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File Created: 24-Jul-1985 by BC Geological Survey (BCGS)
Last Edit:  03-Dec-1998 by George Owsiacki (GO)

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NMI 092I14 Cr2
Name SCOTTIE CREEK, SCOT 1-2, FLINT (L.3532), BARBARA (L.3534), WHITE TREE (L.3538), BROWN TREE (L.3539), IRON KING, IRON QUEEN, FLINT NO. 2 (L.3533), FLINT NO. 3 (L.3535), FLINT NO. 4 (L.3536), FLINT NO. 5 (L.3537), SCOTTY CREEK Mining Division Kamloops
BCGS Map 092I094
Status Developed Prospect NTS Map 092I14W
Latitude 050º 59' 30'' UTM 10 (NAD 83)
Longitude 121º 23' 42'' Northing 5650124
Easting 612639
Commodities Chromium, Gold, Platinum Deposit Types M03 : Podiform chromite
Tectonic Belt Intermontane Terrane Cache Creek
Capsule Geology

The Scottie Creek chromite prospect is 20 kilometres north of Cache Creek and 5 kilometres east of Highway 97. The workings are in a steep bank on the north side of Chrome Creek, about 1000 metres upstream from its confluence with Scottie Creek. A road from the highway runs up along Scottie Creek and passes near the workings. This chromite deposit has been used as a type deposit for mafic/ultramafic-hosted chromite mineralization by the Geological Survey of Canada (Geological Survey of Canada Economic Geology Report 36).

The hostrock for the Scottie Creek prospect is an upper Paleozoic serpentinite wedge in the eastern facies of the Carboniferous to Jurassic Cache Creek Complex. This consists of a Late Triassic accretionary prism/subduction complex associated with the Nicola volcanic arc. The melange contains Pennsylvanian and Early Permian limestones, chert, basalt and ultramafic rocks in a matrix of Permo-Jurassic chert and argillite.

Locally, only serpentinite is exposed at the chromite showings. The serpentinite is massive with abundant bastite, orthopyroxene and olivine, thus suggesting a harzburgite protolith. At Scottie Creek, the serpentinite is 300 metres wide with an unknown strike length. The body trends northerly and has a subvertical dip. It is extensively fractured in many directions with no dominant phase although many strike north +/- 15 degrees and dip gently to the west. Dunitic zones are scattered throughout the harzburgite. Contacts between dunite and harzburgite are irregular and sharp. Locally, the serpentinite is intensely altered to a quartz-carbonate-talc assemblage. The Cache Creek rocks including the serpentinite are overlain to the west by Tertiary plateau flood basalts. Locally, diamond drilling on the Barbara claim, near the old workings, has indicated that a thin conglomerate unit sits directly on top of the serpentinite. The whole area is mantled by a thick cover of Pleistocene till and Quaternary alluvium.

Chromite mineralization is restricted to the dunitic parts of the serpentinite. Chromite occurs as disseminations, small stringers and massive lenses. The stringers vary from vague wisps to zones 2 to 30 centimetres wide and 20 to 40 centimetres long composed of medium-grained chromite. Locally these stringers swell into massive chromitite lenses. To date, exploration has failed to identify any large zones of mineralization but this could be due to the extensive and thick cover. Magnetite and minor pyrite are present.

A sample from a 136-tonne pile of chromite ore from an opencut assayed 22.5 per cent Cr2O3 (15.4 per cent chromium) (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1918).

In 1918, panned samples from bars and old placer workings and diggings along Scottie Creek up to the mouth of Chrome Creek were analysed by J.T. King of the University of Toronto and yielded from 2.7 to 37.3 grams per tonne gold and 0.3 to 4.8 grams per tonne platinum. Panned samples from near the mouth of Chrome Creek to a point near and below the chromite showings were also analysed and yielded from 6.1 to 28.1 grams per tonne gold and 2.0 grams per tonne platinum. A general sample of chromite ore from dumps near the mouth of a drift analysed 14.4 grams per tonne gold and 3.4 grams per tonne platinum. A general sample of chromite ore piled near opencuts analysed 2.0 grams per tonne gold and 0.68 gram per tonne platinum. No platinum was seen in any of the placer samples taken, but small pieces of a pale grey metal had been occasionally observed by men panning or sluicing for gold some years previously (Thomlinson, 1918).

The original discoveries of chromite were made on the Barbara claim (Lot 3534) by Mike Ahearn in 1901, probably as a result of placer activity on Scottie Creek. Limited trenching was done and a sample of the mineralization was sent to the Geological Survey of Canada where it was examined and analysed by R.A.A. Johnston. The showing was not developed until the first half of 1918 when the price of chrome and wartime demands stimulated exploration. By 1918, the ground was held as the Iron King and Iron Queen claims owned by Henry Cargyle of Ashcroft and Mr. Bryson of Pavilion. All of the claims were optioned to Messrs. Stewart and Calvert of Oroville, Washington. Work included trenching and a 14-metre adit. About 453 tonnes of mineralized rock was mined by Stewart and Calvert from small opencuts but no shipments made.

In 1927, the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada Limited optioned two claims on Ferguson Creek (092INW035) and one on Scottie Creek, and staked adjacent ground. In 1929, the company shipped 114 tonnes of chromite-bearing material to Trail for experimental purposes. Later, in 1930, the company did extensive testing of the property. They drove five adits and completed crosscutting, raising and sinking winzes as well as six major test pits, mainly on the Flint No. 2 claim (Lot 3533). Forty-five tonnes of chromitite material were shipped for testing but the results were not promising and operations ceased in 1931. The claims on Ferguson Creek were allowed to lapse and eight claims on Scottie and Chrome creeks were Crown granted in 1939. The eight claims are as follows: Flint (Lot 3532), Flint No. 2 (Lot 3533), Flint No. 3 (Lot 3535), Flint No. 4 (Lot 3536), Flint No. 5 (Lot 3537), Barbara (Lot 3534), White Tree (Lot 3538) and Brown Tree (Lot 3539). The Granby Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company Limited reportedly held an option on the property in 1948.

In 1979, J. Whist acquired six Reverted Crown grants (Flint, Flint Nos. 2 and 3, Barbara, White Tree and Brown Tree) and staked the Scot 1 and 2 claims. In 1980, Granges Exploration Ltd. acquired a 50 per cent interest in the property and the other 50 per cent interest was transferred to Valhalla Minerals Inc., later renamed Valhalla Energy Corp. In 1980-81, work comprised linecutting, a ground magnetometer survey and two diamond-drill holes totalling 312 metres on behalf of Granges Exploration Aktiebolag. In 1986, a reconnaissance geochemical survey tested the area for platinum group metals in stream sediments, soils and rocks on behalf of Granges Exploration Ltd. and Valhalla Energy Corp. In 1993, the Scottie 1-6 claims were located over the showings. A program of heavy mineral stream sediment and soil sampling and a magnetometer survey was carried out on the claims owned by W.R. Gilmour on behalf of the Predator Syndicate. All but two of the original eight Crown grants have forfeited; the Flint No. 4 and 5 claims (Lots 3536, 3537) remain as Crown grants.

Bibliography
EM GEOFILE 2000-2; 2000-5
EMPR AR 1901-1091; 1902-H198; 1915-K285,K286; 1918-K227,K228,K242; 1920-N24; 1927-C211,C212; 1928-C220; 1929-C229; 1930-A198,A199; 1931-A110
EMPR ASS RPT 7859, 10208, 16025, 23515
EMPR BULL (*unpublished, Stevenson, J.S. (1941): Chromite Deposits of B.C.)
EMPR EXPL 1980-243; 1981-233
EMPR FIELDWORK 1981, pp. 270,271; 1987, pp. 417-419
EMPR OF 1986-7, pp. 18-20; 1987-13; 1988-30; 1990-23; *1990-27, pp. 19-21
EMPR PF (*Gilbert, G. (1941): Report on the Flint Chrome Property, The Consolidated Mining & Smelting Company of Canada Limited; GCNL #252(Oct.21), 1986; Geological maps and plans of underground workings; Newspaper article from Vancouver Herald, Business Report, July 17, 1956; Excerpt from Whittaker, Ph.D. Thesis, 1983)
EMR MP COMM FILE MR-CR-301.00, Eardley-Wilmot, V.L. (1939): Chromite Notes
EMR MP CORPFILE (Granges Exploration Ltd.; The Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada Limited)
GSC OF 165; 866; 980
GSC ANN RPT 1900, Vol.XIII, pp. 11R-12R
GSC ECON GEOL 13, p. 102; 36, p. 45
GSC MAP 1010A; 1386A; 42-1989
GSC MEM *118, pp. 86-91; *262, pp. 94,96,98,99
GSC P 46-8; 47-10; 69-23; 72-53, p. 80; 73-1A, p. 212; 74-49; 81-1A, pp. 185-189,217-221; 82-1A, pp. 293-297; 85-1A, pp. 349-358; 89-1E
CANMET IR 1343 (1943)
CJES Vol.19 (1982), pp. 1156-1173
*Thomlinson, Wm. (1918): The Sampling of some Platinum-bearing Lodes and Placers in British Columbia, pp. 177-180, in Munition Resources Commission, Canada, Final Report of the Work of the Commission, 1920
Whittaker, P.J. (1983): Geology and Petrogenesis of Chromite and Chrome and Chrome Spinel in Alpine-type Peridotites of the Cache Creek Group, British Columbia; unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, Carleton University

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