The Golden Queen claim is located at about 1447 metres elevation on the southerly slope of Red Mountain about 1.6 kilometres northwest of Rossland. The St. Elmo claim adjoins to the north, at the summit of the mountain, and the Novelty claim (Lot 958) joins to the south. The Coxey claim (see 82 F/4, Mo 1) joins to the west.
The Golden Queen claim (Lot 994) was Crown-granted in 1896 to J. Garrison but there is no record of early work on the claim. The St. Elmo claim (Lot 923) was Crown-granted in 1896 to F.C. Loring. Development work continued until 1901 and included about 701 metres of drifts and crosscuts in 2 adits. Further activity was reported in 1908 when a small amount of ore was shipped under the name J.P. Johnson.
No further activity was reported until 1941 when the St. Elmo workings were reopened by A. Grubsic and Ike Glover. Scheelite was discovered in the old workings in 1942 and the Consolidated Mining, Smelting and Power Company Limited examined the property under an option agreement.
Northwood Mining Limited optioned the Golden Queen, St. Elmo, and Surprise (Lot 693) claims from Messrs. Grubsic and Glover in August 1964 and the Gertrude claim (Lot 690) from William Keane. By an agreement of September 1964 Northwood assigned the above 4 Crown-granted claims to McKinney Gold Mines Limited. Geophysical and geochemical surveys were started late in 1964. The geochemical survey of the Golden Queen and St. Elmo claims was continued in 1965. Some bulldozer stripping was done and numerous showings sampled. In addition, 47 vertical diamond drill holes totalling 1471 metres were drilled in the northwestern part of the Golden Queen and western part of the St. Elmo claim. Surface stripping and diamond drilling between elevations of 1472 and 1515 metres on the northwest corner of the Golden Queen claim, and about 152 metres east of the "A" orebody on the Coxey claim, delimited a Y-shaped body of mineralization (designated the NGQ Zone) containing an indicated 68,000 tons averaging 0.24 per cent molybdenite. Near the western boundary of the St. Elmo claim a mineralized zone (designated the NSE Zone) as outlined, which to a depth of 23 metres contains about 73,000 tons averaging 0.33 per cent molybdenite.
Scurry-Rainbow Oil Limited optioned the property in December 1966, the option included the Novelty claim (Lot 958). Drilling by Scurry in 1967 tested the eastern part of the breccia complex on the Golden Queen and St. Elmo claims and the full width of the Novelty claim. Of the 14020 metres of diamond drilling in 174 holes, most was done on the adjacent Giant claim (082FSW109). Further diamond drilling was done by Scurry in 1968. Under the terms of the agreement Scurry earned a 50 per cent interest in the property. The company name (McKinney) was changed in March 1967 to Continental McKinney Mines Limited. Based on the drilling on this property, and on the adjacent Giant property, independent consultants in 1967 calculated the indicated-reserves available for open pit operations in 5 separate orebodies at 810,540 tons averaging 0.39 per cent molybdenite. In addition, some 88,000 tons of possible ore of various grades are indicated below open pit limits.
Continental McKinney in May 1973 amalgamated with Trinat Resources Ltd., Gundex Holdings Ltd., and Modoc Holdings Ltd., under the name Chandalar Resources Limited. A geochemical soil survey was carried out by Mine Finders, Inc., of Lakewood Colorado in 1973. Chandler Resources abandoned its interest in the property prior to 1975; Scutty-Rainbow sold its interest in 1975.
David Minerals Ltd. optioned the Golden Queen, St. Elmo, Surprise, and Novelty claims from J.D. Turcotte of Christina Lake, subject to a prior agreement between Turcotte and M. Delich of Rossland. From the exploration work done by Scurry Rainbow on the Golden Queen and St. Elmo (1971) there were outlined 237,000 tons grading 0.273 per cent MOS2 (Geol. Rept. for David Minerals in SMF 268/80, 24/12/80).
In 1981, David Minerals diamond drilled 22 holes here and in the Giant, California, Novelty, Gold King areas. (See 82 F/4, Mo 3).
Reserves were re-calculated by J.M. Stitt (1980) as follows:
Golden Queen - 19,500 tons at 0.30% MOS2
St. Elmo - 65,100 tons at 0.28% MOS2-
(Report by J.L. Deleen (1983) - in David
Minerals Statement of Material Facts,
11/07/85).
The St. Elmo Crown Grant is underlain, on the west, by the Pennsylvanian and possibly Permian Mount Roberts Formation siltstone, hornfelsed siltstone, hornfels and a breccia complex. The siltstone is rusty, sooty and massive or thinly bedded with minor disseminated pyrrhotite and pyrite. The hornfels and hornfelsic siltstones are thinly laminated and massive cherty rocks which locally contain brown garnet and epidote. The Mount Roberts succession overlies augite porphyry of the Rossland sill, which underlies the eastern half of the Crown grant, and is thought to have been thrust over the sill. The Rossland sill intrudes the upper part of the Elise Formation (Rossland Group) and is considered part of that formation.
The principal host for the molybdenum mineralization on Red Mountain is the hornfelsed and brecciated siltstone. On Red Mountain, a large mass of quartz diorite, probably part of the Trail pluton, was encountered 600 metres below the surface by deep drilling. It contains scattered molybdenite in quartz veinlets for as much as 300 metres below the upper surface of the quartz diorite. The siltstone is also intruded by lenticular masses of andesite and late steeply dipping dykes which trend northward. Small scale faults parallel to this trend step the older rocks down on the west.
According to the National Mineral Inventory (082F04 Mo2), adits explored weak shear zones dipping about 70 degrees north. They are mineralized with pyrrhotite, pyrite and chalcopyrite with calcite and some local silicification, but no true vein quartz. Scheelite occurs in these shear zones in shoots of which the longest is 21 metres. The maximum width is 1.5 metres with an average width of the ore shoots ranging between 0.45 to 0.76 metres. The scheelite occurs as fine disseminations and clusters of grains and locally as fine stringers in the rock.
Drysdale reports in 1915 that the main St. Elmo tunnel was near the east end of the claim (Geological Survey of Canada Memoir 77, page 134). The adit is driven along an east and west wall from which molybdenite, sphalerite and galena occur in a calcite-quartz gangue. A tunnel driven from the Consolidated St. Elmo Crown Grant (082FSW135), adjacent to the east of the St. Elmo claim, encountered a large body of fine-grained ore. In 1899, the end of this tunnel was about 43 metres east of the St. Elmo line. A 1964 sketch plan of the area shows over 200 metres of tunnels on the St. Elmo that are connected to the workings on the Consolidated St. Elmo. In 1908, 70 tonnes of ore was mined and produced 93 grams gold, 6874 grams silver, and 1446 kilograms copper.
Scattered mineralization occurs in a northeasterly trending zone, between elevations 1545 and 1560 metres near the western boundary of the claim. The zone, known in later days as the NSE zone, is about 122 metres long and 30 metres wide and hosts molybdenite as well as chalcopyrite, pyrite, sphalerite and galena in narrow east striking veinlets. The host rocks are apparently quartzites.
In 1980, a molybdenum indicated reserve calculated for the St. Elmo claim was 59,052 tonnes of 0.28 per cent MoS2 (David Minerals, Statement of Material Facts, July 1985). This is a recalculation of the mineralized NSE zone to a depth of approximately 23 metres. The conversion used for MoS2 to Mo is 1.6681.
