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File Created: 24-Jul-1985 by BC Geological Survey (BCGS)
Last Edit:  26-Feb-1991 by Laura L. Coughlan (LLC)

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NMI 082F3 Mo1
Name MOLLY (L.14232), MOLYBDENITE, BROMYRITE KING, BROMYRITE, MOLYBDENUM NO. 1, MOLLY 1-9 (LOTS 14232-14241) Mining Division Nelson
BCGS Map 082F005
Status Past Producer NTS Map 082F03E
Latitude 049º 05' 00'' UTM 11 (NAD 83)
Longitude 117º 11' 44'' Northing 5436738
Easting 485720
Commodities Molybdenum, Tungsten, Uranium Deposit Types L05 : Porphyry Mo (Low F- type)
K05 : W skarn
Tectonic Belt Omineca Terrane Kootenay, Plutonic Rocks
Capsule Geology

The property is located at about 1219 metres elevation on the south side of Lost Creek, 12.8 kilometres south-southeast of Salmo.

The showings were staked in July 1913 by Messrs. Benson, Bennett and Ross. The 4 claims comprising the property were the Bromyrite King, Bromyrite, Molybdenite, and Molybdenum No.1. In 1914, the property was leased for 6 months to Bell brothers of Salmo and ore was shipped to Denver, Colorado from open cuts and pits. Early in 1915 the property was leased for one year to B.C. Molybdenite Company, Limited and additional ore was shipped to Denver. In 1916, the property was under lease to International Molybdenum Company, Limited who shipped about 90 tonnes of ore to their plant at Renfrew, Ontario. The original owners resumed work on the property in 1917 and shipped about 45 tonnes of ore to the Mines Branch, Ottawa.

The property was restaked as the Molly and Molly 1-9 claims (Lots 14232-14241 respectively). The Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada Limited purchased the property in 1926 and a small amount of underground work and diamond drilling was carried out the following year. The claims were Crown-granted to the company in 1930. The workings at that time included about 30 metres of drift and crosscut, an 18-metre raise, and a winze.

Scheelite was discovered on the Molly 4 claim, about 305 metres southeast and 122 metres above the molybdenum showing, by Joe Gollo, of Howser, in 1942; the company carried out considerable exploration for scheelite that same year. Further work by the company on the molybdenum showing during the period July 1942-February 1943 included 35 metres of crosscut, 21 metres of drift, and a 5-metre raise; a small tonnage of ore was mined but not shipped.

Consolidated leased the property in 1952 to Pacific Gold & Uranium Mines, Ltd. but there is no report of work done. The company name (Consolidated) was changed in 1966 to Cominco Ltd. During 1978 the company carried out a magnetometer survey over 4 kilometres, and 266 metres of diamond drilling in 3 holes.

The Molly mine is hosted by granites of the Lost Creek stock of the Middle to Late Jurassic Nelson Intrusions, which are intruded into a sequence of argillites and limy argillites of the Ordovician Active Formation. The granite is quartz rich and appears to have an upper fine-grained, aplitic chilled zone or border capping in the order of 2 metres thick.

The aplite is sparsely impregnated with molybdenum but the main molybdenum ore occurs below this capping within a zone about 3 metres thick containing numerous joints parallel to the intrusive contact. The best mineralization appears within this sheeted zone where the intrusive contact dips at low angles and/or where there are prominent fractures intersecting this sheeting. Molybdenite occurs as selvages on the joint planes or disseminated between the joints. The more massive granite below the sheeted zone is host to very little molybdenite. Tungsten, as scheelite, occurs locally disseminated in skarn zones of small size.

Records indicate that the Molly mine produced at least 171 tonnes of ore which carried 3.5 to 5.88 per cent MoS2. From 1914 to 1917, a total of 11,366 kilograms of molybdenum were produced. Minor pyrite, pyrrhotite, and uraninite are also associated with the deposit. A sample assayed 0.13 equivalent uranium (Geological Survey of Canada, Economic Geology #16).

Bibliography
EMPR AR 1913-128; 1914-328; 1915-27,136,165,167; 1916-K205; 1918-198; 1926-281; 1927-404; 1929-353; 1930-447; 1942-77; 1943-77
EMPR ASS RPT 6667, 7041, 7651, 7849, 8564, 9893
EMPR BULL 9, p. 54; 10 (Rev.); *41, p. 132; 109
EMPR EXPL 1978-48
EMPR FIELDWORK 1987, pp. 19-30; 1988, pp. 33-43; 1989, pp. 11-27; 1990, pp. 9-31
EMPR MAP 22, #9
EMPR OF 1988-1; 1989-11; 1990-8; 1990-9; 1990-32; 1991-2; 1991-17
EMR CANMET RPT 1925, #592, p. 36
EMR MP CORPFILE (International Molybdenum Company, Limited)
EMR MP Resource File MR-MO-301.00
GSC EC GEOL #16, p. 45; #16 (2nd Ed.), p. 235; *#17, p. 102; *#20, pp. 24, 289
GSC MAP 1145A
GSC MEM 94; 172, p. 84; 308
GSC OF 551; 1195
GSC P 49-22; 50-19; 51-10; 52-13
CIM TRANS 53, 1950, pp. 282,285
ECON GEOL Vol. 46, 1951, pp. 353-366
EMPR PFD 2793, 750240

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