The Waterloo occurrence is located at 1311 metres elevation on the southeastern slopes of Baldy Mountain, 750 metres east-southeast of the Cariboo-Amelia occurrence (082ESW020). The occurrence is part of the historic Camp McKinney, located 9 kilometres north-northwest of Bridesville, British Columbia.
A five-stamp mill was erected at the Waterloo occurrence in 1899 by the Waterloo Consolidated Mining and Milling Company. The mill operated for only a month in that year and intermittently in the following year. There was renewed interest in the Waterloo occurrence in 1902 but failed to keep the mill operating. The Waterloo shaft was dewatered in 1929 by C.F. Law but no further work was done. A forest fire in 1929 destroyed all abandoned structures in the McKinney camp. The main shaft was 79 metres deep from which there was a substantial amount of drifting. Another shaft 104 metres west of the main shaft is on an offset continuation of the vein. During the early 1960s the occurrence was owned as part of a claim group by McKinney Gold Mines Ltd. but no work was reported.
The Camp McKinney area is underlain by a complex interbanded sequence of Carboniferous to Permian Anarchist Group metamorphosed sediments and volcanics. The group is mainly sedimentary and consists of greenstone, locally calcareous, altered quartzite and argillaceous quartzite, greywacke, limestone and locally micaceous quartzite and calcareous biotite schist. The minor volcanics are described as mainly altered andesitic and basaltic flows.
Granite and granodiorite of the Middle Jurassic Nelson intrusions have intruded the Anarchist Group to the west and south as small stocks and plugs. Along the contacts of these intrusions the Anarchist rocks have been deformed and hydrothermally altered. Younger dikes of felsic and mafic composition intrude both stratified and granitic rocks and may have been associated with faults related to these granitic intrusions.
To the north lie Cretaceous granitic and granodioritic rocks of the Okanagan batholith. Eocene Penticton Group volcanic and sedimentary rocks overlie locally sheared amphibolite and serpentinite bodies of the Anarchist Group to the east.
The major regional structural feature in the vicinity of the Cariboo-Amelia occurrence is a northeast trending fault zone 5 kilometres to the east. The fault follows Conkle Creek, Conkle Lake and Jolly Creek.
Faulting in the Cariboo-Amelia mine area is postmineral and widespread. Major east dipping, low angle thrust faults in the central portion of the mine have displaced the hangingwall to the northwest by about 122 metres. An east-dipping fault has also moved the hangingwall south by about 91 metres. The complexly faulted and folded rocks are predominantly northwest striking and steeply to moderately northeast dipping.
Greenstones at the Waterloo occurrence are composed largely of shreddy secondary amphibole, possibly representing metamorphism of impure calcareous sediments. Calcite is absent.
Mineralization is confined to a vein zone striking east- southeast, dipping 85 degrees north and having a width of 1.22 metres. It consists of a number of bluish quartz stringers occurring in sheared greenstone. Free gold is reported from this zone. Stripping and open-cutting in greenstone near the shaft exposed 30.5 metres of vein striking east-southeast and dipping 85 degrees north. The vein is 50 to 76 centimetres wide and largely barren.
Past production from the Waterloo occurrence is uncertain and production records could have been combined with production from the Cariboo-Amelia occurrence (082ESW020).
In 2014, Cannon Minerals Ltd. drilled 8 holes totalling 462 metres on the Waterloo property to explore for the Waterloo precious metal quartz vein system and to determine if near-surface ore could be located. Drilling encountered argillite, metasedimentary units, quartzite, and a metavolcanic unit which is the favourable host for the precious metal quartz vein system. Blue quartz veins within silicified metavolcanic rocks containing galena, sphalerite, and galena were noted in drillhole W22014. An intersection of 0.62 metres in drillhole W42014 encountered a blue quartz vein with visible gold, which was associated with fine-grained disseminated galena, sphalerite, and chalcopyrite. A mineralized 1.22 metre intersection of a blue quartz vein was also noted in drillhole W62014 (Assessment Report 35572). No assay results have been reported from this drill program.
