http://www.NotYourGrandfathersMining.ca/

Mining Association of Nova Scotia, Halifax, Halifax, NS (2026)

10/20/2026

Indian Path, Lunenburg County, was an historical gold district but it also had a tungsten mine that contributed to the war effort during WWII.

Scheelite-bearing veins were discovered in Indian Path in 1926 as a result of gold prospecting in the area. (Scheelite is a mineral from which tungsten is often extracted.)

In 1928, four shafts and several hundred feet of tunnels were dug. A company called Indian Path Tungsten Mines worked the site intermittently for a dozen years. A 430-pound sample was sent to the Bureau of Mines in Ottawa in 1932 for testing.

The property was optioned in 1939 by Siscoe Gold Mines Ltd. which did some diamond exploration drilling. The company also extracted a 36-ton sample of ore and shipped it to Ottawa for testing. The test results suggested that commercial tungsten values were only in narrow and isolated pockets so the company quit the site.

In 1940, Scheelite Properties Ltd., operated by W. M. Goodwin, extracted about 350 tons of ore and milled it to make a rough concentrate. The concentrate was further refined at the Nova Scotia Technical College and the Bureau of Mines in Ottawa. The concentrates were then shipped to Welland, Ontario, likely for use by Atlas Steels, one of Canada’s largest steel companies and a provider of materiel for the war effort.

Tungsten was a critical mineral during WWII. It was used as filaments in lightbulbs and, because it is the metal with the highest melting point (3,422 °C), in plane engines and mu*****ns.

In 1941, the property was taken over by Guysborough Gold Mines, which had been doing tungsten exploration at Lake Charlotte, Halifax County. After spending $20,000 in Lake Charlotte, the company decided the grade of ore was too low for commercial production and quit the area. Guysborough Gold Mines took its equipment to Indian Path and did further underground development there.

A 1942 government memo said the buildings on site at that time “consisted of blacksmith and steel sharpening shop, hoist house, compressor, change and First Aid house, dynamite storage, store warehouse, oil storage, chemical laboratory, crusher, stamp and concentrating buildings, office, cabin, cookhouse and dining hall, bunk house and boiler house to supply heat to above buildings.”

In 1942, Tungsten Mines Ltd. took over, sank a shaft 230 feet deep and dug a 70-foot tunnel off it. The company also built a mill with a 70-ton per day capacity. It found good ore but only small quantities of it.

Additional tunnelling was done but the company did not encounter additional ore. In total, the company extracted about 6,200 tons of ore and produced 22 tons of concentrates that were shipped to the Bureau of Mines for further refining.

The geological challenge at Indian Path was that the ore appeared in streaks and patches, not one big deposit. Also, numerous minor faults cut off or displaced the veins of ore, further complicating extraction. (In geology, a fault is a fracture, or zone of fractures, between two blocks of rock. Faults are caused by geological forces like tectonic plate movement and they allow the blocks of rock to move relative to each other. Faults are a challenge in mining because they can cause deposits to be split, moving part of a deposit to a different, often hard-to-find, location.)

In short, the deposit was too small and low quality to sustain an ongoing operation and the mine shut down in December 1942 when the deposit was largely depleted. Much of the mine’s output was sent to Welland.

Tungsten is still used in light bulb filaments. It is also often mixed with other metals to make alloys that have high temperature tolerance, high corrosion resistance and excellent welding properties. These superalloys are used in the aerospace and automotive industries in things like airplane turbine blades and wear-resistant parts and coatings.

Today when we talk about “critical minerals,” we mean minerals like lithium and copper that are essential for things like electronics and green technologies. However, society’s mineral needs are constantly changing, particularly as new technologies and new uses for minerals are invented, so what we consider critical also changes constantly.

From a rogue wave to yellow fever in Rio de Janeiro to the Indian Path gold mine, Doctor A. J. Cowie had quite a life! See his story at https://www.facebook.com/MiningNS/posts/pfbid0zLRvHbC9BFF4egPVsoCD3ktoP56zEAGq7mpuLXMwn2ySuDNMeCCUM9c7fF6Y9UNNl

The Atlantic Economic Panel is yet another voice saying that resource industries like mining offer a huge opportunity to create jobs and opportunity, and to help pay for essential government programs like health, education and roads. Learn more at https://www.facebook.com/MiningNS/posts/pfbid03Uv5mQwQ12JBg7gfMPrJKwrfbjZ77s3ZhPgKcqXE7CwiEFCkf4Fr2Zd13VGTLbu8l

New US tariffs highlight the need to grow our economy to make NS stronger and pay for government programs like health, education and roads. 75% of Nova Scotians agree the mining industry can play an important role in maintaining our independence (http://tmans.ca/polling)

10/19/2026

Nova Scotia has tremendous potential for critical minerals – minerals needed to achieve climate goals because they are used in things like electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels.

Mining them creates jobs for Nova Scotians and government revenues to help pay for programs like health and education.

Here are some examples of Nova Scotia’s potential for critical minerals:

COPPER
Nova Scotia had many historical copper mines and has significant potential to mine copper again today. Our most advanced copper project is Cape Breton’s Coxheath mine where copper was mined intermittently in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Coxheath is being actively explored now in the hope of returning it to production.

Most wiring is made of copper, so the more we electrify things, the more copper we will need to carry electricity.

ZINC
A zinc-lead deposit was discovered in G**s River, Halifax County, in 1973, and mining took place intermittently between the 1970s and early 2000s. The Scotia Mine is expected to restart production in 2027.

Zinc is used to galvanize steel and prevent corrosion. It oxidizes/rusts more quickly than the metal it is protecting, and the underlying metal will not corrode until all the zinc has been sacrificed. This extends the life of a wide range of products and infrastructure, including electric vehicles and wind turbines.

TIN AND INDIUM
Yarmouth County’s East Kemptville tin mine used to be the world's largest producer of tin, and it has potential to be reopened.

Tin has many uses, including in solar panels. It is a key ingredient in solder and solar panel manufacturers use tin solder ribbon to join solar cells.

When the mine operated in the 1980s and 90s, it also produced copper and zinc.

Today, we refer to it as a tin-indium deposit because it has what are believed to be economically-viable amounts of indium in it. Indium is a key ingredient in things like electronics’ touch screens and solar panels.

COBALT
Exploration in the modern era tells us that the site of some of Nova Scotia’s earliest iron mines – Pictou County’s Sunnybrae - has potential to provide cobalt today.

Cobalt is used in the lithium-ion batteries that power electronics and electric vehicles.

About 70% of global cobalt supply comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo where an estimated 40,000 children work in the mines. Ensuring ethical cobalt supply requires mining more of it in countries like Canada.

MANGANESE
Nova Scotia has had a number of manganese mines, including two in New Ross, Lunenburg County, which were likely Nova Scotia’s biggest-producing manganese mines. They are still the deepest and most extensive underground manganese mines in Canada.

Today, most manganese is used in steelmaking because it makes steel stronger and more flexible. Manganese is also a key ingredient in the rechargeable batteries used in electric cars and electronics.

RARE EARTH ELEMENTS
Rare earth elements (REE) are essential to clean energy because they are in the permanent magnets used in wind turbines and electric vehicles.

A REE deposit was discovered around Debert Lake, Colchester County, as a result of exploration for another critical mineral: uranium. From 1976-1981, Gulf Minerals Ltd. explored for uranium in the area, which led to the discovery of rare earth mineralization.

Unfortunately, Nova Scotia’s 1981 moratorium on uranium exploration and mining brought Gulf’s exploration and investment in Nova Scotia to an end so Gulf’s discovery was not immediately followed up.

However, exploration since 2005 has confirmed the area’s significant potential for REEs, including yttrium, neodymium and dysprosium.

76% of Nova Scotians support mining critical minerals and 75% agree the mining industry can play an important role in maintaining our economic independence (tmans.ca/polling).

The Atlantic Economic Panel is yet another voice saying that resource industries like mining offer a huge opportunity to create jobs and opportunity, and to help pay for essential government programs like health, education and roads. Learn more at https://www.facebook.com/MiningNS/posts/pfbid03Uv5mQwQ12JBg7gfMPrJKwrfbjZ77s3ZhPgKcqXE7CwiEFCkf4Fr2Zd13VGTLbu8l

10/18/2026

He was called “The Mysterious Van Slooten” in New York but he was well known in Nova Scotia due to his mining work here. This is the remarkable story of William Van Slooten:

Van Slooten was born in New Orleans in 1858 and got a mining engineering degree from the University of Virginia at just 19 years of age, reportedly making him the university’s youngest graduate. He also studied law, but ended up moving to Brooklyn, New York, in 1881 where he pursued a career mainly in mining.

Van Slooten moved to Sydney, Cape Breton, around the mid 1880s, where he managed the Coxheath copper mine from at least 1884-86. Coxheath is an example of the many historical Nova Scotian mines that extracted what are now called “critical minerals” – minerals needed for things like electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels. Those early mines proved that we have the geology for critical minerals and that Nova Scotia can contribute to global supply of these essential materials today.

In 1885, he submitted a high-profile proposal to the provincial government seeking a 10-year monopoly on most of the province’s iron deposits, and large tax breaks for his company. In exchange, he would bring $1 million in foreign investment to the province to develop its iron sector.

At that time, iron mining was booming at Londonderry, Colchester County, but the province’s potential for iron was otherwise largely going untapped. The Department of Mines’ annual reports in 1885 and 1886 referred to iron as “our most important resource,” but lamented that iron “has not as yet received attention at all commensurate with its value.”

Given this, Van Slooten’s proposal held some appeal, particularly the promise to create an estimated 1500 jobs with a total monthly payroll of $50,000.

A growing iron sector would also create new demand for Cape Breton coal. Steel is mainly iron and carbon, and the carbon is derived from metallurgical (steelmaking) coal. Nova Scotia got into steel production in the 1870s because it has vast coal deposits and the hope was that local iron would provide the second of the two key ingredients. New investment in the iron sector would lead to more steel production and more demand for Cape Breton’s metallurgical coal.

Cape Breton’s municipal council endorsed Van Slooten’s proposal and agreed to waive the company’s property taxes for 25 years.

However, others opposed the idea. For example, the April 14, 1887, edition of the Halifax Herald contained an article sarcastically headlined “The Van Slooten Monopoly – A Mythical Company that would like the whole earth, but will be satisfied with a Monopoly of Nova Scotia.” The article pointed out that other companies already held the mineral rights to various iron deposits and it would be unfair to overturn their rights for Van Slooten’s benefit: “All the mining men agreed that the Van Slooten scheme, if adopted, would ruin the enterprises in which they were interested.”

The provincial government rejected the proposal.

To sweeten the offer, Van Slooten founded the Cape Breton and Pictou Iron Company (later renamed the Cape Breton and Pictou Iron and Railway Company). The company’s prospectus promised to build a railway “from Sydney to the headwater of East Bay, a distance of about thirteen miles, with a branch line about five miles in length to connect with the iron deposit before mentioned…To build and equip this railway will cost the sum of $270,000 at the lowest calculation.”

The company also promised to spend about $700,000 “in opening up and developing the mines, erecting and constructing blast furnaces, rolling mills and buildings, providing machinery and all the necessary appliances for the manufacture of iron and steel, to say nothing of providing working capital, which must amount to at least $300,000.”

The prospectus included a letter from Cape Breton coal mine managers endorsing the proposal. They concluded their letter, which was addressed to the provincial government’s cabinet and members of the legislature, saying, “we beg leave to state that we have examined and investigated the credentials of Wm. VanSlooten and believe that he is the right man to carry such a work to a successful issue, which is in itself a good thing, and is something that can be said of but few promoters of companies in the Province.”

The coal mine managers said the project would require at least 150,000 tons of coal per year for smelting iron.

Despite Van Slooten’s best efforts, the proposal was never approved.

However, he became sufficiently high profile in the province that for years to come, newspaper articles described him as being well known here. An 1896 article in Halifax’s Evening Mail about his gold exploration in Ecuador was even headlined, “An Old Acquaintance Again Heard From.”

Van Slooten was also involved in a proposal to build a dock in Saint John, New Brunswick, that did not pan out. He pursued opportunities in lotteries in Quebec and was the promoter of a meat export scheme there that also came to nothing.

In 1893, he was again living in Brooklyn and was nominated as the Democratic candidate for state senate in a surprise move by the head of the party’s political machine in the district, James Kane. According to the New York Times, “Kane astonished the delegates by nominating William Van Slooten for Senator. No one at the convention had ever heard of Van Slooten and when he was placed in nomination a hundred voices cried: ‘Who is Van Slooten?’”

The New York Sun later wrote, “The nomination was probably the most unexpected ever made by either party in Brooklyn.”

One of the Democratic Party luminaries who endorsed Van Slooten at the convention “as a patriot and citizen of renown was forced to stop and ask one of the men on the platform the name of the man he was eulogizing so warmly,” according to the Brooklyn Eagle.

The Fifth District was considered a safe one for the Democrats, which was likely why Van Slooten did not make any effort to campaign. His opponent, “Honest Dan” Bradley, used “Who is Van Slooten?” as his campaign slogan, borrowing the line from the Democrats themselves.

According to the New York Times, “Before the campaign had progressed far the Democratic candidate became known as ‘The Mysterious Van Slooten’ from the fact that he never once appeared as a speaker or otherwise publicly from the time he was nominated until election day. Bradly was elected and Van Slooten was never again heard of in local politics.”

Van Slooten continued his mining and business career, but it apparently led to his death in 1901, when, at the age of 44, he committed su***de. He had travelled to South America two months earlier to assess a potential gold mine and had caught a fever, which the New York Times said caused “temporary derangement of the mind.”

The illness confined him to his home after he returned from South America. On December 14, he was in his sitting room with his wife and his doctor, Lawrence J. Morton, when the tragedy occurred.

According to the Times, “Dr. Morton was busy preparing medicine for his patient, and while Mrs. Van Slooten’s attention was directed elsewhere for a moment, the sick man suddenly jumped up and, running to a cabinet in the room, secured the pistol. Before any attempt could be made to prevent him carrying out his purpose, Mr. Van Slooten had placed the muzzle of the weapon to his head, over the right ear, and fired. He fell to the floor dead. Mrs. Van Slooten became hysterical, and last night it was said at the house that she was prostrated.”

It was a large-calibre Ma**er magazine pistol, a German gun he had bought in South America. Ma**ers had a complicated design which automatically ejected spent shells and loaded fresh bullets into the chamber.

Ma**er pistols were not well known in the United States, so police investigating Van Slooten’s death were unsure how to handle the weapon safely, or even how to get the bullets out of it. They took it to a gunsmith who, “after some tinkering,” figured out how to remove the seven bullets he found in it, according to the New York Tribune.

The pistol was taken back to the Adams Street police station where officers, fascinated by the unfamiliar weapon, examined it and playfully pretended to shoot each other with it, pulling the trigger while pointing it at colleagues.

As one of them was putting the gun in a drawer, he pulled the trigger and “There was a loud report, and a cloud of paper was thrown up from the big record book, which had been pierced by the bullet,” wrote the New York Tribune. The article said the bullet went through 600 pages, but other articles suggested it was more like 150-250.

The police took the pistol back to the gunsmith who had previously examined it, but he refused to touch it.

While a number of his projects did not pan out, newspaper reports after his death suggested Van Slooten was relatively wealthy.

The Brooklyn Daily News wrote, “Mr. Van Slooten was not a success in politics, but he was a competent engineer and a good citizen, and his su***de in a moment of delirium will be generally regretted.”

See the story of the Coxheath copper mine: https://www.facebook.com/MiningNS/posts/pfbid0zXZxTntxCExDqq3FYjCmDXFFjnSYJe6iteaYpRrEDPCkHNtJ9JEzmwkXoSJs8J4El

See why metallurgical coal from mines like Cape Breton's Donkin mine is essential to achieving climate goals: https://www.facebook.com/MiningNS/posts/pfbid02sXk1c1YneoUS2hA5VRyCUF5GF34MiSQKDYGgAremcuR6PLQmSLZgfGSVhWaHMsMtl

The Atlantic Economic Panel is yet another voice saying that resource industries like mining offer a huge opportunity to create jobs and opportunity, and to help pay for essential government programs like health, education and roads. Learn more at https://www.facebook.com/MiningNS/posts/pfbid03Uv5mQwQ12JBg7gfMPrJKwrfbjZ77s3ZhPgKcqXE7CwiEFCkf4Fr2Zd13VGTLbu8l

10/17/2026

A broken-hearted Pennsylvanian came to Nova Scotia to mine gold and live alone in the woods after an “unfortunate love affair” back home. Here’s the story of Cape Breton's Middle River gold district:

Two people - A farmer called Morrison and a J.G. McLeod – are credited in historical records with discovering gold in Middle River and they were each given free claims for the discovery. A free claim (no staking fees for 21 years) was awarded to the discoverer of gold in an area, but by definition there can’t have been two discoverers.

McLeod received his free claim in April 1864 and the area was declared a gold district in 1863, which suggests that Morrison was the true discoverer.

Another oddity in the records is that there are no recorded production figures until 1908, about 45 years after the discovery of gold in the area. That is likely due, at least partly, to the fact that Middle River was not a big producer, but it’s still unusual.

Panning for gold was the mining method for the first several years. Morrison was reputed to be one of the most successful in “washing out gold” from Second Brook, one of four tributaries that fed the river. Second Brook was always the main focus of mining activity at Middle River.

The first attempt at larger scale mining was made in 1867 by an American company. It constructed sluices near McLennan's Bridge, on the Margaree Road, washed the alluvium (gravel from the river) during the summer, but gave up because revenues did not cover expenses.

In 1870, a Mr. Wright and others tested all the brooks above McLennan's Bridge by means of cradles, sluices, and pans. They also started a shaft in the main river to reach bedrock, but an influx of water forced them to stop. The largest nugget found is said to have been worth $12-S15 (in 1870 dollars) but generally they ranged in value from 50 cents to $2.

In 1868, several auriferous (gold-bearing) veins were found and a crusher was built, but there are no records indicating whether it produced.

In 1902 the river gravel was worked by “Chinese” (records don’t indicate who this referred to).

Also in 1902, a Mr. W. C. Scranton mined the Lizard lode, a deposit in Second Brook, into which he drove a long tunnel. According to Cape Breton Magazine, Scranton was from Pennsylvania and he told friends that he came to Nova Scotia’s wilderness after an “unfortunate love affair at home.” He was described as “a pleasant, gentle man, distinguished by his good manners and fine penmanship.”

Despite his admirable penmanship, Scranton didn’t have the capital to operate a mine properly so the Great Bras d'Or Gold Mining Company entered the picture. It invested in more modern machinery, including a steam engine, crusher, stamp mill and concentrating table. After arriving in Nyanza by boat, the machinery was hauled by horse and wagon up West Middle River Road. A mine building was built along with an office, bunkhouse, cookhouse and other living quarters. Adits (tunnel entrances) were driven on the vein on both sides of Second Brook, an inclined shaft was dug to a depth of 140 feet, and mining took place on three levels.

Despite all that effort and expense, the Great Bras d'Or Gold Mining Company reportedly only produced three ounces of gold in 1906.

Mining continued in 1907 and 1908 and production improved. The miners went on strike in February 1908 after the company threatened to reduce wages. Miners were getting $2 per day at the time and the company cut pay by 25 cents for some of the men. In Nova Scotia style, they marched out to the tune of bagpipes played by Duncan MacKenzie of Margaree.

There was no crushing of ore done 1910-11 because the company had lost the lead. According to miners, the gold was usually in pockets and after one pocket ended, the company struggled to find the next one. The Great Bras d'Or Gold Mining Company shut down in mid-1914.

Mr. Scranton continued to live in his house near the mine, occasionally walking to Finlayson Post Office for supplies. In the early 1920s, when winter set in early and no on had seen Scranton for a while, Sandy MacLennan and Tom MacLean set out in snowshoes to check on him and found him sick and running low on food and kerosene. They helped him walk out of the woods and nursed him back to health. Scranton then moved to Baddeck where he died some years later. He never returned to Pennsylvania and that “unfortunate love affair.”

Exploration in Middle River occasionally took place from the 1950s-1980s but there was no actual mining.

Middle River produced a total of 1670 ounces of gold between 1908-1916. As above, records do not exist for years prior to 1908.

Today, like many former mines/quarries, the area is a lovely greenspace and trail.

Middle River’s Second Brook also has a platinum occurrence. As with gold, erosion of bedrock deposits of platinum can result in nuggets of the metals being released and deposited in stream sediments adjacent to where the bedrock deposits are found. That’s why Middle River had both underground gold mining and panning/washing: the gold was both in quartz veins underground and in river gravel.

Middle River could potentially be mined for platinum as well as gold, but the site is now part of a protected area which prevents it being used to create jobs for Nova Scotians.

While we support protecting natural lands, we also believe it’s important to create jobs and grow government revenues to pay for programs such as health and education. Protecting sites like the Middle River gold district, which were historically economic lands, limits our ability to create jobs for Nova Scotians.

Around 1910, a harness maker from Baddeck started digging a mine shaft along the Barachois River in the hope of striking it rich. He didn’t. See the story at https://www.facebook.com/MiningNS/posts/pfbid02QbPAerXMqvqkWK7AqLZNyLVHnwJEW9T95A7ZkczchczMuJqtaJUvFm6qa2bDRS4xl

Gold is considered a safe haven in uncertain economic times like this. It is also essential in all modern electronics, including electric vehicles and phones. 75% of Nova Scotians support mining gold (tmans.ca/polling).

The Atlantic Economic Panel is yet another voice saying that resource industries like mining offer a huge opportunity to create jobs and opportunity, and to help pay for essential government programs like health, education and roads. Learn more at https://www.facebook.com/MiningNS/posts/pfbid03Uv5mQwQ12JBg7gfMPrJKwrfbjZ77s3ZhPgKcqXE7CwiEFCkf4Fr2Zd13VGTLbu8l

10/16/2026

An historical quarry at Halifax’s Quarry Lake is an example how former mines and quarries are often hidden in plain sight.

The lake, just northeast of Bayer’s Lake shopping centre and next to the Blue Mountain-Birch Cove Lakes Wilderness Area, is named after an historical quarry that opened there in the mid-1800s.

The former quarry is a beautiful greenspace today. Only small clues, such as the rocks pictured below which show signs of having been worked, reveal the site’s industrial past.

Quarry Lake later became a popular swimming hole and there are walking trails through the area now.

The historical quarry had at least three production areas and possibly more. The two main ones are about 100 metres apart and a third site, overgrown by trees, was found about 200 metres to the east (see the map below). The main quarry was about ten metres in diameter and its last working face was five metres high.

The Quarry Lake quarry provided stone for construction in Halifax until sometime in the early 1900s. Its granite was often used for things like basements/foundations, bridge piers and wharf fill.

The quarry was one of the biggest historical producers of stone in the Halifax area.

The site of the historical quarry should not be confused with a nearby quarry on Kearney Lake Road that began operating in the late 1960s.

Aggregate is the most-mined material in the world because it is used in virtually all infrastructure. For example, over 650,000 tonnes of rock aggregate went into building the new extension of highway 107. See the story at https://www.facebook.com/MiningNS/posts/pfbid0HYT4gRDiJo4L1m75aBvSJMZjT5GpVacbHgrGM4KRq6kVKWc4VUZSFkRbPGTWo4Kfl

Mining and quarrying create thousands of jobs for Nova Scotians, opportunities for our kids to stay here, and government revenues that help pay for programs like health and education. Learn more at https://www.facebook.com/MiningNS/posts/pfbid0WSKikMCVE7EGRzE8VZKiykCXWUaPJF8RJzdWxCjEcYXE8Y8nEY1g3mnSmu1SVC47l

10/15/2026

Some of Nova Scotia’s early gold miners apparently thought gold grew under shrubs!

J. P. Messervey, inspector at Nova Scotia’s Department of Mines, gave a speech to the Kiwanis Club in 1929. He said, according to the April 9 edition of the Evening Mail, that when gold was first discovered in Nova Scotia in 1858, “it was thought to grow under a certain kind of shrub, this shrub being nearly exterminated at the time by miners seeking the precious metal at its roots.”

We could find no additional details or confirmation of this in any other record, so it is likely that Messervey was exaggerating. However, it also seems unlikely that a scientist and senior government official like Messervey – he later served as deputy minister of the Department of Mines for many years – would just fabricate this story. So, perhaps at least a small number of early gold miners believed this curious explanation for how gold deposits form.

Many of the province’s first gold miners had no actual expertise in mining or geology. They were often farmers, tradesmen and men drawn from any number of other professions because the only skill required was the ability to swing a hammer to smash rock. In the 1860s, perhaps it did not seem far fetched to some of them that gold grew under a particular shrub, especially if someone had coincidentally found gold under one of those plants.

Modern gold mining is a sophisticated, science-based activity that takes excellent care of the environment. It creates high-paying jobs and provides a material we all use every day. For example, it is in all electronics, so it is in the device you are reading this on.

Modern gold mines can often fix environmental mistakes made by the unsophisticated miners of past generations by, for example, remediating historical tailings. The modern Moose River gold mine remediated two historical mine sites and 61,000 tonnes of contaminated soil from historical operations by digging them up and moving them into the modern mine’s tailings facility, where they can no longer interact with the environment.

To set the record straight, here is how most of Nova Scotia’s gold deposits formed:

All gold on Earth formed billions of years ago in stars that over-heated and blew up. Gold formed in the heat of the explosions and then floated around space. As rock, dust and other materials came together to form Earth, gold was distributed around the planet.

Most of Nova Scotia’s gold deposits started forming 400 million years ago when North Africa and North America started colliding. Layers of horizontal sedimentary rock were crumpled into anticlines (domes) and synclines (troughs) - a series of rock waves.

Fluid leached gold from rock deep underground and flowed into cracks in rock closer to surface, forming veins of gold-bearing quartz as the fluid eventually cooled and hardened. Anticline domes trapped the melted, gold-bearing rock as it rose from deep in earth's crust.

Gold is everywhere but to mine it, we need a geological anomaly like a tectonic plate collision to form a deposit - to concentrate the gold so a mine is economically viable.

The story of Moose River's Touquoy gold mine has its roots in the 1860s, but it illustrates how modern mining is completely different from what it was historically, and the exciting economic potential of Nova Scotia’s historical gold mines: https://www.facebook.com/MiningNS/posts/1484431936366997

Mining and quarrying create thousands of jobs for Nova Scotians, opportunities for our kids to stay here, and government revenues that help pay for programs like health and education. Learn more at https://www.facebook.com/MiningNS/posts/pfbid0WSKikMCVE7EGRzE8VZKiykCXWUaPJF8RJzdWxCjEcYXE8Y8nEY1g3mnSmu1SVC47l

New US tariffs highlight the need to grow our economy to make NS stronger and pay for government programs like health, education and roads. 75% of Nova Scotians agree the mining industry can play an important role in maintaining our independence (http://tmans.ca/polling)

Mining Association of Nova Scotia

10/20/2026

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