Moose River Basin: geology and mineral potential - Geology Ontario

Moose River Basin
DRILLHOLE 75-05
Twigs and peaty wood chips occur in Mesozoic clay in drillhole 75-05, Waboose
River, east-central part of Acres Township. Clay is predominant to a
depth of 57.5 m underlying 22.5 m of glacial deposits. The remnants of wood are
confined to a small section of sandy, dark grey clay at a depth of 40.6 m. The
hole was abandoned in Mesozoic quartz sand at a depth of 88.6 m due to sanding
of the rods.
DRILLHOLE 75-06
Drillhole 75-06 drilled on the east bank of the Opasatika River near the
center of McCausland Township intersected 52.3 m of Pleistocene formations,
88.9 m of Mesozoic sands and clays (see Telford, this report), and 35.2 m of De
vonian clay, shale, and limestone. The log of drillhole 75-06 notes the occur
rence of peaty wood chips or dark wood fragments in several instances but the
presence of lignite is recorded only at depths of 90.0 m or lower. The log from
90.0 m to 93.2 m reads:
90.0 m - 90.3 m gravel layer with coarse lignite ? fragments
90.3 m fine sand and silt as above
90.8 m coarse sand, some clay, lignite ? fragments, minor
silt and fine sand
92.3 m silty, sandy, pebbly gravel, a few small cobbles,
mostly limestone
93.2 m lignite cobble (aluminum foil, sample 090)
103.8 m -106.2 m fine pebbly gravel, medium sandy matrix with
0.3 m thick layer of peaty Lignite;
106.9 m -107.2 m medium fine sand, with peaty lignite, some clasts
107.2 m -110.2 m fine pebbly sandy gravel, medium sandy matrix,
organic detritus and several thin lignite layers
as shown
110.3 m -111.6 m medium fine sand, with organic detritus, peaty
lignite layer as shown; coarsens downward into a
fine pebbly gravel with a medium fine sandy matrix
The bulk of sediments in these intersections are pebbly gravels in which
lignite fragments represent allochthonous deposits. At greater depth in the
Mesozoic section (127.4 m to 141.2 m), clay prevails. The clay is overlain by a
"wood lignite layer" at 127.2 m to 127.4 m. Whether or not this layer or the lig
nite laminae occurring at 124.5 m depth are possibly autochthonous cannot be
ascertained from samples obtained by the reverse circulation drilling method
which yields chip samples only.
150