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File Created: 23-Mar-1989 by George Owsiacki (GO)
Last Edit:  15-Aug-1996 by Keith J. Mountjoy (KJM)

Summary Help Help

NMI
Name HIDDEN TREASURE (L.3840S), SILVER HOARD (L.3836S), CRATER LAKE GROUP Mining Division Greenwood
BCGS Map 082E045
Status Prospect NTS Map 082E06E
Latitude 049º 24' 34'' UTM 11 (NAD 83)
Longitude 119º 04' 34'' Northing 5475046
Easting 349402
Commodities Silver, Lead, Zinc, Gold Deposit Types I05 : Polymetallic veins Ag-Pb-Zn+/-Au
Tectonic Belt Omineca Terrane Plutonic Rocks, Harper Ranch
Capsule Geology

The Hidden Treasure (Lot 3840s) prospect is located 4.5 kilometres west of the summit of Goat Peak and 2.75 kilometres south of Beaverdell, British Columbia (Assessment Report 16772).

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.

The first recorded development on the Hidden Treasure was in 1931. In this year Crater Lake Mining Co. owned and operated the Crater Lake group consisting of the Bellaclava (082ESW192), Zora May, Silver Hoard and Hidden Treasure claims. Development consisted of 3 adits driven along or near a dark green andesite (Wellington-type) dike striking 290 degrees and dipping vertically. Crater Lake Mining Co. continued work until 1937. Since 1946, work has been intermittent and ownership has changed several times: 1946 - Silver Bounty Mines Ltd., 1958 - Sheritt-Lee Mines Ltd., 1963 - Ruby Silver Mines Ltd., 1971 - Copper Bounty Mines Ltd. and 1983 - Walmont Precious Metals Corp. The occurrence is currently owned by IGF Metals Inc.

Granodiorite of the Westkettle batholith underlies most of the area. It has been intruded by small quartz monzonite porphyry stocks including the Eocene Beaverdell, Tuzo Creek, Eugene Creek and Carmi stocks. Other granitic porphyry stocks that intrude the Westkettle batholith are the Eocene Beaverdell porphyry. The Westkettle batholith has been correlated with the Nelson intrusions that have been dated by potassium-argon and uranium-lead methods as Middle Jurassic. The Westkettle batholith contains remnants of pendants and/or screens of metamorphosed Wallace Formation. The Wallace Formation is believed to be correlative with the upper (Permian) section of the Carboniferous to Permian Anarchist Group. Lithologies include metamorphosed andesitic tuffs and lavas, hornblende diorite porphyries, olivine gabbro and hornblendite, hornfels and minor limestone. The contact between the Wallace Formation and the Westkettle batholith is sinuous, trending north with gentle east dips. These are unconformably overlain by Oligocene tuffs and conglomerates and Miocene plateau basalts. Westkettle granodiorite or Beaverdell quartz monzonite are the dominant hostrocks. Mineralization rarely extends into the Wallace Formation to the east. A series of dikes, ranging in composition from quartz latite and quartz monzonite porphyries to hornblende andesite porphyries, are found throughout the area. In the Beaverdell camp, fine-grained, brown andesite dikes, referred to as Wellington-type dikes, are believed to be pre-mineralization. Quartz latite dikes are referred to as Idaho-type dikes and thought to be syn or post-mineralization.

Beaverdell silver-rich veins are found in a 3.0 by 0.8 kilometre belt, referred to as the Beaverdell silver-lead-zinc vein camp. The mineralized veins are fissure-hosted, formed along east-trending faults in the west portion of the Beaverdell camp and northeast- trending faults in the east portion of the camp. Faults have been classified into five types based on their orientation, with each type having common orientation, kind of movement and age relationship. The northeast-striking, high angle normal faults pose the greatest obstacle to systematic exploration and mining, as these faults are commonly spaced a few metres apart dividing veins into short segments in a northwest-downward direction.

Vein-type mineralization of the Beaverdell camp is characterized by a high silver content. Mineralization is composed of galena, sphalerite and pyrite with lesser amounts of arsenopyrite, tetrahedrite, pyrargyrite, chalcopyrite, polybasite, acanthite, native silver and pyrrhotite. The gangue minerals in veins are mainly quartz with lesser amounts of calcite, fluorite and sericite with rare barite.

The Hidden Treasure (Lot 3840s) and Silver Hoard (Lot 3836s) adjoin the Bellaclava claim (082ESW192) in the south as well as the Golden property (082ESW194). The claims are underlain by Westkettle granodiorite. Three adits have been driven along a dark green andesite (Wellington-type) dike that strikes 290 degrees and dips vertically. The dike is 1 to 14 centimetres wide along a shear zone, striking approximately 120 degrees and dipping 77 to 90 degrees south. In the upper adit and trenches, mineralized quartz occurs with minor calcite in 2 to 8 centimetre wide veinlets and lenses up to 5 centimetres wide by 152 centimetres long. Limonite occurs along fractures on both margins of the shear zone and within fractures in the dike.

Mineralization occurs along the footwall and hangingwall of the dike and also in the quartz veinlets and consists of small, but wide separated lenses of a few centimetres in extent of galena, sphalerite, pyrite and occasional films of native silver. A chip sample taken in 1987 by IGF Metals Inc. from one of these quartz veins on surface yielded 1581.3 grams per tonne silver, 1.02 grams per tonne gold, 2.25 per cent lead and 1.3 per cent zinc (Assessment Report 16772). Channel sample #29 yielded 308.57 grams per tonne silver and 0.03 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 16772). The sample was also taken in 1987 from a quartz vein with galena, sphalerite (one-third) and altered granodiorite hostrock (two-thirds).

Bibliography
EMPR AR *1931-A123; 1935-D14; 1936-D57; 1937-D35; 1949-A138-A143
EMPR ASS RPT *17, *16772
EMPR OF 1989-5
GSC MAP 538A; 539A; 37-21; 15-1961; 1736A
GSC MEM *79
GSC OF 481; 637; 1505A; 1565; 1969
GSC P 37-21
CJES Vol. 19, No. 6, pp. 1264-1274, 1984
Watson, P.H. (1981): Genesis and Zoning of Silver-Gold Veins in the Beaverdell Area, south-central British Columbia, M.Sc. Thesis, University of British Columbia, 156 pp.
EMPR PFD 824850, 824851

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