The Bald Range deposit is located 16 kilometres north-northwest of Kelowna, west of Bald Range Creek.

In this area, Devonian to Triassic Harper Ranch Group sedimentary and volcanic rocks have been intruded by Middle Jurassic granitic rocks. Outliers of Eocene Penticton Group volcanic and sedimentary rocks overlie the older units.

The Harper Ranch Group includes two marble units potentially suitable for industrial use. The southern unit comprises fine- to medium-grained; recrystallized; grey-, black-, orange- and bronze-coloured marble. This unit is up to 250 metres thick, dips steeply and extends along strike for at least 1300 metres. The more irregular northern unit comprises mainly white marble.

Work History

The unit was explored for marble during 1982 through 1984 by D. Sandberg. After initially exploring for gold, Banbury Gold Mines Ltd. continued the marble exploration through geological mapping and drilling during 1988 and 1989. The average calcite grade is reported at 93 per cent and the rock is reported to polish well and display a high brightness. The southern unit has been estimated to contain about 198 800 tonnes of high-quality marble (Industrial Mineral File - Stanford, M. R., 1989).

In 2012, Western Canada Limestone Ltd. completed a preliminary program of calcining testing of limestone fines from the Bald Range quarry. This work indicated that materials being mined and sold have the potential to be converted into high-quality lime products.

In 2015, an evaluation of aggregate production potential was conducted. This work indicated that coarse crushing of the limestone could be used to produce good quality structural aggregate in a top-size range of 50 millimetre and greater.

In 2019, Western Canada Limestone Ltd. completed a technical report on the chemistry and hardness of the limestone from the quarry. A sample from the quarry yielded 98.6 per cent calcium carbonate and 0.01 per cent sulphur, indicating the suitability of the limestone for use as rip-rap (Assessment Report 38115).