Salmo Valley River Mines
Sheep Creek Gold Mining Camp More Gold Mines Lead Zinc Mines
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SHEEP CREEK GOLD MINING CAMP
The Sheep Creek Gold District has a reported historical gold production of almost 50,000 pounds (22,680 kg) at an average gold grade of 14.4 g/t during the 80 years between 1899 and 1979.
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Some of the larger producers were the Nugget, Reno, Motherlode, Goldbelt, Queen and Bayonne.
Nugget
At the Nugget Mine about 37,000 tonnes of ore was mined from 1907 – 1988 which produced 777,791 grams of gold, 283,053 grams of silver, 3294 kilograms of lead and 1273 kilograms of zinc recovered.
Reno
The Reno mine commenced production in 1906 and produced intermittently until 1979. In total, 404,472 tonnes of ore were mined from which was recovered 7,270,227 grams of gold, 3,216,394 grams of silver, 2,858 kilograms of copper, 89,056 kilograms of lead and 60,907 kilograms of zinc.
Goldbelt
At the Goldbelt a total of 236,502 tonnes of ore were mined between 1934 and 1979, producing 2,512,906 grams of gold, 1,061,298 grams of silver, 681 kilograms of copper, 10,457 kilograms of lead and 6,605 kilograms of zinc.
Motherlode
At the Motherlode between 1906 and 1985 amounted to about 67,444 tonnes which contained 1,257 kilograms of gold and 588 kilograms of silver, 3010 kilograms of copper, 11,000 kilograms of lead and 4260 kilograms of zinc.
Queen
The Queen property produced 653,165 tonnes of ore intermittently from 1902 to 1970. From the total tonnage mined 9,453,383 grams of gold, 3,121,527 grams of silver, 7,769 kilograms of lead and 3,063 kilograms of zinc were recovered.
Bayonne
The Bayonne Mine produced 81,782 tonnes between 1935 and 1984, recovering 1,311,597 grams of gold, 3,752,691 grams of silver, 43,472 kilograms of lead and 23,349 kilograms of zinc.
OTHER GOLD MINES
Second Relief
The Second Relief was brought into production in 1902, was mined until 1919, resumed in 1928 and produced until 1941. This is the third largest gold-enriched skarn producer in the province.
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Production totals 207,023 tonnes which yielded 866,433 grams of silver, 3,117,637 grams of gold, 20,210 kilograms of copper, 1057 kilograms of lead and 147 kilograms of zinc.
Arlington
The mine was in production from 1900 to 1913 and again from 1932 to 1970. The total amount of ore mined during these years was 69,823 tonnes. Recovered from the ore were 1,700,339 grams of gold, 4,334,578 grams of silver, 520,420 kilograms of lead and 456,920 kilograms of zinc. In 1983, 3084 tonnes were mined producing approximately 7400 grams of gold.
Clubine
Mine production totalled 3,616 tonnes of ore during the 13 years between 1926 and 1942. Approximately 83 per cent (2,990 tonnes) of the total was mined over 4 years, during 1936 to 1939. Economic minerals recovered included 123,293 grams of gold, 239,463 grams of silver and 818 kilograms of zinc.
Ymir Mine
Total production from 1895 to 1970 was 327,646 tonnes with an approximate grade of 10 grams per tonne gold and 34 grams per tonne silver. Combined lead and zinc content was approximately 1.7 per cent.
Yankee Girl / Dundee
Production from the Yankee Girl and parallel veins totaled 370,616 tonnes with a grade of approximately 8.6 grams gold and 44.5 grams silver per tonne. Lead constitutes an average of 1.5 per cent and zinc assays about 2.8 per cent.
Center Star / Wesko
The average grades from 51,458 tonnes of production were 7.5 grams per tonne gold, 57.3 grams per tonne silver, 1.88 per cent lead and 0.93 per cent zinc
Howard
The Howard mine produced 20,091 tonnes of ore, of which 19,216 tonnes were mined in 1938 with grades of 17.15 grams per tonne gold, 85.7 grams per tonne silver and 12 per cent combined lead and zinc.
Hunter V
The Hunter V was mined primarily for its lime content to be used as a smelting flux, however there was 8,464,402 grams of silver and 31,413 grams of gold recovered from 56,820 tonnes.
LEAD ZINC MINES
Reeves MacDonald
Between 1949 and 1971 Reeves MacDonald produced 6,446,339 tons recovering 448,896,453 pounds of zinc, 127,190,817 pounds of lead, 637,935 ounces, 2,680,083 pounds of cadmium and 60,812 pounds of copper. Remac was the townsite at this mine.
Jersey / Emerald
The Jersey mine commenced milling of lead-zinc ores in 1949 and continued until 1970. The mine produced about 7,968,080 t of ore from which 115,000 t of lead, 263,000 t of zinc and 21,500 kilograms of silver were recovered. In 1941 tungsten was discovered and it became significant because of the Second World War. The development of tungsten for the war effort continued until the end of 1943. Tungsten operations were also carried out from 1947 to 1949; and again from 1951 to 1958; and the last operation from 1970 until late 1973 producing 1,597,802 t grading 0.76% WO3. The Jersey was the first mechanized underground trackless mine.
HB
The HB mine produced a total of 6,656,101 tonnes of ore in 29 years between 1912 and 1978. Recovered from this ore were 29,425,521 grams of silver, 49,511,536 kilograms of lead, 260,431,646 kilograms of zinc, 2,019,586 kilograms of cadmium, 105,412 kilograms of copper and 6,159 grams of gold.
Aspen
etween 1918 and 1934 30 tons of ore was mined producing 1,169 ounces of silver, one ounce of gold, 950 pounds of lead and 805 pounds of zinc.
Silver Dollar
From 1947 to 1970, 5,425 tonnes of ore were mined, which produced 50,916 grams of gold, 1,818,469 grams of silver, 52,597 kilograms of lead and 60,230 kilograms of zinc.
Red Rock
Between 1935 and 1979 there was 578 tons of ore mined producing 4,975 ounces of silver, 5 ounces of gold, 209,410 pounds of zinc and 187,523 pounds of lead.