The Slocan Sovereign occurrence is situated on Crown grant Lot 1927 at 1655 metres elevation above sea level, in the Slocan Mining Division. The property is on the north side of Carpenter Creek about 1.5 kilometres north of the community of Cody.
The claim was under development from the mid 1890's and was Grown-granted (Lot 1927) to Slocan Mines Exploration and Development Company, Limited, in 1899. By the end of that year the workings comprised 756 metres of adits, 42.6 metres of raises, and 18.2 metres of winze. The first shipment of ore was in 1899.
Slocan Sovereign Mines Company, Limited, was incorporated in 1899 to acquire this claim and the nearby Madison group. Subsequent work was mainly by lessees and some production was recorded in 1901, 1904, 1906-1920, and 1922-1924.
Clarence Cunningham optioned the claim in 1916 and work continued into 1924. An aerial tramway 2194 metres long, from the portal of No. 14 adit to Sandon, was completed in 1919. Cunningham Mines, Limited, was incorporated in July 1924.
American Boy Mining Company, of Spokane, Washington, acquired the claim in 1926 and some work was reported the following year. Lessees worked during 1929-1930, and 1936-1938.
The workings included 3 main adits connected by raises and stopes to a number of intermediate drifts. Over 1219 metres of development work was done and the lode explored to a vertical depth of about 137 metres. Adits Nos. 1 and 2, and the intermediate level between adits Nos. 2 and 3, have been driven to within 30.4 metres or so of the claim boundary. No. 3 level is 91 metres from the boundary line. Nos. 3 & 4 levels were driven from the Mollie claim (Lot 261A), which was Crown-granted in 1905 to J.M. Harris and J.F. Armstrong No. 4 level, located about 9 metres below No. 3 level served as an ore transfer facility only.
Cody-Reco Mines Limited, incorporated February 1951, acquired the Slocan Sovereign and adjacent claims. Some rehabilitation work was done in the Slocan Sovereign adits in 1951; ore from the dumps was milled at the company's 175 ton per day mill which was built at Cody in 1952. In 1954 some exploratory drifting and crosscutting was done. The company name was changed in 1960 to Vespar Mines Limited. Lessees worked the property in 1965 and 1966.
The Slocan Sovereign claim, owned in 1968 by Wayne Turley, of Kaslo, was sold late in the year to Liberty Mines Ltd. Diamond drilling was done in 2 short holes to test the continuity of the lode. Some stoping was done. A small test mill was installed, but not operated, on the Mollie claim by Cody Milling & Smelting Ltd.; through a lawsuit in 1970 the company was forbidden further use of the Mollie claim. Liberty Mines Ltd. was dissolved in 1972.
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).
The Crown grant is underlain by argillite of the Slocan Group and felsic to mafic dikes related to the Nelson intrusions. The felsic dikes are conformable to bedding and sill-like in nature while the mafic dikes appear to be parallel to the mineralized veins. The mafic dikes are 0.3 to 15 metres wide and in places cut the felsic dikes. The southwestern portion of the claim is mostly underlain by black slate.
Two veins are exposed on the Slocan Sovereign Crown grant. Both veins strike 040 degrees and dip 50 to 55 degrees southeast. The northern vein may correlate with the Reco No. 2 vein on the Reco property and the southern vein may correlate with the Reco No.3-Goodenough vein, also on the Reco property (082FNW035), one kilometre northeast.
The northern vein is within a fissure zone that varies from a few centimetres up to one metre in width. Galena, sphalerite and pyrite are usually concentrated in narrow bands, less than 10 centimetres wide, along the vein walls. The bands of massive sulphides are separated by crushed wallrock cemented by quartz, siderite and calcite. Crossfractures cutting the vein at high angles seem to have played a role in localizing the ore and a number of postmineral faults have caused small displacement of the vein.
The southern vein is exposed near the southern claim boundary with the Number One Crown grant (Lot 4560) (082FNW203). The vein extends to the south on the Number One Crown grant and was mostly worked from that claim. For description and production figures see Number One occurrence.
Production from the Slocan Sovereign property between 1898 and 1968 yielded about 3 tonnes of silver, 708 tonnes of lead, 140 tonnes of zinc, 47 kilograms of copper and 124 grams of gold from 4539 tonnes mined.
