Marmora Mine Pit-Sept 2009

Marmora Mine Pit-Sept 2009

Marmora is located between the towns of Madoc and Havelock along highway 7 in Hastings County. The name Marmora is taken from the Latin word for “marble”

The area was known for it’s rich iron content and mining operations began as early as the 1820’s to extract this mineral. Today you will find the remains of the water powerd refinery along the eastern bank of the Crowe River while the northern bank of the Crowe held the richest ore deposits.

At this time, the area was home to as many as two dozen mines. Perhaps the most successful of the mines was that of the Marmoraton which opened in 1955. The Marmoraton was owned by Bethlehem Steel Mills of New York and exported iron ore pellets.

In 1953, before the Marmoraton could open, engineers first had to blast through 120 feet of limestone before reaching the high grade ore underneath. Once blasted out, the open pit mine measured approximately 1700 feet by 1200 feet and reached 600 feet deep.
The mine employed some 300 men who worked to fill the 30 to 50 railway cars daily for transport south to Picton port where it was loaded onto boats. This mine produced 520,000 tons of pellets annually. When the mine closed in 1979, it had mined almost 1.3 million tons of iron ore.

Over time, underground streams and rainfall have slowly filled two thirds of the mine with water, so much that is now officially classified as a lake. There are still many of the buildings left around the site, decaying and falling apart. The ghosts of history are every where here. There are fish in the pit now, how they got there is uncertain, maybe from the underground streams and through human hands.

The water changes from many wonderfull shades of blue depending on the water levels and amounts of rainfall.

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