FUTURE POSSIBILITIES.
The present knowledge of the Gowganda area indicates it to be highly mineralized, at least in so far as number of veins and surface showings are concerned. The number of discoveries within its area of ten square miles is steadily increasing. The area, character of the mineral association and the richness of the surface showings are comparable with those of Cobalt. There is a general similarity in the geological conditions. The mineralized veins in Gowganda occur in the diabase as do some of the good Cobalt veins. There are, it is true, local differences, but the resemblances are more pronounced than the differences and lead to the hope that exploitation will reveal similar underground conditions. The well mineralized veins are sufficiently long and uniform on the surface to suggest similarly persistent vertical dimensions. Further geological work may reveal something definite concerning the character and size of the diabase bodies which form the country rock, and thus afford a basis for predicting their subterranean distribution. While there are grounds for hoping that the veins will persist in depth, this has not yet been proved, nor, if this is the case, that the mineralization and values are also persistent.
The relative importance of Gowganda is therefore a matter of uncertainty as yet, but it may be confidently affirmed that for its state of development the outlook is very favourable, and the number of veins, area of mineralization and rich surface showings afford good grounds for hoping that some at least of the veins will be found to be commercially important.
The details of igneous intrusion, differentiation and mineralization may never be sufficiently understood to allow of accurate prediction regarding the location of silver deposits, but a general conception of the sequence of events culminating in their formation does permit of the formulation of certain criteria useful in the search for ores. Evidence is accumulating to show that the silver-cobalt mineralizations in the Timiskaming region are connected with a late stage of differentiation in the magma which supplied the quartz diabase and aplite. It seems reasonable, therefore, to anticipate ore deposits in or near such bodies, especially if they are of large size and have undergone important chemical differentiation, that is, if they contain a varied and extensive association of basic and acid phases of the diabase. Pre-existing channels to receive the mineralizers are also necessary and their distribution a matter of vital importance, but in this region they appear to have been everywhere abundant.
These conditions appear to exist quite as fully at several other localities besides Gowganda. At Wapus creek they seem identical and, indeed, results obtained thus far indicate that some mineralization of the silver-cobalt type exists. Between Duncan lake and the West branch the conditions require further study, but, as now known, are not discouraging.