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File Created: 24-Jul-1985 by BC Geological Survey (BCGS)
Last Edit:  04-Jun-2013 by Karl A. Flower (KAF)

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NMI 092B13 Mn1
Name HILL 60, STRIKER, HILL 60 NO.1 (L.12G), HILL 60 NO.2 (L.13G) Mining Division Victoria
BCGS Map 092B081
Status Past Producer NTS Map 092B13W
Latitude 048º 49' 28'' UTM 10 (NAD 83)
Longitude 123º 58' 18'' Northing 5408396
Easting 428681
Commodities Rhodonite, Gemstones, Manganese, Copper Deposit Types Q02 : Rhodonite
F01 : Sedimentary Mn
Tectonic Belt Insular Terrane Wrangell
Capsule Geology

The Hill 60 manganese deposit, mined by open pit in 1919 and 1920, is located on Hill 60, approximately 6 kilometres east of the community of Lake Cowichan.

The area is underlain by tuffaceous cherts of the Mississippian to Pennsylvanian Fourth Lake Formation, Buttle Lake Group (formerly the upper part of Muller's Myra Formation (Sediment-Sill Unit)). Several hundred metres to the north of the deposit, the Fourth Lake rocks form a west-northwest trending contact with granodiorite of the Early to Middle Jurassic Island Plutonic Suite (formerly called the Island Intrusions). Several hundred metres to the south, they form a west-northwest trending geological contact with volcanics of the Devonian Nitinat Formation, Sicker Group (Open File 1988-8). The tuffaceous cherts are intruded by large masses of gabbro (informally called the Mount Hall Gabbro) that are coeval with the Upper Triassic Karmutsen Formation, Vancouver Group.

The rocks associated with the manganese occurrence are thinly banded, green, cream and red tuffaceous cherts locally containing lens of massive red jasper. These rocks are cut by a few mafic dykes near the Hill 60 workings.

The manganese ore outcropped for a distance of 33 metres at a strike of 080 degrees and a dip of about 70 degrees to the southeast, along the crest of the hill. Both strike and dip of the ore conform with the bedding of the country rock. The ore consisted mainly of a mixture of hard, compact oxides of manganese (pyrolusite), grading from highly siliceous material along the walls (rhodonite) to a relatively pure oxide at the centre of the orebody. The central portion of highly oxidized ore was about 6.5 metres across and 4.6 metres in depth. An average sample of the deposit was reported to contain 37.5 per cent manganese (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1918, page 297).

The rhodonite varies in colour from pink to watermelon red. It is predominantly massive with minor irregular-shaped masses of quartz and the yellow manganese garnet, spessartite. Toward the periphery of the deposit, these three minerals occur in parallel bands, with quartz predominant. Rare fragments of green chert occur in the rhodonite. Chalcopyrite and bornite occur as disseminations in the rhodonite and jasper. Numerous veins of quartz and fracture-fillings of paler pink rhodonite cut the rhodonite lens. Fault gouge occurs along the contact between the rhodonite and the country rock. Thin section and x-ray diffraction analysis confirm the presence of calcite, rhodochrosite, quartz and rhodonite in the gouge.

Thin lenses of rhodonite are present in the tuffaceous cherts approximately along strike from this deposit but not continuous with it.

The deposit was discovered in 1918, and in 1919 and 1920, 1059 tonnes of ore yielded about 529,000 kilograms of manganese. The ore mined in 1919 was reported to average 50 per cent manganese and 19 per cent silica (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1919, page 237). Around 1985, an unknown quantity was mined by Earl Jacques for jewellery and carvings (Z.D. Hora, personal communication, 1991).

In 2002, Philippa and Rick Hudson, Mineral World Scratch Patch in Sidney, B.C. acquired the property and offer guided tours from Victoria. An area was blasted for parking in 2006. The property was transfered to Robert Morgan in November 2006.

Bibliography
EMPR AR 1918-296; 1919-237; 1924-368
EMPR ASS RPT 18871, 28619
EMPR BC METAL MM00236
EMPR BULL *37, pp. 67,68
EMPR FIELDWORK 1982, p. 46; 1987, pp. 81-91
EMPR INDEX 3-200
EMPR MAP 65 (1989)
EMPR Mineral Potential Map 1992-3
EMPR OF 1988-8; 1992-1; 1992-9
EMPR PF (Report by Turner, 1918; Sargent, 1939; Various plans and
maps; Commodity File - (Sargent, H. (1956): Manganese Occurrences
in British Columbia; Leaming, S.F. (1966): Rhodonite in
British Columbia, The Canadian Rockhound; Danner, W.R. (1975):
Gem Materials of British Columbia, Montana Bureau of Mines and
Geology, Special Publication 74))
GSC MAP 42A; 1386A; 1553A
GSC MEM 13; 96
GSC OF 463
GSC P 64-37, p. 19; 72-44; 72-53; 75-1A, p. 23; 79-30
CAN ROCKHOUND Internet Magazine, Summer 1997, Vol. 1, No. 3;
Rockhounding on Vancouver Island
vancouver_island.html
Cowley, P. (1979): *Correlation of Rhodonite Deposits on Vancouver
Island and Saltspring Island, British Columbia, Unpublished B.Sc.
Thesis, University of British Columbia
Hudson, R. (1997): A Field Guide to Gold, Gemstone & Mineral Sites of
British Columbia, Vol. 1: Vancouver Island, pp. 94-95
Munition Resources Commission of Canada, *1920, pp. 90-92

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