This property is located on Waldie creek near its junction with Sheep Creek. The Kootenay Belle (082FSW046) property adjoins on the northeast. Other associated properties are Queen, Vancouver, Midnight and Alexander (082FSW048-051, respectively).

The Yellowstone is one of four east-west trending quartz-sheer veins identified in some references as part of the Queen property. The Yellowstone lies on the east limb of the western anticline of the Sheep Creek Camp. It is within quartzites and argillites of the Lower Cambrian Reno Formation (correlative with rocks of the Hamill Group) which are in contact to the east with quartzites of the Lower Cambrian Quartzite Range Formation argillites of the Lower Cambrian Laib formations argillites. Along the Laib-Reno formation contact is an intrusive sill (?) of quartz-porphyry which extends along a north-south trend through most of the Sheep Creek camp.

Mineralization consists of brown iron oxides (limonite?) with pyrite, free gold and some sphalerite and galena in a quartz gangue. The vein is less than a metre wide and is normally very narrow. It commonly splits into several fissures. Almost all recorded production was achieved in 1900 and 1901 when an ore shoot about 40 metres long produced about 15,400 tonnes of ore containing 169 kilograms gold and 86 kilograms silver. The north wall of the shoot was quartzite and the south wall was argillite. The eastern extension of the shoot was marked by a change from quartzite to argillite in the north wall.

Work History

The Yellowstone claim was staked in 1896 by T. Bennett. Development of the property commenced late in the summer of that year by Yellowstone Mines Limited and in the three succeeding years all its own ore had been developed.

Leasers began development work on the Queen property (082FSW048) in about 1900; the Holmes Syndicate carried on development work during part of 1902; the Queen claim (Lot 1076) was Crown-granted to Messrs. Turner and Scully that same year.

In 1903 W. Waldie, one of the owners, began development of the property and also obtained a lease on the Yellowstone mill. Waldie completed purchase of the property in 1905, acquired the Yellowstone group in 1907, and sold the combined property to Queen Mines Incorporated in 1908. The company operated the mine until 1916. Except for a brief period of operation by leasers in 1918 the property was idle until acquired by the Yellowstone Mining Company Limited in 1922, however, the company carried on operations for only about a year. Messrs. Lavigne, Stayner & associates acquired the property in 1928 and in 1930 formed Queen Mines Limited, however, operations ceased later in the year.

In 1933 Sheep Creek Gold Mines Limited was formed by a consolidation of the Queen Mining & Milling Company and the Midnight Gold Mining Syndicate, owners of the Midnight and Vancouver claims. A new 50 ton mill was put into operation in May 1935 and operated more or less continuously until the mine was closed in 1951. The company name was changed in 1956 to Sheep Creek Mines Limited.

Beginning in 1961 leasers made intermittent shipments of silica ore from the dumps, the ore being in demand as a silica flux. The company name was changed in September 1965 to Aetna Investment Corporation Ltd.

In 1982, Sandon Silver Mines completed a program of underground geological mapping and sampling.

In 1987, Arakis Mining Corp. rehabilitated, mapping and channel sampling the No. 3 level drift of the Yellowstone workings and a short cross-cut located near the east end of the drift was extended 8 metres to the north. Ten drill holes, totalling 257.0 metres, were completed from the cross-cut to test the Yellowstone vein. Drilling yielded intercepts ranging from trace to 3.8 and 4.1 grams per tonne gold over 0.41 metre, respectively, while a sludge sample assayed 11.83 grams per tonne gold over 1.83 metres (Lane, R.A. (2017-08-17): NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Sheep Creek Project).

In 1988, Arakis completed a further nine diamond drill holes, totalling 176.0 metres, on the Yellowstone vein. Drill holes 88-6 and 88-7 intercepted the Yellowstone vein yielding 7.75 and 3.70 grams per tonne gold over 0.50 and 1.60 metres, respectively, while a sludge sample corresponding to the latter sample assayed 17.0 grams per tonne gold over 1.52 metres (Lane, R.A. (2017-08-17): NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Sheep Creek Project).

During 2008 through 2016, Yellowstone Resources Ltd. examined the area as the Sheep Creek property. In 2006, Yellowstone Resources Ltd. completed three drill holes, totalling 293 metres, immediately south of Sheep Creek and north of the Yellowstone vein. In 2007, Yellowstone acquired many of the claims in the Sheep Creek camp. In 2008, a single drill hole, totalling 133 metres, was completed. In 2010, the No. 3 Portal on the Yellowstone vein was rehabilitated. In 2012, Yellowstone completed a program of soil sampling on the property.

In late 2016, Margaux Resources Ltd. optioned the property and in 2017 examined the area.

Refer to the Queen mine (082FSW048) for a summary of the Sheep Creek mining camp.