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File Created: 24-Jul-1985 by BC Geological Survey (BCGS)
Last Edit:  01-Aug-2001 by Garry J. Payie (GJP)

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NMI 082K16 Pb1
Name SILVER GIANT, SILVER GIANT MINE, GIANT MASCOT, SPILLIMACHEEN Mining Division Golden
BCGS Map 082K098
Status Past Producer NTS Map 082K16W
Latitude 050º 55' 52'' UTM 11 (NAD 83)
Longitude 116º 29' 07'' Northing 5642290
Easting 536171
Commodities Lead, Zinc, Silver, Copper, Barite, Antimony, Cadmium Deposit Types E12 : Mississippi Valley-type Pb-Zn
E10 : Carbonate-hosted barite
E14 : Sedimentary exhalative Zn-Pb-Ag
Tectonic Belt Omineca Terrane Ancestral North America
Capsule Geology

The region includes strata from the Purcell and Windermere supergroups, overlain by a Paleozoic platformal carbonate succession. The structure of the area is dominated by the Mount Forster-Steamboat fault, one of a series of Mesozoic thrust faults, and it carries folded Middle and Upper Proterozoic strata over folded Upper Proterozoic and Paleozoic strata.

In the Silver Giant occurrence area, the Middle-Upper Cambrian Jubilee Formation consists of a massive dolomite-limestone unit unconformably overlying the Lower Cambrian Cranbrook Formation and Hadrynian Horsethief Creek Group. The Cranbrook Formation consists of thick-bedded mature quartzites and quartz grits; the Horsethief Creek Group comprises a series of interbedded thinly laminated, grey shales, massive thick-bedded grits, medium to thick-bedded, white and brown quartzites, and grey, black, and buff-weathering limestones and dolomites. The Upper Cambrian to Middle Ordovician McKay Group conformably overlies the Jubilee Formation and consists of recessively weathering shales, thin sandstones and dolomitic biowackestones. Base metal mineralization occurs within the Jubilee Formation in solution breccias beneath the Devonian and Ordovician unconformities.

At the Silver Giant mine, mineralization occurs in limestone of the Jubilee Formation close to its contact with slates of the McKay Group. The orebodies occur on the crest of an overturned anticline that has been subsequently folded and faulted. At the mine the main ore zone occupies the nose of the overturned anticline. The structure has a limestone core surrounded by slate. The plunge of the nose is westerly, and underground development has shown it to vary from 45 degrees near the surface to flat-lying on the No. 8 level. A large regional thrust fault has been mapped 400 metres to the west and in the underground workings.

The various mineralized zones are barite-sulphide replacements with varying amounts of silica. They occur beneath the slate at its contact with the limestone along the nose of the fold and along the west limb. Some barren masses of barite also occur in the limestone beneath the contact; these are interpreted as the roots of the orebodies.

Mineralogy consists of predominantly fine-grained galena with lesser amounts of sphalerite, pyrite, chalcopyrite and bornite. Locally, small amounts of a grey copper-arsenic mineral also occur. The barite is most commonly white. It varies from very fine grained to coarse bladed crystal aggregates. The fine-grained barite is either massive or foliated and commonly contains sulphides and argillaceous material. Both fine and medium-grained carbonate occurs interstitial to the barite. Some chert may also be present. Locally, there is the suggestion of brecciation.

The Silver Giant discovery dates back to 1883 and was a producer of lead, zinc, silver, copper, antimony and cadmium during the period 1947 to 1957. In 1959 Baroid of Canada Limited entered into an agreement to produce barite from the property. Production in excess of 188,000 tonnes of barite came from reconcentration of mill tailings and some underground and open pit operations. Production ceased in 1983 and the deposit is considered depleted (Z.D. Hora, personal communication, 1991).

Since most of the barite appears to have been produced from a reworking if the mine tailings, a more accurate value of all ore acutually mined at the Silver Giant would be 840,000 tonnes.

Bibliography
EMPR AR 1888-308,309; 1889-286,287; 1890-374; 1891-569; 1895-672; 1898-1044,1045; 1899-594; 1905-J143; 1906-H134; 1907-L89; 1908- J88,J246; 1909-J97-J99; 1910-K92; 1916-K188,K516; 1917-F176; 1918- K184; 1920-N109; 1923-A195-A197; 1925-A221; 1926-A237; 1927-C261- C263; 1928-C275; 1929-C290; 1930-A232; 1947-A176,A203; 1948-A152; 1949-A200-A204; 1950-A157; 1951-A40,A191; 1952-A43,A203,A204; 1953-A45,A154,A155,A275,A276; 1954-A49,A147-A150; 1955-A48,72,73; 1956-A49,111,112; 1957-A45,65; 1958-85; 1959-151,152; 1960-135; 1961-141; 1962-147; 1963-138; 1964-181; 1965-259; 1966-261; 1967- 300; 1968-296
EMPR ASS RPT 9, 35, 38, 39
EMPR GEM 1969-383; 1970-489; 1971-454; 1972-579; 1973-538,539; 1974- 372
EMPR INF CIRC 1984-1, p. 33; 1985-1, p. 44; 1986-1, p. 67; 1987-1, p. 75
EMPR MAP 62; 65, 1989
EMPR OF 1998-10
EMPR PF (Starr, C.C. (1928): Report on an Examination of Giant Mine, Sketch of No. 3 and No. 5 Tunnels Showing Samples, @ 1928; Parker, J.L. (1929, 1930): Notes on the Giant Vein Developments, Report on Mining Operations-Giant Mine B.C.; Various memoranda and notes; White, R.J. (1924): Report on the Giant Property; Kursell, H.A. (1927): Report on the Giant Mine; Plan map, sections and longitudinal section of drill holes, plan showing ore shoots, plans of mine workings, claim location map, assay plan; photograph)
EMR MP CORPFILE (Silver Giant Mines, Limited; United Siscoe Mines Limited; Giant Mascot Mines, Limited)
GSC MAP 12-1957; 1326A
GSC MEM 369, p. 115
GSC OF 481
GSC P 91-1A, pp. 27-31
GSC SUM RPT 1925 Part A, p. 228; 1926 Part A, p. 55; 1932 Part AII, pp. 173-176
CANMET IR 688, pp. 82,83; 720, pp. 155-158; 2576; 3104
CMJ Dec. 1951, pp. 47-50
W MINER Vol.27, June 1954, pp. 42-47
Butrenchuk, S.B.B. (1988), *Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, internal unpublished draft manuscript on Barite

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