Martin Frobisher’s largest ‘gold mine’ in Baffin Island
Abstract
Countess of Sussex Mine, south-east Baffin Island, was worked for two weeks in August 1578, during which time it produced 455 tons of rock, which were loaded on to seven small ships and sent to England. It was Frobisher’s largest mine and reputedly rich in gold and silver. The ore was mainly metamorphosed ultramafite (black ore) and subsidiary metamorphosed (garnetiferous) mafite (red ore). It extended, intermittently, 1400 metres across two peninsulas. A representative half-ton assay, made in England in 1579, gave disappointing but far from negligible returns. However, even these results (rate of 1.2 oz Au/T) were flawed by incorrect techniques and mistakes in calculation. According to recent analyses, the gold result was about 10,000 times too high. This assay dashed the last hopes of the mining adventurers. The metallurgical plant at Dartford, Kent, soon closed, the Countess of Sussex deposit was forgotten, and the mining escapade came abruptly to an end.
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