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File Created: 24-Jul-1985 by BC Geological Survey (BCGS)
Last Edit:  19-Aug-2009 by George Owsiacki (GO)

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NMI 093A14 Au4
Name MIDAS (L. 4670), STEELE LEDGE, ALLAN VEIN, TAIT VEIN, SLIM VEIN, STATION 4 VEIN, SADDLE (L.4668), MIDAS EXTENSION NO. 2 (L.4671), MIDAS EXTENSION NO. 1 (L.4673), WEST MIDAS EXT. NO.1 (L.4677), A.T. FRACTION (L.4674), E.T. FRACTION (L.4672) Mining Division Cariboo
BCGS Map 093A083
Status Past Producer NTS Map 093A14W
Latitude 052º 50' 52'' UTM 10 (NAD 83)
Longitude 121º 25' 05'' Northing 5856510
Easting 606534
Commodities Gold, Silver, Lead, Zinc Deposit Types I01 : Au-quartz veins
I05 : Polymetallic veins Ag-Pb-Zn+/-Au
Tectonic Belt Omineca Terrane Barkerville
Capsule Geology

The region is underlain by (?)Hadrynian to Paleozoic Snowshoe Group rocks. The Snowshoe Group is an assemblage of dominantly metasedimentary rocks within the Barkerville Terrane of south-central British Columbia. The metasedimentary rocks consist primarily of marble, quartzite and phyllite. In the Yanks Peak area these rocks comprise the Keithley and Harveys Ridge successions, but further to the east they remain undifferentiated. Metamorphism of the region varies from chlorite to sillimanite and higher grade. Gold-bearing quartz veins occur only in greenschist facies rocks.

The Midas prospect is adjacent to the Lipsey vein (93A 034) and contains a similar style of mineralization. Galena, sphalerite, pyrite and gold are distributed unevenly through quartz and quartz-ankerite veins. The veins are hosted by grey argillaceous and sericitic schists probably of the Harveys Ridge succession of the Snowshoe Group. The veins, which strike northeast to east, are known to occur over an area of about 60 by 570 metres and average 30 to 50 centimetres in width. In the late 1930s, the Midas adit, which attained a length of 365 metres, was constructed in order to carry out underground exploration of the veins.

The average of two chip samples taken from a narrow quartz vein in the Midas adit assayed 1212.46 grams per tonne gold (Bulletin 34, page 75). In 1949, 45 tonnes of ore produced 311 grams of gold and 62 grams of silver.

The Midas property consists of a number of Crown-granted minera1 claims, of which the more important are the Saddle (Lot 4668), Saddle Extension (Lot 4669), Midas (Lot 4670), Midas Extension No. 2 (Lot 4671), Midas Extension No. 1 (Lot 4673), West Midas Extension No. 1 (Lot 4677), and A.T. Fraction (Lot 4674). These and others were owned by Lieut.-Col. F.H.M. Codville, of Duncan. The claims lie east and northeast of the summit of Yanks Peak and on the top and sides of the ridge between the head of Luce Creek and French Snowshoe Creek. Many of the known veins were found at the time of the first quartz stakings in the 1860s. Interest in quartz veins dwindled after the first stakings in the 1860s and 1870s and very little work other than a small amount of surface prospecting was done at that time. In the early 1920s, J. Glover and 0.J. Pickering began prospecting in the vicinity of Yanks Peak, and in 1923 they located the Saddle and Saddle Extension claims (Lots 4668 and 4669) to cover their discovery (or rediscovery) of the Saddle vein (093A 033). In succeeding years Glover and Pickering drove a crosscut adit southeastward for about 152 metres to explore the vein at a depth of about 36 metres below its outcrop. In 1933, Britannia Mining and Smelting Co. Limited took an option on the Saddle, Midas and associated claims and organized Saddle Mines Ltd. This company, during 1933 and 1934, sank a shaft on the Saddle vein to connect with the crosscut driven by Glover and Pickering and did some surface trenching and prospecting to the northeast on the Tait, Lipsey,and other veins in that vicinity. In 1938, Cariboo Mines Ltd. was organized by Amparo Mining Co. Ltd. of Philadelphia. This company acquired the Saddle and Midas groups of claims as well as others northeast of the head of Luce Creek. The company built the camp at Snarlberg, built the road up the hill to the old camp at the Midas, drove a long exploratory crosscut at the Midas, and did about 10,668 metres of bulldozer stripping before stopping work in 1940. When the Amparo company went into voluntary liquidation Lieut.-Col. F.H.M. Codville bought certain of the Crown-granted mineral claims. During 1948, Colonel Codville installed a 15-ton Gibson ball mill and a Wilfley table in a log building at the portal of the Midas adit, and in late July, 1949, began to concentrate ore mined from a sub-level in the Saddle shaft. This operation was unprofitable, and was stopped in September, 1949, after gold-bearing concentrates having a gross value value of $438 had been produced.

The quartz veins of chief interest on the Midas property, the Saddle, Lipsey, Tait, Slim, and others, are exposed on the top and southeast slope of the northeast ridge of Yanks Peak. The Amparo company drove a crosscut southeastward from the northwest side of the ridge at the head of Luce Creek to explore the downward extension of the Midas vein zone and of the three large veins just west of it. Neither the company’s plans of the crosscut and surface workings nor their extensive assay plans are available. All the workings are accessible (ca. 1954), except for a short section which is caved near the end of the second crosscut on the west side. The air is good for about 152 metres in from the portal, but beyond that point there is a deficiency of oxygen and a match or candle will not burn. Safety precaution should be observed by anyon examining these workings (Bulletin 34).

The Midas workings consist of an almost straight crosscut about 366 metres long heading 144 degrees, and about 396 metres of lateral workings, drifts on veins, and exploratory crosscuts. Crosscuts were driven on the west side of the main adit in an attempt to find downward continuations of the three large northerly striking veins exposed on surface. In the crosscut beneath the most northerly vein there is a swarm of small quartz veinlets and an area of partial silicification, but there is no vein. A wide zone of sheared and faulted rock was encountered in the crosscut below the Lipsey vein (093A 034). This may be the same shear as that exposed on surface, but there is no vein in it underground. The crosscut beneath the southernmost vein did not cross any quartz corresponding to the surface showing.

The workings intersect at least twenty quartz veins. The veins occupy fractures which strike 050 to 060 degrees and dip steeply southeast, or which strike about 095 degrees and dip steeply south. The easterly striking veins have short, narrow offshoots striking northeastward. Some of the easterly striking veins have been followed by drifts as far as 46 metres. Four such veins on the east side of the main adit from 244 to 366 metres from the portal are directly beneath outcrops of the Midas vein zone, but the veins exposed underground are not necessarily the same as those exposed on surface. The veins are very sparsely mineralized with pyrite, galena, sphalerite, and ankerite. When the crosscut was being driven, visible gold was seen in a narrow vein crossing the adit 75 metres from the portal. Another narrow vein 99 metres from the portal, which was well mineralized with pyrite and sphalerite, contained abundant visible gold when first encountered in the main adit.

In 2001, the surviving members of the Codville family sold all interest in the property, consisting of sixteen Crown-granted mineral claims, to M. Renning, prospector. In 2006, prospecting and rock sampling was conducted at the Saddle shaft by Guardsmen Resources Inc.

Bibliography
EMPR AR 1929-C194; 1933-A137; 1934-C30; 1949-A103; 1950-107
EMPR BC METAL MM00451
EMPR BULL *34, pp. 68-75
EMPR OF 2001-11; 2004-12
EMPR ASS RPT 11849, 28892
EMPR PF (Drillhole sections (sketches) Midas Underground, date unknown; Sketch Maps Midas Underground (veins), date unknown; JBK to James H. Howard - Geologic Notes, date unknown; Notes on Various conversations by W.D. McCartney(?) Aug. & Sept. 1949; McCartney, W.D. Nov. 1949, Midas Member)
GSC ANN RPT 1887-1888, p. C45
GSC MAP 369; 59-1959; 1424A; 1538G
GSC MEM 421
GSC P 38-16, p. 39
GSC OF 574; 844

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