Exploring the Rankin Mine, in Mayo Township

Explored Date: Tuesday, May 20, 2008.

By: Michal Adamowicz, Rockhound

Well hello all, and thanks for looking. Here is a short article about my adventure at the Rankin Mine.

First of all let me tell you all how to get to the mine. From Bancroft head north east onto highway 28. After about 20 km, you will se a turn to the right onto Bessemer Road. Turn right here and follow the road until you come to a T intersection. On the left side the road will be Bessemer Road, so turn left and follow it. Next there will be an intersection with Adams Road, ignore it and go right, you will continue along Bessemer until you will pass a creek, Shallow Creek. Right after the creek to the right will be a trail/road leading up a slow rise. This is the road to the mine.

Overall the mine is not hard to get to except that the creek which is a visual marker is much smaller then you would expect. Since it is so small there is no bridge over the road & no sign indicating a creek, it is easily to miss. You have to look for it and drive slowly, it will be better seen looking on the right side.



As you pass the creek right on the right side you will see the mine road. It is wide enough to be considered a road but it is full of tree branches, and stumps, not to mention that it is very muddy and tough. I would not recommend parking here unless you have an SUV, even then I might give some serious thought regarding parking there, it could be a logging road. The best place to park is further south on Bessemer road before the road turns right. This is about 50 meters from the trail to the mine. There is enough room on the shoulder for about 1-2 small cars.

This is the trail/road to the mine with Bessemer road in the bottom of the image.


Here is the creek, before the mine road, where the red arrow is pointing, the creek is small i know.


This is where you should park, where the Corolla is located on the shoulder.


Now enough with the road lets talk more on the mine. From the road take the trail/road to the mine heading slowly up a rise. The road will branch of right & left. Both paths go to the mine but the left one is more direct, while the right one curves the ridge and branches off again to the right. It can be easy to get confused, so just take the direct route with no turns. The direct trail is about 300 meters from Bessemer road to the mine.

Once you reach near the hill top you will see the open cut into the hill side. You might expect that the mine would be dry since it is near the top of a hill but unfortunately there is a small creek or spring running off through the mine cut and it collects to create a small marsh near the entrance. It is a great spot for ferns to grow but also allows a limitless army of mosquitoes to spawn with little effort. My point here is to bring deet or some bug replant, you will need it.

Here is the open cut entrance, note the marsh


The main cut is about 20 by 6 meters. You will notice firsthand that this mine looks absolutely abandoned. There is no evidence of collecting for a very long time, the area is undisturbed, except for when I was there collecting.

The mines walls are lined with massive magnetite boulders and the entire area is stained with iron. After a few minutes of collecting you will notice that your hands smell like iron and no matter how hard you try to wash them they still smell like iron. Give it a few days and the smell will disappear. The marsh water is iron coloured but I guess the ferns like it.

This is the view from the back of the mine looking out to the entrance


There are ample samples of magnetite that can be found. They range from small fist sized fragments to large boulders. All the magnetite is especially magnetic, oddly enough cell phone signals seam to be very strong here, better even then from Eagle’s Nest in Bancroft.

Excluding magnetite there is a large amount of pyrite that litters the area. Most fragments are covered at least partially by iron staining & magnetite. They can be hard to clean off. You can find pyrite with rectangular shapes, some with globular shapes, and some almost hexagonal. Most of the pyrite is in slabs that have been made slightly brittle if you find them in the creek. Look for samples near the mine walls where it is dry and the sample will be in better quality. I can’t stress enough that this locality has the largest amounts of pyrite that I have seen so far in the Bancroft region, it is worth a look. There is also some green epidote that can be found as veins and grains in the rock.

Magnetite & pyrite occur in the largest amounts here so they are the main minerals. There are some minor amounts of calcite, apatite, goethite, pyrrhotite, and epidote.

This is a relatively good location to explore because it is close to the Bessemer, & Childs mines. Since there is also little traffic you can find large samples of magnetite & pyrite. So overall I am pleased with this location.

Here is my summary of this location:

Advantages:
1.) Other mine proximity (close to Bessemer, & Child mine)
2.) Little rockhound traffic (the mine looks it has not been collected at for a long time giving the potential for good samples)
3.) Large samples (magnetite & pyrite range from finger sizes to boulder sizes for the magnetite & fist size for pyrite)
4.) Easy to locate (the mine trail is easy to find from the main road if you know where to look)
5.) Direct trail (the trail to the mine is direct with no turns & braches in the trail that have to be followed decreasing the chance for getting lost)

Disadvantages:
1.) Bug Infestation (the mines is right beside a small marsh resulting in squadrons of mosquitoes attacking you when you collect, bug replant is strongly recommended)
2.) Distance ( it can be far if you decide to drive just to this location from Bancroft)
3.) Confusion Potential (the trail can be missed if you miss the creek)

I must say that this was a very productive location for me. Most of the specimens unfortunately are partially iron stained but there are a few nice chunks. Please feel free to look into my gallery for my Rankin Mine samples after I post them and other images from the mine. I will post my sample pictures within a week after I clean my other sample finds.

Thanks for reading.

Rockhound safe & with determination.

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