British Columbia Ministry of Energy, Mines and Natural Gas and Responsible for Housing
News | The Premier Online | Ministries & Organizations | Job Opportunities | Main Index

MINFILE Home page  ARIS Home page  MINFILE Search page  Property File Search
Help Help
File Created: 24-Jul-1985 by BC Geological Survey (BCGS)
Last Edit:  10-Jun-2020 by Nicole Barlow (NB)

Summary Help Help

NMI 082E2 Ag1
Name SKOMAC, REPUBLIC (L.426), NON SUCH (L.389), LAST CHANCE (L.644), HIDDEN TREASURE (L.1019), COSMOPOLITAN (L.1680), TIPPERARY, ML 430 (L.644), ML 423 (L.389,426,1019,1680), MAY MAC, ROBERT MINES, NONSUCH, NONESUCH, SMITH'S CAMP, GREENWOOD GOLD, BOUNDARY FALLS Mining Division Greenwood
BCGS Map 082E007
Status Past Producer NTS Map 082E02E
Latitude 049º 03' 39'' UTM 11 (NAD 83)
Longitude 118º 42' 19'' Northing 5435619
Easting 375426
Commodities Silver, Lead, Zinc, Copper, Gold Deposit Types I05 : Polymetallic veins Ag-Pb-Zn+/-Au
Tectonic Belt Omineca Terrane Quesnel
Capsule Geology

This property, also known as the Skomac mine, is centred on a treeless south facing hill side, at an elevation of 900 metres, 4 kilometres southwest of Greenwood. Access to the mine is about 3 kilometres by dirt road travelling north from Highway 3 near Boundary Falls.

Intermittent production from this property, from 1903 to 1983, totalled 3574 tonnes, yielding 18.5 kilograms of gold, 693 kilograms of silver, 58 tonnes of lead, 36 tonnes of zinc and 864 kilograms of copper.

The Republic, Non Such, Last Chance, Hidden Treasure and Cosmopolitan claims were staked in the early 1890's, in the area locally known as Smith's camp. The Republic (Lot 426) was Crown granted to E.J. Roberts in 1894; the Non Such (Lot 389) and Last Chance (Lot 644) to Republic Gold Mining Company in 1897; the Hidden Treasure (Lot 1019) to the company in 1898; and the Cosmopolitan (Lot 1680) to Cosmopolitan Gold Mining and Smelting Company in 1900. The Republic Gold Mines of Greenwood, B.C., Limited, incorporated in 1900, acquired most of the claims. The property was purchased by O. Lofstad in 1922 and optioned to J.E. Taylor in 1933. Greenwood Gold Mines, Limited optioned it in 1935 and drove the No. 5 adit on the Last Chance. In 1961, G. Scholes and J.J. McMahon acquired the claims as Mineral Leases 423 and 430 and Skomac Mines Limited operated the property until 1965. Robert Mines Ltd. acquired the claims in 1973 and restaked the surrounding area as the May Mac claims. The No. 6 adit and later the No. 7 adit were developed from 1974 to 1973.

The area is underlain by a wide ranging section of Tertiary, Mesozoic and Upper Paleozoic rocks which have undergone several episodes of deformation and are intruded by diorite, serpentinite and a variety of dykes. A quartz vein system trends northwest subparallel to a sheared contact between Permo-Carboniferous Attwood Group argillite and shale and metamorphosed Triassic 'old' diorite. Numerous microdiorite and granodiorite dykes emanating from this diorite complex cut the Attwood Group argillites. Local exposures of Attwood Group conglomerate and sandstone also occur. Cretaceous serpentinite has been injected along the contact between the Permo-Carboniferous Attwood Group argillite and older metamorphosed basement complex rocks consisting of Permo-Carboniferous Knob Hill Group metaquartzites and siliceous gneisses, and at the boundary of the Triassic 'old' diorite complex where serpentinite schist is locally the host rock to the veins. A mylonitic rock composed of quartz grains and scapolite in a talc matrix forms the hanging wall of the vein in adits 4 and 5. Fresh andesite and pulaskite dykes, evidently feeders to nearby Tertiary lava flows, are found in several places crosscutting many of the main structures, including the veins. The age of vein system is bracketed by the concordant Cretaceous serpentinite bodies and crosscutting Tertiary pulaskite and andesite dykes.

Basement complex Knob Hill Group metaquartzite and gneisses have a general foliation trend of west and northwest with north dips although reversals and contortions are common. Deformation of the Attwood Group appears to be the result of vertical movement of the "old" diorite complex against relatively incompetent shales and argillites during intrusion. This appears to be the origin of a large sharp-crested syncline west of the minesite and smaller chevron-type flexures. The majority of fractures dip steeply to the east or southeast and strike between 020 and 040 degrees.

The Skomac mine workings consist of several adits on a quartz vein system traceable on three claims, the Non Such, Republic and Last Chance. Adits 4 to 7 comprise the main workings and adits 1 to 3 are on what appears to be a parallel vein system that is further downslope. The first mine development began in the period 1894 to 1896 when a number of adits and shafts were worked. The company drove two tunnels, one approximately 23 metres higher than the other; the upper one extending 121 metres on the vein and the lower one 69 metres, chiefly on the vein, with a crosscut from this tunnel a distance of 20 metres. An upraise was put in between the upper tunnel and surface, 20 metres in height. In the upper tunnel the vein is persistent, but varies from 0.35 to 1.8 metres in width, and contains iron sulphides carrying gold and silver. The gangue is quartz with oxides of iron in the fractures. Numerous open cuts and shallow shafts have been excavated on the same lead higher up the hill on the Non Such claim, with about the same results. On the Last Chance claim, which adjoins the Non Such on the north west, an inclined shaft was sunk, as far as could be ascertained, about 23 metres on the extension of the Non Such vein. About 8 metres below the collar of the main shaft, the lead is split in three veins hosted in black argillite. The vein on the hanging wall is 20 centimetres wide, the one in the centre is 0.45 metre, and one on the footwall is 0.66 metre wide. The ore minerals are galena, chalcopyrite, and iron pyrites in a gangue of quartz. Another drift had been run about 6 metres below the upper one to the west and the two drifts connected by a raise. At the end of the lower tunnel the vein had faulted to the south and had not been found again. The vein in this tunnel measures 76 centimetres across in the widest part and is well mineralized in galena, chalcopyrite, and pyrite containing gold and silver.

The mine site is situated near the base of a diorite bluff between the elevations 850 and 1000 metres. The upper levels of the mine are almost entirely within the black phyllitic argillite formation of the Attwood Group. The lowest two levels follow a sheared ultrabasic intrusion occupying the contact between argillites and the large diorite body to the north.

Mineralization is noted to occur in the West Vein. It is a banded quartz, polymetallic vein hosted in argillite containing coarse pyrite and galena mineralization. It strikes and dips sub-parallel to the Upper Skomac vein and is located 100 metres west of the No. 7 Portal (Ball, M. (2016-08-27): Technical Report on the Boundary Falls Property).

The several quartz veins in the mine have been emplaced on closely spaced en echelon fractures, striking 325 degrees and dipping about 50 degrees northeast. The shear zone is 3.8 metres wide with the veins averaging 0.9 metre in width but swelling to 1.8 metres locally. The vein system has a variable northwest strike and for the most part dips 55 degrees northeast, although local variations are common and dips as low as 35 degrees are evident. The main break transecting the property is about 180 metres long. Within the total strike distance there are four known veins or shoots labelled AA, A, B and C. The ore shoots appear to be aligned gash structures, striking 015 degrees and plunging 40 degrees northerly, almost at right angles to the principal shear direction. These consist of thickened mineralized quartz lenses, each of which are 15 to 35 metres in length. Interruption of the veins is caused by pinching, fault offsets and crosscutting dykes. An important set of younger cross fractures strike 020 to 040 degrees - a direction on which there has been intrusion of Tertiary dikes and some faulting off of the veins. The origin of the vein structures is thought to be the result of regional shearing stress deflected into and taken up by the incompetent formations along the diorite contact. Major fault dislocations are not common, but movement in minor fractures trending subparallel to crosscutting Tertiary dykes has resulted in a number of sinistral offsets on the veins of 1.5 to 4.5 metres. Reactivation of larger shears trending subparallel to the vein system has resulted in significant dextral strike-slip movement offsetting some of the Tertiary dykes.

Mineralization consists of pyrite, galena, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, accessory tetrahedrite and some native silver with associated gold values. Argentite and polybasite have also been identified.

The ore reserves are about 37,200 tonnes, grading 3.4 grams per tonne gold, 342.8 grams per tonne silver, 2 per cent lead and 2 per cent zinc. In additions, 8164 tonnes of dump material grades 116.5 grams per tonne silver (Northern Miner, April 9, 1981).

Empire Gold carried out significant work on the Robert mine property (Skomac veins) in 1987. This work intended to test the downward extension of the Skomac Upper Vein. Fifteen underground holes totalling 450 metres were drilled and showed that the vein dipped more shallowly than previously believed. Underground mapping and sampling of the Skomac Lower Vein in the No. 1 and No. 2 adits was also completed. A narrow section of the mineralized argillite footwall of the vein in the No. 2 adit returned 82.3 grams per tonne gold and 169 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 33112A).

There has been very limited work at the Skomac showing since 1987, although the mill has run intermittently as a custom milling operation.

In 2000, InvestNet Inc. acquired the Bow Mines property, which covered both the Skomac and Boundary Falls showings (both the former Robert mine and Amigo Silver properties).

Golden Dawn signed an option agreement on the Boundary Falls property and compiled a large database of all existing data. This database provided a working platform for an exploration program of prospective targets consisting of several historical anomalies (Assessment Report 33112A).

In 2011, four character samples taken from the No. 6 adit of the May Mac gold-silver mine during an inspection by Wayne Ash, a mining engineer, returned high precious and base metal values. These character samples returned values ranging from 10.4 to 84.2 grams per tonne gold and 404 to 2080 grams per tonne silver from the veins and wall rock materials within the No. 6 adit (Golden Dawn, News Release, May 14, 2013).

The Boundary Falls diamond drilling program in 2011 resulted in seven NQ-size drill holes (11BF01 to 11BF07) totalling 1934.82 metres. The purpose of drilling was to explore targets identified by soil and geophysical anomalies and mineralization associated with the Skomac vein system, including the May Mac mine. Highlights included 8 metres of drill core found just below over burden with assays yielding 0.15 gram per tonne gold, including 0.6 gram per tonne gold intersected in Drill hole 11BF04. Assays of Drill hole 11BF03 yielded gold values of 0.21 gram per tonne gold over 4.5 metres of drill core (Assessment Report 33112A).

In 2015 and 2016, Golden Dawn Minerals Inc. conducted an exploration program including 85 rock chip samples, and 1,770 metres of drilling between 17 holes. Chip sampling found high gold values in the lower Skomac vein, Glory Hole, and No 1 vein. High silver values were observed at the Skomac vein. Diamond drilling found the Skomac vein at and below the No 7 level and the historic lower Skomac No 1 level. Rock geochemical results graded up to 36.4 grams per tonne gold, and up to 529 grams per tonne silver from chip sampling (Ball, M. (2016-08-27): Technical Report on the Boundary Falls Property). Highlighted drilling results were 2.1 metres grading 3.50 grams per tonne gold, 185.9 grams per tonne silver, 1.5 percent lead, 1.8 percent zinc, and 0.34 percent copper in hole BF15-09, 4.4 metres grading 2.49 grams per tonne gold, 218.6 grams per tonne silver, 1.5 percent lead, 2.9 percent zinc, and 0.2 percent copper in hole BF15-06, and 1.09 metres grading 4.77 grams per tonne gold, 151.0 grams per tonne silver, 0.55 percent copper, greater than 0.5 percent lead, and greater then 1.0 percent zinc in hole BF16-04 (Ball, M. (2016-08-27): Technical Report on the Boundary Falls Property).

In 2017, Golden Dawn Minerals Inc. conducted a drilling program on the No. 7 adit totalling 3028 metres between 22 holes. Significant results were summarized as 1.2 metres grading 174.3 grams per tonne silver, 8.2 grams per tonne gold, 3.7 percent lead, 2.6 percent zinc, and 0.1 percent copper in hole MU17-010, 0.54 metres grading 1935 grams per tonne silver, 4.21 grams per tonne gold, 0.7 percent lead, 7.1 percent zinc, and 0.2 percent copper in hole MU17-010, and 1.29 metres grading 494.5 grams per tonne silver, 1.21 grams per tonne gold, 19.6 percent lead, 8 percent zinc, and 0.1 percent copper in hole MU17-014 (Cowley, P., et al. (2017-06-02): Updated Preliminary Economic Assessment on the Greenwood Precious Metals Project).

Bibliography
EMPR AEROMAG MAP 8497G
EMPR ASS RPT *33112A
EMPR AR 1894-755, map after 758; 1896-577,582; *1897-576,587;
1898-1125,1195; 1900-990; 1902-180; 1903-170; 1904-213-214,219;
1905-183; *1913-150-151; 1914-334; 1915-201,446; *1922-175-176;
1933-162; 1934-A25,D8; 1937-A36,D35; 1962-A48,69; 1963-A48;
*1964-A53,110,111; 1965-167,168; 1969-A53; 1975-A93; 1976-A102
EMPR BC METAL MM00929, MM00948
EMPR EXPL 1975-E14; 1978-E18; 1979-15
EMPR FIELDWORK *1976, pp. 7-10; 1984, p. 20
EMPR GEM 1969-426
EMPR GEOLOGY *1977-1981, pp. 1-12
EMPR INDEX 3-210
EMPR IR 1984-3, p. 106; 1984-4, p. 120; 1984-5, p. 114
EMPR MAP 59
EMPR MINING 1975-1980, Volume 1, pp. 11,54,58
EMPR MR MAP 6 (1932)
EMPR OF 1990-25; 1998-10
EMPR P *1986-2, pp. 51-56
EMPR PRELIM MAP 59
EMPR PF (see *082ESE045, 082ESE171; 082ESE General File; Robert Mines Ltd. (undated): Map of Skomac Mine; Hanna, K.G. (1974): RE: Robert Mines Ltd.; Church, N. (1978): Geology of the Skomac Mine and Boundary Falls Area; Empire Gold Resources Ltd. (1986-09-17): Prospectus Report on the Robert Mine; Prospectors Report 2001-39 by Neil Church)
EMR MP CORPFILE (Skomac Mines Ltd., Ganda Silver Mines Ltd., Robert Mines Ltd., Amro Minerals Corp.)
GSC MAP 828; 45-20A; 6-1957; 10-1967; 1500A; 1736A
GSC MEM 38, Part III, Map 83A
GSC OF 481; 637; 1969
GSC P 65-1, p. 60; 67-42; 79-29
GCNL Jan.12,22, Feb.27, Mar.17, 1976; #217(Nov.10), #245, 1977; #12,
1980; #35,#186, 1983
N MINER Mar. 18, 1978; Jan.15, Apr.9, 1981
W MINER Dec. 1980
PR REL Golden Dawn, May 14, 2013
Ash, W. (2011-08-29): National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report on the May Mac Mine Property within the Boundary Falls Mineral Property.
*Ball, M. (2016-08-27): Technical Report on the Boundary Falls Property.
*Cowley, P., et al. (2017-06-02): Updated Preliminary Economic Assessment on the Greenwood Precious Metals Project.

COPYRIGHT | DISCLAIMER | PRIVACY | ACCESSIBILITY