Metallic Mineral Resources

New Brunswick’s complex geological past has given rise to a diversity of metallic mineral resources. Metallic mineral deposits may contain base metals such as copper, lead, zinc, and iron; precious metals such as gold and silver; or rare metals such as indium.

Brunswick Mines in northeast New Brunswick produces lead, zinc, and copper, plus significant amounts of gold, silver, cadmium, bismuth, and antimony for export worldwide. Clarence Stream in the southwest part of the province is the site of intensive gold exploration. The gold property lies near a polymetallic mineral deposit at Mount Pleasant, where sizeable quantities of indium occur with tin, tungsten, and molybdenum.

Objective

The Geological Surveys Branch (GSB) of the Department of Natural Resources oversees the Government’s Metallic Mineral Resources Program. The program’s key objective is to promote metallic mineral exploration in New Brunswick. Specific aims are to:

• investigate metallic mineral occurrences in New Brunswick, their host rocks, and their environments of formation to determine geological factors controlling mineralization;
• provide and maintain an up to date inventory of metallic mineral deposits as part of the GSB’s larger Mineral Occurrence Database (click here for tonnage, production and assay information);
• to stay current with the latest exploration methods and techniques;
• to convey new ideas, concepts, and models for exploration, to industry stakeholders.

Activities

Under its Metallic Mineral Resources Program, the GSB:

• conducts field investigations of metallic mineral resources in New Brunswick;
• produces geological maps and reports covering representative metallic mineral deposits;
• maintains a geological database of metallic mineral deposits in the province;
• advises industry about New Brunswick’s metallic mineral potential and favourable geological environments for exploration; and
• collaborates closely with Academic institutions worldwide.

Current Projects

The Targeted Geoscience Initiative (TGI) is a five year, $25M program that will focus on increasing the ore reserves of established base-metal mining communities across Canada, including the Bathurst Mining Camp (BMC) in northern New Brunswick. Read more

Maps

Metallogenic map of New Brunswick-NR 7

Presentations

Mineral Deposit Information

• Discovery of High Grade Gold-Bearing Float in Southern New Brunswick
• Gold in the Annidale Belt
• Geochemical Analysis of Gold Occurrences in the Annidale Belt
• Granite-Related Polymetallic Mineralization in Central New Brunswick
• New Brunswick Uranium Occurrences
• Carboniferous Maritimes Basin southern NB - Virtual Field Trip
• Clarence Stream Area - Virtual Field Trip
• Spatial and temporal distribution of gold mineralization in the New Brunswick segment of the Northern Appalachians, Eastern Canada

Commodity Information

• Mineral Commodity Profile - Lead
• Mineral Commodity Profile - Zinc
• Mineral Commodity Profile - Gold
• Mineral Commodity Profile - Tungsten
• Mineral Commodity Profile - Uranium
• Mineral Commodity Profile - Manganese
• New Brunswick's Copper Skarn and Sedimentary Copper Deposits
• New Brunswick's Epigenetic Gold and Antimony Deposits
• New Brunswick's Stratbound Massive Sulphide Deposits
• New Brunswick's Nickel-Cobalt-Copper, PGE & Titanium Deposits
• New Brunswick's Tin, Tungsten, Indium and Bismuth Deposits

Related Publications

The following is a list of some metallic mineral resource publications. Further information can be accessed from the geoscience publications page:

• DAVIS, W. J., CHI, G., CASTONGUAY, S. and MCLEOD, M., 2004. Temporal relationships between plutonism, metamorphism and gold mineralization in southwestern New Brunswick: U-Pb and 40Ar-39Ar geochronological constraints. Geological Survey of Canada, Current Research 2004-F2, 20p.
• GOODFELLOW, W.D., MCCUTCHEON, S.R., AND PETER, J.M., (editors), 2003. Massive Sulfide Deposits of the Bathurst Mining Camp, New Brunswick and northern Maine, Economic Geology Monograph 11, 930 p.
• GRAMMATIKOPOULOS, T. A., BARR, S. M., HIEBERT, R. S., STANLEY, C. R. and VALEYEV, O., 2007. Platinum-group minerals from the mechanic settlement pluton, southern New Brunswick, Canada.  Canadian Mineralogist, v. 45, pp. 775 - 792. 
• JOHNSON, S.C. and MCLEOD, M.J. 1998. A note on the protential for paleoplacer gold in the Memramcook and Sackville areas and the relationship to upper carboniferous stratigraphy. In Current Research 1997. Edited by B.M.W. Carroll. New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources and Energy, Minerals and Energy Division, Mineral Resource Report 98-4, pp. 1-15.
• LENTZ, D.R. (editor), 2006.  Volcanic-hosted massive sulfide deposits and their geological settings in the Bathurst Mining Camp, New Brunswick.  Exploration and Mining Geology, v. 15, nos. 3-4, 261 p.
• MACLELLAN, H.E., TAYLOR, R.P., and GARDINER, W.W., 1990.  Geology and geochemistry of Middle Devonian Burnthill Brook granites and related tin-tungsten deposits, York and Northumberland counties, New Brunswick.  New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources and Energy, Minerals and Energy Division, Mineral Resource Report 4, 95 p.
• MCCUTCHEON, S. 2001. The Late Devonian Mount Pleasant Caldera: geological setting of a W-Mo-Sn-In deposit in southwestern New Brunswick. In Guidebook to Field Trips in New Brunswick and Eastern Maine. New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference, 93rd Annual Meeting. R. Pickerill and D. Lentz (editors). University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, pp. B5 1-14.
• MCCUTCHEON, S.R. and RUITENBERG, A.A. 1987. Geology and mineral deposits, Annidale-Nerepis area, New Brunswick. New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources and Energy, Mineral Resources Division, Memoir 2, 141 p.
• MCLEOD, M.J. 1991. Geology, geochemistry and related mineral deposits of the Saint George Batholith; Charlotte, Queens and Kings counties, New Brunswick. New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources and Energy, Mineral Resources, Mineral Resource Report 5, 169 p.
• NAST, H.J. and WILLIAMS-JONES, A.E. 1991. The Role of Water-Rock Interation and Fluid Evolurion in Forming the Porphyry-Related Sisson Brook W-Cu-Mo Deposit, New Brunswick. Economic Geology, Vol. 86, pp. 302-317.
• PAKTUNC, A.D. 1989. Petrology of the St. Stephen Intrusion and the genesis of related nickel-copper sulfide deposits. Economic Geology, 84, pp. 817-840.
• RUITENBERG, A.A., JOHNSON, S.C. and FYFFE, L.R. 1990. Epigenetic gold deposits and their tectonic setting in the New Brunswick Appalachians. Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Bulletin, 83, No. 934, pp. 43-55.
• RUITENBERG, A.A., MCCUTCHEON, S.R., WATTERS, S.E., MCLEOD, M.J., BURTON, D.M and HOY, D. 1989. Field guide to gold occurrences in New Brunswick. New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources and Energy, Minerals and Energy Division, Field Guidebook No. 1, 63 p.
• RUITENBERG, A.A., MCLEOD, M.J. and KROGH, T.E. 1993. Comparative metallogeny of Ordovician volcanic and sedimentary rocks in the Annidale-Shannon (New Brunswick) and Harborside-Blue Hill (Maine) areas: implications of new U-Pb age dates. Exploration and Mining Geology, 2, No. 4, pp. 355-365.
• SEAL, R.R., CLARK, A.H. and MORRISSY, C.J. 1987. Stockwork tungsten (scheelite) - molybdenum mineralization, Lake George, southwestern New Brunswick. Economic Geology, 82, pp. 1259-1282.
• SINCLAIR, W.D., KOOIMAN, G.J.A., MARTIN, D.A. and KJARSGAARD, I.M. 2006. Geology, geochemistry and mineralogy of indium resources at Mount Pleasant, New Brunswick. Ore Geology Reviews Vol. 28, pp. 123-145.
• WATTERS, S., CASTONGUAY, S. and MCLEOD, M.J. 2003. Preliminary report on new gold deposits in the Clarence Stream area of southern New Brunswick: anomoly "A" - distal deposits of an intrusion-related-gold system. Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 1779, 47 p.

For additional information, contact North or South