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File Created: 24-Jul-1985 by BC Geological Survey (BCGS)
Last Edit:  22-Jul-2020 by Karl A. Flower (KAF)

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NMI
Name B.C. (L.882), B.C. EHOLT MINE LTD, B.C. MINE, NOVELTY FR. (L.949), B.C. FR. (L.464S), MAY (L.1409), DAISY FR. (L.948), EHOLT, SUMMIT CAMP Mining Division Greenwood
BCGS Map 082E018
Status Past Producer NTS Map 082E02E
Latitude 049º 07' 54'' UTM 11 (NAD 83)
Longitude 118º 31' 10'' Northing 5443204
Easting 389159
Commodities Copper, Gold, Silver Deposit Types K01 : Cu skarn
K04 : Au skarn
Tectonic Belt Omineca Terrane Plutonic Rocks, Quesnel
Capsule Geology

The property is 12.5 kilometres northeast of Greenwood at the elevation of 1150 metres. Access is a few kilometres east of Highway 3 via a bush road following an old railway grade.

The B.C. claim was Crown granted to J. Keough in 1897. The B.C. Chartered Co. Ltd. soon acquired the property and began mine development. The property is unique in the district inasmuch as the ore is principally chalcopyrite. By 1899 a single compartment shaft was sunk to 50 metres. This, plus 610 metres of tunnelling and a 30-metre raise, constituted the underground work. A railway siding was constructed and the first shipments of high grade copper ore were to the Canadian Smelting Co. Ltd. in Trail, then to Grand Forks on completion of the Granby smelter in that town. The B.C. Mine remains the oldest and became one of the principal shipping mines in the Boundary district. At the time of closure in August 1903 the workings consisted of a 'glory-hole' and other underground developments from which more than 90,000 tonnes of ore were produced. Additionally, minor intermittent production to 1938 resulted in a total of 93,874 tonnes of ore, yielding 4094 tonnes of copper, 6665 kilograms of silver and 31 kilograms of gold.

The ore occurs as replacement lenses of chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite and minor pyrite in limestone of the Triassic Brooklyn Group. The limestone is interbedded with greenstone breccias, tuffaceous beds and conglomerates. The associated skarn and gangue minerals include garnet (the most abundant), quartz, calcite, epidote, actinolite and chlorite. Peripheral parts of the ore zone contain minor amounts of specularite and sphalerite. These rocks are cut by pulaskite porphyry dikes and sills that are feeders to the nearby Marron volcanics (Tertiary). The main lode is 60 metres long and 20 metres wide (contracting downward) and dips gently to the east. It is very much cut up by intrusive sheets of porphyry which form regular floors to the ore which has been mined to a depth of 120 metres. There are two sets of these sheets, one a coarser grained reddish porphyry with biotite and feldspar phenocrysts and, a younger pinkish pulaskite porphyry intrusion. Both intrusions have distinct salbands against the ore - the ore having plately jointing parallel to the sheets. According to mine records diamond drill holes to a depth of 280 metres cut several mineralized zones but a large proportion of the core consisted of pulaskite porphyry that precluded further mining.

Bibliography
EMPR AEROMAG MAP 8497G
EMPR AR 1897-595; 1898-1195; 1899-603,*761-762,817; 1900-870,880,946;
1901-1051,1064; 1902-183; 1903-170,171,173; 1904-215,221; 1905-
183; 1906-156,162,163,250; 1907-109,112,115,215; 1916-254,518;
1917-201,449; 1918-207; 1919-166; *1927-229-231; 1937-A36,D33;
1938-A33,D38; 1966-194
EMPR ASS RPT 47, 117, 178, 809, 5356, 21329
EMPR BC METAL MM00822
EMPR GEM 1974-38; 1975-E14; 1976-E21
EMPR INDEX 3-188
EMPR MR MAP 6 (1932)
EMPR OF 1990-25
EMPR P 1986-2
GSC MAP *828; 6-1957; 10-1967; 1500A; 1736A
GSC OF 481; 637; 1969
GSC P 67-42; 79-29
GSC SUM RPT 1902, pp. 106,114,*121-123,135
Basque, Garnet (1992): Ghost Towns & Mining Camps of the Boundary
Country; Sunfire Publications Limited, pp. 116-122.
Ball, M. (2017-01-26): Technical Report on the Greenwood Area Property
Cowley, P. (2017-06-02): Updated Preliminary Economic Assessment on
the Greenwood Precious Metals Project
Chevron File

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