CHAPER V 
Minerals* 
UEBEC is rated fifth among the provinces of Canada in the value 
0 of all minerals produced; fourth in the value of metallic minerals; 
third in non-metallic; and second in clay products. Although 
Quebec possesses great potentialities in the mineral kingdom, compara- 
tively little has been ascertained as yet regarding the full extent of its 
mineral resources. So wide is the field that it will require years even to 
approximate the value hidden under ground. 
Mineral Potentialities.t—The mineral production of the province 
of Quebec has so far been won entirely from the southern strip of the 
basins of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers, from old established districts 
settled for generations. It may be confidently stated ‘that of the 600,000 
square miles which constitute the province, less than 40,000 square miles 
have been prospected and may be said to be approximately well known 
‘rom the standpoint of mineral occurrences. There are yet big prizes 
in the provinces of Quebec awaiting the prospector. 
The great bulk of the minerals produced, so far, by the province has 
been of the non-metallic class, such as asbestos, mica, feldspar, magnesite. 
as well as practically all the building materials, granite, lime-stone, marble, 
brick, cement, and others. These form the foundation of a sound mineral 
industry. 
The Laurentian plateau constitutes more than 90 per cent of the 
total area of the province. The rocks of this plateau, which extend west 
and’ north-west into Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the north- 
west, are the oldest in the world. They have been greatly altéred and 
metamorphosed and are widely mineralized. They contain gold, silver, 
lead, nickel, copper, iron, zinc, phosphate, mica, feldspar and graphite. 
In the vast Laurentian shield, numerous areas of Keewatin, Grenville, 
Témiscamingue, Huronian and Animikie formations have been observed, 
all the way from St. the Lawrence and Ottawa rivers northward to Hudson 
Strait. It is in rocks of these formations that are found the celebrated 
sold and silver mines of Ontario, the nickel and copper mines of Sudbury, 
the immense iron mines of the lake Superior district in the United States, 
and the gold-copper deposits of the Abitibi region. There are yet great 
areas underlain by rocks of these formations which are unprospected, 
and which should be considered as possible mineral producers 
in Geological Sketch and Economic Minerals, Province of Quebec, 1927, issued by Quebec Bureau of 
+ Revised by the Department of Colonization, Mines and Fisheries, Quebec. 
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