The Napanee is a past producer, located 2.0 kilometres west of the summit of Goat Peak and 4.5 kilometres south-southeast of Beaverdell, British Columbia (Assessment Report 16772). The Napaneee group consisted of the Napanee, Napanee Fraction, Cobalt Fraction, Nevada and Nevada Fraction claims in 1916. This ground was later restaked as the Rocco Plata and Van claims.
Initial prospecting began in the Beaverdell area in the late 1880s. The first ore was shipped in 1896. The major producing mines in the Beaverdell silver-lead-zinc vein camp, from west to east, were the Wellington (082ESW072), Sally and Rob Roy (082ESW073), Beaver (082ESW040), and Bell (082ESW030), with numerous other small workings throughout the area.
Two veins were opened up on the Napanee in 1904. The Napanee claim group was owned by E.P. Cummings and M.D. Schenck in 1916, with development work confined largely to the Napanee and Cobalt Fraction claims. Development consisted of a 21-metre shaft, a 23-metre crosscut and a 32-metre tunnel. In 1917, a new 9.1-metre inclined shaft, two opencuts and some drifting was done 91 metres northwest of the main shaft. In the following year, a 15-metre tunnel, 46 metres of trenching and opencut work were completed. In 1919, the first indications of ore were found in float boulders in 3 metres of gravel outwash, near the mouth of the crosscut. The boulders contained slabs of high-grade silver-lead ore. An ore shipment was made in this and the following year, on a newly discovered vein hosted in a east dipping fault plane. In 1928, development work, consisting of two crosscuts, was carried out on the Cobalt Fraction close to the boundary with the Alaska claim (082ESW191). One was driven 31 metres along a bearing of 070 degrees at 1531 metres elevation and the other driven 34 metres to the northwest. The two crosscuts were 9 metres apart. A third tunnel was driven 18 metres northwest at 1526 metres elevation and in which a shear-hosted vein was discovered 13 metres from the portal. Further work was carried out in 1930, 1933 and 1949. In 1949, 5 diamond-drill holes were drilled from a short adit and 2 shipments of clean-p ore were made. Red Rock Mines Ltd. restaked the ground as the Rocco Plata and Van claims in 1964. Considerable surface exploration was conducted under option to Minex Development Ltd. Red Rock Mines Ltd. conducted a 324-metre drill program in the following year. The most recent interest in the Buster property has been by Canstat Petroleum Resources Corp. in 1982 and 1983.
For a detailed description of the geology and mineralization of the area refer to the Beaverdell (082ESW030).
The Nepanee property adjoined the Buster claim (082ESW036) in the west but most of the historical workings occur on the Cobalt claim near the eastern boundary of the Alaska claim (082ESW191). The property is underlain by hornblende porphyritic diorite of the Wallace Formation close to the contact with Westkettle granodiorite.
A mineralized quartz vein system generally striking 110 degrees and dipping 42 to 45 degrees north, occurs in a highly shattered and faulted, east-dipping shear zone. The hangingwall is generally well defined but the footwall is shattered. Quartz vein widths vary from 12 to 61 centimetres. One section was step-faulted in a northwest direction.
Mineralization consists of pyrite and arsenopyrite in a gangue of mainly quartz. Historical 'silver-lead-zinc' ore carried gold and copper values. A sample taken in 1921 of the vein yielded 6.8 grams per tonne gold, 1097 grams per tonne silver, 7 per cent lead and 14 per cent zinc (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1921, page G185). A picked ore sample taken in 1928 from the Cobalt claim yielded trace gold, 4594 grams per tonne silver, 34 per cent lead and 14 per cent zinc (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1928, page C253).
Total recorded past production in 1919 and 1920 from the Napanee occurrence is 2 tonnes from which 6594 grams of silver, 93 grams of gold and 202 kilograms of lead were recovered. Two shipments of clean-up ore are reported made from the Cobalt claim in 1949 (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1949, page A148) but no records could be found to verify this.
