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GOLD RUSH IN NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO.

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Town of Gold Rock dock area
1930
Gold Rock Ontario Canada

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Originally prospectors went into the bush on foot and using a hand pick and shovel cleared surface rocks to expose minerals. With the discovery of a valuable resource of gold on the Manitou an increase in miners, prospectors and settlers came to the area in the mid- 1880's. Wabigoon was the last rail stop before the mining town of Gold Rock. Wabigoon bustled with general stores, hotels, saloons, post service and mining supply businesses all serving the people living in the southern gold fields. Eventually machinery replaced the mining hand tools and deep shafts were drilled into the earth to harvest the minerals. Trucks navigated freshly made roads, steam boats ferried across the lakes and bush planes flew the skies, transporting people, supplies, machinery and mine product. An attempt to revive gold mining in Gold Rock was done in the 1940's, but with the price of gold being so low, the effort was abandoned. Today the town is completely gone, no buildings stand and all the mine shafts have been filled in, and only the memories of those who lived, worked and visited Gold Rock still remain.

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A miner at work underground, scrapping in cut and fill.
1930
Dryden area, Northwestern Ontario Canada

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Gold bar.
1990
Dryden area, Northwestern Ontario Canada

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East of Dryden near Thunder Lake the Trek Corporation discovered a gold deposit in 1989. Trek then optioned it in 1994 to Corona Gold for further testing, since the option agreement the Thunder Lake claim has been the main focus of Corona Gold. There are two deposits of gold, the main zone, which contains 99% of the gold, and the C zone found in 1997 has a deposit 1400m wide by 800m deep. The deposit is estimated to be 2,974,00 tons of 6.47 g/t gold in total with the main zone containing a higher grade of gold than the C zone.
To extract the gold at the Thunder Lake site is complex therefore further examination of the mineralized underground is required to determine the nature and continuity of the materialization and structural control.

Corona Gold Corp. information from Corona Gold Annual Report 1999.

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Although forestry and pulp and paper are Dryden's dominent industries, prospecting and mining still currently continue.