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File Created: 24-Jul-1985 by BC Geological Survey (BCGS)
Last Edit:  12-Nov-2014 by Laura deGroot (LDG)

Summary Help Help

NMI
Name QUARTZ CREEK PLACER, QUARTZ CREEK, PORCUPINE CREEK Mining Division Golden
BCGS Map 082N044
Status Past Producer NTS Map 082N06W
Latitude 051º 24' 01'' UTM 11 (NAD 83)
Longitude 117º 18' 53'' Northing 5694386
Easting 478107
Commodities Gold, Lead, Copper, Silver Deposit Types C01 : Surficial placers
Tectonic Belt Omineca Terrane Ancestral North America
Capsule Geology

Quartz Creek is 9 kilometres east of, and parallels the Beaver River, and is bordered by the Prairie Hills to the west and the Dogtooth Range to the east, about 30 kilometres northwest of Golden. It flows north-northwest and joins the Columbia River. The locally named "Porcupine Creek" is a tributary to Quartz Creek and lies in a southward extension of the valley of the main stream. Gold has been recovered from the creek dating back to 1881 and continuing very intermittently to 1940; about 7992 grams of gold was recovered over this period.

Gold was recovered from a bench where the downstream end is opposite the junction of Quartz and "Porcupine" creeks. The bench starts at the 1737-metre elevation and extends southward (upstream) for about 3 kilometres to the 1798-metre elevation; throughout this length the bench ranges from 60 to 213 metres wide. The average depth of the glaciofluvial gravels is 1.8 metres, with overburden of forest decay and, occasionally peat, from 0.3 to 0.9 metre thick. The gravels are poorly sorted and consist of sand and pebbles in which there are many rounded and subangular boulders up to 0.9 metre in diameter. The rock fragments are representative of the strata of the basin: quartzites, limestones and slates. Beneath the gravels, disintegrated blue phyllite forms the bedrock. The gold found on the bench occurs in the gravels and in the disintegrated phyllite. Values of $1 to $2 a yard are said to have been obtained from the bench gravels (Geological Survey of Canada Summary Report 1932 Part A II, page 172).

Gold has also been recovered from an alluvial flat, the surface of which is 0.9 to 6 metres above the bed of the creek. Most of this ground is on the east side of the creek and ranges from 30 to 304 metres in width; the depth of alluvium is not known. The gravels are finer than that of the bench gravels.

The valley of Quartz and "Porcupine" creeks is underlain by slates and phyllites which are overlain, as observed on the ridges, by limestone and quartzite, all of the Hadrynian Horsethief Creek Group. Many small veins and stringers of milky white quartz parallel the cleavage of the slates and phyllites and a number of stronger veins occur in the massive strata. Small amounts of pyrite and occasionally galena and chalcopyrite are found in the veins; the secondary development of ferruginous carbonate (ankerite) is pronounced in the enclosing strata. No native gold has been seen in any of the veins (Geological Survey of Canada Summary Report 1932 Part A II, page 172). Arsenopyrite, galena, chalcopyrite and native silver have been recovered from sluicing.

Bibliography
EMPR AR 1884-424; *1888-306; 1889-285; 1890-371; 1892-535; 1899-610,
663,664; 1900-802; 1926-A239; 1927-C264; 1929-C292; 1935-E36
EMPR ASS RPT 12761
EMPR BULL 28, pp. 35,36
EMPR PF (Prospectors Report 1994-6 by Barbara Welsh on the Quartz Creek Property;
Prospectors Report 1995-2 by Barbara Welsh; Prospectors Report 1995-3 by Barbara
Welsh; Prospectors Report 1995-20 by Richard Anderson; Prospectors Report 1997-2 by
Barbara Welsh)
GSC MAP 295A; 4-1961; 43-1962
GSC OF 481
GSC P 62-32
GSC SUM RPT *1932 Part A II, pp. 170-172

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