British Columbia Ministry of Energy, Mines and Natural Gas and Responsible for Housing
News | The Premier Online | Ministries & Organizations | Job Opportunities | Main Index

MINFILE Home page  ARIS Home page  MINFILE Search page  Property File Search
Help Help
File Created: 10-Jan-1994 by Dorthe E. Jakobsen (DEJ)
Last Edit:  27-Jun-2007 by Larry Jones (LDJ)

Summary Help Help

NMI
Name RANCHLANDS, CACHE CREEK ZEOLITE, MOUNTAIN MINERALS, Z-1, Z-2, MCABEE, Z2, Z1, C2C Mining Division Lillooet
BCGS Map 092I084
Status Producer NTS Map 092I14W
Latitude 050º 49' 44'' UTM 10 (NAD 83)
Longitude 121º 16' 24'' Northing 5632218
Easting 621601
Commodities Zeolite Deposit Types D01 : Open-system zeolites
Tectonic Belt Intermontane Terrane Overlap Assemblage
Capsule Geology

The Cache Creek zeolite deposits are located about 4.5 kilometres northeast of Cache Creek. The deposit was discovered by P.B. Read while mapping for the B.C. Geological Survey Branch.

The area is underlain by volcanic and sedimentary rocks of the Eocene Kamloops Group. The zeolitized materials in the Cache Creek area outcrop in four locations. These have been divided into two groups: A and B.

Group A (Z-1) is zeolitized tuffs which are grey to light grey, competent, with 10 per cent porosity and a minimum thickness of 6 to 8 metres. Group A1, below Group A, comprises light to dark green lithified and zeolitized tuffs. These are competent with 6 to 12 per cent porosity and a minimum thickness of 5 to 7 metres. The contact between the two groups is sharp. The zeolite is clinoptilolite and minor heulandite.

Group B (Z-2), near McAbee, is zeolitized rhyolite tuffs, smectite clay, shale and siltstone. Zeolites are not the main component of this sedimentary sequence. Frequent yellow stains on microfractures exposed in a bulldozer cut are probably jarosite (Z.D. Hora, personal communication). The sequence is light to dark brown and grey to dark green, bedded, friable and contains minor fossil organics. The sequence has a minimum thickness of 50 to 70 metres. The zeolites are heulandite, stilbite and clinoptilolite.

Visual estimates indicate in excess of 500,000 tonnes in Group A, in excess of 300,000 tonnes in Group A1 and 1.5 to 2 million tonnes in Group B (Hogg, 1993).

Limeco Products Division of Highwood Resources Ltd. continued to develop its market, in a variety of agricultural applications in Alberta, from the Z-1 and Z-2 (McAbee) pits. Mountain Minerals Company Ltd. operated the property in 1997. Production statistics are not available.

In 1998, C2C Mining Corp. purchased the Z2 property from Highwood Resources Ltd. The Z2 deposit is reported to contain 2 million tonnes of proven reserves (C2C Mining Corp. News Release, November 1998). C2C built a zeolite processing plant at Ashcroft to produce barn deodorizers (Mucker's Mate), feed binders, cat litters (Zippity Doo) and industrial absorbents (Cage). C2C plans to use zeolites in environmental remediation and enhancement including hazardous waste encapsulation systems.

Bibliography
EM EXPL 1996-A24,D6; 1998-62
EMPR FIELDWORK 1981, pp. 270,271; 1987, pp. 417-419
EMPR INF CIRC 1995-9, p. 19; 1996-1, p. 19; 1997-1, p. 22; 1998-1,
p. 15
EMPR OF 1988-30; 1990-23
EMPR PF (*Hogg, L. (1993): Cache Creek Zeolite Deposits, Project
Development, Mountain Minerals Co. Ltd.)
GSC MAP 1010A; 1386A; 42-1989
GSC MEM 262
GSC OF 165; 866; 980
GSC P 46-8; 47-10; 69-23; 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
CJES Vol.15, No.1 (Jan. 1978), pp. 99-116
N MINER Dec. 20, 1993
PR REL C2C Mining Corp. July 20, Nov. 1998
Placer Dome File
EMPR PFD 9565, 886783, 886784

COPYRIGHT | DISCLAIMER | PRIVACY | ACCESSIBILITY