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File Created: 26-May-1988 by Kirk Hancock (KDH)
Last Edit:  06-Apr-2009 by Nicole Barlow (NB)

Summary Help Help

NMI
Name MIOCENE, MIOCENE SHAFT, MIOCENE GRAVEL MINING CO. Mining Division Cariboo
BCGS Map 093A033
Status Prospect NTS Map 093A06W
Latitude 052º 19' 59'' UTM 10 (NAD 83)
Longitude 121º 25' 02'' Northing 5799262
Easting 607847
Commodities Gold Deposit Types C01 : Surficial placers
Tectonic Belt Intermontane Terrane Quesnel
Capsule Geology

The Miocene showing is located immediately west of the Horsefly river, covered now by the town of Horsefly. The 2 compartment shaft is approximately 1000 feet southwest of the old Wards' hydraulic pit. This is 137 metres deep in loose gravel and till. The shaft bottomed on Eocene siltstones and shales, and a decline was driven (southwest-west) along the "bedrock" surface.

The three compartment shaft is underneath the B.C. Telephone utility trailer across from the community hall. The shaft is 167 metres deep in unconsolidated till and gravel. A 152 metre drift was cut at the siltstone "bedrock" level. The gravel and boulder conglom- erate in contact with the "bedrock" is partially cemented, many metres thick.

The gold, or pay gravels, occur in the lower yellow, quartz pebble/cobble rich gravels. As well blue gravels (blue shales) at the contact of the gravels and siltstones carry gold. No assays or values are reported but were said "to pay well". By inference with similar deposits in the area, Ward's Horsefly and Hobson's Horsefly, a value of several cents per cubic yard (order of 0.001 ounce per yard) can be suggested.

No production is recorded for the site and all the workings are collapsed. This deposit is inferred as being within the old "Miocene Channel" that hosts the placer deposits in the Horsefly area.

"Data from the Cariboo mining district indicate that supergene leaching of gold dispersed within massive sulphides by Tertiary deep weathering followed by Cenozoic erosion is the most likely explanation for the occurrence of coarse gold nuggets in Quaternary sediments" (Exploration in British Columbia 1989, page 147).

Bibliography
EMPR AR 1897-476-481,484; 1898-982; 1899-575; *1902-69-81;
1912-K53; 1938-C16
EMPR EXPL 1989, pp. 147-169
EMPR FIELDWORK 1988, pp. 159-165; 1990, pp. 331-356; 1992, pp.
463-473
EMPR PF (Bergman, E.E., (1938): Report of a Geophysical Survey of
the Horsefly River Valley, British Columbia)
EMPR PF Rimfire (Talvila (1980): Placer Gold Mining on the Horsefly River)
GSC MAP 1424A
EMPR PFD 860441

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