The Oregon property is situated on the north side of the ridge that separates Miller and Shea creeks, in the Slocan Mining Division. The underground workings are on Crown grant Lot 3098 at 1677 metres elevation above sea level.
In 1896 the Oregon claim was owned by the Sunshine Mining Co. Ltd. but there is no report of any work done on the property at this time.
In December 1935 the Sunshine Silver Lead Co. Ltd. was organized to develop a number of claims in the area. In 1936 the name was changed to the Silver Ridge Mining Co. Ltd. Extensive bulldozer stripping was done on this property in 1937 and several leads uncovered.
The Silver Ridge Mining Co. Ltd. started an adit on the Oregon claim in 1938 and then operations ceased and work was not resumed until 1945. The project was abandoned in 1946 due to excessively wet ground and bad air. The adit, an exploratory crosscut, was driven 3703.3 metres in a general south 22-degree west direction. Total linear work in the adit is about 838 metres. Two faults cut the Oregon tunnel, one 282 metres and the other 536 metres from the portal. The one farthest from the portal is full of gouge and a little quartz; the strike is north 70 degrees east and dips 55 degrees northwest. It was followed for 33.5 metres westward where it was intersected by a second major southwestward dipping fault. The hanging wall side was followed for 85.3 metres to the northwest and a diamond drill hole driven ahead an unknown distance but no mineralization was found. This exploratory work was based on the assumption that the faults of this locality are all right hand, however, this has not been proven.
Regionally, the area lies on the western margin of the Kootenay Arc, in allochthonous rocks of the Quesnel Terrane. In the vicinity of the occurrence, the Quesnel Terrane is dominated by very fine grained clastic sedimentary rocks of the Upper Triassic Slocan Group that include locally weakly metamorphosed argillite, quartzite, limestone and some tuffaceous rocks. These sedimentary rocks are intruded by dikes, sills and stocks of varied composition and origin. Permian and/or Triassic Kaslo Group metamorphosed volcanic rocks occur to the north of the Slocan Group rocks. Middle Jurassic Nelson intrusions are immediately south of the Slocan Group and are inferred to be the source of granitic to pegmatitic sills and dikes found in the area. The Nelson intrusions comprise at least six texturally and compositionally distinct phases ranging from diorite to lamprophyre. The most dominant phase is a medium to coarse grained potassium feldspar porphyritic granite (Paper 1989-5).
The occurrence is hosted by predominantly interbedded black argillite and quartzite of the Slocan Group. The sedimentary rocks have been folded, fractured, faulted and regionally metamorphosed to greenschist facies. The regional northwest trending asymmetric Slocan syncline is thought to be Middle Jurassic and is the first recognizable deformation in the sequence. Several fault structures are evident and host vein mineralization. Later stage normal and thrust faults and shearing have chopped, deformed and remobilized the veins and mineralization. Drag features are also present.
The occurrence consists of three separate veins intersected in a 655 metre long adit. The adit is driven in a southerly direction through mostly flat-lying argillite for the first 90 metres. It then passes through the core of an anticlinal structure occupied by massive quartzite for about 180 metres. The next 190 metres are through a zone of fractured and sheared quartzite and argillite. Beyond the fractured and sheared zone the beds dip mostly 30 degrees northeast. The last 195 metres of the adit are through thinly bedded argillite cut by four lamprophyric dikes.
The first vein structure is 67 metres from the portal. The vein has been mined for about 25 metres and had a general 080 degree strike. The vein contained massive galena concentrated in narrow lenses along the vein. A few tonnes of lead may have been recovered from this vein but no definitive records could be located (Bulletin 29). The second vein is 274 metres from the portal. This vein was drifted on for about 10 metres to the west. It consists of a breccia zone containing quartz, siderite and sphalerite. The vein is next to a major southwest dipping fault zone.
The third vein is 503 metres from the portal. This vein is within a shear zone that strikes 070 degrees and dips 55 degrees southeast. The vein contains quartz but no apparent sulphides. It has been drifted on for about 33 metres in a westerly direction where it intersected a major southwest dipping fault zone.
There are no production records for this property.
