The Silver Hoard group of claims is located south of Cedar Creek at an elevation of approximately 1350 metres. The main adit is on the Dellis claim to the south of the creek and may be reached by approximately 11 kilometres of road from Ainsworth.
Regionally, the area is underlain by hornblende schists, limestone and banded quartzite of the Upper Mississippian to Permian Milford Formation and basaltic volcanic rocks of the Carboniferous to Permian Kaslo Group. Granodioritic intrusive rocks of the Middle Jurassic Nelson Batholith are exposed to the west.
The orebodies in the Dellie (Silver Hoard) mine are associated with shear zones at or near the contact of folded limestone and argillite of the Mississippian to Lower Permian Milford Formation. Silver is found in the replacement ore that occurs in the limestone. Silver also occurs as wires in cavities in the limestone. The ore is a mixture of coarse galena and sphalerite with minor amounts of pyrite and chalcopyrite. The gangue consists of green fluorite, calcite, siderite and quartz.
A total of 3070 tonnes of ore was mined in 23 years from 1889 to 1973. From this, 4 039 438 grams of silver, 31 grams of gold, 83 481 kilograms of lead and 37 873 kilograms of zinc were recovered.
Work History
The Dellie claim was Crown granted to S.S. Bailey in 1893; however, small scale mining operations were being carried out at this location as early as 1889. The operation continued intermittently until it was closed down in 1896. In 1901 and 1902, the Little May claim was being worked and approximately 21 metres of shaft and 67 metres drift were completed.
The Silver Hoard Mining Co. of Spokane took over the mine in 1911 and operated it through 1917. Leasers then took over the property and worked it through 1927. By 1923, the company had acquired five Crown-granted claims: the Silver Hoard Fr., Dellie Fr., Dellie, Nellie Fr. and Little Nay. The ore zone had been developed by a 61-metre inclined shaft and approximately 610 metres of workings. The Consolidated Mining and Smelting Co. Ltd. is said to have acquired ownership of the property in 1925 and held it through 1949, but there is no record of any work having been done by the company.
From 1949 to 1951 the property apparently changed hands three times, being owned successively by H. Giegerich, Now Jason Mines Ltd. of Toronto and Silver Hoard Mines Ltd. of Toronto. Leasers worked the property during this period. Silver Hoard Vines Ltd. did some diamond drilling and surface exploration on the property in 1952. In 1956, Highland-Bell Ltd. conducted a program of geological mapping on the area as the Big Bluff, Fred, Mar and Nick groups of claims.
In 1996, a program of prospecting and geochemical (rock, silt and soil) sampling was conducted by George Addie on the area as the Silver Hoard property. A rock sample (90331) of limestone hosting patches of pyrite and sphalerite, from near the western corner of the Silver Hoard claim, yielded 0.31 per cent lead, 4.97 per cent zinc and 56.6 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 25055).
During 2007 through 2011, Goldcliff Resource Corp. completed programs of prospecting, geological mapping, geochemical (rock, silt and soil) sampling and an airborne geophysical survey on the regionally extensive Ainsworth Silver property. In 2015, Goldcliff Resource Corp. conducted a program of prospecting, geological mapping, geochemical (rock, silt and soil) sampling and a 4.1 line-kilometre ground electromagnetic survey on the area as part of the Ainsworth Silver property.
In 2020 and 2021, Goldcliff Resource Corp. conducted a further program of geochemical (rock, silt and soil) sampling and a 508.0 line-kilometre airborne magnetic, electromagnetic and radiometric survey on the Ainsworth Silver property. Three dump samples (3202070012, 3202070013 and 3202070023) yielded from 0.08 to 0.39 per cent lead, 0.09 to 0.90 per cent zinc with 9.0 to 359.0 grams per tonne silver, whereas three float samples (3202170086 to 3202170088) collected from historical pits located approximately 175 metres to the north, yielded from 0.03 to 0.34 per cent lead, 0.33 to 4.43 per cent zinc with 29.8 to 35.5 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 40377).
