Sylvanite Gold
Sylvanite Gold Mines Mine-Mill Local Mines Ltd.
It has yielded interesting specimens of crystalline gold,
sylvanite, krennerite and native tellurium.
Ltd, Murray-Kay Ltd, Premier Gold Mining Co Ltd,
Sylvanite Gold Mines, Toburn Gold Mines Ltd and Tough Oats Burnside Gold Mines Ltd.
The Teck-Hughes ore conveyor used to pass over the road into town proudly bearing the slogan, "WELCOME TO KIRKLAND LAKE - ON THE MILE OF GOLD." The conveyor and the mine are gone now, along with Lake Shore Mine, Wright-Hargreaves,
Sylvanite, Toburn, Tough-Oakes, and most of the gold.
The mine was originally conceived for the extraction of
sylvanite and carnallite, but the working of these has now been suspended and kainite is the only mineral being extracted at present.
Although the drawers were full of eons of accumulated dust, a good "blow" might well reveal a classic fair-sized hand specimen of Sacaramb
sylvanite (the "graphic tellurium" variety looking rather like Hindi script).
In "the cave of sparkling jewels"
sylvanite and calaverite crystals studded the walls, interspersed with thumbnail-size leaves of gold.
At the end of the tour we come to a locality which has been known for some decades, though never well known, in the West: the Emperor gold mine, Vatukoula, Viti Levu, Fiji Islands, from which have occasionally emerged some of the world's finest crystals of native tellurium and of the rare Au-Ag telluride
sylvanite. In the Clarion room of Luis Burillo (see above under barite), about ten miniature specimens were laid out inconspicuously, showing very fine
sylvanite from this exotic source: brilliant metallic white microcrystals of
sylvanite glitter on open seams in dense gray rock matrix.