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Lake George
Lake George is a polymetallic mineral deposit and formerly the largest antimony producer in North America. The geology is an Early Devonian granodiorite stock, perhaps about 412 million years old, produced as part of a volcanic island arc setting. A ‘stock’ is used to describe a small igneous intrusion, perhaps an offshoot from a larger granitic body below. Stocks may have been vents feeding volcanoes. Quartz veins containing stibnite and molybdenite cut the Lake George granodiorite stock.
In 1863 Loring Bailey undertook a survey of minerals and mining for the New Brunswick government. One of the places he visited was the Lake George antimony mine near Fredericton that had been discovered two years earlier by Saint John prospector John Henneberry. Bailey was enthusiastic about the potential for mining antimony ore, but less than impressed with the mining operations in progress. Sources of antimony included both the mineral stibnite and native antimony.
Antimony ore was used for the production of rubber and to make antimony metal. Today antimony is used to increase the hardness and strength of metal alloys. Antimony compounds are also used in the production of batteries, bullets, flameproofing compounds, glass, ceramics, paints, and pottery and in the semiconductor industry. Today China produces about 90% of the world’s antimony.
Geodex Minerals is currently exploring for granite-related tungsten-molybdenum-tin-antimony deposits in the same belt that includes the former Lake George antimony and Burnt Hill tungsten mines. The metallogenic belt also hosts the Sisson deposit in central New Brunswick.
