The Highland (L.258) occurrence is located at an elevation of approximately 980 metres on a southeast-facing slope, north of Cedar Creek and approximately 2.4 kilometres northwest of Ainsworth.
Regionally, the area is underlain by hornblende schists, limestone and banded quartzite of the Upper Mississippian to Permian Milford Formation and basaltic volcanic rocks of the Carboniferous to Permian Kaslo Group. Granodioritic intrusive rocks of the Middle Jurassic Nelson Batholith are exposed to the west.
The Highland occurrence is hosted by micaceous quartzites of the Mississippian to Lower Permian Milford Group and hornblende schists of the Permian Triassic Kaslo Group. The rocks are cut by bedding-parallel ‘mica’ or ‘non-mica’ dikes (lamprophyres). Close to the veins, hornblende schists and dikes are highly altered to soft whitish-yellow material and quartzites are silicified.
The vein system consists of a series of related discontinuous faults with sinistral lateral displacements of 3 to 40 metres. The faults with largest displacement appear to contain more ore. The orebodies occur as tabular masses located preferentially close to the hornblende schists–quartzite contact. Wallrock of hornblende schists is badly decomposed whereas those in quartzite are regular and well defined. Good ore shoots in hornblende schist pass rapidly to narrow and less mineralized veins in the quartzites. The ore consists of coarse- to fine-grained, sheared galena with locally abundant sphalerite in banded, comb-textured to massive quartz with some siderite and locally fluorite. The veins strike north 40 degrees to 70 degrees west and dip 40 degrees to 75 degrees south.
From 1896 until 1954, 88 127 tonnes of ore was mined from the Highland. Commodities recovered included 10.5 million grams of silver, 9.4 million kilograms of lead, 0.38 million kilograms of zinc, 548 kilograms of cadmium and 62 grams of gold.
Work History
The Highland claim was Crown granted to J.C. Rykert in 1891. A main haulage tunnel was driven on the vein for approximately 207 metres. A second tunnel, 30 metres above the first, was driven for 27 metres. A raise was driven on an ore shoot connecting the two tunnels.
The Highland Mining Co. Ltd. of London, England, took over the claim in 1900 and worked it through 1904. In 1905 the property was leased to P. Burns and Co. The Highland-United Co. secured a lease on the mine in 1909 and operated it for part of the year. In 1910 the mine was reopened by Kootenay Silver Lead Mines Ltd. of Vancouver and their operations continued through 1912.
The Consolidated Mining & Smelting Co. Ltd. acquired the property in 1914 and operated it more or less continuously for the next 13 years. Development work in 1919 included 998 metres of diamond drilling. The mine closed in 1927 and remained idle until 1940, when lessors became interested in working it. The tailings dump was dredged from Kootenay Lake and shipped to the mill. Other groups of leasers removed ore from the old mine workings during 1950 through 1952.
In 1956 Cominco completed 600 metres of diamond drilling to check on electromagnetic results. The workings at the present time consist of five tunnels (No. 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7 levels) along the strike of the vein, the upper three approximately 30 metres apart and two lower approximately 61 metres apart, thus giving a depth of 214 metres below the outcrop. The total length of the workings is approximately 4000 metres, part of this being on the adjoining Josephine (L.522), Maggie (L.2346) and Libby (L.178) claims. Another short adit, referred to as the Libby adit, is reported below the No. 7 level adit on the northwest end of the Libby (L. 178) claim.
During 2007 through 2011, Goldcliff Resource Corp. completed programs of prospecting, geological mapping, geochemical (rock, silt and soil) sampling and an airborne geophysical survey on the regionally extensive Ainsworth Silver property.
In 2012 and 2013, David Wallach prospected and rock sampled the area as the Ainsworth property. In 2013, five chip samples (216413 to 2161416, 2161420) from the occurrence area yielded values from 0.28 to 48.33 per cent lead, 0.11 to 2.98 per cent zinc and 10.9 to 425 grams per tonne silver, whereas three dump samples (216417 to 216419) yielded from 2.00 to 36.22 per cent lead, 0.18 to 13.52 per cent zinc and 45.1 to 386 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 34462).
In 2015, Goldcliff Resource Corp. conducted a program of prospecting, geological mapping, geochemical (rock, silt and soil) sampling and a 4.1 line-kilometre ground electromagnetic survey on the area as part of the Ainsworth Silver property. In 2019, Lee Lorenzen conducted a soil sampling program on the area as the Ainsworth Crown property.
In 2020 and 2021, Goldcliff Resource Corp. conducted a further program of geochemical (rock, silt and soil) sampling and a 508.0 line-kilometre airborne magnetic, electromagnetic and radiometric survey on the Ainsworth Silver property.
