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File Created: 24-Jul-1985 by BC Geological Survey (BCGS)
Last Edit:  08-May-1991 by Garry J. Payie (GJP)

Summary Help Help

NMI 082F4 Au8
Name CONSOLIDATED ST. ELMO (L.924), CON. ST. ELMO Mining Division Trail Creek
BCGS Map 082F001
Status Past Producer NTS Map 082F04W
Latitude 049º 05' 24'' UTM 11 (NAD 83)
Longitude 117º 48' 45'' Northing 5437779
Easting 440679
Commodities Gold, Copper, Silver, Lead, Tungsten Deposit Types L01 : Subvolcanic Cu-Ag-Au (As-Sb)
I05 : Polymetallic veins Ag-Pb-Zn+/-Au
Tectonic Belt Omineca Terrane Quesnel, Plutonic Rocks
Capsule Geology

The Consolidated St. Elmo is located on the lower east slope of Red Mountain, about 1.6 kilometres from Rossland. The Cliff claim adjoins to the east.

The Consolidated St. Elmo (Lot 924) was staked in September 1890 by Gay Ruder and the Cliff Claim (Lot 921) in October of that same year by Will Springer. Both claims were Crown-granted, in 1896 to J.R. Cook and associates of Spokane. The Cliff Gold and Copper Mining Company, Limited, was incorporated in 1899. Some further work was reported in 1904. The Granby Consolidated Mining, Smelting and Power Company Limited, acquired the property in 1910 and sorne development work was carried out. Exploration and development work to that date had been done in 14-metre shaft and 18-metre adit on the Consolidated St. Elmo claim and about 305 metres of drifts and crosscuts in 3 adits on the Cliff claim.

The claims were subsequently acquired by a Rossland syndicate headed by L.A. Campbell. Lessees shipped small tonnages of ore during the period 1933-1936.

Scheelite was discovered in the old workings in 1942 and The Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada (Limited) examined the property under an option agreement; diamond drilling totalling 67 metres was done on the Cliff claim.

The claims were held in 1968 by Continental McKinney Mines Limited under a lease agreement with an expiry date of July 1972.

The old Consolidated St. Elmo workings are within the Lower Jurassic Rossland Group (Elise Formation) augite porphyry, known as the Rossland sill. The sill lies beneath siltstone and hornfels and is exposed on the eastern slopes of Red Mountain. The augite porphyry is a uniform dark green rock with phenocrysts of augite up to 3 millimetres across. The upper contact is planar and dips about 20 degrees west, concordant with the bedding of the siltstone and hornfels of the Rossland Group. Several narrow dykes or sills of augite porphyry occur within the hornfels which is rich in hornblende and disseminated magnetite. The augite porphyry appears to be intrusive into the siltstones and to have a narrow thermal contact metamorphic zone of hornblende-magnetite hornfels.

The Rossland Group rocks are intruded to the south by the Lower Jurassic Rossland monzonite and to the north by the Middle to Late Jurassic Trail Pluton which is comprised of a granodiorite stock.

The vein on the Consolidated St. Elmo claim dips between 60 to 70 degrees north and can be traced for almost the full length of the claim. The vein varies in width from 0.9 to 1.2 metres in width and hosts pyrite, pyrrhotite and scattered chalcopyrite. A 14-metre shaft and 18-metre adit were driven along the vein following a slip plane which hosted 1.5 metres of solid pyrite and pyrrhotite with minor chalcopyrite. The vein was mined in conjunction with the drifts and crosscuts along ore shoots on the Cliff claim (082FSW136).

Several other minerals were reported by Thorpe (1967). A ruby silver mineral, probably pyrargyrite, was observed in a single deposit of the Consolidated St. Elmo. The ore mineral appeared to be secondary. Sphalerite occurs in coarsely granular pyrite, appearing to have replaced the pyrite. Scheelite also occurs.

Bibliography
EMPR AR 1896-557; 1965-178
EMPR BULL 10, p. 154; 74; 109
EMPR FIELDWORK 1987, pp. 19-30; 1988, pp. 33-43; 1989, pp. 11-27; 1990, pp. 9-31
EMPR GEM 1973-62
EMPR OF 1988-1; 1989-11; 1990-8; 1990-9; 1991-2; 1991-16; 1991-17
GSC EC GEOL #17, p. 99
GSC MAP 941; 1002; 1004; 1090; 1504A; 1518
GSC MEM *77, pp. 132-134
GSC P 79-26
Hodges, D.L. (editor), (1897): Mining in the Pacific Northwest, page 123
*Thorpe, R.I. (1967): Controls of Hypogene Sulphide Zoning, Rossland, British Columbia, Ph.D. Thesis, University of Wisconsin
EMPR PFD 3208, 752524, 822488, 896284

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