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File Created: 24-Jul-1985 by BC Geological Survey (BCGS)
Last Edit:  04-Aug-2020 by Karl A. Flower (KAF)

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NMI 082F4 Au6
Name CENTRE STAR (L.588), IDAHO (L.559) Mining Division Trail Creek
BCGS Map 082F001
Status Past Producer NTS Map 082F04W
Latitude 049º 04' 52'' UTM 11 (NAD 83)
Longitude 117º 48' 15'' Northing 5436784
Easting 441277
Commodities Gold, Silver, Copper, Molybdenum Deposit Types I02 : Intrusion-related Au pyrrhotite veins
L01 : Subvolcanic Cu-Ag-Au (As-Sb)
Tectonic Belt Omineca Terrane Quesnel, Kootenay
Capsule Geology

The Centre Star deposit is part of the "Main vein" system which forms a continuous well defined fracture system on a regional scale. The Main vein system trends 70 degrees for a strike length in excess of 1 kilometre. The Centre Star vein strikes about 060 degrees and dips 75 degrees north. Refer to the Le Roi deposit (082FSW093) for details of the Rossland mining camp and the Main vein system.

The deposit is hosted by the Early Jurassic Rossland monzonite which consists of a biotite-hornblende-augite monzonite stock that intrudes the Lower Jurassic Elise Formation augite porphyry of the Rossland Group, known as the Rossland sill. The porphyry occurs more than 450 metres below the footwall of the sill and is therfore older than the monzonite intrusion. The augite porphyry in the mine area is thought to have been a stock or dyke-like feeder for the sill exposed on the surface.

The Rossland monzonite is fine to medium-grained, grey to green in color and hosts magnetite, apatite with minor chlorite, epidote, pyrite, and pyrrhotite. The Centre Star vein was formed by replacing wallrock along well defined fractures with fracture infillings comprised of pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite with a gangue of altered host rock with lenses of quartz and calcite. Minor pyrite occurs as well formed crystals in the pyrrhotite and as disseminations in the host rock. Molybdenite is reported to occur in quartz-rich ore.

The Centre Star - Le Roi vein was mined almost continuously over 1 kilometre. The vein system is comprised of a series of ore shoots which are more or less en echelon in strike and dip. The ore shoots end abruptly against dykes or cross structures. Between 1897 to 1917, 2,065,331 tonnes of ore were mined from the Centre Star portion of the Main vein system. Recovery totalled 34,164,625 grams gold, 23,147,008 grams silver and 13,366,167 kilograms copper.

From 1928 to 1942 production from the deposit was combined with the Le Roi, Josie, War Eagle and White Bear and is reported with the Le Roi data (082FSW093).

The Centre Star, War Eagle and Le Roi claims, located at the northwestern edge of the city of Rossland, formed the nucleus of a property that was subsequently expanded by the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada Limited (Cominco) to include some 30 claims and fractions. The three claims were located in 1890 by Messrs. Bourjouis and Morris, the Le Roi claim being recorded in the name of E.S. Topping.

Early development work on the Centre Star claim was reportedly carried out by the Centre Star Cold Lining and Smelting Company, and from about 1902 by the Centre Star Mining Company, Limited. The War Eagle and Iron Mask claims were reportedly developed by the Tar Eagle Gold Mining Company, and from about 1897 by the War Eagle Consolidated Mining & Development Company, Limited. The Centre Star, War Eagle and Iron Mask mines were acquired by Cominco in 1906.

The Le Roi claim was reportedly developed by a Spokane company, be the Le Roi Mining & Smelting Co., from 1891. The Le Roi Mining Company, Limited, acquired the Le Roi and Black Bear claims in 1898 and the mine operated continuously until it closed in September 1910. The property was acquired by Cominco in 1911.

Cominco purchased the adjoining Josie property in 1923. By 1928 when the company closed the mine the original workings had all been connected underground to form one large mine with a total of about 97 kilometres of underground workings; mining operations were carried on to a depth of about 503 metres.

Groups of lessees, sometimes over 30 in number, extracted remnants of ore from the old surface and underground workings from 1932 until the company closed down the operation in June 1942; Cominco carried out a program of geological mapping during 1940-1941.

In May 1967 Hunstone Ventures Ltd. obtained an option from Cominco on 72 Crown-granted claims, including the mine workings of the Le Roi, Centre Star, War Eagle, Iron Mask, Josie, Kootenay Columbia, Nickel Plate, and Crown Point claims. By an agreement of August 1, 1967, Hunstone assigned the agreement to Falaise Lake Mines Ltd. During 1967-1968 Falaise carried out 3194 metres of surface diamond drilling, in 41 holes in the hanging wall of the Le Roi, Centre Star, and War Eagle veins, and magnetometer and electromagnetic surveys over other parts of the property. Based on this drilling, together with the work by Cominco in 1940, the indicated ore reserves in pillars and stope remnants in the upper part of the Le Roi, Iron Mask, and War Eagle workings were estimated at 278,800 tonnes averaging 7 grams per tonne gold, 20.9 grams per tonne silver, and 0.65 per cent copper. In May 1969 an adit was begun at the north edge of the Golden-Born Crown-grant (Lot 1234) and directed towards the 800 level crosscut of the Le Roi workings. The adit, driven for 1310 metres, was completed in October 1970. Underground diamond drilling was carried on into 1971. The option was subsequently dropped.

Bibliography
EMPR AR 1892-533; 1895-687; 1896-15,23,518,557; 1897-537; 1898-1089,
1094,1156; 1899-716,815,817; 1900-858,860,945; 1901-1037,1046,1063;
1902-24,166; 1903-154,157; 1904-26; 1905-27,171; 1906-152,249;
1907-105,214; 1908-102,247; 1909-128,272; 1910-115; 1911-112,285;
1912-161,235,323; 1913-134,420; 1914-332,399,510; 1915-176,446;
1916-208-244,388,517; 1917-449; 1920-136; 1921-149; 1923-229;
1933-241; 1935-G51; 1936-E49; 1938-E41; 1939-90; 1940-75; 1941-72;
1942-67; 1949-157
EMPR BC METAL MM00652, MM00698
EMPR BULL *74; 109
EMPR FIELDWORK 1987, pp. 19-30; 1988, pp. 33-43; 1989, pp. 11-27;
1990, pp. 9-31
EMPR GEM 1969-315; 1970-437
EMPR OF 1988-1; 1989-11; 1990-8; 1990-9; 1991-2; 1991-16; 1998-8-K,
pp. 1-22; 1998-10
EMPR PF (*Gilbert, G. and Malcolm, D.C. (1958): Rossland Properties -
Geology Report No. 2 (in Le Roi file - 082FSW093))
EMR MP CORPFILE (Cominco Ltd.; War Eagle Consolidated Mining and
Development Co.; Falaise Lake Mines Ltd.)
EMR MR 223, B.C. 24
GSC MAP 1002; 1004; 1518; 1090A; 1504A
GSC MEM 77, pp. 94,96-100; 308, pp. 112,179
GSC P *79-26
CIM *Jubilee Vol. 1948, pp. 189-196
ECON GEOL VOL. 68, 1973, pp. 1337-1340
Hodges, L.K. (editor), (1897): Mining in the Pacific Northwest, p.
121
Thorpe, R.I. (1967): Controls of Hypogene Sulphide Zoning, Rossland,
British Columbia, Ph.D. Thesis, University of Wisconsin
Howard, A.E. (2018-04-09): Technical Report on the Rossland Project

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