2-995-970 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Copper mine or quarry, near Montreal, Canada - from a sketch by our special artist, G. A. Andrews, 1860. Excitement due to the '...discovery of an immense deposit of copper ore in the hillside near the village of Acton, Canada East...Excursion-trains run from Montreal expressly to visit the mines; and, as the proprietor makes a charge for admission...he is likely to make a rich harvest of gold and silver, as well as of copper, by his discovery...The face of a considerable hill has been laid open, and what appears a large stone quarry is being worked by about a hundred men, who are continually blasting with gunpowder, and using all the ordinary means for getting out blocks of dark grey stone, which, on a closer examination, will be found to be good rich copper ore...the whole mass of the hill appears to be of the same valuable material...The overburden is a yellow loamy sand, about eight feet thick, immediately under which is the metal-bearing rock...At the excavation the roots of the trees can be seen penetrating through the loam into the cracks and fissures of the rock which carries the metal. The yield of copper is eleven tons of ore, carrying 20 per cent of copper, for every cubic fathom of rock excavated'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.