The Fourth of July occurrence is situated on Crown grant Lot 2052 in the Slocan Mining Division. The property is at 1875 metres elevation above sea level, between Robb and Stenson creeks. The Texas (Lot 4889) (082KSW016) has been intermittently developed in conjunction with the Fourth of July occurrence in the past.
This property comprises the Fourth of July, Texas Cowboy, San Antonio, Minnie, Toronto, Garland Fraction, and Lucky Ed. Crown-granted claims and 4 others held by location.
The Fourth of July claim was one of the first staked in the region and by 1890, 90 metres of tunnelling had been done. In 1898 it was Crown-granted to Columbia Mining Company Limited and an initial shipment of ore made. In 1918 the property was bonded and some 45 tonnes of ore was said to have been mined. In 1926 the workings on both the Texas and Fourth of July groups were examined and sampled by A.G. Langley. Intermittent development work continued on the Texas until 1933.
On the Texas claim the workings consist of a shaft and 3 adits. The shaft was driven southwest in fine-grained granodiorite for 20 metres where it passed into argillite and quartzite and, 6 metres further, into limestone in which it continued to the face 33.5 metres from the portal. From this point a narrow fissure vein has been drifted on 7.6 metres southeast and 50.2 metres northwest. The lower 2 tunnels are caved, but the upper adit is partly open. It starts in limestone in a direction 65 degrees west, but is caved at a raise 30.4 metres from the portal.
In 1959 the property was optioned by Lucky Edd Mines Limited. July Silver Mines Ltd. acquired the property in 1960. Just over three kilometres of road was constructed to complete the road to the Fourth of July and Texas claims. The property can now be reached by 9.6 kilometres of road which leaves the Kaslo-New Denver highway at a point 25.7 kilometres from Kaslo. Operations during 1961 were confined to the Texas vein; No. 2 tunnel was reopened and No. 3 tunnel was extended to pick up the downward extension of the vein from No. 2 tunnel.
Regionally, the area lies on the western margin of the Kootenay Arc, in allochthonous rocks of the Quesnel Terrane. In the vicinity of the occurrence, the Quesnel Terrane is dominated by the Upper Triassic Slocan Group, a thick sequence of deformed and metamorphosed shale, argillite, siltstone, quartzite and minor limestone. Rocks of the Slocan Group are tightly and disharmonically folded. Early minor folds are tight to isoclinal with moderate east plunging, southeast inclined axial planes and younger folds are open, southwest plunging with subhorizontal axial planes. The sedimentary sequence has been regionally metamorphosed to lower greenschist facies.
South of the occurrence, the Slocan Group has been intruded by the Middle Jurassic Nelson intrusions which comprise at least six texturally and compositionally distinct phases ranging from diorite to lamprophyre. The most dominant phase is a medium to coarse grained potassium feldspar porphyritic granite. Several feldspar porphyritic granodiorite dikes, apparently related to the Nelson intrusions, also cut the sedimentary sequence near the occurrence (Paper 1989-5).
On the Fourth of July property, the sedimentary rocks of the Slocan Group strike northwest and dip steeply southwest. The sedimentary sequence is intruded by a medium grained, biotite granodiorite dike up to 200 metres wide. The occurrence consists of a quartz vein developed within a northwest trending fissure zone which conforms closely to the bedding of the enclosing calcareous argillite. The vein, which consists of white quartz and siderite with bands of pyrite, galena and sphalerite, is less than a metre wide at surface. Ore shoots up to 1.2 metres wide are developed where the vein changes strike slightly and is intersected by crossfaults (Assessment Report 9240). The vein has been explored with a crosscut and some 60 metres of drifting.
Limited production from the occurrence in 1898, 1937 and 1979 yielded 16,174 grams of silver, 2446 kilograms of lead and 503 kilograms of zinc.
