1

Director Vein Trench
1937
St. Lawrence, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

2

During the mining years in St. Lawrence, there were a total of 115 Fluorspar veins. Below is a brief description on the most popular veins:

Blue Beach Vein

The Blue Beach vein is situated near the southern edge of the town of St. Lawrence. It has been traced for over 2.5 km along its southeast strike and through most of its explored extent is hosted by the St. Lawrence Granite. However, the northern most part of the vein passes into the overlying fine grained sediments of the Inlet Group where fluorite mineralization rapidly peters out. The Blue Beach vein is characterized by an abundance of both blastonite and nodular ore. The massive fluorite is compact, without vugs, and ranges from coarsely crystalline to finely banded. The principal gangue minerals are quartz and calcite, with minor galena, sphalerite and pyrite. The vein system locally branches into several zones which coalesce along strike, producing very wide ore zones locally.

Director Vein

The Director vein is located 1.3 km southwest of the Blue Beach vein. It has a strike length in excess of 2km and varies in width from 0.3 to 30m. Like Blue Beach vein, the Director traverses more than 2km of the host granite before passing into sediments shortly before its northern termination. It exhibits pinch and swell features along strike which have created three principal ore lenses. The north (No. 1) lens is the largest (roughly 800 m long) and is separated from the No. 2 lens to the south by a 100 m long pinch. The No. 2 lens is 300 m long and a 200 m pinch separates it from the No.3 lens to the south, which is over 330 m long. Fluorite in the Director vein is commonly banded, predominantly colorless, pale blue and green and coarsely crystalline. Nodular ore and blastonite are both important constituents. Quartz and calcite are the principal gangue mineral, accompanied by lesser barite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite and galena.
At its southern end, the Director Vein structure becomes rather diffuse and appears to feather out into a number of smaller mineralized zones at small angles to the projected strike of the main vein. Within the mineralized zones are irregularly shaped fluorspar masses, some very high grade.

Tarefare Vein

The Tarefare - Grassy Gulch vein system is approximately 1.7 km southwest of the Director vein. It has been traced on the surface for approximately 2.5 km. There are three closely adjacent veins in this area, the TareFare, Blowout, and Hope Veins, all of which are accessible from the underground tare fare workings. Both the Blowout and Hope veins parallel the tare fare and dip steeply east.

TareFare seems typical of the large, north striking veins. It contains abundant blastonite accompanied by crystalline, locally banded massive fluorite. Principal gangue minerals are quartz and calcite with lesser amounts of sulfides; the latter increase in relative abundance toward the north end of the vein.

Hares Ears Vein

The Hares Ears vein is located approximately midway between the Director and Tare fare veins. It was reported that the ore was shipping grade as mined, containing only about 6% silica. The original vein had an average width of 3m and the northern extensions discovered during later mining ranged from 0.3 m to over 2 m in thickness.

Iron Springs Vein

The Iron Springs vein lies roughly 4 km southwest of the town of St. Lawrence. Pinching and swelling of the mineralized vein are common. The fluorspar is very high grade, comprising mainly coarsely crystalline fluorite which is typically color-banded parallel to the vein walls. Calcite is the most common gangue mineral, accompanied by minor amounts of quartz, barite and sulfides.

Lord and Lady Gulch Vein

The Lord and Lady Gulch vein is located on the headland southwest of Shoal Cove approximately 3.5 km southwest of St. Lawrence. The vein is bounded by the coastline at either end or averages up to 3 m wide, locally reaching a maximum width of 7 m. The ore is typically high grade, comprising banded, coarsely crystalline, multicolored fluorite with a minor gangue component comprising calcite, barite, galena and chalcopyrite. This vein is notable for its many instances of splitting and coalescing, leaving large horses of granite enclosed by massive fluorite. The vein pinches and swells both laterally and vertically, resulting in the production of several large, lenticular ore bodies.

Black Duck Vein

The Black Duck vein lies immediately north of the town of St. Lawrence and was mined along a strike length of approximately 285 m. This very high grade vein consisted of fluorite ranging in color from amber to red to green to purple.

Scrape and Doctor's Pond Veins

These relatively small veins lie immediately north of the highway between St. Lawrence and Little St. Lawrence. It was traced over a strike length of more than 500 m with widths ranging from 2 to 7 m. Pinches and swells are common and four separate lenses were outlined during mining. The ore consists mainly of red to white fluorite with minor granite inclusions and a little galena, was reported to be highly brecciated.

The Doctor's Pond vein consisted of a high grade core of approximately 1 m of fluorite, with zones 0.7 to 1 m wide of lower grade material on either side. The vein was eventually mined to a depth of 10 m along a strike length of 75 m.

3

Blue Beach Vein
1938
St. Lawrence, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

4

Mr. Feldman, Mining Engineer - Director vein
1933-1978
St. Lawrence, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada