The Sunrise occurrence is located 500 metres southwest of Olalla, British Columbia. The Sunrise occurrence appears to have been the most economically significant mineralization in the historic Olalla Gold Camp. The mineralization appears to be related to the east-striking Valley fault.
Several narrow quartz veins have been explored intermittently by adits, trenches, opencuts and diamond drilling since 1900. The Sunrise claim (Lot 18s) was Crown granted to J.L. Drumheller in 1908. Between 1908 and 1931 development work consisted of 3 adits totalling 107 metres and the 13.7-metre Sheperd shaft. The adits were known as the Sunrise, Sheperd and Powder tunnels. By 1931, the claim was owned by W.C. McDougall. Olalla Gold Mines Ltd. was incorporated in 1935 and the Sunrise property was acquired. The company name changed to Hedley Crest Mines Ltd. in the following year. Later this same year, Gold Valley Mines Ltd. acquired the Sunrise and Something Good (082ESW014) properties. Work continued until 1939 and was mostly confined to the Something Good property. Hedley Monarch Gold Mines Ltd. began work on the Sunrise in 1945. The first phase of drilling was carried out in 1946 by Hedley Monarch Mines Ltd. The program consisted of 5 holes totalling 591 metres. Drifting and crosscutting was done in the Sheperd and Powder adits. The Haulage adit was also driven. Work stopped in 1947. The following year, lessees Cameron and associates mined and shipped 231 tonnes of ore. Friday Mines Ltd. acquired the property in 1960 and a second phase of diamond drilling was done in 1961. Most of the drilling was conducted downward from the Sheperd Tunnel on the Sweetner vein. A total of 11 drillholes totalling 1260 metres were completed. The most recent property work has been done by Goldcliff Resources Corp. In 1997, GoldCliff conducted a work program that consisted of sealing the portals of two adits, rehabilitating 6.0 kilometres of old road and collecting 21 rock samples from the Sweetner vein, Powder breccia and Something Good shear zone.
The Sunrise occurrence is located within the ultramafic to alkaline Middle Jurassic Olalla intrusion. This intrusion has intruded a sequence of oceanic sediments and volcanics of the Carboniferous to Triassic Shoemaker and Old Tom formations. Black to green chert, light grey quartzite and minor limestone lenses comprise the dominant lithologies. The Shoemaker and Old Tom formations form a broadly folded, east-dipping sequence in the area. The Olalla intrusion consists of a magnetite-bearing pyroxenite peripheral zone to a diorite and syenite core. The pyroxenite is composed primarily of augite with lesser magnetite. Potassic alteration consisting of biotite, orthoclase, calcite and quartz occurs within the pyroxenite. The syenite is fine grained, light grey to buff to pink and has also been altered to orthoclase and quartz. Coarse grained syenite dikes occur at the contact with the peripheral pyroxenite zone.
Metasomatic deposits have formed along the contact of the Olalla intrusion with Shoemaker sediments. Mineralization is related to skarns, shearing and quartz veining. Mineralization consists mainly of auriferous and argentiferous pyrite and pyrrhotite with minor chalcopyrite, malachite, azurite and tetrahedrite.
All workings at the Sunrise occurrence have intersected pyroxenite. The Sunrise adit exposed narrow quartz veins in and near apophyses of syenite and to a minor extent pyroxenite. The principal zone of mineralization was the Sweetner vein, exposed on the north side and parallel to the Sunrise vein, in the Sunrise adit. A 1.22-metre wide pyroxenite dike separates the two veins. Quartz containing pyrite, chalcopyrite, galena, sphalerite, tetrahedrite and native gold comprise mineralization hosted in a narrow shear striking 270 degrees and dipping 80 to 90 degrees north. Quartz veins are 2.5 to 10.0 centimetres wide with hostrock inclusions. The Sweetner vein is truncated at the face of the Sunrise adit by a northwest striking andesite dike.
Samples from the Sweetner vein produced erratic gold values. A 231 tonne shipment of ore from the Sweetner vein in 1948 graded 18.41 grams per tonne gold and 17.14 grams per tonne silver (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1948, page 124). A sample taken from the Sweetner vein in 1946 yielded 55.20 grams per tonne gold and 428.57 grams per tonne silver across 5 centimetres in a crosscut. Another bulk sample yielded 44.27 grams per tonne gold and 27.43 grams per tonne silver over 63.5 centimetres (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1946, page 126).
The remaining showing (adits) consisted mainly of barren quartz with calcite and locally sparsely disseminated pyrite and galena.
The Sunrise and Sheperd veins appear to occupy parallel or conjugate fractures. The veins are both younger than the Sweetner vein.
During drilling on the quartz veins in 1961, a gold-bearing siliceous breccia zone was discovered, 167 metres west of the Sheperd Tunnel. Significant intersections from four drillholes on the breccia zone include the following. Drillhole H-5 intersected 11.92 metres yielding 1.92 grams per tonne gold and 4.80 grams per tonne silver. Drillhole H-8 yielded 11.31 grams per tonne gold and 37.03 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 19963).
The drilling work has indicated ore reserves of 2177 tonnes grading 33.94 grams per tonne silver and 85.71 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 19963).
Production in 1948 was 231 tonnes mined from which 3763 grams of silver, 4261 grams of gold and 209 kilograms of copper were recovered.
