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File Created: 24-Jul-1985 by BC Geological Survey (BCGS)
Last Edit:  05-Jul-2013 by Karl A. Flower (KAF)

Summary Help Help

NMI
Name INVERECK, GOLD BAR Mining Division Victoria
BCGS Map 092B052
Status Prospect NTS Map 092B12E
Latitude 048º 30' 59'' UTM 10 (NAD 83)
Longitude 123º 43' 05'' Northing 5373946
Easting 446973
Commodities Talc Deposit Types
Tectonic Belt Insular Terrane Pacific Rim
Capsule Geology

The Invereck showing is found in the steep-sided Deception Gulch, 1.3 kilometres west of the outlet of Sooke Lake. The property is just west of the western boundary of Greater Victoria's watershed which includes Sooke Lake. Gravel roads access the area from Victoria, about 50 kilometres southeast.

The talc occurs in shear zones in the Jurassic to Cretaceous Leech River Complex (Formation), which includes sandstone, chert, argillite and some volcanics, metamorphosed in places, to graphitic-quartz-sericite and staurolite-andalusite-garnet-biotite schists (Fairchild, 1979). In the vicinity of the showing the rocks are mainly pelitic schists.

The talc appears to be structurally related since it occurs at the intersection of two major faults - the Survey Mountain fault that follows Deception Gulch, and the Shawnigan Lake fault that trends north through Sooke Lake. The Survey Mountain fault and the Leech River fault mark the north and south boundaries of the Leech River Complex, respectively. Potassium-argon dates of 38 to 42 million years, give the date of latest movement on the bounding faults and possibly the age of talc formation (N.W.D. Massey, personal communication, 1987).

In Deception Gulch, a 5.4 metre talc bank is excavated and a sample was analysed by the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources in 1922 (in per cent):

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Al203 5.8

Fe 2.8

MgO 30.4

Lime nil

Magnesite 16.0

Gold trace

Heat loss at 110 nil

Heat loss at "red heat" 17.0

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The Invereck deposit is reported to be very similar in appearance to the Eagle property (092B 012), (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1922, page 257).

In 1978 and 1979, programs of trenching and nine diamond drill holes, totalling 278.9 metres, were completed on the area as the North, West, East and South claims. In 1985, the area was prospected as the Aura 1-2 claims. In 2001, the area was prospected for soapstone as the Wolf Creek 1 claim. This work identified a number of smaller talc occurrences continuing along Wolfe Creek.

Bibliography
EMPR AR 1922-257; 1924-256,257
EMPR ASS RPT 6907, 7536, 14552
EMPR OF 1988-8; *1988-19, pp. 53-59
EMR MIN BR OTTAWA RPT 803
GSC EC GEOL Series 2, 1926, pp. 33-37
GSC MAP 42A; 1386A; 1553A
GSC MEM 13; 96
GSC OF 463
GSC P 72-44; 75-1A, p. 23; 79-30
Fairchild, L. (1979): The Leech River Unit & Leech River Fault,
Southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia, unpublished
M.Sc. Thesis, University of Washington, 170 pages

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