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File Created: 24-Jul-1985 by BC Geological Survey (BCGS)
Last Edit:  31-Aug-2007 by Sarah Meredith-Jones (SMJ)

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NMI 092I11 Mgs1
Name BASQUE NO. 1, BASQUE RANCH Mining Division Kamloops
BCGS Map 092I064
Status Past Producer NTS Map 092I11W
Latitude 050º 36' 04'' UTM 10 (NAD 83)
Longitude 121º 21' 31'' Northing 5606754
Easting 616157
Commodities Magnesium Sulphate, Sodium Sulphate, Hydromagnesite Deposit Types F09 : Playa and Alkaline Lake Evaporites
Tectonic Belt Intermontane Terrane Cache Creek
Capsule Geology

The Basque salt deposits occur in four small basins or mud-filled ponds 2 kilometres west of Highway 1 and 15 kilometres south of the community of Ashcroft. The deposits are the Basque No. 1, Basque No. 2 (092INW044), Basque No. 3 (092INW045) and Basque No. 4 (092INW046). The distance between the Basque No. 1 deposit in the north to the Basque No. 4 deposit in the south is about 1524 metres. The salts have accumulated in four small ponds that lie along a dry valley and are concentrated mainly in the two upper ponds (Basque Nos. 1, 2). Overburden is light or lacking, and in many places bare rock walls form part of the border of the ponds. These ponds are caused by dams of boulder clay and drift that cross the narrow valley.

A sequence of highly folded, metamorphosed, interbedded and nearly vertical dipping greenstone, argillite and argillaceous limestone of the Carboniferous to Jurassic Cache Creek Complex are exposed in the vicinity of the deposits. The Cache Creek rocks strike about 170 degrees.

The Basque deposits are hydrous salts of magnesium, sodium and calcium and consist primarily of mixed hydrous magnesium sulphate (epsomite or Epsom salt) and hydrous sodium magnesium sulphate (bloedite), as well as hydrous sodium sulphate (mirabilite or Glauber's salt). The top one metre in all of the deposits is principally epsomite. Mirabilite generally occurs near the surface and the bloedite at depth. There are also small amounts of calcium sulphate, sodium bicarbonate and sodium chloride present. Potassium in small amounts has been determined in the brines.

The ponds vary in length from 137 to 183 metres and in width from 61 to 137 metres. The sodium and magnesium crystal in each of these ponds occurs as bowl-shaped masses of relatively clean crystal separated from each other by mud. This mud is raised up from 5 to 20 centimetres above the level surface of the crystal and forms a border or ring around the crystal bowl. The mud between the crystal bowls contains 45 to 60 per cent salts plus a little organic matter, the remainder being silt. In wet weather and during the spring and early summer there is brine on top of the crystal.

The Basque No. 1 is the largest of the ponds and it contains the largest deposit of the salts. It is roughly oval in shape, about 198 metres long and 137 metres wide. The pond covers approximately 21,738 square metres; about 17,651 square metres are covered by crystal deposits including mud between (ca. 1937). The Basque No. 1 deposit was the only one to be exploited by the Basque Chemical Production Co. Ltd. About 2086 tonnes of top crystal has been removed; about 1633 tonnes of this is stored in two sheds and in a stockpile on the bank (Goudge, 1924).

Assuming the average minimum depth of crystal in the Basque No. 1 deposit to be 3 metres, the total quantity of sodium and magnesium salts available would be about 58,780 tonnes (Goudge, 1924).

Some shallow, fresh-water ponds and small deposits of impure hydromagnesite and hydrous sodium sulphate (mirabilite) occur in small converging valleys close to and west of the Basque deposits.

The Basque deposits were staked in December 1917 by Messrs. Hammond of Basque. In 1919, the Basque Chemical Production Co. Ltd. was formed in Vancouver to develop the property and work was begun the same year. Crude surface crystal from Basque No. 1 was shipped to Vancouver and there prepared for market. At the deposits, the company erected 15 or 20 wooden buildings including a number of comfortable dwelling houses for their workmen. A large building intended as a mill was also erected but very little machinery was installed. Operations ceased in 1923, after some 2086 tonnes of crystal had been removed from the surface of Basque No. 1. The top crystal on Basque No. 1 was very pure when operations were first begun, but has since been contaminated. It was dug out of the various bowls by means of picks, crowbars and shovels and taken ashore in carts. As the market warranted, shipments of the crude crystal were made to the company's refining plant in Vancouver where it was prepared for market; the major part of the material, however, was stored in two sheds and in a large pile on the shore of the deposit. About 1633 tonnes is still in storage there (ca. 1924). In 1926, the deposits were carefully examined by M.F. Goudge of the Bureau of Mines, Ottawa, who published a full report in the Bureau of Mines Publication No. 632. It was not until 1933 that interest was again taken in the deposits and in 1934 Epsom Refineries, Limited took over the property. From then until 1938 about 2721 tonnes of salts were removed. In 1938, the property was acquired by the Ashcroft Epsom Salts Company of Winnipeg, which carried on operations during the winter of 1938-39. Since then little has been done except that in 1942, 59 tonnes of salts were shipped from the refinery at Ashcroft by Canadian Industries, Limited.

Bibliography
EMPR AR 1918-K237-K238; 1919-N180-N181; 1920-N168; 1922-N154,N155;
1923-A171; 1934-F22-F23
EMPR BULL *4, pp. 42-53,55,115
EMPR FIELDWORK 1981, pp. 270,271; 2000, pp. 327-336
EMPR OF 1987-13
EMPR PF (Records of Mineral Claim, 1974; Application for Production
Permit, 1976)
GSC MAP 1010A; 1386A; 42-1989
GSC MEM *262, pp. 94,111-113
GSC OF 165; 866; 980
GSC P 46-8; 47-10; 69-23; 72-53, p. 104; 73-1A, p. 212; 74-49; 81-1A,
pp. 185-189, 217-221; 82-1A, pp. 293-297; 85-1A, pp. 349-358
CANMET RPT *642 (Goudge, M.F. (1924): Magnesium Sulphate in British
Columbia), pp. 62-75
CJES Vol.15, No.1 (January 1978), pp. 99-116
Grette, J.F. (1978): Cache Creek and Nicola Groups near Ashcroft,
British Columbia, M.Sc. Thesis, University of British Columbia
EMPR PFD 507258, 507259

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