Geological Description

The Rawdon Gold Mines property is underlain by rocks of the Goldenville Formation. The contact with the overlying slates of the Halifax Formation is found approximately 500 m to the north. A broad anticline traverses the gold district, striking northeast and plunging toward the northeast. The strata on the south limb dips south from 30° to 45°; on the north limb, dips are north at between 40° to 55°.

The auriferous veins at Rawdon Gold Mines are bedding parallel quartz veins typical of those present in most of the gold districts found throughout the southern and eastern mainland. The veins and enclosing strata have a comparatively low dip, and, towards the eastern end of the district, they curve south toward the apex of the fold and flatten out even more. The following leads occur northward in this stated order from the anticlinal axis: Mill, Big, Richardson, Barn, No.1, North, Mason McIntosh, and five leads cut in a crosscut driven to the north.

The veins that were historically the most productive lie between an interval from 182 m to 213 m to the north of the anticlinal axis. Well-defined rolls occur on some of the veins with the rolls pitching toward the east. Mining operations have been mostly limited to the McIntosh, North, and No.1 leads and the last is by far the most important one in the district. In the No. 1 Lead the gold occurs in a series of parallel pay-shoots pitching east and separated by barren quartz. In the 155 m deep shaft seven different pay-shoot were met.

Mineralization

On the No.1 Lead twelve shafts with a total depth of 890m were sunk over a distance of 609 m, the deepest being 155 m. On the McIntosh Lead six shafts were sunk with a combined depth of 105 m. On the North Lead one shaft was sunk to a depth of 57 m. Production from that shaft was 379.8 g (13.4 oz) of gold from 14.7 tons crushed. Rich drift was found in this area from a vein called the Leopard Lead as it contains spotted black and white quartz. The source of the drift was apparently never found.

Mining

It was not until 1884, which is later in the development of the Nova Scotia Gold Fields, that the Rawdon Gold Mines received any attention. In addition, even though good results have been reported from the mining efforts at Rawdon, there has not been a great measure of development nor was much attention paid to the district in the exploration booms of the later part of the 20th century.

The veins worked at Rawdon Mines are all on the northern limb of a northeast-trending anticline. In 1887 the district ranked first among the gold producers of the province with 3,507 oz recovered from 5,305 tons of ore, however the last year with any significant production was 1890.

Historic mining operations in the East Rawdon Gold Mines resulted in a total reported production of 13,501 oz of gold.

There is no record of any exploration diamond drilling.