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File Created: 29-Jan-1988 by Larry Jones (LDJ)
Last Edit:  30-Nov-1996 by Keith J. Mountjoy (KJM)

Summary Help Help

NMI
Name POLVO Mining Division Osoyoos
BCGS Map 082E023
Status Showing NTS Map 082E04E
Latitude 049º 13' 02'' UTM 11 (NAD 83)
Longitude 119º 34' 44'' Northing 5454805
Easting 312204
Commodities Uranium Deposit Types B08 : Surficial U
Tectonic Belt Intermontane Terrane Overlap Assemblage, Plutonic Rocks
Capsule Geology

The Polvo uranium occurrence lies about 4.5 kilometres northwest of Oliver, British Columbia and 2 kilometres north-northwest of the former Standard mine (082ESW091). The property was examined and evaluated by D.G. Leighton for British Newfoundland Exploration Ltd. in 1978. One augerhole was drilled into unconsolidated sediments to determine uranium concentrations.

Regionally, the area is principally underlain by medium grained intrusive rocks that form the Jurassic Oliver plutonic complex. To the immediate south, the complex cuts Carboniferous to Permian Kobau Group metasedimentary rocks. On its northern margin, the intrusive mass is in contact with Eocene volcanics and sediments of the Penticton Group. The Kettle River Formation, consisting of conglomerate, arkose and rhyolite tuff, is overlain by the Springbrook and Marron formations.

Bedrock types to the south of the Polvo showing include laminated quartz schist or dirty quartzite, massive and laminated quartzite and minor limestone of the Kobau Group. In the Polvo showing area, the Oliver plutonic complex is composed almost entirely of porphyritic biotite quartz monzonite. Three distinct phases have been identified. From youngest to oldest these are: a central core of massive medium-grained garnet-muscovite quartz monzonite which is surrounded by porphyritic biotite quartz monzonite to the south and biotite-hornblende quartz monzonite north of the core. Hornblende diorite occurs in several small areas to the north. Border phases and dikes related to the Oliver plutonic complex include lamprophyre, augite-plagioclase porphyritic andesite, micro-quartz diorite, albite porphyritic dacite, diabase, fine-grained quartz monzonite and aplite. Bedrock uranium mineralization consists of pegmatite accumulations, uraniferous limestone, uranium-pyrrhotite and fracture-hosted uranium (Assessment Report 7398).

Polvo is a postglacial, lacustrine-playa closed basin with uranium enrichment of the soils. A 2800 square metre area contains a 3.0-metre thick layer, 1.0 metre below surface, averaging 0.02 per cent uranium and including a maximum assay of 0.06 per cent uranium over a 0.5-metre interval (Culbert, 1979).

Bibliography
EMPR ASS RPT 6360, 6504, 6532, 6949, 7398, 7670
EMPR EXPL 1977-E22,E26; 1978-22,23,26; 1979-25
EMPR FIELDWORK 1977, pp. 7-13; 1978, pp. 12-15; 1983, pp. 17,246-259; 1988, pp. 19-25
EMPR MAP 29; 35 (Revised); 39
EMPR OF 1989-2, 1989-5; 1990-32
GSC MAP 341A; 538A; 539A; 541A; 15-1961; 1736A; 2389
GSC OF 481; *551; 637; 1505A; 1565; 1969
GSC P 77-1A, p. 31
CIM BULL Vol. 71, No. 783, May 1978, pp. 103-110
CJES *Vol. 21, May 1984, pp. 559-566
ECON GEOL Vol. 77, No. 5, 1982, pp. 1176-1209
IAEA TECDOC 322 Surficial Uranium Deposits, Vienna, 1984, pp. 179-191
Bates, D.V., J.W. Murray and V. Raudsepp (1980): Royal Commission of Inquiry, Health and Environmental Protection, Uranium Mining; Commissioners' Report, October 30, 1980, Vol. 1, pp. 35-36, 183-184
*Culbert, R.R. (1979): Post-Glacial Uranium Concentration in South Central British Columbia, Royal Commission on Uranium Mining, Accession List #2109S01, 20 pages
Culbert, R.R. and D.G. Leighton (1988): Young Uranium; Ore Geology Reviews Vol. 3, pp. 313-330

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