Timmins is among Canada’s and the world’s most prolific gold producing regions and has produced nearly 70 million ounces of Gold, making this along with Carlin gold trend the No. 1 gold district in North America. The Precambrian shield - the oldest geological formation on the planet - underlies most of Northern Ontario. The shield was broken into many sections or “provinces.”

Timmins sits on what is called the Superior Province. The Timmins- Porcupine Gold Camp in Northern Ontario is one of the most important Gold Camps hosted in the Archean greenstone belts in the world, together with Kalgoorlie (Southwestern Australia). The Timmins-Kirkland lake region of the Abitibi Greenstone belt also contains major copper, Zinc and Nickel mineralization.

Today, Timmins remains to be one of the hottest mining camps for exploration. With gold reaching new highs, more companies are rushing to stake claims in the region to carry exploration work. The region is home to several junior exploration companies. “Companies such as West Timmins Mining and Lakeshore Gold are proving that there is much more gold to be found in this historic camp.” These companies have done wonders for shareholders within the last one year as they saw their share price jump many folds as they obtained successful drilling results indicating the massive potential in this area for future production. Starting in 1907, the area became home to dozens of prospectors who explored the areas around Porcupine Lake and Frederick House River. After the discovery of Dome Mine in 1909, the area became known as an important Gold Camp and has seen continuous production since.

The three major gold mines in the area are Hollinger (19 million ounces of Au), Dome (16 million ounces of Au) and McIntyre (10 million ounces of Au).

The average historical underground-recovered grade of Timmins Area deposits has been about 0.25 oz/t (ounces/tonne) Au.

The Timmins District encompasses a vast portion of the Canadian Superior province and is underlain by diverse geology. Portions of the Superior and Southern structural provinces of the Canadian Shield and Phanerozoic rocks are all present in the District. In the north, Paleozoic and Mesozoic sediments of the Hudson Bay and Moose River basins comprise the bedrock geology, punctuated by Proterozoic rocks of the Sutton Inlier. Paleozoic rocks of the Moose River Basin unconformably overlie Archean rocks of the Superior structural province. The contact between Phanerozoic and Archean rocks is faulted, such that Arctic drainage tumbles as rapids, cataracts and waterfalls from the higher southern Archean bedrock surface to the Paleozoic lowlands.

Archean rocks include crustal plutonic rocks, greenstone volcanic rocks and metasedimentary foreland basin rocks, distributed in broad, east trending subprovinces that cross the District. Greenstone and greystone belts are intruded by voluminous, regionally extensive batholiths of tonalite, trondjemite and granodiorite composition and lesser amounts of mafic intrusions.

Proterozoic dike swarms with consistent orientations intrude Archean rocks throughout the District. Carbonatite-alkalic complexes are locally significant. Minor amounts of exotic rocks including kimberlite, lamprophyre and alnoites intrude both Archean and Phanerozoic rocks of the district. Proterozoic metasedimentary rocks of the Cobalt embayment finger northward and overlie Archean rocks south of Timmins

Erosion throughout geologic time has resulted in peneplanation of the Archean rocks, hence topography throughout the District is subdued. Glaciation during the Pleistocene has resulted in widespread drift cover of unconsolidated Quaternary sediments. Extensive till sheets, glaciolaustrine clays and glaciofluvial deposits blanket much of the bedrock. Many outcrops are glacially striated, permitting reconstruction of the latest glacial history. The bedrock surface continues to rebound since Pleistocene times and moderate earth tremors with shallow epicentres and low magnitudes are occasionally felt throughout the Timmins District. Founded by prospecting discoveries in the early 1900s, the gold mineralization in the Timmins Camp is typically hosted by moderate to steeply plunging quartz vein systems which considerable depth extent. Historically, mining has been from high-grade (7-10 g/t gold) vein systems located along or in close proximity to major fault systems that run to tens of kilometres through the entire Timmins District. More recently large open pits have been developed along these major fault systems and around the former underground producers. The large Pamour open pit project, which has resulted in the moving of a portion of the Trans-Canada highway in Timmins, is developed along a gold-bearing fault/shear system and averages 1.3 g/t gold.

Goldcorp operates the Dome, Hoyle Pond and Pamour mines in Timmins and is undertaking a re-evaluation of the historic Hollinger/McIntyre system.