATED MINERALS OR PRODUCTS OF VALUE

N/A

HISTORY OF EXPLORATION AND DEVELOPMENT

High-calcium limestone for Portland Cement was quarried approximately 16 km north of Mafeking. The former quarries are is beside Highway 10 and the CN Railway.
The four legal subdivisions described below seem to have provided most of the production from the quarries.

1912: Kindle (1912, p. 258) first pointed out potential for cement here.
1955: L.S. 2, Sec. 32 staked as Quarry Permit W-187 by D.P. Thompson; L.S. 3, Sec. 3, Sec. 32 staked as Q.P. W-188 by P.W. Dawson; L.S. 6, Sec. 32 staked as Q.P. W-189 by M. Magnusson. L.S. 7, Sec. 32 staked as Q.P. W-190 by R. Magnsson. L.S. 14, Sec. 29 staked as Q.P. W-199 by M. Bellefeuille.
1955: All assigned to Saskatchewan Cement Corporation Ltd.
1956: (pre) Inland Cement Company Limited found up to 20.4 m of high-calcium limestone in exploratory drilling.
1956: Production began in Sec. 29 in September. Bannatyne (1975, p. 14) reports that early production, at 181 000 tonnes per year, included some argillaceous limestone below the Point Wilkins unit. Higher freight rates made the shipping of this material too costly, so that only Point Wilkins limestone was produced, in later years.
1957: Q.P. W-187 to 190, 199 converted to Quarry Leases M-259-262, 271.
1957: Assigned to Saskatchewan Cement Company Limited, a subdivision of Inland Cement Company Limited.
1959: Leases assigned to Inland Cement Company Limited, however, Saskatchewan Cement Company continued paying the limestone royalties until 1961.
1965: Assigned to Sogemines Limited.
1971: (by) Production averaged 363 000 tonnes annually, with the quarry usually operating from May through November.
Quarrying took place on two levels. A bench was established 14-17 m below the highest point on the east wall. The rock was broken by filling blast drill holes with Amex powder. A jaw crusher reduced the stone to -17.8 cm.
In 1971 maximum length of the quarry was 671 m (SE-NW) and maximum width was 335 m. It was 28 m deep.
1974: (by) Quarrying had progressed north and northwest into Sec. 32. Production was continuous throughout the year, and continued to 1976 when the quarry was abandoned.
1976-1977: A new quarry located on M-262 in L.S. 7, Sec. 32, was opened in late 1976 or early 1977. The beds in this quarry are mainly flat-lying, and the uppermost unit of the Point Wilkins Member is exposed at the top of the quarry. Entrance to the North Quarry is 0.6 km north of the entrance road from Hwy. 10 to the old quarry. The quarry was 11 m deep by August, 1977. In places 1 m to 2 m of dolomite overlies the high-calcium limestone. The stone was trucked to the crushing plant south of the quarry.
1978: Assigned to Genstar Limited.
1978: Converted to Quarry Mineral Leases.

HISTORY OF PRODUCTION

N/A

REFERENCES

Baillie, A.D.
1951: Devonian Geology of Lake Manitoba-Lake Winnipegosis Area; Manitoba Mines Branch, 49.-2, p. 50.
+Bannatyne, B.B.
1975: High-Calcium Limestone Deposits of Manitoba; Publication 75-1, Manitoba MRD.
Goudge, M.F.
1944: Limestones of Canada; their occurrence and characteristics, Pt. V: Western Canada; Mines Branch, Ottawa, Report 811, p. 72-5.
Kindle, E.M.
1914: The Silurian and Devonian Section of Western Manitoba; Geological Survey of Canada, Summary Report 1912, p. 257-8.
Parks, W.A.
1916: Report on Building and Ornamental Stones of Canada, Vol. 4; Mines Branch, Ottawa, Report 388, p. 131-5.
1956: Production began near Mafeking in September at the rate of approximately 181 000 tonnes per year. Limestone was sent by rail to Regina.
1971: (by) Production averaged 363 000 tonnes per year, but then since decreased.
1977: A new quarry in L.S. 7 of Sec. 32, Twp. 44, Rge. 25W were in operation, and by August was 11 m deep.

Shipping Point: Mafeking Quarry - distance from Mine 442 km.
Material Shipped: - Crushed rock; Carried by Rail
Destination: Regina

MAP REFERENCES

*63C/14, Barrow (topo.), 1:50 000; Surveys and Mapping Branch, Ottawa.
Map 637A, Mafeking (Geol.), 1:253 440; Geological Survey of Canada.
Fig. 13: Dawson Bay and Souris River Formations (Geol.), 1:500 000, accompanied Publication by Bannatyne (1975); Man. MRD.
Fig. 13A: Detailed Map, Mafeking Quarry-Steeprock Point Area (Drill & Geol.), 1:100 000, accompanied publication by Bannatyne (1975); Man. MRD.
Map 12: Industrial Mineral producers (Index), 1:1 000 000; Manitoba Mines Branch.

URL

N/A

REMARKS

Kindle, Parks, Bannatyne and others describe the extensive Point Wilkins Member and its relationship to overlying and underlying strata. This card describes the quarry but does not attempt to describe the entire Point Wilkins Unit. The chemical analyses given on this card for the Point Wilkins Member were taken from drill core of a hole drilled by Manitoba Mines Branch approximate 3.2 km south of the quarry. B. Bannatyne correlated the hole with quarry units (see Bannatyne, 1975, p. 92). Analyses for the lower Souris River Formation came from a hole drilled in the quarry floor.

NOTES

N/A

Compiled/Revised by:

SMH

Date

05-76 19__-__-__ 20__-__-__