Hunting for Corundum & other minerals at the Burgess Mine, Ontario

By: Michal Adamowicz, rockhound

When I first visited this locality some years ago & I had never seen a Corundum crystal in the field. I was younger, just getting into collecting, & expecting to find a perfect crystal. Of course that never happened, so i considered this site worthless & decided to never visit it again. Lucky for me and whoever is reading this I changed my mind and I visited this site this summer. For such a small site there was a good amount of Corundum that I found but before I get into that, here are the directions to Burgess Mine.

Directions:

Begin in Bancroft by traveling north on highway 62. Follow highway 62 north for 21.6 kilometers. At this point highway 62 will turn right & will also be known as Old Hastings Road. Follow it for about 1.2 kilometers. At this point you should be in Maynooth & highway 62 will turn right, follow it right for 12.1 kilometers. You, by now should see Boulter road turning right, follow it right. About 8.2 kilometers into Boulter road you will pass the small town of New Carlow. The road will encounter a few intersections but just keep following Boulter road. From New Carlow its about 4 kilometers to Burgess Mine road. Unfortunately Burgess Mine road no longer has the sign for the road so the best way to find it is to follow visual points. About 1 kilometers from the road you will pass over a bridge. After you pass the bridge keep looking to the left, this is where the road to the mine will be. It will look a gravel road that has received some use. It won’t look like an abandoned road. Once you turn in to the road follow it for 1.1 kilometers until you encounter a hunt cabin beside a lake. Its best not to park beside the cabin just follow the road for about 30 meters to a small clearing on the left. Park Here, also you should be able to see another road leaving to the right from Burgess Mine road. This road leads to the Logan cut. Another more direct route is to follow highway 28 East from Bancroft for about 23 kilometers until you encounter Boulter road, you turn left & follow Boulter road for 19.6 kilometers. It will be exactly 19.6 kilometers from the intersection of highway 28East/Boulter road to Burgess Mine Road on the right. Just one more thing, there is NO collecting here during deer hunting season, just so you know. If you what to risk coming here during that time i suggest you wear lots of red. Alright so you are here. Now to collecting.

Her are some Pictures From Burgess Mine:

Here is the hunting cabin you pass on the way to the mine. If you don’t see this or see a small lake you probably are not in the right spot.


Here is the mine dump beside the small lake.


Here is a close-up to the Burgess adit.


Here is the northwest side of the adit. You can climb along the rubble to the top of the ridge on this side.


Were is the southwest side of the adit.


If you are adventurous enough to climb around the adit to the top, this is the view you will be rewarded from Burgess Ridge. The sound of the wind here is very soothing.



Now lets talk about collecting.

Collecting:

You have two locations where you can search for minerals: the mine cut or the mine dumps.
When I collected here I had the least success at the dumps & the most at the mine cut. If you prefer to start collecting at the dump just keep your eyes to the right as you leave the parking area. The dumps are by the small lake. You can also try your luck for trout in the lake. Most of the material at the dumps has been picked clean by collectors so the only way to find sample s here is to dig in the material for a few inches. Truth be told, I tried this method with limited success. The open cut area has provided me with the most success. So lets talk about the mine cut.
The mine cut is a standard adit in the side of a hill. The hill is called Burgess Ridge & supposedly there are also some abandoned cuts up there also, called the Mackie Cuts. I was up there briefly but I didn’t see any other cuts, the view was worth it though, the climb was a bit dangerous but good to get the blood pumping. The cut itself is barren & is covered with mineral dust. There are very few minerals present on the walls so searching there might yield little results, but its still worth a look. The majority of samples that I found were located in the rock rubble around the cut. Most of the pieces are large/small boulders, but look in the areas where smaller rubble is present. If you don’t find much, try digging in the rubble a bit to look for samples. I found a decent number of samples in the rubble with minor digging. Truth be told, I found more Corundum in this one trip to Burgess Mine, then I did from two trips to Craigmont Mine, probably since Craigmont was visited more often by others for much longer. Most of the Corundum found here is bronze, black, & red in color. If you are lucky you might find blue & green. The larger samples usually are darker as the smaller ones tend to be more gemmy & colorful. You don’t really need to do much chipping unless you get large pieces you want to take home.

Overall most of the samples recovered from here will require you do some chipping & trimming when you get home. Loose samples are hard to find.

Here are some mineral photos:

Corundum (4.8 x 3.9 x 3.4 cm)


Corundum end ( 3 x 3.9cm)


Magnetite & feldspar (3 x 2 x 2.1cm)


Muscovite (3.5 x 1.1 x 1.5cm)


Here is a complete list of minerals from this site. Its from Mindat.

Biotite
Calcite
Chlorite Group'
Corundum
Epidote
Hornblende'
Magnetite
Muscovite
Pyrite
Rutile
Scapolite
Schorl
Titanite
Tourmaline Group
Zircon

Here are some advantages & disadvantages to this site:

Advantages:
1.) Small site, can cover the area quickly
2.) Located near other sites: Logan Cut, Craigmont Mine
3.) Can reach the site all the way with vehicle with minimal foot travel.
4.) Road is acceptable for all vehicles
5.) Minerals can be found in both dump & adit rubble.
6.) Other activities present at location: fishing in lake, hiking to top of hill for view
7.) Minerals can be located with only shifting through rubble, limited tools required.

Disadvantages:
1.) Can miss the site, the road sign for Burgess Mine road is gone. Use speedometer, GPS,
or visual cues.
2.) Black Bears are known to be active in the area.
3.) There is no “easy to locate material”, shifting through light & heavy rubble is required.
4.) Most samples are encased in rock & will require a lot of trimming & chipping.

So here you go. Overall a good site & located near Craigmont Mine, another huge Corundum site. I do recommend this site mainly because I had great success in finding corundum & because some of them are a bit more colorful then material found elsewhere. Well I hope you enjoyed this read. Be Well. Always take caution when exploring new sites.

Rockhound safe & with Determination.

References: Mindat mineral list, Burgess Mine.

---

In order to leave comments to this article, you must be registered