Kirkland Lake is located within the Abitibi greenstone belt and the Abitibi gold belt. The main geologic feature in the Kirkland Lake Camp is the Kirkland Lake Break, or Main Break. This Break is a vein located along a thrust fault extending east to west and dipping steeply to the south. The area mine shafts are all located along this Break. Gold occurs in quartz veins in spatial relationship to this fault. The major mines in 1960, trending east to west, included Toburn, Sylvanite, Wright-Hargreaves, Lake Shore, Teck Hughes, Kirkland Minerals, and Macassa.